Pre‐adaptation to climate change through topography‐driven phenotypic plasticity
Climate change will increase the level of drought stress experienced by plant communities, but the spatial distribution of projected changes in dryness remains highly uncertain. Species can, to some extent, deal with climate uncertainty through natural variation in adaptive responses to environmenta...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | Inglés |
| Published: |
Wiley
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111227 |
| _version_ | 1855519315733774336 |
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| author | Kort, Hanne de Panis, Bartholomeus Helsen, Kenny Douzet, Rolland Janssens, Steven B. Honnay, Olivier |
| author_browse | Douzet, Rolland Helsen, Kenny Honnay, Olivier Janssens, Steven B. Kort, Hanne de Panis, Bartholomeus |
| author_facet | Kort, Hanne de Panis, Bartholomeus Helsen, Kenny Douzet, Rolland Janssens, Steven B. Honnay, Olivier |
| author_sort | Kort, Hanne de |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Climate change will increase the level of drought stress experienced by plant communities, but the spatial distribution of projected changes in dryness remains highly uncertain. Species can, to some extent, deal with climate uncertainty through natural variation in adaptive responses to environmental heterogeneity and predictability. Biodiversity conservation could thus target populations pre‐adapted to climatic heterogeneity to anticipate climate uncertainty. Disentangling adaptive evolution of trait means versus trait plasticity, however, requires a sampling design with genetic replicates grown under distinct environmental conditions. Here, we applied three soil moisture treatments to genetic replicates of Fragaria vesca plants raised from seeds that were sampled in distinct topographical settings, to study adaptive trait and plasticity divergence in response to drought. We demonstrate that various plant traits evolved along distinct topographical gradients. Populations on south‐exposed slopes, for example, retained high levels of both flowering and runner formation under drought stress, while north‐faced populations hardly flowered under reduced soil moisture levels. Aspect but not elevation was found to coincide with variation in plant traits, suggesting that microenvironmental variation rather than general clines in elevation drive evolution in mountainous landscapes. Our results also indicate that traits and their plasticity can evolve independently in response to distinct topographical stressors. Synthesis. We conclude that heterogeneous landscapes (a) harbour micro‐refugia of adaptive genetic diversity that protect natural populations against environmental change, and (b) represent invaluable sources of quantitative genetic variation that could support conservation where climate projections are inconclusive.Climate change will increase the level of drought stress experienced by plant communities, but the spatial distribution of projected changes in dryness remains highly uncertain. Species can, to some extent, deal with climate uncertainty through natural variation in adaptive responses to environmental heterogeneity and predictability. Biodiversity conservation could thus target populations pre‐adapted to climatic heterogeneity to anticipate climate uncertainty. Disentangling adaptive evolution of trait means versus trait plasticity, however, requires a sampling design with genetic replicates grown under distinct environmental conditions.Here, we applied three soil moisture treatments to genetic replicates of Fragaria vesca plants raised from seeds that were sampled in distinct topographical settings, to study adaptive trait and plasticity divergence in response to drought.We demonstrate that various plant traits evolved along distinct topographical gradients. Populations on south‐exposed slopes, for example, retained high levels of both flowering and runner formation under drought stress, while north‐faced populations hardly flowered under reduced soil moisture levels. Aspect but not elevation was found to coincide with variation in plant traits, suggesting that microenvironmental variation rather than general clines in elevation drive evolution in mountainous landscapes. Our results also indicate that traits and their plasticity can evolve independently in response to distinct topographical stressors.Synthesis. We conclude that heterogeneous landscapes (a) harbour micro‐refugia of adaptive genetic diversity that protect natural populations against environmental change, and (b) represent invaluable sources of quantitative genetic variation that could support conservation where climate projections are inconclusive. