Abstract
Alpine plants often occupy diverse habitats within a similar elevation range, but most research on local adaptation in these plants has focused on elevation gradients. In testing for habitat‐related local adaptation, local effects on seed quality and initial plant growth should be considered in designs that encompass multiple populations and habitats. We tested for local adaptation across alpine habitats in a morphologically variable daisy species, Brachyscome decipiens, in the Bogong High Plains in Victoria, Australia. We collected seed from different habitats, controlled for maternal effects through initial seed size estimates, and characterized seedling survival and growth in a field transplant experiment. We found little evidence for local adaptation for survival or plant size, based on three adaptation measures: Home versus Away, Local versus Foreign, and Sympatric versus Allopatric (SA). The SA measure controlled for planting site and population (site‐of‐origin) effects. There were significant differences due to site‐of‐origin and planting site effects. An important confounding factor was the size of plants directly after transplantation of seedlings, which had a large impact on subsequent seedling survival and growth. Initial differences in plant width and height influenced subsequent survival across the growing season but in opposing directions: wide plants had higher survival, but tall plants had lower survival. In an additional controlled garden experiment at Cranbourne Royal Botanic Gardens, site‐of‐origin effects detected in the field experiments disappeared under more benign homogeneous conditions. Although B. decipiens from different source areas varied significantly when grown across a range of alpine habitats, these differences did not translate into a local or habitat‐related fitness advantage. This lack of local advantage may signal weak past selection, and/or weak adaptive transgeneration (plasticity) effects.
Highlights
IntroductionTransplants and controlled common garden experiments have classically been used to test for genetic differentiation and local adaptation in plant populations (Turesson 1922; Clausen et al 1940) and are powerful tools to test performance across habitat types, and fitness variation both within and beyond present range limits (e.g., Hiesey et al 1971; Schemske 1984; Galen et al 1991; Stanton and Galen 1997; Verhoeven et al 2004; Angert and Schemske, 2005; Byars et al 2007)
Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
We tested for local adaptation in B. decipiens from different habitats, with the potential for site differences to reflect both genetic and cross-generation effects
Summary
Transplants and controlled common garden experiments have classically been used to test for genetic differentiation and local adaptation in plant populations (Turesson 1922; Clausen et al 1940) and are powerful tools to test performance across habitat types, and fitness variation both within and beyond present range limits (e.g., Hiesey et al 1971; Schemske 1984; Galen et al 1991; Stanton and Galen 1997; Verhoeven et al 2004; Angert and Schemske, 2005; Byars et al 2007). For local adaptation to be detected, it should be investigated within the context of a metapopulation structure where multiple environments and populations are sampled (Kawecki and Ebert 2004; Blanquart et al 2013). Local adaptation can be defined in terms of the difference in fitness of populations on their home sites versus their fitness when transplanted to other sites (Blanquart et al 2013), or the more stringent condition where the home site population is superior to the average fitness of other populations transplanted to the same site (Kawecki and Ebert 2004).
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