Phenotypic and phenological behaviours of clones of three natural populations of Atriplex halimus L. grown in a common garden

Abstract Fuchsia parviflora is a dioecious shrub that depends on biotic pollination for reproduction. Previous studies suggest that the male plants produce more flowers, and male-biased sex ratios have been found in some natural populations. To assess whether the biased sex ratios found between genders in natural populations are present at the point at which plants reach sexual maturity, and to identify possible trade-offs between growth and reproduction, we performed a common garden experiment. Finally, to complement the information of the common garden experiment, we estimated the reproductive biomass allocation between genders in one natural population. Sex ratios at reaching sexual maturity in F. parviflora did not differ from 0.5, except in one population, which was the smallest seedling population. We found no differences between genders in terms of the probability of germination or flowering. When flowering began, female plants were taller than males and the tallest plants of both genders required more time to reach sexual maturity. Males produced significantly more flowers than females, and the number of flowers increased with plant height in both genders. Finally, in the natural population studied, the investment in reproductive biomass was seven-fold greater in female plants than in male plants. Our results showed no evidence of possible trade-offs between growth and reproduction. Despite the fact that female plants invest more in reproductive biomass, they were taller than the males after flowering, possibly at the expense of herbivory defence.

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Evolutionary inference from QST-FST comparisons: disentangling local adaptation from altitudinal gradient selection in snapdragon plants

10.1101/385377 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sara Marin ◽

Juliette Archambeau ◽

Vincent Bonhomme ◽

Mylène Lascoste ◽

Benoit Pujol

Keyword(s):

Local Adaptation ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Common Garden ◽

Global Scale ◽

Structured Populations ◽

Adaptive Divergence ◽

Adaptation To Climate Change ◽

Phenotypic Differentiation ◽

Multiple Populations ◽

Environmental Demand

ABSTRACTPhenotypic differentiation among natural populations can be explained by natural selection or by neutral processes such as drift. There are many examples in the literature where comparing the effects of these processes on multiple populations has allowed the detection of local adaptation. However, these studies rarely identify the agents of selection. Whether population adaptive divergence is caused by local features of the environment, or by the environmental demand emerging at a more global scale, for example along altitudinal gradients, is a question that remains poorly investigated. Here, we measured neutral genetic (FST) and quantitative genetic (QST) differentiation among 13 populations of snapdragon plants (Antirrhinum majus) in a common garden experiment. We found low but significant genetic differentiation at putatively neutral markers, which supports the hypothesis of either ongoing pervasive homogenisation via gene flow between diverged populations or reproductive isolation between disconnected populations. Our results also support the hypothesis of local adaptation involving phenological, morphological, reproductive and functional traits. They also showed that phenotypic differentiation increased with altitude for traits reflecting the reproduction and the phenology of plants, thereby confirming the role of such traits in their adaptation to environmental differences associated with altitude. Our approach allowed us to identify candidate traits for the adaptation to climate change in snapdragon plants. Our findings imply that environmental conditions changing with altitude, such as the climatic envelope, influenced the adaptation of multiple populations of snapdragon plants on the top of their adaptation to local environmental features. They also have implications for the study of adaptive evolution in structured populations because they highlight the need to disentangle the adaptation of plant populations to climate envelopes and altitude from the confounding effects of selective pressures acting specifically at the local scale of a population.

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Effect of Salinity on Growth of Five Natural Populations of Atriplex halimus L. in Morocco

Journal of Agronomy ◽

10.3923/ja.2008.197.201 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 197-201 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Abdelmajid Haddioui ◽

Said Bouda ◽

Mohamed Mahmoud Ou ◽

Soumaya Hammada ◽

Mohammed El Hansali

Keyword(s):

Natural Populations ◽

Atriplex Halimus

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Morphological and isozyme variation in Cerastium arvense (Caryophyllaceae) in the southern Andes

Canadian Journal of Botany ◽

10.1139/b02-064 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 80 (7) ◽

pp. 786-795 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

María Paula Quiroga ◽

Andrea C Premoli ◽

Cecilia Ezcurra

Keyword(s):

Genetic Diversity ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Common Garden ◽

