Hallfors, Maria and Lehvävirta, Susanna and Aandahl, Tone and Lehtimaki, Iida-Maria and Nilsson, Lars Ola and Ruotsalainen, Anna and Schulman, Leif E. and Hyvarinen, Marko T.
(2020).
Translocation of an arctic seashore plant reveals signs of maladaptation to altered climatic conditions.
PeerJ. 8
, e10357
[Research article]
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Abstract
Ongoing anthropogenic climate change alters the local climatic conditions to which species may be adapted. Information on species' climatic requirements and their intraspecific variation is necessary for predicting the effects of climate change on biodiversity. We used a climatic gradient to test whether populations of two allopatric varieties of an arctic seashore herb (Primula nutans ssp.finmarchica) show adaptation to their local climates and how a future warmer climate may affect them. Our experimental set-up combined a reciprocal translocation within the distribution range of the species with an experiment testing the performance of the sampled populations in warmer climatic conditions south of their range. We monitored survival, size, and flowering over four growing seasons as measures of performance and, thus, proxies of fitness. We found that both varieties performed better in experimental gardens towards the north. Interestingly, highest up in the north, the southern variety outperformed the northern one. Supported by weather data, this suggests that the climatic optima of both varieties have moved at least partly outside their current range. Further warming would make the current environments of both varieties even less suitable. We conclude that Primula nutans ssp. finmarchica is already suffering from adaptational lag due to climate change, and that further warming may increase this maladaptation, especially for the northern variety. The study also highlights that it is not sufficient to run only reciprocal translocation experiments. Climate change is already shifting the optimum conditions for many species and adaptation needs also to be tested outside the current range of the focal taxon in order to include both historic conditions and future conditions.
Authors/Creators: | Hallfors, Maria and Lehvävirta, Susanna and Aandahl, Tone and Lehtimaki, Iida-Maria and Nilsson, Lars Ola and Ruotsalainen, Anna and Schulman, Leif E. and Hyvarinen, Marko T. | ||||||
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Title: | Translocation of an arctic seashore plant reveals signs of maladaptation to altered climatic conditions | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | PeerJ | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||||
Volume: | 8 | ||||||
Article number: | e10357 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 27 | ||||||
Publisher: | PEERJ INC | ||||||
ISSN: | 2167-8359 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Ecology | ||||||
Keywords: | Botanic garden, Conservation, Global change, Local adaptation, Siberian primrose, Threatened species, Transplant experiment | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-109394 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-109394 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 19781 | ||||||
Faculty: | LTV - Fakulteten för landskapsarkitektur, trädgårds- och växtproduktionsvetenskap | ||||||
Department: | (LTJ, LTV) > Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 28 Dec 2020 12:03 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 15 Jan 2021 19:22 |
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