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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 11, 2025

Assessing Intertidal Populations of the Invasive European Green Crab

Assessing Intertidal Populations of the Invasive European Green Crab

Published on: September 16, 2020

Local adaptation to climate facilitates a global invasion.

Diana Gamba¹, Megan L Vahsen², Toby M Maxwell³

¹Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University; University Park, PA, USA.

Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology

|September 30, 2024

Summary

Diverse cheatgrass lineages invaded North America, with pre-adapted genotypes colonizing different regions. Local adaptation drives invasive dominance, highlighting the need to prevent new introductions.

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Last Updated: Jun 11, 2025

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics

Background:

Local adaptation can drive range expansion in invasive species.
Mechanisms promoting destructive invasions, like cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), are not fully understood.
Cheatgrass causes severe ecological and economic impacts, particularly in western North America.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of local adaptation in the destructive invasion of cheatgrass in North America.
To identify the genetic and phenotypic basis of cheatgrass adaptation to novel environments.
To understand how pre-adapted genotypes contribute to invasion success and dominance.

Main Methods:

Sequencing of 307 cheatgrass genotypes.
Controlled common garden experiments to assess phenotypic selection.
Analysis of genomic ancestry and phenotypic clines in native and invaded ranges.

Main Results:

Diverse cheatgrass lineages with pre-adapted genotypes colonized North America.
Long-distance gene flow is common in the invaded North American range.
Directional selection on flowering time was observed, reversing between warm and cold sites, maintaining adaptive clines.
Genomic predictions identified highly adapted cheatgrass populations in the Great Basin, correlating with dominance.

Conclusions:

Pre-adapted genotypes and local adaptation, driven by selection on traits like flowering time, facilitate cheatgrass invasion and dominance.
Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for predicting and managing invasive species.
Preventing new introductions is critical to curb further adaptation and spread of invasive cheatgrass.