Selection on Integrated Physiological Traits and Growth in Annual Plants

资源水平高的植物通常是快速生长和快速消耗资源的植物，而资源水平低的植物是缓慢生长的植物，保守地、有效地利用资源。在提出的一系列研究中，我们将确定从养分和水（植物的地下资源）到光（地上资源）等资源的这种一般模式的适用程度。我们的实验将试图解决一些关于低资源和高资源适应的一般模式的棘手问题：上述关系是由环境引起的，还是有遗传基础？什么样的遗传权衡阻碍了同时适应低资源和高资源？（也就是说，为什么植物不能既高效又快速生长呢？）最后，我们能否证明自然选择对自然环境中与资源利用、资源获取和生长相关的性状起作用？研究结果将直接关系到人类对自然植物种群的影响，因为人类引起的环境扰动经常直接或间接地影响资源的可用性。此外，我们的研究旨在提高对野生植物种群自然选择机制的理解，从而将植物生理生态学和植物种群生物学这两个在过去三十年中基本上孤立发展的领域联系起来。//

Plants from high resource levels are typically fast-growers and rapid consumers of resources, while plants from low resource levels are slow-growers with conservative, efficient use of resources. In the proposed set of studies we will be determining the degree to which this general pattern holds for resources ranging from nutrients and water (below ground resources for plants) to light (an above ground resource). Our experiments will attempt to resolve some knotty questions about the general pattern of adaptation to low and high resources: Are the relationships described above caused by the environment, or is there a genetic basis to them? What genetic tradeoffs prevent simultaneous adaptation to both low and high resources? (i.e., why shouldn't a plant be both efficient and rapidly-growing?) Finally, can we demonstrate that natural selection acts on traits relevant to resource use, resource acquisition and growth in natural environments? The results of this research will have direct relevance to the impacts of humans on natural plant populations because the environmental perturbations caused by humans often directly or indirectly affect resource availability. In addition, our research is directed toward improving the mechanistic understanding of natural selection in wild plant populations, thus linking plant physiological ecology to plant population biology, two fields which have developed largely in isolation over the past three decades.//