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Indirect effects drive evolutionary responses to global change
Author(s) -
Lau Jennifer A.,
Shaw Ruth G.,
Reich Peter B.,
Tiffin Peter
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.12490
Subject(s) - biology , interspecific competition , competitor analysis , competition (biology) , natural selection , ecology , experimental evolution , selection (genetic algorithm) , storage effect , population , indirect effect , global change , niche , evolutionary ecology , evolutionary biology , evolutionary dynamics , climate change , genetics , gene , demography , management , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science , political science , law , economics , host (biology)
Summary Anthropogenic environmental changes pose significant threats to plant and animal populations. These changes also may affect the evolution of natural populations either directly or indirectly by altering the outcome of species interactions that are important drivers of evolution. This latter indirect pathway may be especially important for evolutionary responses to elevated atmospheric CO 2 concentrations ( eCO 2 ), which appear to have minimal direct effects on plant evolution but have large effects on interspecific interactions, such as competition. We manipulated competitive and CO 2 environments of experimental A rabidopsis thaliana populations to test whether eCO 2 alters evolutionary trajectories indirectly by altering selection imposed by competitors. We found that interspecific competition increased selection on growth traits, reduced heritabilities, and altered genetic covariances between traits and that the magnitude of these effects depended upon the CO 2 environment. Although e CO 2 had minimal direct effects on evolutionary processes, e CO 2 typically reduced the strength of selection imposed by competitors and, therefore, relaxed selection on plant traits when competitors were present. Our results indicate that global changes may affect plant evolution indirectly by altering competitive interactions and underscore the importance of conducting research in natural communities when attempting to predict population responses to global change.