Competitors alter selection on alpine plants exposed to experimental climate change

Author:

Nomoto Hanna12,Fior Simone1,Alexander Jake1

Affiliation:

1. Institute of Integrative Biology, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich , Zürich , Switzerland

2. Institute of Biology, Functional ecology laboratory, University of Neuchâtel , Neuchâtel , Switzerland

Abstract

Abstract Investigating how climate change alters selection regimes is a crucial step toward understanding the potential of populations to evolve in the face of changing conditions. Previous studies have mainly focused on understanding how changing climate directly influences selection, while the role of species’ interactions has received little attention. Here, we used a transplant experiment along an elevation gradient to estimate how climate warming and competitive interactions lead to shifts in directional phenotypic selection on morphology and phenology of four alpine plants. We found that warming generally imposed novel selection, with the largest shifts in regimes acting on specific leaf area and flowering time across species. Competitors instead weakened the selection acting on traits that was imposed directly by warming. Weakened or absent selection in the presence of competitors was largely associated with the suppression of absolute means and variation of fitness. Our results suggest that although climate change can impose strong selection, competitive interactions within communities might act to limit selection and thereby stymie evolutionary responses in alpine plants facing climate change.

Funder

European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Subject

Genetics,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Reference96 articles.

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5. The Mechanisms and consequences of interspecific competition among plants;Aschehoug,2016

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