Adaptation to environmental variation in short-lived organisms: what can tree rings tell us?

Category: Time:
Wednesday, February 19, 2014 - 12:00 to 13:00
Access:
public
Room: Speaker:
Andrew Simons
Affiliation:
Carleton University
Contact:
Paul Sheppard
Calendar Status:
confirmed

Organismal survival can depend on response to environmental variation.  Several modes of response to environmental variation have been documented, including adaptive tracking, adaptive phenotypic plasticity and the evolution of so-called “bet hedging” traits.  I present empirical evidence that short-lived organisms, including the monocarpic herb, Lobelia inflata (Campanulaceae), adapt to environmental variation.  Genetic population differentiation among traits of five eastern North American populations of L. inflata further suggests adaptation to local environments.  However, the assessment of adaptation to a particular level of environmental variation requires that this environmental variation be characterized over many generations.  I propose the potential utility of dendrochronology in assessing local adaptation of short-lived species.