Evolutionary resistance: Does adaptation stabilise plant community structure and function under climate change?

进化阻力：气候变化下的适应能否稳定植物群落的结构和功能？

• 批准号: NE/R011451/1
• 负责人: Raj Whitlock
• 金额: $ 82.55万
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FR011451%2F1
• 关键词: Evolutionary; resistance; Does; adaptation; stabilise

Globally, we depend on grasslands to support biodiversity and agricultural productivity, offer recreational areas, and provide a wide range of other valuable ecosystem services. For example, the UK dairy industry, which is worth ~£4.27 billion per year, depends entirely on grasslands. At the same time, grasslands are among the most altered and least protected ecosystems, and they are now being to the imminent effects of climate change: warming, drought, flooding.Grassland organisms may ultimately cope with climate change by adapting, via evolution, where environmental change selects for individuals of a species that have advantageous characteristics (specific 'phenotypes'). This adaptive response stems from both changes in phenotype, and changes in the way organisms express their characteristics in a new environment (called 'phenotypic plasticity). Both aspects increase the likelihood that organisms will thrive in the new environment. Both of these components of evolution can buffer populations against the adverse effects of climate change. However, we do not know how evolutionary change will alter communities of coexisting species or the important ecosystem processes that underpin the important benefits of grasslands to our society. This study focuses on species-rich grasslands, which have a high conservation value, and are an iconic feature of UK landscapes. They can contain more than 40 plant species per square metre and any of these coexisting species may evolve when exposed to climate change. Nobody knows how these adaptive changes in component species could influence grassland plant communities and the ecosystem as a whole, and whether they will allow grasslands to remain relatively unchanged ("resistant") during climate change. This is because, to date, most scientists have studied climate-driven evolution in single isolated species, which does not allow us to assess how adaptation could influence interactions among co-existing species. Our research will address this by studying climate-driven evolutionary change in plant communities in a natural grassland. For over two decades, we have exposed a species-rich grassland near Buxton, UK, to simulated climate change (warming, increased rainfall, and drought). Our research has shown very little change in the diversity and abundance of grassland plant species subjected to different climate treatments, meaning that the plant community is resistant to change. However, we have also shown that some of the plant species are adapting to the climate treatments, raising the possibility that evolution itself is the source of resistance to climate change and could explain the stability of the plant community in this species-rich grassland. Building on our previous work, our overarching goal is to use the Buxton climate experiment as a model to understand how evolutionary changes allow grassland plants to resist climate change at the community and ecosystem levels. In doing so, we aim to determine how species diversity contributes to the services that grasslands provide, and to better understand (and predict) threats to grasslands under climate change. We have designed a set of experiments to examine how evolutionary adaptation to climate changes in individual plants influences the stability of plant communities and important ecosystem processes. Over three years, we will measure i) the strength and direction of evolution in 16 coexisting plant species, ii) use mathematical modelling to predict climate impacts on grasslands and iii) test for these impacts using targeted experiments at Buxton. This will involve constructing model ecosystems, and measuring species responses, plant phenotypes, and ecosystem processes in the climate treatments. Our research will provide a unique, evolutionary view of how plants, and their phenotypes, contribute to the stability of grasslands and ecosystem processes during climate change.

在全球范围内，我们依赖草原来支持生物多样性和农业生产力，提供休闲场所，并提供广泛的其他宝贵的生态系统服务。例如，每年价值约42.7亿英镑的英国乳制品行业完全依赖草原。与此同时，草原是变化最大、保护最少的生态系统之一，它们现在正受到气候变化的迫在眉睫的影响：变暖、干旱、洪水。草原生物最终可能通过进化来科普气候变化，环境变化选择具有优势特征（特定“表型”）的物种个体。这种适应性反应源于表型的变化，以及生物体在新环境中表达其特征的方式的变化（称为“表型可塑性”）。这两个方面都增加了生物体在新环境中茁壮成长的可能性。进化的这两个组成部分都可以缓冲人口对气候变化的不利影响。然而，我们不知道进化变化将如何改变共存物种的群落或重要的生态系统过程，这些过程是草原对我们社会的重要利益的基础。这项研究的重点是物种丰富的草原，具有很高的保护价值，是英国景观的标志性特征。它们每平方米可包含40多个植物物种，这些共存物种中的任何一个都可能在暴露于气候变化时进化。没有人知道组成物种的这些适应性变化如何影响草原植物群落和整个生态系统，以及它们是否会使草原在气候变化期间保持相对不变（“抵抗”）。这是因为，到目前为止，大多数科学家都在研究单个孤立物种的气候驱动进化，这使得我们无法评估适应如何影响共存物种之间的相互作用。我们的研究将通过研究天然草原植物群落中气候驱动的进化变化来解决这一问题。二十多年来，我们将英国巴克斯顿附近物种丰富的草原暴露在模拟气候变化（变暖，降雨量增加和干旱）中。我们的研究表明，在不同的气候处理下，草原植物物种的多样性和丰富度变化很小，这意味着植物群落对变化具有抵抗力。然而，我们也表明，一些植物物种正在适应气候处理，提高了进化本身是抵抗气候变化的来源的可能性，并可以解释这种物种丰富的草原中植物群落的稳定性。在我们以前的工作的基础上，我们的总体目标是使用巴克斯顿气候实验作为模型，以了解进化变化如何使草原植物在社区和生态系统水平上抵抗气候变化。通过这样做，我们的目标是确定物种多样性如何有助于草原提供的服务，并更好地了解（和预测）气候变化对草原的威胁。我们设计了一组实验来研究个体植物对气候变化的进化适应如何影响植物群落的稳定性和重要的生态系统过程。在三年多的时间里，我们将测量i）16种共存植物物种的进化强度和方向，ii）使用数学建模来预测气候对草原的影响，iii）使用巴克斯顿的针对性实验来测试这些影响。这将涉及构建模型生态系统，并测量气候处理中的物种反应，植物表型和生态系统过程。我们的研究将提供一个独特的，进化的观点如何植物，及其表型，有助于草原和生态系统过程在气候变化期间的稳定性。

项目成果

Adaptation to chronic drought modifies soil microbial community responses to phytohormones.

• DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-02037-w
• 发表时间: 2021-05-03
• 期刊: Communications biology
• 影响因子: 5.9
• 作者: Sayer EJ;Crawford JA;Edgerley J;Askew AP;Hahn CZ;Whitlock R;Dodd IC
• 通讯作者: Dodd IC

Global environmental changes more frequently offset than intensify detrimental effects of biological invasions.

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2117389119
• 发表时间: 2022-05-31
• 期刊: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• 影响因子: 11.1