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Population variation in early development can determine ecological resilience in response to environmental change

Walter, GM; Catara, S; Bridle, JR; Cristaudo, A; (2020) Population variation in early development can determine ecological resilience in response to environmental change. New Phytologist , 226 (5) pp. 1312-1324. 10.1111/nph.16453. Green open access

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Abstract

As climate change transforms seasonal patterns of temperature and precipitation, germination success at marginal temperatures will become critical for the long-term persistence of many plant species and communities. If populations vary in their environmental sensitivity to marginal temperatures across a species’ geographical range, populations that respond better to future environmental extremes are likely to be critical for maintaining ecological resilience of the species. / Using seeds from two to six populations for each of nine species of Mediterranean plants, we characterized patterns of among-population variation in environmental sensitivity by quantifying genotype-by-environment interactions (G × E) for germination success at temperature extremes, and under two light regimes representing conditions below and above the soil surface. / For eight of nine species tested at hot and cold marginal temperatures, we observed substantial among-population variation in environmental sensitivity for germination success, and this often depended on the light treatment. Importantly, different populations often performed best at different environmental extremes. / Our results demonstrate that ongoing changes in temperature regime will affect the phenology, fitness, and demography of different populations within the same species differently. We show that quantifying patterns of G × E for multiple populations, and understanding how such patterns arise, can test mechanisms that promote ecological resilience.

Type: Article
Title: Population variation in early development can determine ecological resilience in response to environmental change
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/nph.16453
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16453
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2020 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2020 New Phytologist Trust. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: climate change, ecological resilience, environmental sensitivity, genotype-by-environment interactions, germination success, intraspecific variation, Mediterranean ecosystems, seed ecology
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10141081
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