Due to competition for resources, the performance of plant species in communities is modified by traits affecting their efficiency in resource uptake and use. Clonal growth by stolons or rhizomes enables plants to spread laterally and to share resources among interconnected ramets; therefore, clonal growth represents an important trait that likely affects the competitive ability of species. We tested the effect of different clonal growth forms on the relative performance of plant species in communities of the Jena Biodiversity Experiment over a ten-year period. Clonal growth form did not have a significant effect on relative performance in early stages of the communities. Surprisingly, none of the clonal growth forms gained dominance over time, but the species with long rhizomes generally performed slightly better than the other species, particularly in communities of low diversity. The stoloniferous species performed better in communities with a higher proportion of nonclonals, suggesting complementarity of the light exploitation strategies of stoloniferous and nonclonal species. Our results show the importance of clonal growth traits for the competitive abilities of plants in the context of community development, species diversity and community composition, as well as the necessity of distinguishing among different clonal growth forms.

由于争夺资源，社区中植物物种的表现会受到影响其资源吸收和利用效率的性状的影响。sto茎或根茎的克隆生长使植物能够横向传播并在相互连接的分株之间共享资源；因此，克隆生长是一个重要的特征，可能会影响物种的竞争能力。我们在十年的时间里测试了耶拿生物多样性实验社区中不同克隆生长形式对植物物种相对性能的影响。克隆生长形式对社区早期的相对表现没有显着影响。令人惊讶的是，没有一种克隆生长形式能随时间获得优势，但是根茎长的物种通常表现得比其他物种稍好，特别是在多样性低的社区。在非克隆比例较高的社区中，茎物种的表现较好，表明茎和非克隆物种的光开发策略是互补的。我们的结果表明，在社区发展，物种多样性和社区组成的背景下，克隆生长性状对于植物竞争能力的重要性，以及区分不同克隆生长形式的必要性。