Functional acclimation across microgeographic scales in Dodonaea viscosa

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Plant Biology
• Evolutionary Biology

Background:

• Intraspecific plant functional trait variation is key to understanding population persistence and adaptive capacity.
• Previous studies often confound geographic and environmental distances, limiting certainty in trait-environment associations.
• Research is needed in systems where environmental distance is independent of geographic distance to accurately assess trait-environment links.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify trait variation in parent and offspring generations and link it to parental environments.
• To identify key traits explaining population differences.
• To compare trait-trait relationships between parent and offspring generations.

Main Methods:

• Characterized 15 plant functional traits in eight shrub populations across ~100 km.
• Measured traits in field-collected parent plants and their greenhouse-reared offspring.
• Analyzed trait variation, environmental associations, and trait-trait correlations using ordination.

Main Results:

• Parental traits strongly associated with their local environments (aridity, elevation).
• These trait-environment associations were largely lost in offspring, indicating high phenotypic plasticity.
• Ordination revealed structured parent traits (influenced by leaf area, stomatal traits, isotopes) but less structured offspring traits.

Conclusions:

• The study shrub exhibits substantial trait plasticity at microgeographic scales, enabling functional acclimation within a generation.
• Local populations show limited genetic differentiation in functional traits.
• Risks associated with transferring seeds across diverse environmental conditions for restoration in southern Australia are likely minimal.