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Vertebrate herbivory weakens directional selection for earlier emergence in competition

The timing of seedling emergence is strongly linked with fitness because it determines the biotic and abiotic environment experienced by plants in this vulnerable life stage. Experiments and observations consistently find that earlier‐emerging plants have a competitive advantage over those emerging...

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Autores principales: Waterton, Joseph, Cleland, Elsa E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8190447/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34136274
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/evl3.222
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author Waterton, Joseph
Cleland, Elsa E.
author_facet Waterton, Joseph
Cleland, Elsa E.
author_sort Waterton, Joseph
collection PubMed
description The timing of seedling emergence is strongly linked with fitness because it determines the biotic and abiotic environment experienced by plants in this vulnerable life stage. Experiments and observations consistently find that earlier‐emerging plants have a competitive advantage over those emerging later. However, substantial genetic and phenotypic variation in emergence timing is harbored within and among plant populations, making it important to characterize the selective agents—including biotic interactions—that contribute to this variation. In seasonal herbaceous communities, we hypothesized that consumption of early‐emerging individuals by vertebrates could weaken the strength of directional selection for earlier emergence in competitive environments. To investigate this, we carried out phenotypic selection analyses on emergence timing in two California grass species, the native Stipa pulchra and non‐native Bromus diandrus, growing in intraspecific competitive neighborhoods with and without vertebrate herbivore exclusion. Vertebrate herbivores consistently weakened directional selection for earlier emergence. Our results demonstrate that vertebrate herbivores play an underappreciated selective role on phenology in plant populations, with implications for contemporary evolution, such as the potential of species to adapt to global environmental changes.
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spelling pubmed-81904472021-06-15 Vertebrate herbivory weakens directional selection for earlier emergence in competition Waterton, Joseph Cleland, Elsa E. Evol Lett Letters The timing of seedling emergence is strongly linked with fitness because it determines the biotic and abiotic environment experienced by plants in this vulnerable life stage. Experiments and observations consistently find that earlier‐emerging plants have a competitive advantage over those emerging later. However, substantial genetic and phenotypic variation in emergence timing is harbored within and among plant populations, making it important to characterize the selective agents—including biotic interactions—that contribute to this variation. In seasonal herbaceous communities, we hypothesized that consumption of early‐emerging individuals by vertebrates could weaken the strength of directional selection for earlier emergence in competitive environments. To investigate this, we carried out phenotypic selection analyses on emergence timing in two California grass species, the native Stipa pulchra and non‐native Bromus diandrus, growing in intraspecific competitive neighborhoods with and without vertebrate herbivore exclusion. Vertebrate herbivores consistently weakened directional selection for earlier emergence. Our results demonstrate that vertebrate herbivores play an underappreciated selective role on phenology in plant populations, with implications for contemporary evolution, such as the potential of species to adapt to global environmental changes. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-03-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8190447/ /pubmed/34136274 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/evl3.222 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Evolution Letters published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Letters
Waterton, Joseph
Cleland, Elsa E.
Vertebrate herbivory weakens directional selection for earlier emergence in competition
title Vertebrate herbivory weakens directional selection for earlier emergence in competition
title_full Vertebrate herbivory weakens directional selection for earlier emergence in competition
title_fullStr Vertebrate herbivory weakens directional selection for earlier emergence in competition
title_full_unstemmed Vertebrate herbivory weakens directional selection for earlier emergence in competition
title_short Vertebrate herbivory weakens directional selection for earlier emergence in competition
title_sort vertebrate herbivory weakens directional selection for earlier emergence in competition
topic Letters
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8190447/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34136274
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/evl3.222
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