CAREER: Evolutionary Consequences of Climate Change: Testing key hypotheses in a montane mustard

这项研究测试了植物是否能够在一个变暖的星球上生存，以一种芥菜植物作为模型。气候变化威胁着世界上许多生物的生存。脆弱的物种必须适应或迁移以避免灭绝。植物等无法移动的物种在应对气候的快速变化时将面临特别的挑战。在野花之都科罗拉多州的草地上，植物的自然群落正面临着炎热和干燥的环境。德拉蒙德的岩菜（Boechera stricta）原产于落基山脉，可以生长在海拔低至5000英尺，高至12000英尺的地方，北至阿拉斯加，南至亚利桑那州。在这个广阔的范围内，气候变化很大，岩菜植物已经发展出适应能力，使它们能够在自己的家乡表现得最好。但是，它们能足够快地适应当前气候变化的速度以生存下来吗？这项研究结合了大规模的实地研究和实验室实验，以询问自然种群是否有足够的遗传多样性来适应短期内快速变化的条件。适应潜力有限的种群或物种可能不得不迁移到更适宜生存的地区，以保护生物多样性。本项目吸引高中生、未来高中教师和本科科研人员参与科学方法，提高科学素养，增加就业机会。野外和实验室研究使用生态模式物种B. stricta来检验：(1)气候变化的短期适应度后果如何影响种群的迁徙和适应潜力；(2)可塑性、适应性和基因流动如何促进更长期的种群持久性。为了实现这些目标，研究人员将评估积雪动态和温度如何相互作用以塑造自然界中的适应性，分析气候对适应度和最佳表型的直接和间接影响，评估局部适应的临床变化，并研究遗传协方差矩阵在多种环境下的稳定性。

This research tests whether plants will be able to survive on a warming planet using a mustard plant species as a model. Climate change threatens the persistence of many organisms worldwide. Vulnerable species must adapt or migrate to avoid extinction. Species such as plants that are unable to move will face particular challenges when coping with rapid changes in climate. In the meadows of the wildflower capital of Colorado, natural communities of plants are confronting hotter and drier conditions. Drummond's rockcress (Boechera stricta) is native to the Rocky Mountains and can grow at elevations as low as 5,000 feet and higher than 12,000 feet in sites as far north as Alaska and as far south as Arizona. The climate varies dramatically across this broad range, and rockcress plants have developed adaptations that enable them to perform best in their home sites. But can they adapt to the current pace of climate change quickly enough to survive? This research combines large-scale field studies with laboratory experiments to ask whether natural populations have enough genetic diversity to adapt in the short-term to rapidly changing conditions. Populations or species with limited adaptive potential may have to be relocated to more hospitable areas to conserve biodiversity. This project engages high school students, future high school teachers, and undergraduate researchers in the scientific method, increasing scientific literacy, and career opportunities.Field and laboratory studies use the ecological model species B. stricta to examine: (1) how short-term fitness consequences of climate change influence the migratory and adaptive potential of populations; and (2) how plasticity, adaptation, and gene flow contribute to longer-term population persistence. To achieve these aims, researchers will evaluate how snow pack dynamics and temperatures interact to shape adaptation in nature, analyze the direct and indirect effects of climate on fitness and optimal phenotypes, assess clinal variation in local adaptation, and investigate the stability of the genetic covariance matrix in multiple environments.