Journal article
Lack of strong local adaptation in the alpine forb craspedia lamicola in Southeastern Australia
SG Byars, AA Hoffmann
International Journal of Plant Sciences | UNIV CHICAGO PRESS | Published : 2009
DOI: 10.1086/599238
Abstract
Climate change will test the evolutionary potential of many narrowly distributed plants, especially in alpine environments. We test for adaptation to elevation of an alpine forb, Craspedia lamicola, across three narrow replicated elevation transects and compare findings with a recent study in the grass Poa hiemata across the same range. Low-elevation plants exhibited larger (yet fewer in number) leaves per plant compared with high-elevation plants. Reciprocal transplant and common garden experiments indicated that differences due to elevation were predominantly environmentally determined, with only a small heritable component for leaf number. Plants did not exhibit a native-site advantage in..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Parks Victoria for vehicle access to field locations and other advice, N. Walsh and L. McPhee for assistance with Craspedia taxonomy, L. McPhee and A. Campbell for advice on plant propagation, K. Kent and E. Thomas for fieldwork assistance, and S. Hadden for flora permits. We thank anonymous reviewers for their comments on previous versions of this manuscript. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through their Linkage program as well as the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Parks Victoria, E. S. Link, Mount Hotham Alpine Resort Management, Howmans Gap Alpine Centre, and Falls Creek Alpine Resort Management. S. G. Byars was supported by the David Hay Memorial Fund from the University of Melbourne and A. A. Hoffmann by a Federation Fellowship from the ARC.