title: Latitudinal and longitudinal clines of phenotypic plasticity in the invasive herb Solidago canadensis in China.
abstract: Phenotypic plasticity is thought to be important for plants in variable environments. The climatic variability hypothesis poses that populations at higher latitudes, due to the stronger variation in temperature, there should be more plastic in response to temperature than populations at lower latitudes. Similarly, populations at locations with stronger precipitation fluctuations should be more plastic in response to water availability than populations at locations with less variable precipitation. We sampled seven and nine populations of Solidago canadensis, a North American native that is invasive in China, along a latitudinal (temperature variability) and a longitudinal (precipitation variability) gradient, respectively, in China, and grew them under two temperature treatments and two water-availability treatments, respectively. Among the four traits with significant variation in plasticity among populations in response to temperature, plasticity of leaf length-to-width ratio was significantly positively correlated with latitude and temperature seasonality of the populations. In addition, root/shoot ratio and water-use efficiency showed significant variation in plasticity among populations in response to water availability, and plasticities of these two traits were significantly negatively correlated with longitude and positively correlated with precipitation seasonality. The observed geographic clines in plasticity suggest that phenotypic plasticity of S. canadensis may have evolved rapidly in regions with different climatic conditions, and this may have contributed to the spread of this invasive species.
authors: Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou, 318000, Zhejiang, China. lijm@tzc.edu.cn.
authors: Junmin
authors: J
authors: Li
authors: Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou, 318000, Zhejiang, China.|School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China.|Research Center for Biodiversity, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.
authors: Leshan
authors: L
authors: Du
authors: School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China.
authors: Wenbin
authors: W
authors: Guan
authors: School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China.
authors: Fei-Hai
authors: FH
authors: Yu
authors: Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, 78457, Constance, Germany.
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: van Kleunen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058865:Introduced Species; D010641:Phenotype; D018515:Plant Leaves; D036624:Solidago; D013696:Temperature
keywords: Climatic variability hypothesis; Latitudinal pattern; Longitudinal pattern; Morphological plasticity