TY - JOUR
T1 - Genotypic variation in phenological plasticity
T2 - Reciprocal common gardens reveal adaptive responses to warmer springs but not to fall frost
AU - Cooper, Hillary F.
AU - Grady, Kevin C.
AU - Cowan, Jacob A.
AU - Best, Rebecca J.
AU - Allan, Gerard J.
AU - Whitham, Thomas G.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by NSF‐IGERT and NSF GK‐12 Fellowships (HF Cooper), NSF MacroSystems grant DEB‐1340852 (GJ Allan, KC Grady, TG Whitham), and NSF DBI‐1126840 (TG Whi-tham) for establishing the Southwest Experimental Garden Array. We thank our site partners for helping to facilitate use of the common gardens: Dana Warnecke at Arizona Game and Fish (Agua Fria), Erica Stewart at the Bureau of Land Management (Yuma), and Barry Bakker, Phil Adams, and the Redd family at The Nature Conservancy's Canyonlands Research Center at Dugout Ranch in Canyonlands National Park. We would like to thank Christopher Updike, Zachary Ventrella, Davis Blasini, Dan Koepke, Matthew McEttrick, and Kevin Hultine along with hundreds of volunteers for help developing and maintaining common gardens. We also thank Michelle Hockenbury, Teresa Reyes, Michelle Bem, and Jackie Parker for assistance in the field and data visualization, and the Cottonwood Ecology and Community Genetics Laboratory group for their constructive comments and reviews.
Funding Information:
National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: DEB-1340852, DBI-1126840
Funding Information:
This research was supported by NSF-IGERT and NSF GK-12 Fellowships (HF Cooper), NSF MacroSystems grant DEB-1340852 (GJ Allan, KC Grady, TG Whitham), and NSF DBI-1126840 (TG Whitham) for establishing the Southwest Experimental Garden Array. We thank our site partners for helping to facilitate use of the common gardens: Dana Warnecke at Arizona Game and Fish (Agua Fria), Erica Stewart at the Bureau of Land Management (Yuma), and Barry Bakker, Phil Adams, and the Redd family at The Nature Conservancy's Canyonlands Research Center at Dugout Ranch in Canyonlands National Park. We would like to thank Christopher Updike, Zachary Ventrella, Davis Blasini, Dan Koepke, Matthew McEttrick, and Kevin Hultine along with hundreds of volunteers for help developing and maintaining common gardens. We also thank Michelle Hockenbury, Teresa Reyes, Michelle Bem, and Jackie Parker for assistance in the field and data visualization, and the Cottonwood Ecology and Community Genetics Laboratory group for their constructive comments and reviews.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2019/1
Y1 - 2019/1
N2 - Species faced with rapidly shifting environments must be able to move, adapt, or acclimate in order to survive. One mechanism to meet this challenge is phenotypic plasticity: altering phenotype in response to environmental change. Here, we investigated the magnitude, direction, and consequences of changes in two key phenology traits (fall bud set and spring bud flush) in a widespread riparian tree species, Populus fremontii. Using replicated genotypes from 16 populations from throughout the species’ thermal range, and reciprocal common gardens at hot, warm, and cool sites, we identified four major findings: (a) There are significant genetic (G), environmental (E), and GxE components of variation for both traits across three common gardens; (b) The magnitude of phenotypic plasticity is correlated with provenance climate, where trees from hotter, southern populations exhibited up to four times greater plasticity compared to the northern, frost-adapted populations; (c) Phenological mismatches are correlated with higher mortality as the transfer distances between provenance and garden increase; and (d) The relationship between plasticity and survival depends not only on the magnitude and direction of environmental transfer, but also on the type of environmental stress (i.e., heat or freezing), and how particular traits have evolved in response to that stress. Trees transferred to warmer climates generally showed small to moderate shifts in an adaptive direction, a hopeful result for climate change. Trees experiencing cooler climates exhibited large, non-adaptive changes, suggesting smaller transfer distances for assisted migration. This study is especially important as it deconstructs trait responses to environmental cues that are rapidly changing (e.g., temperature and spring onset) and those that are fixed (photoperiod), and that vary across the species’ range. Understanding the magnitude and adaptive nature of phenotypic plasticity of multiple traits responding to multiple environmental cues is key to guiding restoration management decisions as climate continues to change.
AB - Species faced with rapidly shifting environments must be able to move, adapt, or acclimate in order to survive. One mechanism to meet this challenge is phenotypic plasticity: altering phenotype in response to environmental change. Here, we investigated the magnitude, direction, and consequences of changes in two key phenology traits (fall bud set and spring bud flush) in a widespread riparian tree species, Populus fremontii. Using replicated genotypes from 16 populations from throughout the species’ thermal range, and reciprocal common gardens at hot, warm, and cool sites, we identified four major findings: (a) There are significant genetic (G), environmental (E), and GxE components of variation for both traits across three common gardens; (b) The magnitude of phenotypic plasticity is correlated with provenance climate, where trees from hotter, southern populations exhibited up to four times greater plasticity compared to the northern, frost-adapted populations; (c) Phenological mismatches are correlated with higher mortality as the transfer distances between provenance and garden increase; and (d) The relationship between plasticity and survival depends not only on the magnitude and direction of environmental transfer, but also on the type of environmental stress (i.e., heat or freezing), and how particular traits have evolved in response to that stress. Trees transferred to warmer climates generally showed small to moderate shifts in an adaptive direction, a hopeful result for climate change. Trees experiencing cooler climates exhibited large, non-adaptive changes, suggesting smaller transfer distances for assisted migration. This study is especially important as it deconstructs trait responses to environmental cues that are rapidly changing (e.g., temperature and spring onset) and those that are fixed (photoperiod), and that vary across the species’ range. Understanding the magnitude and adaptive nature of phenotypic plasticity of multiple traits responding to multiple environmental cues is key to guiding restoration management decisions as climate continues to change.
KW - Populus fremontii
KW - bud flush
KW - bud set
KW - climate change
KW - common garden provenance trial
KW - phenology
KW - phenotypic plasticity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85056447737&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85056447737&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/gcb.14494
DO - 10.1111/gcb.14494
M3 - Article
C2 - 30346108
AN - SCOPUS:85056447737
SN - 1354-1013
VL - 25
SP - 187
EP - 200
JO - Global change biology
JF - Global change biology
IS - 1
ER -