The southern South American Proteaceae, Embothrium coccineum exhibits intraspecific variation in growth and cluster-root formation depending on climatic and edaphic origins

Contrasting responses of cluster roots formation induced by phosphorus and nitrogen supply in Embothrium coccineum populations from different geographical origin

“…Indeed, Delgado et al (2018) reported that E. coccineum plants from the southernmost population (55.22°S, the same Southern population used in our study) had the highest P and N resorption efficiency compared with Northern populations. A similar response was reported before by Zúñiga-Feest et al 2015 who showed that in E. coccineum seedlings from Curacautín (the Northern population), the CR formation was suppressed when increasing P supply, whereas, the seedlings from Coyhaique (another Southern population) were not. Thus, it is proposed that plants from regions subject to frequent disturbances due to volcanic activity (e.g.…”

“…Mat, Table S2), despite the seeds came from the site with the higher P availability in the soil. Thus, considering the higher or lower capacity of P uptake from the soil and the seed P concentration, these plants can have a further capacity of P translocation to seeds to ensure germination of the next generation (Zúñiga-Feest et al 2015;Delgado et al 2018). More investigations about P use efficiency are necessary to understand this differential performance among populations.…”

“…While there is no clarity regarding the population genetic structure of E. coccineum (Souto and Premoli 2007;Vidal-Russell et al 2011), our results suggest that in E. coccineum, the growth and CR production could be related to hereditary genetic identity. That would indicate some degree of local adaptation to edaphoclimatic conditions from their geographical origin (Souto and Smouse 2013;Zúñiga-Feest et al 2015).…”

“…relative growth rate, shoot/root, CR number) and chemical (N and P plant concentration) responses were evaluated. Based on the evidence that seedlings from Southern population did not suppress CR formation when they were supplemented with P (Zúñiga-Feest et al 2015) and that CR are induced by low N and not by low P (Piper et al 2013) we expected that CR of seedlings from the Southern population would present higher levels of CR formation under low N supply compared to seedlings from Northern population. Similarly, in seedlings from Central population, P and N co-limitation would induce higher CR formation.…”

Drivers of phenotypic differentiation across rock outcrop sky islands inImpatiensplants

“…For animal pollinated plants, pollinators represent a strong selective force that shape the evolution of floral morphology (Robertson and Wyatt 1990; Johnson and Steiner 1997; Galen 1999). In contrast, abiotic factors are more important in driving variation in vegetative traits (Rico-Gray and Palacios-Rios 1996; Sapir et al 2002; Zúñiga-Feest et al 2015; Lambrecht et al 2005). Examining variation in vegetative traits and the relationship between variation in floral and vegetative traits can offer important insights into the relative importance of abiotic, biotic and neutral factors that give rise to phenotypic divergence (Chalcoff et al 2008).…”