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Phenotypic selection on leaf water use efficiency and related ecophysiological traits for natural populations of desert sunflowers

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Abstract

Plant water-use efficiency (WUE) is expected to affect plant fitness and thus be under natural selection in arid habitats. Although many natural population studies have assessed plant WUE, only a few related WUE to fitness. The further determination of whether selection on WUE is direct or indirect through functionally related traits has yielded no consistent results. For natural populations of two desert annual sunflowers, Helianthus anomalus and H. deserticola, we used phenotypic selection analysis with vegetative biomass as the proxy for fitness to test (1) whether there was direct and indirect selection on WUE (carbon isotope ratio) and related traits (leaf N, area, succulence) and (2) whether direct selection was consistent with hypothesized drought/dehydration escape and avoidance strategies. There was direct selection for lower WUE in mesic and dry H. anomalus populations, consistent with dehydration escape, even though it is the longer lived of the two species. For mesic H. anomalus, direct selection favored lower WUE and higher N, suggesting that plants may be “wasting water” to increase N delivery via the transpiration stream. For the shorter lived H. deserticola in the direr habitat, there was indirect selection for lower WUE, inconsistent with drought escape. There was also direct selection for higher leaf N, succulence and leaf size. There was no direct selection for higher WUE consistent with dehydration avoidance in either species. Thus, in these natural populations of two desert dune species higher fitness was associated with some combination direct and indirect selection for lower WUE, higher leaf N and larger leaf size. Our understanding of the adaptive value of plant ecophysiological traits will benefit from further consideration of related traits such as leaf nitrogen and more tests in natural populations.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Jennifer Lance, Brett Brewer, Stephanie Peglow and Stephanie Scarborough for assistance with field and lab work. We especially thank Peter Chu for providing the program for bootstrapping. Beau Brouillette, Ava Howard and Cara Gormally provided insightful reviews of early drafts. We also thank Ferris Clegg and BLM, Little Sahara Recreation Area, for use of the field site, and Utah State University for use of Tintic Field Station. This project was funded by NSF grant IBN-0131078 to LAD. The experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.

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Author notes

  1. David M. Rosenthal

    Present address: Biology Department, Portland State University, Portland, OR, 97207, USA

  2. Fulco Ludwig

    Present address: IHE-Unesco and Wagenigen University and Research Centre, Delft, 2601 DA, The Netherlands

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602-7271, USA

    Lisa A. Donovan, Susan A. Dudley, David M. Rosenthal & Fulco Ludwig

  2. Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada

    Susan A. Dudley

Authors
  1. Lisa A. Donovan
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  2. Susan A. Dudley
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  3. David M. Rosenthal
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  4. Fulco Ludwig
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lisa A. Donovan.

Additional information

Communicated by Frederick C. Meinzer.

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Donovan, L.A., Dudley, S.A., Rosenthal, D.M. et al. Phenotypic selection on leaf water use efficiency and related ecophysiological traits for natural populations of desert sunflowers. Oecologia 152, 13–25 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0627-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0627-5

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