Dataset Information

Area from image analyses accurately estimates dry-weight biomass of juvenile tissue from the moss Ceratodon purpureus.

ABSTRACT:

Premise

Mosses have long served as models for studying many areas of plant biology. Investigators have used two-dimensional measurements of juvenile growth from photographs as a surrogate for dry-weight biomass. The relationship between area and biomass, however, has not been critically evaluated.

Methods

Here we grew axenic tissue cultures of 10 Ceratodon purpureus isolates to study the relationship between these parameters. We measured area and biomass on replicate cultures with two distinct starting inoculum sizes each week for three weeks. We then examined the correlation between area and biomass as well as the influence of variation in inoculum size on both parameters.

Results

We found a strong correlation between area and biomass after two weeks of growth. Furthermore, we found inoculum size affected biomass during the first week of growth but not in subsequent weeks and inoculum size had no detectable effect on area.

Discussion

These analyses provide experimental confirmation that area is a suitable proxy for biomass and provide clear guidelines for when inoculum size variation may affect downstream growth estimates.

SUBMITTER: Burtscher WP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8085951 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Background and aimsDioecy and sexual dimorphism occur in many terrestrial plant species but are especially widespread among the bryophytes. Despite the prevalence of dioecy in non-vascular plants, surprisingly little is known about how fine-scale sex-specific cell and leaf morphological traits are correlated with sex-specific physiology and population sex ratios. Such data are critical to understanding the inter-relationship between sex-specific morphological and physiological characters and how their relationship influences population structure. In this study, these data types were assessed to determine how they vary across three populations within one moss species and whether fine-scale morphological traits scale up to physiological and sex ratio characteristics.MethodsTwenty cell-, leaf- and canopy-level traits and two photochemical measurements were compared between sexes and populations of the dioecious moss Ceratodon purpureus . Field population-expressed sex ratios were obtained for the same populations.Key resultsMale and female plants differed in cell, leaf and photochemical measures. These sexual dimorphisms were female biased, with females having larger and thicker leaves and greater values for chlorophyll fluorescence-based, leaf photochemistry measurements than males. Female traits were also more variable than male traits. Interestingly, field population sex ratios were significantly male biased in two study populations and female biased in the third study population.ConclusionsThe results demonstrate that the larger morphology and the greater physiological output of female C. purpureus gametophytes compared with males occurs across populations and is likely to have significant effects on resource allocation and biotic interactions. However, this high level of dimorphism does not explain population sex ratio variation in the three study populations tested. This research lays the groundwork for future studies on how differential sex-specific variation in cell and leaf traits influences bryophyte plant fitness.