High Elevation ◽

Genetic Differences ◽

Restricted Gene Flow ◽

Common Garden Experiment ◽

Southern Andes ◽

Isozyme Electrophoresis ◽

Ecotypic Variation

We tested the hypothesis that South Andean populations of the highly polymorphic and mostly Northern Hemisphere perennial forb Cerastium arvense L. show ecotypic variation along distinct habitats. We compared differences in morphology and flowering phenology among six natural populations occurring in different environments. Genetic differences were analyzed by a common-garden experiment and isozyme electrophoresis. Several of the morphological differences observed in the field were maintained after more than a year of cultivation in the common garden (e.g., plant height and leaf width). Mean tests and multivariate analyses on morphological traits generally distinguished high-elevation populations from the rest, and a similar grouping of populations was obtained from isozyme data at 10 loci. Cerastium arvense had genetic polymorphism levels of >50% in all populations and an average genetic diversity (HT = 0.254) of which approximately 20% was distributed among populations. These marked genetic differences are probably maintained by restricted gene flow due to variation in flowering time. Morphological and genetic differences suggest ecotypic variation in C. arvense in the southern Andes, which seems to have originated by disruptive selective pressures in different environments and the effect of genetic drift in response to the extreme climatic changes occurring during the Pleistocene.Key words: common-garden experiment, ecotypic variation, elevation and precipitation, genetic diversity, Patagonian Andes, phenology.

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Developmental stability of Iris pumila flower traits: A common garden experiment

Archives of Biological Sciences ◽

10.2298/abs1201123m ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 64 (1) ◽

pp. 123-133 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Danijela Miljkovic

Keyword(s):

Light Intensity ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Common Garden ◽

Developmental Stability ◽

Common Garden Experiment ◽

Habitat Types ◽

Significant Treatment ◽

Flower Traits ◽

Population Interaction ◽

The Given

I. pumila natural populations usually occur in two different habitat types: dune and forest. These I. pumila habitats differ in many abiotic environmental factors, but mostly in available light intensity and quality. The effects of different light intensity on the developmental stability of I. pumila floral traits were analyzed on clones taken from two different natural light habitat types that were raised in contrasting light treatments in experimental garden conditions (common garden experiment). As an indicator of developmental stability, we used two fluctuating asymmetry indices (FA1 and FA8a) of three bilateral symmetric traits of I. pumila flower (FW-fall width, SW-standard width and STW- style branch width). In addition, statistically significant treatment x population interaction was observed for style width. According to the presented results, the observed FA patterns of particular traits did not reflect the whole organism buffering capacity under the given environmental conditions.

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Differentiation in phenology among and within natural populations of a South American Nothofagus revealed by a two-year evaluation in a common garden trial

Forest Ecology and Management ◽

10.1016/j.foreco.2019.117858 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 460 ◽

pp. 117858

Author(s):

V.G. Duboscq-Carra ◽

J.A. Arias-Rios ◽

V.A. El Mujtar ◽

P. Marchelli ◽

M.J. Pastorino

Keyword(s):

Natural Populations ◽

Common Garden ◽

South American

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Differences in physiological integration between invasive and noninvasive introduced clonal species of Carpobrotus

Journal of Plant Ecology ◽

10.1093/jpe/rtz035 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 972-981 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Sergio R Roiloa ◽

Peter Alpert ◽

Rodolfo Barreiro

Keyword(s):

