Clonal plants have more traits enabling individual persistence (larger belowground storage of buds and assimilates), whereas non-clonal plants have more traits enabling population persistence (a higher reliance on regeneration from seeds). This difference presumably makes those groups respond differently to disturbance. We asked whether this difference is already expressed in the first year of the plant’s life. In a pot experiment with 17 congeneric pairs of clonal and non-clonal herbs, we investigated response to a disturbance at the individual level. We were interested whether the leaf C/N ratio (a proxy reflecting active growth and photosynthetic efficiency), the R/S ratio (a proxy for belowground storage) and the amount of compensated biomass differ between clonal and non-clonal herbs. Moreover, we asked whether compensation for the loss of aboveground biomass after disturbance can be predicted by the R/S ratio or explained by the leaf C/N ratio. We found that clonal herbs have higher leaf C/N and R/S ratios than non-clonal herbs. Under disturbance, the leaf C/N and R/S ratios decreased in the clonal herbs and increased in the non-clonal herbs. However, the clonal and non-clonal plants did not differ in biomass compensation ability. Neither the R/S ratio nor the leaf C/N ratio explained the compensation abilities of the herbs. These results show that even though the growth strategies of clonal and non-clonal plants and their reactions to disturbance are different, the groups are similarly capable of compensating for the loss of aboveground biomass. Clonal plants do not have an advantage over non-clonal plants under disturbance during their first year of life.

克隆植物具有更多的特性，可以实现个体的持久性（芽和同化物在地下的储存量更大），而非克隆植物具有更多的特性，可以实现种群的持久性（对种子再生的依赖性更高）。这种差异可能使这些群体对干扰的反应不同。我们询问了这种差异是否已经在工厂寿命的第一年体现出来了。在用17对同属的克隆和非克隆草药进行盆栽试验中，我们研究了个体水平对干扰的响应。我们感兴趣的是，克隆和非克隆草药之间的叶片C / N比（反映活性生长和光合效率的代表），R / S比（地下存储的代表）和补偿生物量的量是否不同。此外，我们问是否可以通过R / S比来预测或通过叶片C / N比来解释扰动后地上生物量损失的补偿。我们发现，与非克隆草药相比，克隆草药具有更高的叶片C / N和R / S比。在干扰下，无性系草本叶片的C / N和R / S比值降低，而无性系草本植物的叶片C / N和R / S比值增加。但是，无性和无性植物的生物量补偿能力没有差异。R / S比和叶C / N比都不能解释草药的补偿能力。这些结果表明，即使克隆植物和非克隆植物的生长策略及其对干扰的反应不同，这些组同样能够补偿地上生物量的损失。