Precipitation predictability drives evolution of drought strategies in the common poppy, Papaver rhoeas
Data files
Oct 06, 2023 version files 55.80 KB
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Data_papaver_FE.xlsx
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README.md
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Abstract
- Current climate change leads to an increase in the frequency and intensity of droughts and to decreased precipitation predictability. The few studies investigating plant evolutionary responses to contrasting predictability regimes showed that intrinsic precipitation predictability shapes plant phenotypic variation, drives evolution of phenotypic plasticity, and can vary in strength and direction of selection. This suggests that the selection pressure induced by decreased precipitation predictability may lead to plants coping better with severe drought events.
- To investigate whether past precipitation predictability influences plant responses to different drought conditions, we performed a common-garden experiment applying control, short-term and long-term drought treatments on seedlings of Papaver rhoeas (Papaveraceae) whose progenitors experienced less versus more precipitation predictability treatments for three consecutive generations. In addition, to assess whether competition modulates plant responses, half of the plants were grown together with the widespread herbaceous plant Galium album (Rubiaceae).
- In the presence of long drought episodes, plants whose progenitors experienced less predictable precipitation survived longer than those whose progenitors experienced more predictable precipitation. Furthermore, plants whose progenitors experienced less predictable precipitation had lower biomass, which is likely to reduce water loss via transpiration, and, across all drought treatments, they showed lower root investment. However, no trait differences were detected under competition, indicating that interspecific competition may limit the expression of evolutionary responses to changes induced by precipitation predictability.
- Altogether our results indicate that lower precipitation predictability mainly promotes the evolution of drought-escape and drought-avoidance strategies. Overall, our experiment highlights that precipitation predictability is an important evolutionary driver of plant functional responses, potentially shifting evolutionary trajectories of plants under increasing intensity of drought events.
Greenhouse evolution experiment manipulating Past predictability treatment (i.e., preceding generations were exposed to less or more precipitation predictability for three generations), drought treatments (long-term, short-term, or control drought treatment) and competition (yes or no, with Galium album).
Description of the data and file structure
Data variables include:
FACTORS:
- drought_treat: Drought treatment: long drought, short drought or control treatment
- precip_pred: Past precipitation predictability treatment for three consecutive generations: More predictable (M), Less predictable (L)
- competition: Competition: 0 (No), 1 (Yes)
REPLICATES:
- family: Seed family: six seed families were selected from each past predictability treatment
- replicate: Individual replicates per treatment group. (a total of 288 pots were used in the experiment, i.e., two predictability treatments × six seed families × three drought treatments × two competition treatments × four replicates)
CONTINUOUS VARIABLES:
- nb_leaves1: Initial number of leaves
- longest_leaf1: Initial length of the longest leaf (in cm)
- SPAD_16th_01: SPAD measure at day 16
- SPAD_18th_01: SPAD measure at day 18
- SPAD_20th_01: SPAD measure at day 20
- SPAD_26th_01: SPAD measure at day 26
- wilt_16th_01: Wilt (1) or no wilt (0) at day 16
- wilt_17th_01: Wilt (1) or no wilt (0) at day 17
- wilt_18th_01: Wilt (1) or no wilt (0) at day 18
- wilt_19th_01: Wilt (1) or no wilt (0) at day 19
- wilt_20th_01: Wilt (1) or no wilt (0) at day 20
- wilt_21th_01: Wilt (1) or no wilt (0) at day 21
- wilt_22th_01: Wilt (1) or no wilt (0) at day 22
- wilt_23th_01: Wilt (1) or no wilt (0) at day 23
- wilt_24th_01: Wilt (1) or no wilt (0) at day 24
- wilt_25th_01: Wilt (1) or no wilt (0) at day 25
- wilt_26th_01: Wilt (1) or no wilt (0) at day 26
- longest_leaff: Length of the longest leaf - final measure (in cm)
- nb_leavesf: Number of leaves - final measure
- root_length: Maximum root length (in mm)
- bground_biomass: Root biomass (in g)
- abground_biomass: Aboveground biomass (in g)
Code/Software
All statistical analyses were conducted with R version 4.1.1 (R Development Core Team, 2021).
Data collected in greenhouse experimental settings.