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

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 represent

SUBMITTER: Walter GM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7317736 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature