Denney Derek A, Jameel M Inam, Bemmels Jordan B, Rochford Mia E, Anderson Jill T
Department of Plant Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
AoB Plants. 2020 Feb 18;12(2):plaa005. doi: 10.1093/aobpla/plaa005. eCollection 2020 Apr.
Individuals within natural populations can experience very different abiotic and biotic conditions across small spatial scales owing to microtopography and other micro-environmental gradients. Ecological and evolutionary studies often ignore the effects of micro-environment on plant population and community dynamics. Here, we explore the extent to which fine-grained variation in abiotic and biotic conditions contributes to within-population variation in trait expression and genetic diversity in natural plant populations. Furthermore, we consider whether benign microhabitats could buffer local populations of some plant species from abiotic stresses imposed by rapid anthropogenic climate change. If microrefugia sustain local populations and communities in the short term, other eco-evolutionary processes, such as gene flow and adaptation, could enhance population stability in the longer term. We caution, however, that local populations may still decline in size as they contract into rare microhabitats and microrefugia. We encourage future research that explicitly examines the role of the micro-environment in maintaining genetic variation within local populations, favouring the evolution of phenotypic plasticity at local scales and enhancing population persistence under global change.
由于微地形和其他微环境梯度，自然种群中的个体在小空间尺度上可能会经历非常不同的非生物和生物条件。生态和进化研究通常忽略了微环境对植物种群和群落动态的影响。在这里，我们探讨非生物和生物条件的细粒度变化在多大程度上导致了天然植物种群中性状表达和遗传多样性的种群内变异。此外，我们考虑良性微生境是否可以缓冲某些植物物种的局部种群免受快速人为气候变化造成的非生物胁迫。如果微避难所在短期内维持局部种群和群落，那么其他生态进化过程，如基因流动和适应，可能会在长期内增强种群稳定性。然而，我们提醒，随着局部种群收缩到稀有的微生境和微避难所中，其规模仍可能下降。我们鼓励未来的研究明确考察微环境在维持局部种群内遗传变异、促进局部尺度表型可塑性进化以及增强全球变化下种群持久性方面的作用。