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace111227 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| publisherStr | Wiley |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1112272025-08-15T13:21:27Z Pre‐adaptation to climate change through topography‐driven phenotypic plasticity Kort, Hanne de Panis, Bartholomeus Helsen, Kenny Douzet, Rolland Janssens, Steven B. Honnay, Olivier climate change adaptation drought stress phenotypic plasticity adaptación al cambio climático estrés de sequia plasticidad fenotípica ecology Climate change will increase the level of drought stress experienced by plant communities, but the spatial distribution of projected changes in dryness remains highly uncertain. Species can, to some extent, deal with climate uncertainty through natural variation in adaptive responses to environmental heterogeneity and predictability. Biodiversity conservation could thus target populations pre‐adapted to climatic heterogeneity to anticipate climate uncertainty. Disentangling adaptive evolution of trait means versus trait plasticity, however, requires a sampling design with genetic replicates grown under distinct environmental conditions. Here, we applied three soil moisture treatments to genetic replicates of Fragaria vesca plants raised from seeds that were sampled in distinct topographical settings, to study adaptive trait and plasticity divergence in response to drought. We demonstrate that various plant traits evolved along distinct topographical gradients. Populations on south‐exposed slopes, for example, retained high levels of both flowering and runner formation under drought stress, while north‐faced populations hardly flowered under reduced soil moisture levels. Aspect but not elevation was found to coincide with variation in plant traits, suggesting that microenvironmental variation rather than general clines in elevation drive evolution in mountainous landscapes. Our results also indicate that traits and their plasticity can evolve independently in response to distinct topographical stressors. Synthesis. We conclude that heterogeneous landscapes (a) harbour micro‐refugia of adaptive genetic diversity that protect natural populations against environmental change, and (b) represent invaluable sources of quantitative genetic variation that could support conservation where climate projections are inconclusive.Climate change will increase the level of drought stress experienced by plant communities, but the spatial distribution of projected changes in dryness remains highly uncertain. Species can, to some extent, deal with climate uncertainty through natural variation in adaptive responses to environmental heterogeneity and predictability. Biodiversity conservation could thus target populations pre‐adapted to climatic heterogeneity to anticipate climate uncertainty. Disentangling adaptive evolution of trait means versus trait plasticity, however, requires a sampling design with genetic replicates grown under distinct environmental conditions.Here, we applied three soil moisture treatments to genetic replicates of Fragaria vesca plants raised from seeds that were sampled in distinct topographical settings, to study adaptive trait and plasticity divergence in response to drought.We demonstrate that various plant traits evolved along distinct topographical gradients. Populations on south‐exposed slopes, for example, retained high levels of both flowering and runner formation under drought stress, while north‐faced populations hardly flowered under reduced soil moisture levels. Aspect but not elevation was found to coincide with variation in plant traits, suggesting that microenvironmental variation rather than general clines in elevation drive evolution in mountainous landscapes. Our results also indicate that traits and their plasticity can evolve independently in response to distinct topographical stressors.Synthesis. We conclude that heterogeneous landscapes (a) harbour micro‐refugia of adaptive genetic diversity that protect natural populations against environmental change, and (b) represent invaluable sources of quantitative genetic variation that could support conservation where climate projections are inconclusive. 2020-07 2021-02-09T18:55:16Z 2021-02-09T18:55:16Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111227 en Limited Access image/jpeg Wiley De Kort, H.; Panis, B.; Helsen, K.; Douzet, R.; Janssens, S.B.; Honnay, O. (2020) Pre‐adaptation to climate change through topography‐driven phenotypic plasticity. Journal of Ecology 108(4) p. 1465-1474 ISSN: 0022-0477 |
| spellingShingle | climate change adaptation drought stress phenotypic plasticity adaptación al cambio climático estrés de sequia plasticidad fenotípica ecology Kort, Hanne de Panis, Bartholomeus Helsen, Kenny Douzet, Rolland Janssens, Steven B. Honnay, Olivier Pre‐adaptation to climate change through topography‐driven phenotypic plasticity |
| title | Pre‐adaptation to climate change through topography‐driven phenotypic plasticity |
| title_full | Pre‐adaptation to climate change through topography‐driven phenotypic plasticity |
| title_fullStr | Pre‐adaptation to climate change through topography‐driven phenotypic plasticity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pre‐adaptation to climate change through topography‐driven phenotypic plasticity |
| title_short | Pre‐adaptation to climate change through topography‐driven phenotypic plasticity |
| title_sort | pre adaptation to climate change through topography driven phenotypic plasticity |
| topic | climate change adaptation drought stress phenotypic plasticity adaptación al cambio climático estrés de sequia plasticidad fenotípica ecology |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111227 |
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