Geographic origin and past climatic experience influence the response to late spring frost in four common grass species in central Europe

Abstract

Late spring frost events can affect vegetation. The response of grassland species, however, is generally unknown. We explore the late‐frost sensitivity of four common European grass species and investigate whether these species exhibit local adaptations to late frost on a continental scale and whether past climatic experience influences late frost sensitivity. Ecotypes of Arrhenatherum elatius, Alopecurus pratensis, Festuca pratensis, and Holcus lanatus from Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Sweden and Germany were exposed to late frost after drought and warming manipulations in the preceding growing season in a common garden experiment. Late frost reduced the productivity of the grasses on average by 20%. Ecotypes differed in their late‐frost sensitivity in three of the four species and local adaptations to late frost were identified. Previous exposure to drought and warming caused differences in late‐frost sensitivity in some cases. The impact of late frost events may increase in a warmer world due to an earlier onset of growing and no change in timing of late frost events. The history of climatic exposure can alter the performance of plants, possibly through epigenetic mechanisms. Based on the complex response pattern observed, a maximization of genetic diversity is proposed as a promising adaptation strategy against climate change.

Intraspecific variation buffers projected climate change impacts onPinus contorta

“…; Kreyling et al. ). We find that the individual subspecies models show the same or better performance than the single species model (Fig.…”

Persistence and production of perennial grasses under water deficits and extreme temperatures: importance of intraspecific vs. interspecific variability

“…However, the higher potential productivity of Mediterranean populations in the winter (enhanced by the temperature increase associated with the night cover) was associated with greater frost sensitivity, thus confirming that the Mediterranean types of both species -D. glomerata (Knight, 1973) and F. arundinacea (Burner et al, 1988)have limited winter hardiness when compared with continental types. This result also raises the interest to maximize genetic diversity in pluri-specific and plurigenotypes grasslands as a possible adaption strategy against climate change (Kreyling et al, 2012). This result also raises the interest to maximize genetic diversity in pluri-specific and plurigenotypes grasslands as a possible adaption strategy against climate change (Kreyling et al, 2012).…”

“…+ 33 467 613 330, fax + 33 467 613 336, e-mail: florence.volaire@cefe.cnrs.fr effects according to species, seasons and environments (Hovenden et al, 2007;Williams et al, 2007;Zhou et al, 2007;Niu et al, 2008). Moreover, the intraspecific genetic variability in the responses of forage grasses has been little explored although its role could be crucial to assess the potential adaptation of grasslands in the future (Beierkuhnlein et al, 2011;Kreyling et al, 2012). Moreover, the intraspecific genetic variability in the responses of forage grasses has been little explored although its role could be crucial to assess the potential adaptation of grasslands in the future (Beierkuhnlein et al, 2011;Kreyling et al, 2012).…”

Plant responses to climatic extremes: within‐species variation equals among‐species variation

“…There is a disproportionately low amount of information regarding variation in traits within species relative to among species. There is evidence, however, that variation both within populations (Booth & Grime, ) and between populations (Beierkuhnlein et al ., ; Kreyling et al ., ) can be important for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem function (Jung et al ., ). Thus, if within‐species differences are as great as among‐species differences, the insurance hypothesis could be extended to differentiation within species, and the functional resilience of a community to environmental stress could be ensured through high ecotypic diversity (Fig.…”