Nitrogen addition increases sexual reproduction and improves seedling growth in the perennial rhizomatous grass Leymus chinensis

Table 1 Results of the two-way ANOVA examining the effects of the experimental year and nitrogen addition on vegetation, plant and seed changes. Presented are the F and P values of ANOVA’s, n = 6 for all vegetation and plant measurements and n = 3 for all germination measurements

Dependent trait	Year (Y)		Nitrogen addition (N)		Y × N
Dependent trait	F	P	F	P	F	P
Flowering plant density (no. m²)	4.003	0.029	51.809	0.000	0.084	0.919
Seed no. per plant	1.347	0.276	9.696	0.004	0.708	0.501
Thousand seeds weight (g)	3.186	0.057	41.986	0.000	0.371	0.693
Seed no. (m²)	4.052	0.028	34.716	0.000	1.394	0.264
Potential germination no. (m²)	9.908	0.001	50.813	0.000	3.419	0.046
Germination success (%)
< 2.1 mg	9.564	0.003	0.503	0.492	0.503	0.617
2.1–2.5 mg	2.207	0.153	7.091	0.021	2.207	0.153
2.6–3.0 mg	28.123	0.000	3.280	0.005	0.822	0.463
> 3.0 mg	15.449	0.000	31.223	0.000	2.092	0.166
Germination rate
< 2.1 mg	4.193	0.028	6.820	0.023	1.373	0.290
2.1–2.5 mg	4.332	0.038	6.379	0.027	0.034	0.967
2.6–3.0 mg	69.209	0.000	41.444	0.000	4.663	0.032
> 3.0 mg	57.227	0.000	62.229	0.000	16.346	0.000
Seedling shoot biomass (g individual⁻¹)
< 2.1 mg	2.316	0.141	15.235	0.002	0.431	0.659
2.1–2.5 mg	1.664	0.230	15.698	0.002	0.554	0.589
2.1–2.5 mg	1.112	0.361	5.844	0.032	1.165	0.345
> 3.0 mg	6.854	0.010	74.894	0.000	10.609	0.002
Seedling root biomass (g individual⁻¹)
< 2.1 mg	1.804	0.206	8.207	0.014	0.294	0.750
2.1–2.5 mg	1.149	0.349	17.894	0.001	2.710	0.093
2.1–2.5 mg	1.160	0.345	21.745	0.001	0.098	0.907
> 3.0 mg	0.110	0.896	5.558	0.036	0.777	0.482

ISSN: 1471-2229