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Clinal differentiation during invasion: Senecio inaequidens (Asteraceae) along altitudinal gradients in Europe

  • Population Ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

The dynamics of plant population differentiation may be integral in predicting aspects of introduced species invasion. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that European populations of Senecio inaequidens (Asteraceae), an invasive species with South African origins, differentiated during migration from two independent introduction sites into divergent altitudinal and climatic zones. We carried out 2 years of common garden experiments with eight populations sampled from Belgian and ten populations from French altitudinal transects. The Belgian transect followed a temperature and precipitation gradient. A temperature and summer drought gradient characterized the French transect. We evaluated differentiation and clinal variation in plants germinated from field-collected seed using the following traits: days to germination, days to flowering, height at maturity, final plant height and aboveground biomass. Results showed that S. inaequidens populations differentiated in growth traits during invasion. During the 1st year of sampling, the results indicated clinal variation for growth traits along both the Belgium and French altitudinal transects. Data from the 2nd year of study demonstrated that with increasing altitude, a reduction in three growth traits, including plant height at maturity, final plant height and aboveground biomass, was detected along the French transect, but no longer along the Belgian one. Phenological traits did not exhibit a clear clinal variation along altitudinal transects. The possible evolutionary causes for the observed differentiation are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We thank S. Maurice for useful information about French populations and Guy Buchet for technical assistance during the whole research project. Comments from I. Nijs, R. Irwin and two anonymous reviewers on a previous version of the manuscript were highly valuable and appreciated. This research was supported by the project FRFC 2.4605.06 from the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique. Arnaud Monty holds a doctoral grant from the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique. The experiments in this study comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.

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  1. Laboratory of Ecology, Gembloux Agricultural University, Passage des Déportés, 2, 5030, Gembloux, Belgium

    Arnaud Monty & Grégory Mahy

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  1. Arnaud Monty
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  2. Grégory Mahy
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Correspondence to Arnaud Monty.

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Communicated by Rebecca Irwin.

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442_2008_1228_MOESM1_ESM.xls

S1: Principal component analysis performed on climatic data from the climatic stations along each transect. Correlations of each climatic variable with the two first PCA axes (referred to as PCA 1 CLIMATE and PCA 2 CLIMATE) are presented. Significant correlations are in bold. For each axis, the eigenvalue and the explained variance are given. (XLS 28 kb)

442_2008_1228_MOESM2_ESM.xls

S2: Pearson’s coefficient of correlation among the measured plant traits, calculated on mean population values, for both transects and both years together. Significant correlations are in bold. (XLS 22 kb)

442_2008_1228_MOESM3_ESM.xls

S3: Principal component analysis performed on plant traits, for the 2 years of the experiment and along the two transects. Correlations of each trait with the first PCA axis (referred to as PCA 1 PLANT TRAIT) are presented. Significant correlations are in bold. For each PCA 1 PLANT TRAIT axis, the eigenvalue and the explained variance are given. (XLS 25 kb)

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Monty, A., Mahy, G. Clinal differentiation during invasion: Senecio inaequidens (Asteraceae) along altitudinal gradients in Europe. Oecologia 159, 305–315 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1228-2

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