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Rosenblad KC, Ackerly DD. Climatic variation allows montane willows to escape an adaptive trade-off. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2024; 244:265-276. [PMID: 39101300 DOI: 10.1111/nph.20028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2024] [Accepted: 07/12/2024] [Indexed: 08/06/2024]
Abstract
Adaptive responses to climate change, based on heritable variation in stress tolerance, may be important for plant population persistence. It is unclear which populations will mount the strongest future adaptive responses. It may be fruitful to identify populations that have escaped trade-offs among performance traits, which can hinder adaptation. Barring strong genetic constraints, the extent of trade-offs may depend on spatial relationships among climate variables shaping different traits. Here, we test for climate-driven ecotypic variation and trade-offs among drought and freezing sensitivity, and growth, for Lemmon's willow (Salix lemmonii) in a common garden study of 90 genotypes from 38 sites in the Sierra Nevada, USA. Salix lemmonii exhibits ecotypic variation in leaf turgor loss point, a measure of drought sensitivity, from -0.95 to -0.74 MPa along a gradient of spring snowpack. We also find variation in spring freezing sensitivity with minimum May temperature. However, we find no trade-off, as the climatic gradients shaping these traits are spatially uncorrelated in our study region, despite being negatively correlated across the Sierra Nevada. Species may escape adaptive trade-offs in geographic regions where climate variables are spatially decoupled. These regions may represent valuable reservoirs of heritable adaptive phenotypic variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyle C Rosenblad
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - David D Ackerly
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
- Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
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2
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Evans MEK, Dey SMN, Heilman KA, Tipton JR, DeRose RJ, Klesse S, Schultz EL, Shaw JD. Tree rings reveal the transient risk of extinction hidden inside climate envelope forecasts. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2315700121. [PMID: 38830099 PMCID: PMC11181036 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2315700121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2023] [Accepted: 04/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Given the importance of climate in shaping species' geographic distributions, climate change poses an existential threat to biodiversity. Climate envelope modeling, the predominant approach used to quantify this threat, presumes that individuals in populations respond to climate variability and change according to species-level responses inferred from spatial occurrence data-such that individuals at the cool edge of a species' distribution should benefit from warming (the "leading edge"), whereas individuals at the warm edge should suffer (the "trailing edge"). Using 1,558 tree-ring time series of an aridland pine (Pinus edulis) collected at 977 locations across the species' distribution, we found that trees everywhere grow less in warmer-than-average and drier-than-average years. Ubiquitous negative temperature sensitivity indicates that individuals across the entire distribution should suffer with warming-the entire distribution is a trailing edge. Species-level responses to spatial climate variation are opposite in sign to individual-scale responses to time-varying climate for approximately half the species' distribution with respect to temperature and the majority of the species' distribution with respect to precipitation. These findings, added to evidence from the literature for scale-dependent climate responses in hundreds of species, suggest that correlative, equilibrium-based range forecasts may fail to accurately represent how individuals in populations will be impacted by changing climate. A scale-dependent view of the impact of climate change on biodiversity highlights the transient risk of extinction hidden inside climate envelope forecasts and the importance of evolution in rescuing species from extinction whenever local climate variability and change exceeds individual-scale climate tolerances.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sharmila M. N. Dey
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02138
| | - Kelly A. Heilman
- Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721
| | - John R. Tipton
- Statistical Sciences Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM87545
| | - R. Justin DeRose
- Department of Wildland Resources and Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT84322
| | - Stefan Klesse
- Forest Dynamics, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research WSL, BirmensdorfCH-8903, Switzerland
| | - Emily L. Schultz
- Department of Biology, Colorado Mountain College, Breckenridge, CO80424
| | - John D. Shaw
- Riverdale Forestry Sciences Lab, Rocky Mountain Research Station, US Forest Service, Riverdale, UT84405
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3
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Chen J, Chen X, Qian L, Zhang Y, Li B, Shi H, Sun L, Schöb C, Sun H. Degeneration of foundation cushion species induced by ecological constraints can cause massive changes in alpine plant communities. SCIENCE CHINA. LIFE SCIENCES 2024; 67:789-802. [PMID: 38057621 DOI: 10.1007/s11427-022-2383-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2023] [Accepted: 06/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
Foundational cushion plants can re-organize community structures and sustain a prominent proportion of alpine biodiversity, but they are sensitive to climate change. The loss of cushion species can have broad consequences for associated biota. The potential plant community changes with the population dynamics of cushion plants remain, however, unclear. Using eight plant communities along a climatic and community successional gradient, we assessed cushion population dynamics, the underlying ecological constraints and hence associated plant community changes in alpine communities dominated by the foundational cushion plant Arenaria polytrichoides. The population dynamics of Arenaria are attributed to ecological constraints at a series of life history stages. Reproductive functions are constrained by increasing associated beneficiary plants; subsequent seedling establishment is constrained by temperature, water and light availability, extreme climate events, and interspecific competition; strong competitive exclusion may accelerate mortality and degeneration of cushion populations. Along with cushion dynamics, species composition, abundance and community structure gradually change. Once cushion plants completely degenerate, previously cushion-dominated communities shift to relatively stable communities that are overwhelmingly dominated by sedges. Climate warming may accelerate the degeneration process of A. polytrichoides. Degeneration of this foundational cushion plant will possibly induce massive changes in alpine plant communities and hence ecosystem functions in alpine ecosystems. The assessment of the population dynamics of foundation species is critical for an effective conservation of alpine biodiversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianguo Chen
- Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Xufang Chen
- Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Lishen Qian
- Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Yazhou Zhang
- Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Bo Li
- College of Resources and Environment, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650500, China
| | - Honghua Shi
- Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Lu Sun
- Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Christian Schöb
- Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles, 28933, Spain.
