Tackling local ecological homogeneity: Finding intraspecific trait variability in local populations of Mediterranean plants.

ABSTRACT: Local homogeneity, in ecology, is the often undisclosed assumption that variability within populations is negligible or mostly distributed evenly. In large areas, this can lead to the aggregation of different populations without regard for their unique needs and characteristics, such as drought sensitivity and functional trait distributions. Here, we discuss whether this assumption can be justified, and we hypothesize that discerning the source of variation between plasticity and adaptation could be a feasible approach to formulate an informed decision. We test this hypothesis on plants, resorting to a common garden experiment to determine the source of variation of several plant functional traits at a local scale (~60 km) of three wild species: Quercus ilex, Pistacia lentiscus</

SUBMITTER: Iozia LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10507572 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature