Do heterogeneous nutrient patch scale and distribution order in the habitats always influence on the biophysical characteristics of Zoysia japonica?

Previous studies have shown that small scale resource heterogeneity may strongly influence plant fitness and many ecological processes. Clonal plant species performed better under various heterogeneous environments compared with homogeneous ones. However, the patch scale and the distribution order in the habitats may affect the clonal growth and has remained unclearly elucidated. We used typical stoloniferous clonal plant Zoysia japonica as study material, through analyzing the performance of its clones in the heterogeneous environments with different patch sizes (where amount of nutrient supply was same to all heterogeneous treatments with different patch levels). Levels of patch soil nutrients and patch distribution orders in the habitats, comparing with the homogeneous ones, aiming to test the hypothesis that patch scale and distribution order in the habitats always affect the performance of clonal growth of Z. japonica.