Evolutionary resistance: Does adaptation stabilise plant community structure and function under climate change?

进化阻力：气候变化下的适应能否稳定植物群落的结构和功能？

• 批准号: NE/R011451/1
• 负责人: Raj Whitlock
• 金额: $ 82.55万
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FR011451%2F1
• 关键词: Evolutionary; resistance; Does; adaptation; stabilise

Globally, we depend on grasslands to support biodiversity and agricultural productivity, offer recreational areas, and provide a wide range of other valuable ecosystem services. For example, the UK dairy industry, which is worth ~£4.27 billion per year, depends entirely on grasslands. At the same time, grasslands are among the most altered and least protected ecosystems, and they are now being to the imminent effects of climate change: warming, drought, flooding.Grassland organisms may ultimately cope with climate change by adapting, via evolution, where environmental change selects for individuals of a species that have advantageous characteristics (specific 'phenotypes'). This adaptive response stems from both changes in phenotype, and changes in the way organisms express their characteristics in a new environment (called 'phenotypic plasticity). Both aspects increase the likelihood that organisms will thrive in the new environment. Both of these components of evolution can buffer populations against the adverse effects of climate change. However, we do not know how evolutionary change will alter communities of coexisting species or the important ecosystem processes that underpin the important benefits of grasslands to our society. This study focuses on species-rich grasslands, which have a high conservation value, and are an iconic feature of UK landscapes. They can contain more than 40 plant species per square metre and any of these coexisting species may evolve when exposed to climate change. Nobody knows how these adaptive changes in component species could influence grassland plant communities and the ecosystem as a whole, and whether they will allow grasslands to remain relatively unchanged ("resistant") during climate change. This is because, to date, most scientists have studied climate-driven evolution in single isolated species, which does not allow us to assess how adaptation could influence interactions among co-existing species. Our research will address this by studying climate-driven evolutionary change in plant communities in a natural grassland. For over two decades, we have exposed a species-rich grassland near Buxton, UK, to simulated climate change (warming, increased rainfall, and drought). Our research has shown very little change in the diversity and abundance of grassland plant species subjected to different climate treatments, meaning that the plant community is resistant to change. However, we have also shown that some of the plant species are adapting to the climate treatments, raising the possibility that evolution itself is the source of resistance to climate change and could explain the stability of the plant community in this species-rich grassland. Building on our previous work, our overarching goal is to use the Buxton climate experiment as a model to understand how evolutionary changes allow grassland plants to resist climate change at the community and ecosystem levels. In doing so, we aim to determine how species diversity contributes to the services that grasslands provide, and to better understand (and predict) threats to grasslands under climate change. We have designed a set of experiments to examine how evolutionary adaptation to climate changes in individual plants influences the stability of plant communities and important ecosystem processes. Over three years, we will measure i) the strength and direction of evolution in 16 coexisting plant species, ii) use mathematical modelling to predict climate impacts on grasslands and iii) test for these impacts using targeted experiments at Buxton. This will involve constructing model ecosystems, and measuring species responses, plant phenotypes, and ecosystem processes in the climate treatments. Our research will provide a unique, evolutionary view of how plants, and their phenotypes, contribute to the stability of grasslands and ecosystem processes during climate change.

在全球范围内，我们依靠草原来支持生物多样性和农业生产力，提供休闲场所，并提供广泛的其他有价值的生态系统服务。例如，每年价值约 42.7 亿英镑的英国乳制品业完全依赖草原。与此同时，草原是变化最严重、保护最少的生态系统之一，它们现在正面临气候变化的迫在眉睫的影响：变暖、干旱、洪水。草原生物最终可能通过进化来适应气候变化，其中环境变化选择对于具有有利特征（特定“表型”）的物种个体，这种适应性反应源于表型的变化以及生物体在新环境中表达其特征的方式的变化（称为“表型可塑性”）。生物体在新环境中繁衍生息的可能性可以缓冲种群免受气候变化的不利影响。然而，我们不知道进化变化将如何改变共存物种的群落或支撑生态系统的重要生态系统过程。草原给我们的社会带来的重要利益。这项研究的重点是物种丰富的草原，这些草原具有很高的保护价值，是英国景观的标志性特征，每平方米可以容纳 40 多种植物物种，并且这些共存物种中的任何一个都可能在暴露于气候变化时进化。没有人知道组成物种的这些适应性变化如何影响草原植物群落和整个生态系统，以及相对而言它们是否会让草原在气候变化期间保持不变（“抵抗”）。这是因为，迄今为止，大多数科学家都知道。研究了单个孤立物种的气候驱动进化，这不允许我们评估适应如何影响共存物种之间的相互作用，我们的研究将通过研究天然草原中气候驱动的植物群落的进化变化来解决这个问题。我们的研究表明，经过不同气候处理的草原植物物种的多样性和丰度几乎没有变化，这意味着植物群落具有抵抗力。然而，我们也表明了一些变化。的植物物种正在适应气候处理，这提高了进化本身是抵抗气候变化的根源的可能性，并可以解释这片物种丰富的草原上植物群落的稳定性。是使用巴克斯顿气候实验作为模型来了解进化变化如何使草原植物在群落和生态系统层面抵抗气候变化。在此过程中，我们的目标是确定物种多样性如何有助于草原提供的服务。更好地理解（和预测）威胁我们设计了一系列实验来研究个体植物对气候变化的进化适应如何影响植物群落和重要生态系统过程的稳定性，我们将在三年内测量i）进化的强度和方向。 16 种共存的植物物种，ii) 使用数学模型来预测气候对草原的影响，以及 iii) 使用巴克斯顿的有针对性的实验来测试这些影响这将涉及构建模型生态系统，并测量气候中的物种反应、植物表型和生态系统过程。我们的研究将。提供了关于植物及其表型如何在气候变化期间促进草原和生态系统过程的稳定性的独特的进化观点。

项目成果

Global environmental changes more frequently offset than intensify detrimental effects of biological invasions.

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2117389119
• 发表时间: 2022-05-31
• 期刊: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• 影响因子: 11.1

Adaptation to chronic drought modifies soil microbial community responses to phytohormones.

• DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-02037-w
• 发表时间: 2021-05-03
• 期刊: Communications biology
• 影响因子: 5.9
• 作者: Sayer EJ;Crawford JA;Edgerley J;Askew AP;Hahn CZ;Whitlock R;Dodd IC
• 通讯作者: Dodd IC