The importance of ecophysiological traits in response of Festuca rubra to changing climate

0562023 - BÚ 2023 RIV DK eng J - Journal Article
Kosová, V. - Hájek, Tomáš - Hadincová, Věroslava - Münzbergová, Zuzana
The importance of ecophysiological traits in response of Festuca rubra to changing climate.
Physiologia Plantarum. Roč. 174, č. 1 (2022), č. článku e13608. ISSN 0031-9317. E-ISSN 1399-3054
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA19-00522S
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : ecophysiological traits * Festuca rubra * chnaging climate
OECD category: Plant sciences, botany
Impact factor: 6.4, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1111/ppl.13608

Knowledge of the ability of plants to respond to climate change via phenotypic plasticity or genetic adaptation in ecophysiological traits and of the link of these traits to fitness is still limited. We studied the clonal grass Festuca rubra from 11 localities representing factorially crossed gradients of temperature and precipitation and cultivated them in growth chambers simulating temperature and moisture regime in the four extreme localities. We measured net photosynthetic rate, F-v/F-m, specific leaf area, osmotic potential and stomatal density and length and tested their relationship to proxies of fitness. We found strong phenotypic plasticity in photosynthetic traits and genetic differentiation in stomatal traits. The effects of temperature and moisture interacted (either as conditions of origin or growth chambers), as were effects of growth and origin. The relationships between the ecophysiological and fitness-related traits were significant but weak. Phenotypic plasticity and genetic differentiation of the species indicate the potential ability of F. rubra to adapt to novel climatic conditions. The most important challenge for the plants seems to be increasing moisture exposing plants to hypoxia. However, the plants have the potential to respond to increased moisture by changes in stomatal size and density and adjustments of osmotic potential. Changes in ecophysiological traits translate into variation in plant fitness, but the selection on the traits is relatively weak and depends on actual conditions. Despite the selection, the plants do not show strong local adaptation and local adaptation is thus likely not restricting species ability to adjust to novel conditions.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0334449