Abstract
Plant survival in alpine landscapes is constantly challenged by the harsh and often unpredictable environmental conditions. Steep environmental gradients and patchy distribution of habitats lead to small size and spatial isolation of populations and restrict gene flow. Agricultural land use has further increased the diversity of habitats below and above the treeline. We studied the consequences of the highly structured alpine landscape for evolutionary processes in four study plants: Epilobium fleischeri, Geum reptans, Campanula thyrsoides and Poa alpina. The main questions were: (1) How is genetic diversity distributed within and among populations and is it affected by altitude, population size or land use? (2) Do reproductive traits such as allocation to sexual or vegetative reproduction vary with altitude or land use? Furthermore, we studied if seed weight increases with altitude. Within-population genetic diversity of the four species was high and mostly not related to altitude and population size. Nevertheless, genetic differentiation among populations was pronounced and strongly increasing with distance. In Poa alpina genetic diversity was affected by land use. Results suggest considerable genetic drift among populations of alpine plants. Reproductive allocation was affected by altitude and land use in Poa alpina and by succession in Geum reptans. Seed weight was usually higher in alpine species than in related lowland species. We conclude that the evolutionary potential to respond to global change is mostly intact in alpine plants, even at high altitude. Phenotypic variability is shaped by adaptive as well as by random evolutionary processes; moreover plastic responses to growth conditions seem to be crucial for survival of plants in the alpine landscape.
Zusammenfassung
Das Überleben von Pflanzen in der alpinen Landchaft ist durch die harschen Umweltbedingungen eine ständige Herausforderung. Die alpine Landschaft zeichnet sich durch steile Umweltgradienten, fragmentierte Lebensräume und genetisch isolierte, oft kleine Populationen aus. Die landwirtschaftliche Nutzung hat diese kleinräumigen Strukturen noch verstärkt. Wir untersuchten die Auswirkungen der reich strukturierten alpinen Landschaft auf Evolutionsprozesse bei vier Arten: Epilobium fleischeri, Geum reptans, Campanula thyrsoides und Poa alpina. Hauptfragen waren: (1) Ist die genetische Diversität in Populationen abhängig von der Höhe über Meer, von der Populationsgrösse oder der Landnutzung und wie stark sind Populationen genetisch differenziert? (2) Verändern sich reproduktive Eigenschaften wie die Allokation in die sexuelle bzw. die klonale Reproduktion mit der Höhe und der Landnutzung? Weiter untersuchten wir die Auswirkung der Höhe über Meer auf das Samengewicht. Die genetische Diversität war bei allen vier Arten gross und ändert sich in der Regel nicht mit der Höhe oder der Populationsgrösse. Trotzdem fanden wir eine starke Populationsdifferenzierung, die mit der Distanz in allen Fällen deutlich zunahm. Bei Poa alpina wurde die genetische Diversität auch durch die Landnutzung beeinflusst. Genetische Drift war bei allen Arten beträchtlich. Die reproduktive Allokation wurde bei Geum reptans durch das Sukzessionsstadium und bei Poa alpina durch die Höhe und die Landnutzung beeinflusst. Das Samengewicht nimmt bei vielen alpinen Pflanzenarten im Vergleich mit Arten aus dem Tiefland zu. Wir schlussfolgern, dass die Anpassungsfähigkeit an eine sich ändernde Umwelt bei Alpenpflanzen auch in grosser Höhe intakt ist. Phänotypische Variabilität wird nicht nur durch adaptive, sondern auch durch Zufallsprozesse geformt. Phenotypische Plastizität scheint für das Überleben von Alpenpflanzen eine wichtige Rolle zu spielen.
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Acknowledgments
The work presented here was presented as an oral contribution at the Xth Symposium of the IOPB 2008 at Vysoké Tatry, Slowakia and was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation grants No. 31-59271.99, 3100AO-100762, 3100AO-116785 and 4048-064494. The author thanks H.H. Ægisdóttir, T. Weppler, K. Rudmann-Maurer and A. Weyand, who were doctoral students in these projects, M. Fischer, F. Gugerli, and O. Tackenberg for their collaboration, and S. Güsewell for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.
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Stöcklin, J., Kuss, P. & Pluess, A.R. Genetic diversity, phenotypic variation and local adaptation in the alpine landscape: case studies with alpine plant species. Bot. Helv. 119, 125–133 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00035-009-0065-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00035-009-0065-1