Chen Xincong, Wang Jiayu, Liu Wenwen, Zhang Yihui
Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University Xiamen Fujian China.
Ecol Evol. 2024 Jun 8;14(6):e11549. doi: 10.1002/ece3.11549. eCollection 2024 Jun.
Plant's life history can evolve in response to variation in climate spatio-temporally, but numerous multiple-species studies overlook species-specific (especially a foundation species) ecological effects and genetic underpinnings. For a species to successfully invade a region, likely to become a foundation species, life-history variation of invasive plants exerts considerable ecological and evolutionary impacts on invaded ecosystems. We examined how an invasive foundation plant, , varied in its life history along latitudinal gradient using a common gardens experiment. Two common gardens were located at range boundary in tropical zone and main distribution area of in temperate zone in China. Within each population/garden, we measured the onset time of three successive phenological stages constituting the reproductive phase and a fitness trait. In the low-latitude garden with higher temperature, we found that reproductive phase was advanced and its length prolonged compared to the high-latitude garden. This could possibly due to lower plasticity of maturity time. Additionally, plasticity in the length of the reproductive phase positively related with fitness in the low-latitude garden. Marginal population from tropic had the lowest plasticity and fitness, and the poor capacity to cope with changing environment may result in reduction of this population. These results reflected genetic divergence in life history of in China. Our study provided a novel view to test the center-periphery hypothesis by integration across a plant's life history and highlighted the significance in considering evolution. Such insights can help us to understand long-term ecological consequences of life-history variation, with implications for plant fitness, species interaction, and ecosystem functions under climate change.
植物的生活史可以随着气候的时空变化而进化，但众多的多物种研究忽略了物种特异性（尤其是基础物种）的生态效应和遗传基础。对于一个可能成为基础物种并成功入侵某一地区的物种来说，入侵植物生活史的变化会对入侵生态系统产生相当大的生态和进化影响。我们通过一个共同花园实验，研究了一种入侵性基础植物在沿纬度梯度的生活史中是如何变化的。两个共同花园分别位于中国热带地区的分布范围边界和该植物在温带地区的主要分布区域。在每个种群/花园内，我们测量了构成生殖阶段的三个连续物候阶段的开始时间以及一个适合度性状。在温度较高的低纬度花园中，我们发现与高纬度花园相比，生殖阶段提前且持续时间延长。这可能是由于成熟时间的可塑性较低。此外，在低纬度花园中，生殖阶段长度的可塑性与适合度呈正相关。来自热带的边缘种群可塑性和适合度最低，应对环境变化能力差可能导致该种群数量减少。这些结果反映了该植物在中国生活史中的遗传分化。我们的研究通过整合植物的生活史为检验中心-边缘假说提供了一个新视角，并强调了考虑进化的重要性。这些见解有助于我们理解生活史变化的长期生态后果，以及气候变化下对植物适合度、物种相互作用和生态系统功能的影响。
