Local adaptation enhances performance of common plant species

Abstract

Geographic variation can lead to the evolution of different local varieties, even in widespread forage plants. We investigated the performance of common forage plants in relation to their genetic diversity and local adaptation at a continental scale using reciprocal transplants at eight field sites across Europe over a 2‐year period. The overall performance of the three test species, Trifolium pratense, Dactylis glomerata, Plantago lanceolata, was generally highest for plants replanted at their home site and declined with increasing transplanting distance. The three species differed in the fitness components responsible for the increased overall performance and selection advantage at home sites. In addition to the effects of local adaptation, the majority of measured traits in all three species also showed ecotypic variation. However, no single ecotype of any species was able to outperform the locally adapted strains and do best at all sites, highlighting the importance of maintaining these plant genetic resources.

Phenotypic variation of 38 European Ambrosia artemisiifolia populations measured in a common garden experiment

“…phenotypic variation over a distributional range of a species which is correlated with environmental parameters, is characteristic for many species (e.g. Becker et al 2006;Joshi et al 2001). It typically results from environmental heterogeneity and is often correlated with latitudinal or altitudinal gradients (Bruelheide and Heinemeyer 2002;Chun et al 2011;Weber and Schmid 1998).…”

Higher effect of plant species diversity on productivity in natural than artificial ecosystems

“…In artificial ecosystems, both niche complementarity and facilitation may have been reduced by (i) the use of seeds from external sources (6,28),which reduced the possibility of local adaptation (29,30); (ii) the use of naturalized species (31), which decreased the probability of finding long-term biotic interactions that could result in niche partitioning either by character displacement (32) or in positive interactions (33); (iii) a high disturbance frequency, such as fire or mowing, which limited the establishment of positive interactions among species (15); and (iv) conducting relatively short-duration experiments that did not allow full development of roots and shoots in long-lived plant species and that consequently may have reduced partitioning of soil resources. In contrast, natural ecosystems presented mature individuals, populations, and species coexisting for long periods of time in natural soils without chemical treatments and low artificial disturbance regimes.…”

La restauración ecológica clásica y los retos de la actualidad: La migración asistida como estrategia de adaptación al cambio climático

“…En el caso de especies arbóreas, la migración asistida podría ser una de las pocas estrategias de manejo que ayudarían a su permanencia, ya que el 100% de los modelos predictivos estiman que se necesitan tasas de migración latitudinal de 1000 m por año o más para que puedan mantenerse en un hábitat adecuado con las condiciones del cambio climático (Malcolm, Markham, Neilson & Garaci, 2002). Sin embargo, deben considerarse las distancias a las cuales se plantea movilizar a las especies, porque estas podrían tener un pobre desempeño si son reubicadas en sitios que difieran mucho de su hábitat natural (Joshi et al, 2001).…”