Abstract
We examined the hypothesis that climate-driven evolution of plant traits will influence associated soil microbiomes and ecosystem function across the landscape. Using a foundation tree species, Populus angustifolia, observational and common garden approaches, and a base population genetic collection that spans 17 river systems in the western United States, from AZ to MT, we show that (a) as mean annual temperature (MAT) increases, genetic and phenotypic variation for bud break phenology decline; (b) soil microbiomes, soil nitrogen (N), and soil carbon (C) vary in response to MAT and conditioning by trees; and (c) with losses of genetic variation due to warming, population-level regulation of community and ecosystem functions strengthen. These results demonstrate a relationship between the potential evolutionary response of populations and subsequent shifts in ecosystem function along a large temperature gradient.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1514-1528 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Global Change Biology |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2019 |
Funding
We would like to extend gratitude to Phil Patterson, Jim Fordyce, Stephanie Kivlin, Mike Blum, and Ben Fitzpatrick for invaluable discussion, and members of the UTK EEB Community and Ecosystem Genetics Lab for field and lab support. We also thank three anonymous reviewers whose helpful comments greatly improved the manuscript. IMW, MVN, JAS, & JKB were supported by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. CWS and ZKY were supported by the Genomic Science Program, US Dept. of Energy, as part of the Plant Microbe Interfaces Scientific Focus Area (http://pmi.ornl.gov). ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle LLC, for the US Dept. of Energy under contract DEAC05-00OR22725. LCS, NES, JDB, and DMW were supported by the Cowden Endowment at Northern Arizona University. We would like to extend gratitude to Phil Patterson, Jim Fordyce, Stephanie Kivlin, Mike Blum, and Ben Fitzpatrick for invaluable discussion, and members of the UTK EEB Community and Ecosystem Genetics Lab for field and lab support. We also thank three anonymous reviewers whose helpful comments greatly improved the manuscript. IMW, MVN, JAS, & JKB were supported by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. CWS and ZKY were supported by the Genomic Science Program, US Dept. of Energy, as part of the Plant Microbe Interfaces Scientific Focus Area (http://pmi.ornl.gov). ORNL is managed by UT‐Battelle LLC, for the US Dept. of Energy under contract DEAC05‐00OR22725. LCS, NES, JDB, and DMW were supported by the Cowden Endowment at Northern Arizona University.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Plant Microbe Interfaces Scientific Focus Area | |
| US Dept. of Energy | |
| UT-Battelle LLC | |
| UT‐Battelle LLC | DEAC05‐00OR22725 |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| University of Tennessee | |
| Northern Arizona University |
Keywords
- Populus
- climate
- ecosystem dynamics
- genetic divergence
- intraspecific variation
- phenology