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- Title
Phenotypic plasticity despite source-sink population dynamics in a long-lived perennial plant.
- Authors
Anderson, Jill T.; Sparks, Jed P.; Geber, Monica A.
- Abstract
Species that exhibit adaptive plasticity alter their phenotypes in response to environmental conditions, thereby maximizing fitness in heterogeneous landscapes. However, under demographic source-sink dynamics, selection should favor traits that enhance fitness in the source habitat at the expense of fitness in the marginal habitat. Consistent with source-sink dynamics, the perennial blueberry, Vaccinium elliottii (Ericaceae), shows substantially higher fitness and population sizes in dry upland forests than in flood-prone bottomland forests, and asymmetrical gene flow occurs from upland populations into bottomland populations. Here, we examined whether this species expresses plasticity to these distinct environments despite source-sink dynamics. We assessed phenotypic responses to a complex environmental gradient in the field and to water stress in the glasshouse. Contrary to expectations, V. elliottii exhibited a high degree of plasticity in foliar and root traits (specific leaf area, carbon isotope ratios, foliar nitrogen content, root : shoot ratio, root porosity and root architecture). We propose that plasticity can be maintained in source-sink systems if it is favored within the source habitat and/or a phylogenetic artifact that is not costly. Additionally, plasticity could be advantageous if habitat-based differences in fitness result from incipient niche expansion. Our results illuminate the importance of evaluating phenotypic traits and fitness components across heterogeneous landscapes.
- Subjects
PERENNIALS; MATERIAL plasticity; PHENOTYPES; PHYLOGENY; PLANT roots
- Publication
New Phytologist, 2010, Vol 188, Issue 3, p856
- ISSN
0028-646X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03404.x