A test of local adaptation to drought in germination and seedling traits in populations of two alpine forbs across a 2000 mm/year precipitation gradient

• Main Author: Gya, Ragnhild
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Open Science Framework 2021
• Subjects: Plant Sciences; Life Sciences; Biology; Botany; alpine; climate change; drought; ecology; Functional trait ecology; functional traits; germination; grassland; local adapation; Norway; populaiton; precipitation; regeneration; regeneration niche; seed; seedling; Sibbaldia procumbens; snow-bed; Veronica alpina
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/a8nb9; https://osf.io/a8nb9/

Seed regeneration is a critical stage in the life-histories of plants, affecting species’ abilities to maintain local populations, evolve, and disperse to new sites. We will test for local adaptations to drought in germination and seedling growth of two alpine forbs with contrasting habitat preferences; the snow-bed specialist Sibbaldia procumbens and the alpine generalist Veronica alpina. We sample seeds of each species from four populations spanning a precipitation gradient from 600 - 2700 mm/year in western Norway. We expect greater drought tolerance of germination and seedling traits in populations from drier habitats, and that the generalist species (V. alpina) will handle drought better and have stronger local adaptations. We will perform a growth chamber experiment where the seeds will be germinated at ten different moisture levels under controlled light and temperature conditions. We investigate germination traits such as germination percent, germination synchrony, time to 50 % germination and days to max germination. We measure root and shoot dry biomass and root:shoot ratio to investigate resource investment during drought stress in seedlings. We will analyze effects of population, and drought on germination and seedling traits, and assess if climate, or seed mass of the source population predicts germination responses and seedling traits.