Natural selection on traits and trait plasticity in Arabidopsis thaliana varies across competitive environments

Interspecific competition reduces resource availability and can affect evolution. We quantified multivariate selection in the presence and absence of strong interspecific competition using a greenhouse experiment with 35 natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana. We assessed selection on nine traits representing plant phenology, growth, and architecture, as well as their plasticities. Competition reduced biomass and fitness by over 98%, and plastic responses to competition varied by genotype (significant G × E) for all traits except specific leaf area (SLA). Competitive treatments altered selection on flowering phenology and plant architecture, with significant selection on all phenology traits and most architecture traits under competition-present conditions but little indication that selection occurred in the absence of competitors. Plasticity affected fitness only in competition-present conditions, where plasticity in flowering time and early internode lengths was adaptive. The competitive environment caused changes in the trait correlation structure and surprisingly reduced phenotypic integration, which helped explain some of the observed selection patterns. Despite this overall shift in the trait correlation matrix, genotypes with delayed flowering had lower SLA (thicker, tougher leaves) regardless of the competitive environment, a pattern we have not seen previously reported in the literature. Overall, our study highlights multiple ways in which interspecific competition can alter selective regimes, contributing to our understanding of variability in selection processes over space and time.