Abstract

Phenotypic plasticity is one mechanism that allows organisms to adapt to changing environmental conditions, and is especially important for plants since they are generally immobile. Recent anthropogenic disturbances such as oil spills have expanded the types of stressors that plants must cope with, and more work is needed to understand the extent to which plants can adapt. This study examined the physiological and anatomical responses of Ipomoea pes-caprae to crude oil, and determined its plasticity in response to crude oil. Four concentrations of crude oil (1%, 2%, 3%, and 4% v/w) were applied to experimental plants and then compared with control plants over the next 120 days. Crude oil meaningfully impacted 4 out of 5 physiological characters (survival time, leaf length, leaf width, and chlorophyll content) and 4 out of 19 anatomical characters (leaf blade thickness, leaf spongy layer height, leaf adaxial cutin thickness, and leaf abaxial cutin thickness). These results demonstrate that I. pes-caprae exhibits low anatomical plasticity in response to crude oil, resulting in reduced survival and physiological performance. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding how anthropogenic actions affect relatively immobile plants, which are not always able to cope with such stressors.

摘要

表型可塑性是使生物适应不断变化的环境条件的一种机制，对植物尤其重要，因为它们通常是不动的。最近的人为干扰（例如漏油事件）扩大了植物必须应对的压力源类型，需要做更多的工作来了解植物可以适应的程度。这项研究检查了番薯角豆的生理和解剖反应原油，并确定其对原油的可塑性。将四种浓度的原油（1％，2％，3％和4％v / w）应用于实验工厂，然后在接下来的120天中与对照工厂进行比较。原油对5个生理特征（存活时间，叶片长度，叶片宽度和叶绿素含量）中的4个和19个解剖特征（叶片厚度，叶片海绵层高度，叶片正面角质厚度和叶片背面角质）中的4个产生了有意义的影响厚度）。这些结果证明I. pes-caprae表现出对原油的低解剖可塑性，导致存活率和生理性能下降。我们的发现突出了理解人为行为如何影响相对固定的植物的重要性，这些植物并不总是能够应对这种压力。