BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Below-ground carbohydrate storage is considered an adaptation of plants aimed at regeneration after disturbance. A theoretical model by Iwasa and Kubo was empirically tested which predicted (1) that storage of carbohydrates scales allometrically with leaf biomass and (2) when the disturbance regime is relaxed, the ratio of storage to leaf biomass increases, as carbohydrates are not depleted by disturbance. METHODS: These ideas were tested on nine herbaceous species from a temperate meadow and the disturbance regime was manipulated to create recently abandoned and mown plots. Just before mowing in June and at the end of the season in October, plants with below-ground organs were sampled. The material was used to assess the pool of total non-structural carbohydrates and leaf biomass. KEY RESULTS: In half of the cases, a mostly isometric relationship between below-ground carbohydrate storage and leaf biomass in meadow plants was found. The ratio of below-ground carbohydrate storage to leaf biomass did not change when the disturbance regime was less intensive than that for which the plants were adapted. CONCLUSIONS: These findings (isometric scaling relationship between below-ground carbohydrate storage and leaf biomass; no effect of a relaxed disturbance regime) imply that storage in herbs is probably governed by factors other than just the disturbance regime applied once in a growing season.

Department of Botany Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia Branišovská 1760 CZ 370 05 České Budějovice Czech Republic

Department of Ecology Faculty of Science Charles University Viničná 7 CZ 128 44 Praha 2 Czech Republic

Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Dukelská 135 CZ 379 82 Trebon Czech Republic

Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Dukelská 135 CZ 379 82 Třeboň Czech Republic

Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Zámek 1 CZ 252 43 Pruhonice Czech Republic

Laboratory of Cell Cycles of Algae Centre Algatech Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Novohradská 237 CZ 379 81 Trebon Czech Republic

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Rhizome trait scaling relationships are modulated by growth conditions and are linked to plant fitness

Carbohydrate storage in herbs: the forgotten functional dimension of the plant economic spectrum