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Evidence for rapid ecological range expansion in a newly invasive plant.

ABSTRACT: Little is known about how an introduced species may expand its ecological range, i.e. the set of local environmental conditions in which it can successfully establish populations. Delimiting this range of conditions is a methodological challenge, because it is impossible to sample all potential field locations for any species in a given region. Developing approaches to track ecological range over time could substantially contribute to understanding invasion dynamics. In this study, we use a previously established sampling strategy to document apparent changes across a 15-year time interval in the ecological range of the Asian annual Polygonum cespitosum Blume in northeastern North America, where the species has recently become invasive. Using a structured sample drawn from a large set of field populations, we determined the range of light, soil moisture and soil nutrient conditions that the species currently occupies in this region and the proportional distribution of individuals in differing types of microsite, and compared them with field measurements that were similarly determined 15 years earlier. Although in 1994 the species was absent from both high-light and flooded habitats, in 2009 P. cespitosum occurred in open as well as shaded habitats, across a wide range of moisture conditions. In 2009 the species also occupied a greater proportion of high-light microsites within field sites than in 1994. These findings suggest an expanded ecological range that, intriguingly, is consistent with the recent evolution in North American P. cespitosum populations of adaptive plasticity in response to high light. Possible non-evolutionary explanations for the change in field distribution are also considered.

SUBMITTER: Matesanz S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4511186 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Biological control is a popular tool for invasive species management, but its success in nature is difficult to predict. One risk is that invasive plants, which may have adapted to lower herbivore pressure in the introduced range, could rapidly evolve defences upon re-association with their biocontrol agent(s). Previous studies have demonstrated that populations of the invasive plant purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) exposed to biocontrol exhibit traits consistent with the rapid evolution of defence. However, to date, no one has tested this hypothesis under field-natural levels of herbivory. Using seed from 17 populations of purple loosestrife growing in eastern Canada, that varied in their history of exposure to their biocontrol agent, the leaf beetle Neogalerucella spp., we transplanted 1,088 seedlings from 136 maternal families into a common garden under ambient herbivory. Over the following three and half years, we assessed plant performance in the face of biocontrol by measuring early-season plant size, defoliation, flowering, and season-end biomass. We discovered that a population history with biocontrol explained little variation in herbivory or plant performance, suggesting that adaptation is not hindering biocontrol effectiveness. Instead, plant size, subsequent defoliation, and spatio-temporal variables were the main predictors of plant growth and flowering during the study. The high individual variability we observed in plant performance underscores that flexible strategies of allocation and phenology are important contributors to the persistence of invasive plants. Our findings suggest that plant adaptation to biocontrol is unlikely to be a strong impediment to biological control in this species, however, the high survival and variable defoliation of plants in our study also indicate that biocontrol alone is unlikely to result in significant population decline. We recommend that the application of multiple forms of control simultaneously (e.g. thinning plus biocontrol) could help to prevent the existence of refuges of large, reproductive individuals.

Project description:BackgroundAdaptive evolution is one of the crucial mechanisms for organisms to survive and thrive in new environments. Recent studies suggest that adaptive evolution could rapidly occur in species to respond to novel environments or environmental challenges during range expansion. However, for environmental adaptation, many studies successfully detected phenotypic features associated with local environments, but did not provide ample genetic evidence on microevolutionary dynamics. It is therefore crucial to thoroughly investigate the genetic basis of rapid microevolution in response to environmental changes, in particular on what genes and associated variation are responsible for environmental challenges. Here, we genotyped genome-wide gene-associated microsatellites to detect genetic signatures of rapid microevolution of a marine tunicate invader, Ciona robusta, during recent range expansion to the harsh environment in the Red Sea.ResultsThe Red Sea population was significantly differentiated from the other global populations. The genome-wide scan, as well as multiple analytical methods, successfully identified a set of adaptive genes. Interestingly, the allele frequency largely varied at several adaptive loci in the Red Sea population, and we found significant correlations between allele frequency and local environmental factors at these adaptive loci. Furthermore, a set of genes were annotated to get involved in local temperature and salinity adaptation, and the identified adaptive genes may largely contribute to the invasion success to harsh environments.ConclusionsAll the evidence obtained in this study clearly showed that environment-driven selection had left detectable signatures in the genome of Ciona robusta within a few generations. Such a rapid microevolutionary process is largely responsible for the harsh environmental adaptation and therefore contributes to invasion success in different aquatic ecosystems with largely varied environmental factors.

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Evidence for rapid ecological range expansion in a newly invasive plant.

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