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Annals of Botany 40: 179-197, 1976
© 1976 Annals of Botany Company

RESEARCH-ARTICLE

Responses of Dupontia fischeri to Simulated Lemming Grazing in an Alaskan Arctic Tundra

P. J. MATTHEIS1,2, L. L. TIESZEN2 and M. C. LEWIS1,3

2Department of Biology, Augustana College Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57102, U.S.A.
3Department of Botany, University College of Dublin Dublin, Ireland

Received: 10 January 1975   

Preceding flowering, a Dupontia fischeri tiller at Barrow, Alaska, typically grows vegetatively for 3 or 4 years as a member of a system of interconnected tillers. Dynamics of such ‘tiller systems’ comprise the primary content of this study. Individual tiller responses are discussed according to the appropriate age classification.

Leaf growth rates following each clipping regimen were similar to those of unclipped tillers. The primary effect of clipping on leaf growth appeared to be a shift toward the growth of younger leaves.

Seasonal trends in the levels of stored carbohydrates were similar in clipped and unclipped tillers; though clipping appeared to effect a decrease in these levels. Reserves in chronically-clipped tillers dropped to 50 per cent of unclipped values.

Experimental severance of rhizome connections indicated an apparent interdependence of tillers in a tiller system. Growth of younger tillers was inhibited by isolation, while segregation of older tillers resulted in stimulation of vegetative reproduction. Flowering tillers appear independent of connected tillers.

These responses to clipping are discussed in the context of an environment which includes periodic extreme grazing pressure through the fluctuations in population density of the brown lemming.


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