Morphological Differences in Pinus strobiformis Across Latitudinal and Elevational Gradients
The phenotype of trees is determined by the relationships and interactions among genetic and environmental influences. Understanding the patterns and processes that are responsible for phenotypic variation is facilitated by studying the relationships between phenotype and the environment among many...
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2020-10-01
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doaj-fab0c2f20f6c42f89e3f5a4c36e59aa32020-11-25T03:36:58ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Plant Science1664-462X2020-10-011110.3389/fpls.2020.559697559697Morphological Differences in Pinus strobiformis Across Latitudinal and Elevational GradientsAlejandro Leal-Sáenz0Kristen M. Waring1Mitra Menon2Samuel A. Cushman3Andrew Eckert4Lluvia Flores-Rentería5José Ciro Hernández-Díaz6Carlos Antonio López-Sánchez7José Hugo Martínez-Guerrero8Christian Wehenkel9Programa Institucional de Doctorado en Ciencias Agropecuarias y Forestales, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango, Durango, MexicoSchool of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United StatesDepartment of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United StatesUSDA Forest Service, Flagstaff, AZ, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United StatesDepartment of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United StatesInstituto de Silvicultura e Industria de la Madera, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango, Durango, MexicoDepartment of Biology of Organisms and Systems, Mieres Polytechnic School, University of Oviedo, Campus Universitario de Mieres, C/Gonzalo Gutiérrez Quirós S/N, Mieres, SpainFacultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango, Durango, MexicoInstituto de Silvicultura e Industria de la Madera, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango, Durango, MexicoThe phenotype of trees is determined by the relationships and interactions among genetic and environmental influences. Understanding the patterns and processes that are responsible for phenotypic variation is facilitated by studying the relationships between phenotype and the environment among many individuals across broad ecological and climatic gradients. We used Pinus strobiformis, which has a wide latitudinal distribution, as a model species to: (a) estimate the relative importance of different environmental factors in predicting these morphological traits and (b) characterize the spatial patterns of standing phenotypic variation of cone and seed traits across the species’ range. A large portion of the total variation in morphological characteristics was explained by ecological, climatic and geographical variables (54.7% collectively). The three climate, vegetation and geographical variable groups, each had similar total ability to explain morphological variation (43.4%, 43.8%, 51.5%, respectively), while the topographical variable group had somewhat lower total explanatory power (36.9%). The largest component of explained variance (33.6%) was the four-way interaction of all variable sets, suggesting that there is strong covariation in environmental, climate and geographical variables in their relationship to morphological traits of southwest white pine across its range. The regression results showed that populations in more humid and warmer climates expressed greater cone length and seed size. This may in part facilitate populations of P. strobiformis in warmer and wetter portions of its range growing in dense, shady forest stands, because larger seeds provide greater resources to germinants at the time of germination. Our models provide accurate predictions of morphological traits and important insights regarding the factors that contribute to their expression. Our results indicate that managers should be conservative during reforestation efforts to ensure match between ecotypic variation in seed source populations. However, we also note that given projected large range shift due to climate change, managers will have to balance the match between current ecotypic variation and expected range shift and changes in local adaptive optima under future climate conditions.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.559697/fullphenotypic variationmorphological traitsclimate factorsredundancy analysismultivariate canonical ordinationmachine learning |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Alejandro Leal-Sáenz Kristen M. Waring Mitra Menon Samuel A. Cushman Andrew Eckert Lluvia Flores-Rentería José Ciro Hernández-Díaz Carlos Antonio López-Sánchez José Hugo Martínez-Guerrero Christian Wehenkel |
spellingShingle |
Alejandro Leal-Sáenz Kristen M. Waring Mitra Menon Samuel A. Cushman Andrew Eckert Lluvia Flores-Rentería José Ciro Hernández-Díaz Carlos Antonio López-Sánchez José Hugo Martínez-Guerrero Christian Wehenkel Morphological Differences in Pinus strobiformis Across Latitudinal and Elevational Gradients Frontiers in Plant Science phenotypic variation morphological traits climate factors redundancy analysis multivariate canonical ordination machine learning |
author_facet |
Alejandro Leal-Sáenz Kristen M. Waring Mitra Menon Samuel A. Cushman Andrew Eckert Lluvia Flores-Rentería José Ciro Hernández-Díaz Carlos Antonio López-Sánchez José Hugo Martínez-Guerrero Christian Wehenkel |
author_sort |
Alejandro Leal-Sáenz |
title |
Morphological Differences in Pinus strobiformis Across Latitudinal and Elevational Gradients |
title_short |
Morphological Differences in Pinus strobiformis Across Latitudinal and Elevational Gradients |
title_full |
Morphological Differences in Pinus strobiformis Across Latitudinal and Elevational Gradients |
title_fullStr |
Morphological Differences in Pinus strobiformis Across Latitudinal and Elevational Gradients |
title_full_unstemmed |
Morphological Differences in Pinus strobiformis Across Latitudinal and Elevational Gradients |
title_sort |
morphological differences in pinus strobiformis across latitudinal and elevational gradients |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Plant Science |
issn |
1664-462X |
publishDate |
2020-10-01 |
description |
The phenotype of trees is determined by the relationships and interactions among genetic and environmental influences. Understanding the patterns and processes that are responsible for phenotypic variation is facilitated by studying the relationships between phenotype and the environment among many individuals across broad ecological and climatic gradients. We used Pinus strobiformis, which has a wide latitudinal distribution, as a model species to: (a) estimate the relative importance of different environmental factors in predicting these morphological traits and (b) characterize the spatial patterns of standing phenotypic variation of cone and seed traits across the species’ range. A large portion of the total variation in morphological characteristics was explained by ecological, climatic and geographical variables (54.7% collectively). The three climate, vegetation and geographical variable groups, each had similar total ability to explain morphological variation (43.4%, 43.8%, 51.5%, respectively), while the topographical variable group had somewhat lower total explanatory power (36.9%). The largest component of explained variance (33.6%) was the four-way interaction of all variable sets, suggesting that there is strong covariation in environmental, climate and geographical variables in their relationship to morphological traits of southwest white pine across its range. The regression results showed that populations in more humid and warmer climates expressed greater cone length and seed size. This may in part facilitate populations of P. strobiformis in warmer and wetter portions of its range growing in dense, shady forest stands, because larger seeds provide greater resources to germinants at the time of germination. Our models provide accurate predictions of morphological traits and important insights regarding the factors that contribute to their expression. Our results indicate that managers should be conservative during reforestation efforts to ensure match between ecotypic variation in seed source populations. However, we also note that given projected large range shift due to climate change, managers will have to balance the match between current ecotypic variation and expected range shift and changes in local adaptive optima under future climate conditions. |
topic |
phenotypic variation morphological traits climate factors redundancy analysis multivariate canonical ordination machine learning |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.559697/full |
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