Ravenscroft Catherine H, Whitlock Raj, Fridley Jason D
Department of Biology, Syracuse University, 107 College Place, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, The Biosciences Building, Crown Street, Liverpool, L69 7ZB, UK.
Glob Chang Biol. 2015 Nov;21(11):4165-76. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12966. Epub 2015 Aug 27.
Genetic diversity may play an important role in allowing individual species to resist climate change, by permitting evolutionary responses. Our understanding of the potential for such responses to climate change remains limited, and very few experimental tests have been carried out within intact ecosystems. Here, we use amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) data to assess genetic divergence and test for signatures of evolutionary change driven by long-term simulated climate change applied to natural grassland at Buxton Climate Change Impacts Laboratory (BCCIL). Experimental climate treatments were applied to grassland plots for 15 years using a replicated and spatially blocked design and included warming, drought and precipitation treatments. We detected significant genetic differentiation between climate change treatments and control plots in two coexisting perennial plant study species (Festuca ovina and Plantago lanceolata). Outlier analyses revealed a consistent signature of selection associated with experimental climate treatments at individual AFLP loci in P. lanceolata, but not in F. ovina. Average background differentiation at putatively neutral AFLP loci was close to zero, and genomewide genetic structure was associated neither with species abundance changes (demography) nor with plant community-level responses to long-term climate treatments. Our results demonstrate genetic divergence in response to a suite of climatic environments in reproductively mature populations of two perennial plant species and are consistent with an evolutionary response to climatic selection in P. lanceolata. These genetic changes have occurred in parallel with impacts on plant community structure and may have contributed to the persistence of individual species through 15 years of simulated climate change at BCCIL.
遗传多样性可能通过允许进化反应，在使单个物种抵御气候变化方面发挥重要作用。我们对这种应对气候变化的潜力的理解仍然有限，而且在完整的生态系统中进行的实验测试非常少。在这里，我们使用扩增片段长度多态性（AFLP）数据来评估遗传分化，并测试由应用于巴克斯顿气候变化影响实验室（BCCIL）天然草地的长期模拟气候变化所驱动的进化变化特征。使用重复和空间区组设计对草地地块进行了15年的实验气候处理，包括变暖、干旱和降水处理。我们在两种共存的多年生植物研究物种（羊茅和披针叶车前）中检测到气候变化处理地块与对照地块之间存在显著的遗传分化。离群分析显示，在披针叶车前的单个AFLP位点上，存在与实验气候处理相关的一致选择特征，但在羊茅中没有。假定为中性的AFLP位点的平均背景分化接近零，全基因组遗传结构既与物种丰度变化（种群统计学）无关，也与植物群落对长期气候处理的反应无关。我们的结果表明，两种多年生植物物种的生殖成熟种群对一系列气候环境产生了遗传分化，并且与披针叶车前对气候选择的进化反应一致。这些遗传变化与对植物群落结构的影响同时发生，可能有助于在BCCIL通过15年的模拟气候变化使单个物种得以持续存在。
