RPG: Evolutionary Ecophysiology of Adaptations to Low Water and Nutrient Availability in Townsendia annua

这项妇女研究计划补助金的目的是收集数据，指导未来对植物物种形成中生理过程的作用的研究。第一个目标是通过估计水分和氮素利用效率与适合度的相关性，测量遗传力和权衡，以及评估表型可塑性和个体发育变异，来探索单一物种--荒漠一年生复合植物--小黄花Townsendia annua对低水氮有效性的生理适应和个体发育变化。这项工作将评估适应的遗传限制，并为以后的生理进化研究奠定基础。植物学家早就认识到，植物的分布受到它们耐受沙漠等压力环境的能力的限制。但这回避了一个问题，即为什么一些植物可以适应，而另一些植物不能。该项目探索向日葵家族中一种沙漠植物的生理适应遗传潜力。

This research Planning Grant for Women is aimed at gathering data that will direct future investigations into the role of physiological processes in plant speciation. The first objective is to explore physiological adaptations to low water and nitrogen availability in a single species, the desert annual composite, Townsendia annua by estimating correlations of water- and nitrogen- use efficiency with fitness, measuring heritabilities and trade- offs, and evaluating phenotypic plasticity and ontogenetic variation for physiological and other adaptations to low resource availability. This work will assess the genetic limitations to adaptations and will set the stage for later studies of physiological evolution. Botanists have long recognized that the distributions of plants are limited by their ability to tolerate stressful environments such as deserts. But this begs the question of why some plants can adapt and others cannot. This project explores the genetic potential for physiological adaptation in a desert plant in the sunflower family.