Invasive Species ◽

Division Of Labor ◽

Clonal Growth ◽

Sand Dunes ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Common Garden ◽

Clonal Plants ◽

Physiological Integration ◽

Shoot Mass ◽

Clonal Species

Abstract Aims Clonal growth is associated with invasiveness in introduced plant species, but few studies have compared invasive and noninvasive introduced clonal species to investigate which clonal traits may underlie invasiveness. To test the hypothesis that greater capacity to increase clonal growth via physiological integration of connected ramets increases invasiveness in clonal plants, we compared the effects of severing connections on accumulation of mass in the two species of the creeping, succulent, perennial, herbaceous genus Carpobrotus that have been introduced on sand dunes along the Pacific Coast of northern California, the highly invasive species Carpobrotus edulis and the co-occurring, noninvasive species Carpobrotus chilensis. Methods Pairs of ramets from four mixed populations of the species from California were grown in a common garden for 3 months with and without severing the stem connecting the ramets. To simulate the effect of clones on soils in natural populations, the older ramet was grown in sand amended with potting compost and the younger in sand alone. Important Findings Severance decreased net growth in mass by ~60% in C. edulis and ~100% in C. chilensis, due mainly to the negative effect of severance on the shoot mass of the younger ramet within a pair. Contrary to the hypothesis, this suggests that physiological integration increases growth more in the less invasive species. However, severance also decreased allocation of mass to roots in the older ramet and increased it in the younger ramet in a pair, and the effect on the younger ramet was about twice as great in C. edulis as in C. chilensis. This indicates that the more invasive species shows greater phenotypic plasticity in response to physiological integration, in particular greater capacity for division of labor. This could contribute to greater long-term growth and suggests that the division of labor may be a trait that underlies the association between clonal growth and invasiveness in plants.

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Mexican conifers differ in their capacity to face climate change

Journal of Plant Hydraulics ◽

10.20870/jph.2017.e003 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. e003 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Cuauhtémoc Sáenz-Romero ◽

Maximilien Larter ◽

Noelia González-Muñoz ◽

Christian Wehenkel ◽

Arnulfo Blanco-Garcia ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Drought Stress ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Common Garden ◽

Adaptation To Climate Change ◽

Natural Habitats ◽

Xylem Vulnerability ◽

Adult Trees ◽

Pinus Pseudostrobus

The recent massive dieback of forest trees due to drought stress makes assessment of the variability of physiological traits that might be critical for predicting forest response and adaptation to climate change even more urgent. We investigated xylem vulnerability to cavitation and xylem specific hydraulic conductivity in seven species of three principal conifer genera (Juniperus monticola, Juniperus deppeana, Juniperus flaccida, Pinus pseudostrobus, Pinus leiophylla, Pinus devoniana, and the endangered Picea chihuahuana) of the Mexican mountains in order to identify the species most vulnerable to future warmer and drier climates. Hydraulic traits were examined using the in situ flow centrifuge technique (Cavitron) on branches collected from adult trees of natural populations and seedlings growing in a common garden. We found evidence of significant differences in xylem safety between genera (P50: pressure inducing 50% loss of hydraulic conductance): the three juniper species exhibited low P50 values (ranging from -9.9 to -10.4 MPa), relative to the much more vulnerable pine and spruce species (P50 ranging between - 2.9 to - 3.3 MPa). Our findings also revealed no variation in P50 between adult trees assessed in the field and seedlings growing in a common garden. We therefore propose that if, as projected, climate change makes their natural habitats much warmer and drier, populations of Mexican pines and the studied spruce will be likely to decline severely as a result of drought-stress induced cavitation, while the juniper species will survive.

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Adaptive Divergence of Meiotic Recombination Rate in Ecological Speciation

Genome Biology and Evolution ◽

10.1093/gbe/evaa182 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (10) ◽

pp. 1869-1881

Author(s):

Swatantra Neupane ◽

Sen Xu

Keyword(s):

Meiotic Recombination ◽

Recombination Rate ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Daphnia Pulex ◽

Common Garden ◽

Population Level ◽

Directional Selection ◽

Neutral Evolution ◽

Adaptive Divergence ◽

Rate Variation

Abstract Theories predict that directional selection during adaptation to a novel habitat results in elevated meiotic recombination rate. Yet the lack of population-level recombination rate data leaves this hypothesis untested in natural populations. Here, we examine the population-level recombination rate variation in two incipient ecological species, the microcrustacean Daphnia pulex (an ephemeral-pond species) and Daphnia pulicaria (a permanent-lake species). The divergence of D. pulicaria from D. pulex involved habitat shifts from pond to lake habitats as well as strong local adaptation due to directional selection. Using a novel single-sperm genotyping approach, we estimated the male-specific recombination rate of two linkage groups in multiple populations of each species in common garden experiments and identified a significantly elevated recombination rate in D. pulicaria. Most importantly, population genetic analyses show that the divergence in recombination rate between these two species is most likely due to divergent selection in distinct ecological habitats rather than neutral evolution.

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