Maternal effects of climate warming and nitrogen deposition vary with home and introduced ranges

Abstract

AbstractMaternal effects allow offspring to cope with rapidly changing environments. While the immediate effects of long‐term climate warming and nitrogen (N) deposition are well documented, their maternal effects have been little studied.We conducted a 6‐year maternal experiment withSolidago canadensis(Canadian goldenrod), native to North America (home range) and invasive in China (introduced range), and then performed two offspring experiments to address how maternal warming, maternal N‐addition and population source interacted to influence offspring performance.Maternal effects of warming and N‐addition on seed traits, leaf dry matter content and whole‐plant biomass were stronger inS. canadensisoffspring from China (introduced range) than in offspring from North America (home range). Matched maternal–offspring environments allowed offspring to perform better compared to mismatched environments; offspring grown under warming flowered and produced seeds within a growing season only when their maternal plants were previously exposed to warming. Offspring environments influenced its performance and also modulated maternal effects.We suggest that the maternal effects of simulated climate warming and N deposition could vary with home and introduced ranges. Our findings imply that maternal warming could advance the reproductive phenology of offspring.A freePlain Language Summarycan be found within the Supporting Information of this article.