Patterns of root intraspecific trait variability

根种内性状变异模式

• 批准号: 378189215
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Matthias C. Rillig, Ph.D.
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Arbeitsgruppe Ökologie der Pflanzen
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/378189215?language=en
• 关键词: Patterns; root; intraspecific; trait; variability

Plant trait-based approaches are becoming increasingly important in ecological research. During the last years, scientists have begun to also consider intraspecific trait variability (ITV) when working with trait-based approaches. ITV consists of genetic variation within the species or population and phenotypic plasticity along environmental gradients. Nevertheless, the relative impact of these two factors to total ITV has to our knowledge never been studied in detail. Another scarcity of plant trait based research is the lack of root traits. Especially when studying soil ecological effects on plant, community or ecosystem performance roots are promising to hold more direct information than traditionally measured aboveground traits. Our aim is to study intraspecific root trait variability and its components in an experimental setup ranging from a highly mechanistic approach in climate chambers to field sampling in a natural grassland with strong small scale soil environmental gradients. We will investigate root ITV in one grass species (Arrhenatherum elatius P.BEAUV) and one forb species (Achillea millefolium L) from the natural reserve Mallnow (Brandenburg, Germany). We will mimic several soil environmental factors including drought, pH, nutrient deficiency and soil structure with varying levels (in agar) and measure root trait expression on different clones cultivated from seeds of the same population. This will give us information about root trait expression under different soil environmental conditions and allow us to quantify both genetic variation as well as phenotypic plasticity within a natural population. Furthermore we will experimentally combine soil environmental factors to study interactive effects on root trait expression. In a field experiment we will sample soil factors and trait expression of the target population in the natural context. Genotyping of the experimental clones as well as the plants sampled in the field will allow us to combine our knowledge on individual phenotypic plasticity with occurrence in the natural ecosystem. This approach will enable us to draw conclusions about the relative amount of genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity on total ITV found under different levels of environmental stress in the field. We aim to incorporate our findings into the framework of ecological niche theory by calculating trait hypervolumes and modeling the effects of ITV and its components. This project will contribute to the ongoing process of better understanding the importance of ITV and support the incorporation of root traits into trait-based ecology.

基于植物性状的方法在生态研究中变得越来越重要。在过去几年中，科学家在使用基于性状的方法时也开始考虑种内性状变异（ITV）。 ITV 由物种或种群内的遗传变异以及沿环境梯度的表型可塑性组成。然而，据我们所知，这两个因素对 ITV 总量的相对影响从未被详细研究过。基于植物性状的研究的另一个不足是缺乏根性状。特别是在研究土壤生态对植物、群落或生态系统性能的影响时，根有望比传统测量的地上性状持有更直接的信息。我们的目标是在实验装置中研究种内根性状变异及其组成部分，从气候室中的高度机械方法到具有强大小规模土壤环境梯度的天然草地的现场采样。我们将调查马尔诺自然保护区（德国勃兰登堡）的一种禾本科植物 (Arrhenatherum elatius P.BEAUV) 和一种禾本科植物 (Achillea millefolium L) 的根 ITV。我们将模拟多种土壤环境因素，包括干旱、pH、养分缺乏和不同水平的土壤结构（在琼脂中），并测量从同一群体的种子培育的不同克隆的根性状表达。这将为我们提供有关不同土壤环境条件下根性状表达的信息，并使我们能够量化自然群体内的遗传变异和表型可塑性。此外，我们将通过实验结合土壤环境因素来研究对根系性状表达的交互影响。在现场实验中，我们将对自然环境中目标人群的土壤因素和性状表达进行采样。对实验克隆以及现场采样的植物进行基因分型将使我们能够将个体表型可塑性的知识与自然生态系统中的发生结合起来。这种方法将使我们能够得出关于在该领域不同水平的环境胁迫下发现的总 ITV 的遗传变异和表型可塑性的相对量的结论。我们的目标是通过计算性状超体积并对 ITV 及其组成部分的影响进行建模，将我们的发现纳入生态位理论的框架中。该项目将有助于更好地理解 ITV 的重要性，并支持将根性状纳入基于性状的生态学。