Somatic and demographic costs under different temperature regimes in the late-flowering alpine perennial herb Saxifraga stellaris (Saxifragaceae)

If reproduction involves costs, preventing reproduction one year should result in increased growth and/or reproduction the next year. Costs of reproduction in the late-flowering perennial alpine herb Saxifraga stellaris were Studied in an experimental field study. To determine whether cost of reproduction differed between two contrasting temperature regimes, I examined plants in Open Top Chambers (OTCs) and control plots. One year before measurements all flower buds on the experiment plants were removed. There was no impact of the flower bud removal or the interaction between flower removal and temperature on prefloration time or seed maturation time. However, cost of reproduction influenced growth (somatic cost), vegetative propagation, flowering frequency, number of stem per ramet, number of fruits, and seed mass (demographic cost). However, significant interaction effects of flower removal and temperature on growth and fruit production revealed that the cost of reproduction differed between the two temperature regimes. The warmed plants showed reduced cost of reproduction compared to plants growing under natural temperature.