| | - Hang Sun
- Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China.
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4
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Perret DL, Evans MEK, Sax DF. A species' response to spatial climatic variation does not predict its response to climate change. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2304404120. [PMID: 38109562 PMCID: PMC10769845 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2304404120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 10/23/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The dominant paradigm for assessing ecological responses to climate change assumes that future states of individuals and populations can be predicted by current, species-wide performance variation across spatial climatic gradients. However, if the fates of ecological systems are better predicted by past responses to in situ climatic variation through time, this current analytical paradigm may be severely misleading. Empirically testing whether spatial or temporal climate responses better predict how species respond to climate change has been elusive, largely due to restrictive data requirements. Here, we leverage a newly collected network of ponderosa pine tree-ring time series to test whether statistically inferred responses to spatial versus temporal climatic variation better predict how trees have responded to recent climate change. When compared to observed tree growth responses to climate change since 1980, predictions derived from spatial climatic variation were wrong in both magnitude and direction. This was not the case for predictions derived from climatic variation through time, which were able to replicate observed responses well. Future climate scenarios through the end of the 21st century exacerbated these disparities. These results suggest that the currently dominant paradigm of forecasting the ecological impacts of climate change based on spatial climatic variation may be severely misleading over decadal to centennial timescales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel L. Perret
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI02912
| | | | - Dov F. Sax
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI02912
- Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University, Providence, RI02912
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5
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Martínez-Vilalta J, García-Valdés R, Jump A, Vilà-Cabrera A, Mencuccini M. Accounting for trait variability and coordination in predictions of drought-induced range shifts in woody plants. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2023; 240:23-40. [PMID: 37501525 DOI: 10.1111/nph.19138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/29/2023]
Abstract
Functional traits offer a promising avenue to improve predictions of species range shifts under climate change, which will entail warmer and often drier conditions. Although the conceptual foundation linking traits with plant performance and range shifts appears solid, the predictive ability of individual traits remains generally low. In this review, we address this apparent paradox, emphasizing examples of woody plants and traits associated with drought responses at the species' rear edge. Low predictive ability reflects the fact not only that range dynamics tend to be complex and multifactorial, as well as uncertainty in the identification of relevant traits and limited data availability, but also that trait effects are scale- and context-dependent. The latter results from the complex interactions among traits (e.g. compensatory effects) and between them and the environment (e.g. exposure), which ultimately determine persistence and colonization capacity. To confront this complexity, a more balanced coverage of the main functional dimensions involved (stress tolerance, resource use, regeneration and dispersal) is needed, and modelling approaches must be developed that explicitly account for: trait coordination in a hierarchical context; trait variability in space and time and its relationship with exposure; and the effect of biotic interactions in an ecological community context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordi Martínez-Vilalta
- CREAF, E08193, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E08193, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain
| | - Raúl García-Valdés
- CREAF, E08193, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain
- Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), E25280, Solsona, Spain
- Department of Biology, Geology, Physics and Inorganic Chemistry, School of Experimental Sciences and Technology, Rey Juan Carlos University, E28933, Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
| | - Alistair Jump
- Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA, Stirling, UK
| | - Albert Vilà-Cabrera
- CREAF, E08193, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain
- Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA, Stirling, UK
| | - Maurizio Mencuccini
- CREAF, E08193, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain
- ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, E08010, Barcelona, Spain
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6
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Usui T, Lerner D, Eckert I, Angert AL, Garroway CJ, Hargreaves A, Lancaster LT, Lessard JP, Riva F, Schmidt C, van der Burg K, Marshall KE. The evolution of plasticity at geographic range edges. Trends Ecol Evol 2023; 38:831-842. [PMID: 37183152 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2022] [Revised: 04/05/2023] [Accepted: 04/12/2023] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Phenotypic plasticity enables rapid responses to environmental change, and could facilitate range shifts in response to climate change. What drives the evolution of plasticity at range edges, and the capacity of range-edge individuals to be plastic, remain unclear. Here, we propose that accurately predicting when plasticity itself evolves or mediates adaptive evolution at expanding range edges requires integrating knowledge on the demography and evolution of edge populations. Our synthesis shows that: (i) the demography of edge populations can amplify or attenuate responses to selection for plasticity through diverse pathways, and (ii) demographic effects on plasticity are modified by the stability of range edges. Our spatially explicit synthesis for plasticity has the potential to improve predictions for range shifts with climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takuji Usui
- Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
| | - David Lerner
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
| | - Isaac Eckert
- Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Amy L Angert
- Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Colin J Garroway
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
| | - Anna Hargreaves
- Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | | | | | - Federico Riva
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Chloé Schmidt
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Karin van der Burg
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
| | - Katie E Marshall
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
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7
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Lyu S, Alexander JM. Compensatory responses of vital rates attenuate impacts of competition on population growth and promote coexistence. Ecol Lett 2023; 26:437-447. [PMID: 36708049 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14167] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2022] [Revised: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Competition is among the most important factors regulating plant population and community dynamics, but we know little about how different vital rates respond to competition and jointly determine population growth and species coexistence. We conducted a field experiment and parameterised integral projection models to model the population growth of 14 herbaceous plant species in the absence and presence of neighbours across an elevation gradient (284 interspecific pairs). We found that suppressed individual growth and seedling establishment contributed the most to competition-induced declines in population growth, although vital rate contributions varied greatly between species and with elevation. In contrast, size-specific survival and flowering probability and seed production were frequently enhanced under competition. These compensatory vital rate responses were nearly ubiquitous (occurred in 92% of species pairs) and significantly reduced niche overlap and stabilised coexistence. Our study highlights the importance of demographic processes for regulating population and community dynamics, which has often been neglected by classic coexistence theories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shengman Lyu
- Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Jake M Alexander
- Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
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8
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Yang X, Angert AL, Zuidema PA, He F, Huang S, Li S, Li SL, Chardon NI, Zhang J. The role of demographic compensation in stabilising marginal tree populations in North America. Ecol Lett 2022; 25:1676-1689. [PMID: 35598109 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2022] [Revised: 02/22/2022] [Accepted: 04/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Demographic compensation-the opposing responses of vital rates along environmental gradients-potentially delays anticipated species' range contraction under climate change, but no consensus exists on its actual contribution. We calculated population growth rate (λ) and demographic compensation across the distributional ranges of 81 North American tree species and examined their responses to simulated warming and tree competition. We found that 43% of species showed stable population size at both northern and southern edges. Demographic compensation was detected in 25 species, yet 15 of them still showed a potential retraction from southern edges, indicating that compensation alone cannot maintain range stability. Simulated climatic warming caused larger decreases in λ for most species and weakened the effectiveness of demographic compensation in stabilising ranges. These findings suggest that climate stress may surpass the limited capacity of demographic compensation and pose a threat to the viability of North American tree populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xianyu Yang
- Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Research Center of Global Change and Complex Ecosystems, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, P. R. China.,Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai, P.R. China.,Biodiversity Research Centre and Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Amy L Angert
- Biodiversity Research Centre and Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Pieter A Zuidema
- Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Fangliang He
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
| | - Shongming Huang
- Government of Alberta, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Economic Development, Edmonton, Canada
| | - Shouzhong Li
- Key Laboratory for Subtropical Mountain Ecology, Ministry of Science and Technology and Fujian Province Funded, School of Geographical Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, P. R. China
| | - Shou-Li Li
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, and College of Pastoral, Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, P. R. China
| | - Nathalie I Chardon
- Biodiversity Research Centre and Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Jian Zhang
- Zhejiang Tiantong Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Research Center of Global Change and Complex Ecosystems, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, P. R. China.,Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai, P.R. China
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