Selection on Integrated Physiological Traits and Growth in Annual Plants

来自高资源水平的植物通常是快速生长的植物，也是快速消耗资源的植物，而来自低资源水平的植物是生长缓慢的植物，对资源的利用保守而有效。在拟议的一系列研究中，我们将确定从营养和水(植物的地下资源)到光(地上资源)等各种资源的这种一般模式的适用程度。我们的实验将试图解决一些关于适应低资源和高资源的一般模式的棘手问题：上述关系是由环境造成的，还是有遗传基础的？什么遗传权衡阻止了同时适应低资源和高资源？(也就是说，为什么一种植物不应该既高效又生长迅速？)最后，我们能证明自然选择作用于与自然环境中的资源利用、资源获取和生长相关的特征吗？这项研究的结果将与人类对自然植物种群的影响直接相关，因为人类造成的环境扰动往往直接或间接地影响资源的可获得性。此外，我们的研究旨在提高对野生植物种群自然选择的机制的理解，从而将植物生理生态学与植物种群生物学联系起来，这两个领域在过去30年里基本上是孤立发展的。

Plants from high resource levels are typically fast-growers and rapid consumers of resources, while plants from low resource levels are slow-growers with conservative, efficient use of resources. In the proposed set of studies we will be determining the degree to which this general pattern holds for resources ranging from nutrients and water (below ground resources for plants) to light (an above ground resource). Our experiments will attempt to resolve some knotty questions about the general pattern of adaptation to low and high resources: Are the relationships described above caused by the environment, or is there a genetic basis to them? What genetic tradeoffs prevent simultaneous adaptation to both low and high resources? (i.e., why shouldn't a plant be both efficient and rapidly-growing?) Finally, can we demonstrate that natural selection acts on traits relevant to resource use, resource acquisition and growth in natural environments? The results of this research will have direct relevance to the impacts of humans on natural plant populations because the environmental perturbations caused by humans often directly or indirectly affect resource availability. In addition, our research is directed toward improving the mechanistic understanding of natural selection in wild plant populations, thus linking plant physiological ecology to plant population biology, two fields which have developed largely in isolation over the past three decades.//