Genetic differentiation and plasticity interact along temperature and precipitation gradients to determine plant performance under climate change

Münzbergová, Zuzana; Hadincová, Věra; Skálová, Hana; Vandvik, Vigdis

doi:10.1111/1365-2745.12762

Cited by 85 publications

(164 citation statements)

References 135 publications

(253 reference statements)

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“…The missing interaction of latitude and treatment (i.e. temperature or precipitation) in most traits suggests a low genetic differentiation in phenotypic plasticity among populations which is in line with other studies examining plasticity under different moisture and temperature conditions (Gugger, Kesselring, Stöcklin, & Hamann, ; Münzbergová, Hadincová, Skálová, & Vandvik, ). Mainly the phenotypic plasticity of flower number showed a significant genetic differentiation along a latitudinal gradient.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Compensatory mechanisms to climate change in the widely distributed species Silene vulgaris

2019

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The adaptation of plants to future climatic conditions is crucial for their survival. Not surprisingly, phenotypic responses to climate change have already been observed in many plant populations. These responses may be due to evolutionary adaptive changes or phenotypic plasticity. Especially plant species with a wide geographic range are either expected to show genetic differentiation in response to differing climate conditions or to have a high phenotypic plasticity. We investigated phenotypic responses and plasticity as an estimate of the adaptive potential in the widespread species Silene vulgaris. In a greenhouse experiment, 25 European populations covering a geographic range from the Canary Islands to Sweden were exposed to three experimental precipitation and two temperature regimes mimicking a possible climate‐change scenario for central Europe. We hypothesized that southern populations have a better performance under high temperature and drought conditions, as they are already adapted to a comparable environment. We found that our treatments significantly influenced the plants, but did not reveal a latitudinal difference in response to climate treatments for most plant traits. Only flower number showed a stronger plasticity in northern European populations (e.g. Swedish populations) where numbers decreased more drastically with increased temperature and decreased precipitation treatment. Synthesis. The significant treatment response in Silene vulgaris, independent of population origin – except for the number of flowers produced – suggests a high degree of universal phenotypic plasticity in this widely distributed species. This reflects the likely adaptation strategy of the species and forms the basis for a successful survival strategy during upcoming climatic changes. However, as flower number, a strongly fitness‐related trait, decreased more strongly in northern populations under a climate‐change scenario, there might be limits to adaptation even in this widespread, plastic species.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Compensatory mechanisms to climate change in the widely distributed species Silene vulgaris

2019

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“…Another important factor is the effect of intraspecific trait variability (ITV) of plants, as plant species are typically able to acclimate to changing environmental conditions before they are replaced by other species (Ellenberg, 1996). Several studies deal with species-specific trait changes, reflected in both phenotypic responses of individual plants and genotypic differentiation determined by grazing (Mason, Bello, Doležal, & Lepš, 2011;Münzbergová, Hadincová, Skálová, & Vandvik, 2017;Völler, Bossdorf, Prati, & Auge, 2017). Several studies deal with species-specific trait changes, reflected in both phenotypic responses of individual plants and genotypic differentiation determined by grazing (Mason, Bello, Doležal, & Lepš, 2011;Münzbergová, Hadincová, Skálová, & Vandvik, 2017;Völler, Bossdorf, Prati, & Auge, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands

Lang

Ahlborn

Munkhzul

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Functional traits are proxies for plant physiology and performance, which do not only differ between species but also within species. In this work, we hypothesized that (a) with increasing precipitation, the percentage of focal species which significantly respond to changes in grazing intensity increases, while under dry conditions, climate-induced stress is so high that plant species hardly respond to any changes in grazing intensity and that (b) the magnitude with which species change their trait values in response to grazing, reflected by coefficients of variation (CVs), increases with increasing precipitation. Chosen plant traits were canopy height, plant width, specific leaf area (SLA), chlorophyll fluorescence, performance index, stomatal pore area index (SPI), and individual aboveground biomass of 15 species along a precipitation gradient with different grazing intensities in Mongolian rangelands. We used linear models for each trait to assess whether the percentage of species that respond to grazing changes along the precipitation gradient. To test the second hypothesis, we assessed the magnitude of intraspecific trait variability (ITV) response to grazing, per species, trait, and precipitation level by calculating CVs across the different grazing intensities. ITV was most prominent for SLA and SPI under highest precipitation, confirming our first hypothesis. Accordingly, CVs of canopy height, SPI, and SLA increased with increasing precipitation, partly confirming our second hypothesis. CVs of the species over all traits increased with increasing precipitation only for three species. This study shows that it remains challenging to predict how plant performance will shift under changing environmental conditions based on their traits alone.In this context, the implications for the use of community-weighted mean trait values are discussed, as not only species abundances change in response to changing environmental conditions, but also values of traits considerably change. Including this aspect in further studies will improve our understanding of processes acting within and among communities. K E Y W O R D S environmental gradients, grasslands, intraspecific trait variability, land-use, rainfall, steppes S U PP O RTI N G I N FO R M ATI O N Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section. How to cite this article: Lang B, Ahlborn J, Oyunbileg M, et al. Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands. Ecol

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“…Theoretically, crops and species with larger geographic distributions may exhibit larger intraspecific variation because of more diverse selection pressures (Martin et al ., ) and stronger local adaptation (Münzbergová et al ., ). However, these expectations could not be tested in our datasets, because most of the global warming experiments were not designed to capture the intraspecific variation but rather to examine the average response of a species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Plant evolutionary history mainly explains the variance in biomass responses to climate warming at a global scale

Shao

Yuan

et al. 2019

New Phytologist

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Summary Evolutionary history shapes the interspecific relatedness and intraspecific variation, which has a profound influence on plant functional traits and productivity. However, it is far from clear how the phylogenetic relatedness among species and intraspecific variation could contribute to the observed variance in plant biomass responses to climate warming. We compiled a dataset with 284 species from warming experiments to explore the relative importance of phylogenetic, intraspecific, experimental and ecological factors to warming effects on plant biomass, using phylogenetic eigenvector regression and variance decomposition. Our results showed that phylogenetic relatedness could account for about half the total variance in biomass responses to warming, which were correlated with leaf economic traits at the family level but not at species level. The intraspecific variation contributed to approximately one‐third of the variance, whereas the experimental design and ecological characteristics only explained 7–17%. These results suggest that intrinsic factors (evolutionary history) play more important roles than extrinsic factors (experimental treatment and environment) in determining the responses of plant biomass to warming at the global scale. This highlights the urgent need for land surface models to include evolutionary aspects in predicting ecosystem functions under climate change.

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Genetic differentiation and plasticity interact along temperature and precipitation gradients to determine plant performance under climate change

Abstract: Summary 11 1.Understanding species' abilities to cope with changing climate is a key prerequisite for

Cited by 85 publications

References 135 publications

Compensatory mechanisms to climate change in the widely distributed species Silene vulgaris

Compensatory mechanisms to climate change in the widely distributed species Silene vulgaris

Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands

Plant evolutionary history mainly explains the variance in biomass responses to climate warming at a global scale

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