PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY AND SPECIES DENSITY OF EUPHORBIA HETEROPHYLLA L. AND SIDA ACUTA BURM. F.IN RELATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS IN NORTHERN GUINEA SAVANNAH, NIGERIA

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dc.contributor.authorABUBAKAR, Usman Yuguda
dc.date.accessioned2016-05-16T10:46:04Z
dc.date.available2016-05-16T10:46:04Z
dc.date.issued2015-10
dc.descriptionA THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF A MASTER DEGREE IN BOTANY DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, FACULTY OF SCIENCE AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA NIGERIAen_US
dc.description.abstractPhenotypic plasticity is a key mechanism associated with the spread of invasive plants and previous studies have found that weeds are generally more plastic than co-occurring species. Although there are a large body of evidence for superiority in particular traits among weeds species when compared to non-weeds species, it is less clear if weeds have similar pattern of phenotypic plasticity, and whether this plasticity confers a fitness advantage. An experiment was conducted in (2014) to assess the phenotypic variations and plasticity pattern of Euphorbia heterophylla and Sida acuta to varying environmental factors in glasshouse with full factorial combination of soil nutrients, water availability, and plant density. The plants were subjected to different level of stress. Significant differences were observed between the species, and morphological trait indicated that S. acuta with its opportunistic response recorded its highest mean values in soil rich in nutrients and low density (stem height 11.01cm±2.74e and 8.52±1.43bc numbers of leaves) (p<0.01), while E. heterophylla had generalist strategy with higher performance and greater plasticity in all treatments combination (stem height 46.30cm±7.56a, 42.29cm±6.73a and numbers of leaves 11.94±1.67a, 17.61±2.68a) (p<0.01), hence, higher plasticity. Reproductive biomass increased with increasing soil nutrient from 0.07 to 0.12 for E. heterophylla, while no significant difference in reproductive biomass for S. acuta was observed. Density had significant effect on relative reproductive biomass (5.42) (p<0.01), relative leaf biomass (21.53) (p<0.01), relative root biomass (16.39) (p<0.01), and relative stem biomass (35.97) (p<0.01) while water had no significant effect, except relative stem biomass (11.76) (p<0.01). The soil nutrient significantly affected the biomass allocation to leaves, stem and reproductive organs, except root biomass (p<0.01). S. acuta exhibited a Master-of-some pattern of phenotypic plasticity, and E. heterophylla had a complex pattern exhibiting Jack- vii and-Master strategy. Overall E. heterophylla had higher plasticity than S. acuta. This result suggests that the high magnitude of plasticity to nutrient variation of these two species might give them an advantage to outcompete others and could be responsible for their abundance in the study area.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/7878
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectPHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY,en_US
dc.subjectSPECIES DENSITY,en_US
dc.subjectEUPHORBIA HETEROPHYLLA L.,en_US
dc.subjectSIDA ACUTA BURM,en_US
dc.subjectF.,en_US
dc.subjectRELATION,en_US
dc.subjectENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS,en_US
dc.subjectNORTHERN GUINEA SAVANNAH,en_US
dc.subjectNIGERIAen_US
dc.titlePHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY AND SPECIES DENSITY OF EUPHORBIA HETEROPHYLLA L. AND SIDA ACUTA BURM. F.IN RELATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS IN NORTHERN GUINEA SAVANNAH, NIGERIAen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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