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The effect of elevational gradient on alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) in the Himalayas

There is currently enormous interest in how morphological and physiological responses of herbaceous plants may be affected by changing elevational gradient. Mountain regions provide an excellent opportunity to understand how closely related species may adapt to the conditions that rapidly change wit...

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Autores principales: Paudel, Babu Ram, Dyer, Adrian G., Garcia, Jair E., Shrestha, Mani
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6753920/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31576232
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7503
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author Paudel, Babu Ram
Dyer, Adrian G.
Garcia, Jair E.
Shrestha, Mani
author_facet Paudel, Babu Ram
Dyer, Adrian G.
Garcia, Jair E.
Shrestha, Mani
author_sort Paudel, Babu Ram
collection PubMed
description There is currently enormous interest in how morphological and physiological responses of herbaceous plants may be affected by changing elevational gradient. Mountain regions provide an excellent opportunity to understand how closely related species may adapt to the conditions that rapidly change with elevation. We investigated the morphological and physiological responses of two Himalayan alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) along two different vertical transects of 400 m, R. purpurea between 2,174–2,574 m a.s.l and R. alpina between 2,675–3,079 m a.s.l. We measured the variables of plant height, leaf length, leaf area, specific leaf area, and stomata density at five plots, along the vertical transect at an elevational gap of ca. 100 m. Results revealed that with increased elevation plant height, and leaf area decreased while stomata density increased, whereas changes in specific leaf area, were not correlated with the elevation. Our results reveal that these alpine gingers undergo local adaptation by modifying their plant height, leaf area and stomata density in response to the varying selection pressure associated with the elevational gradient. Thus, the findings of this research provide valuable information on how a narrow range of elevational gradient affects the herbaceous plants at the alpine habitat of the Himalayas.
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spelling pubmed-67539202019-10-01 The effect of elevational gradient on alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) in the Himalayas Paudel, Babu Ram Dyer, Adrian G. Garcia, Jair E. Shrestha, Mani PeerJ Biodiversity There is currently enormous interest in how morphological and physiological responses of herbaceous plants may be affected by changing elevational gradient. Mountain regions provide an excellent opportunity to understand how closely related species may adapt to the conditions that rapidly change with elevation. We investigated the morphological and physiological responses of two Himalayan alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) along two different vertical transects of 400 m, R. purpurea between 2,174–2,574 m a.s.l and R. alpina between 2,675–3,079 m a.s.l. We measured the variables of plant height, leaf length, leaf area, specific leaf area, and stomata density at five plots, along the vertical transect at an elevational gap of ca. 100 m. Results revealed that with increased elevation plant height, and leaf area decreased while stomata density increased, whereas changes in specific leaf area, were not correlated with the elevation. Our results reveal that these alpine gingers undergo local adaptation by modifying their plant height, leaf area and stomata density in response to the varying selection pressure associated with the elevational gradient. Thus, the findings of this research provide valuable information on how a narrow range of elevational gradient affects the herbaceous plants at the alpine habitat of the Himalayas. PeerJ Inc. 2019-09-17 /pmc/articles/PMC6753920/ /pubmed/31576232 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7503 Text en ©2019 Paudel et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Biodiversity
Paudel, Babu Ram
Dyer, Adrian G.
Garcia, Jair E.
Shrestha, Mani
The effect of elevational gradient on alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) in the Himalayas
title The effect of elevational gradient on alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) in the Himalayas
title_full The effect of elevational gradient on alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) in the Himalayas
title_fullStr The effect of elevational gradient on alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) in the Himalayas
title_full_unstemmed The effect of elevational gradient on alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) in the Himalayas
title_short The effect of elevational gradient on alpine gingers (Roscoea alpina and R. purpurea) in the Himalayas
title_sort effect of elevational gradient on alpine gingers (roscoea alpina and r. purpurea) in the himalayas
topic Biodiversity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6753920/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31576232
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7503
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