| Title |
Genetic diversity of a dominant C4 grass is altered with increased precipitation variability
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Oecologia, August 2012
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s00442-012-2427-4 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Meghan L. Avolio, Jeremy M. Beaulieu, Melinda D. Smith |
| Abstract |
Climate change has the potential to alter the genetic diversity of plant populations with consequences for community dynamics and ecosystem processes. Recent research focused on changes in climatic means has found evidence of decreased precipitation amounts reducing genetic diversity. However, increased variability in climatic regimes is also predicted with climate change, but the effects of this aspect of climate change on genetic diversity have yet to be investigated. After 10 years of experimentally increased intra-annual variability in growing season precipitation regimes, we report that the number of genotypes of the dominant C(4) grass, Andropogon gerardii Vitman, has been significantly reduced in native tallgrass prairie compared with unmanipulated prairie. However, individuals showed a different pattern of genomic similarity with increased precipitation variability resulting in greater genome dissimilarity among individuals when compared to unmanipulated prairie. Further, we found that genomic dissimilarity was positively correlated with aboveground productivity in this system. The increased genomic dissimilarity among individuals in the altered treatment alongside evidence for a positive correlation of genomic dissimilarity with phenotypic variation suggests ecological sorting of genotypes may be occurring via niche differentiation. Overall, we found effects of more variable precipitation regimes on population-level genetic diversity were complex, emphasizing the need to look beyond genotype numbers for understanding the impacts of climate change on genetic diversity. Recognition that future climate change may alter aspects of genetic diversity in different ways suggests possible mechanisms by which plant populations may be able to retain a diversity of traits in the face of declining biodiversity. |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 76 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 3 | 4% |
| Germany | 1 | 1% |
| Mexico | 1 | 1% |
| Canada | 1 | 1% |
| China | 1 | 1% |
| Argentina | 1 | 1% |
| Unknown | 68 | 89% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Researcher | 27 | 36% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 18 | 24% |
| Student > Master | 8 | 11% |
| Student > Bachelor | 5 | 7% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 4 | 5% |
| Other | 8 | 11% |
| Unknown | 6 | 8% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 43 | 57% |
| Environmental Science | 17 | 22% |
| Earth and Planetary Sciences | 3 | 4% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 2 | 3% |
| Economics, Econometrics and Finance | 1 | 1% |
| Other | 2 | 3% |
| Unknown | 8 | 11% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 31 December 2013.
All research outputs
#15,289,831
of 22,738,543 outputs
Outputs from Oecologia
#3,247
of 4,207 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#107,566
of 169,258 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Oecologia
#13
of 28 outputs
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