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

这项研究以一种芥菜植物为模型，测试植物是否能够在变暖的地球上生存。气候变化威胁着世界各地许多生物的生存。脆弱物种必须适应或迁徙以避免灭绝。在应对气候的快速变化时，无法移动的植物等物种将面临特别的挑战。在科罗拉多州野花之都的草地上，自然植物群落正面临着更炎热和更干燥的条件。德拉蒙德的岩芹原产于落基山脉，可以在海拔低至5000英尺，高达12000英尺的地方生长，北至阿拉斯加，南至亚利桑那州。在这个大范围内，气候变化很大，岩芹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。但它们能足够快地适应当前的气候变化速度，以求生存吗？这项研究将大规模的实地研究与实验室实验相结合，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重新安置到更适宜居住的地区，以保护生物多样性。这个项目让高中生、未来的高中教师和本科生研究人员参与科学方法、提高科学素养和职业机会。现场和实验室研究使用生态模式物种B.Structa来检查：(1)气候变化的短期健康后果如何影响种群的迁徙和适应潜力；以及(2)可塑性、适应性和基因流动如何有助于种群的长期持续。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来塑造自然界的适应，分析气候对适应度和最佳表型的直接和间接影响，评估局部适应中的克隆变异，并调查遗传协方差矩阵在多种环境中的稳定性。

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.