Plants adapted to warmer climate do not outperform regional plants during a natural heat wave.

ABSTRACT: With ongoing climate change, many plant species may not be able to adapt rapidly enough, and some conservation experts are therefore considering to translocate warm-adapted ecotypes to mitigate effects of climate warming. Although this strategy, called assisted migration, is intuitively plausible, most of the support comes from models, whereas experimental evidence is so far scarce. Here we present data on multiple ecotypes of six grassland species, which we grew in four common gardens in Germany during a natural heat wave, with temperatures 1.4-2.0°C higher than the long-term means. In each garden we compared the performance of regional ecotypes with plants from a locality with long-term summer temperatures similar to what the plants experienced during the summer heat wave. We found no di

SUBMITTER: Bucharova A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4880551 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature