Data from: The invasive plant Solidago canadensis exhibits partial local adaptation to low salinity at germination but not at later life‐history stages
Data files
Feb 21, 2024 version files 14.69 KB
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AJB_data_20240221.xlsx
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README.md
Abstract
Premise: Evolutionary adaptation may enable plants to inhabit a broad range of environments. However, germination and early life‐history stages have seldom been considered in estimates of evolutionary adaptation. Moreover, whether soil microbial communities can influence evolutionary adaptation in plants remains little explored.
Methods: We used reciprocal transplant experiments to investigate whether two populations of an invasive plant Solidago canadensis that occur in contrasting habitats of low versus high salinity expressed adaptation to the respective salinity levels. We germinated S. canadensis seeds collected from low‐and high‐salinity habitats under low‐ and high‐salt treatments. We also raised S. canadensis seedlings from the two salinity habitats under low‐ and high‐salt treatments and in the presence versus absence of microbial communities from the two habitats.
Results: Genotypes from a low‐salinity habitat had higher germination rates under low‐salt treatment than genotypes from a high‐salinity habitat. However, both genotypes had similar germination rates under a high‐salt treatment. The two genotypes also had similar seedling survival and biomass responses to low‐ and high‐salt treatments. Nevertheless, seedling biomass was significantly higher under low salt treatment. Soil microbial communities did not influence biomass of S. canadensis under the two salt treatments.
Conclusions: The results on germination rates suggest partial local adaptation to low salinity. However, there was no evidence of local adaptation to salinity at the seedling survival and growth stages. The finding that germination and seedling biomass responded to different salt treatments suggests that the two traits are important for salt tolerance.
README: The invasive plant Solidago canadensis exhibits partial local adaptation to low salinity at germination but not at later life‐history stages
This README file was generated on 2024-02-20 by Junmin Li.
Date of data collection: Data were collected on 2017
Links to publications that cite or use the data
Jin HF, Yuan YG, Gao FL, Oduor AMO, Li JM. The invasive plant Solidago canadensis exhibits partial local adaptation to low salinity at germination but not at later life-history stages. American Journal of Botany, 2020, 107(4): 1C8
File description
Data is in a excel document with three sheets.
Description of the data
SO & SC sheet
Salt concentration: 1-high salt concentration, 2-low salt concentration
Seeds origin: 1- seeds collected from low salt concentration location; 2- seeds collected from high salt concentration location
Germination rate (%): The total number of seeds that germinated on the 12th day/ total number of seeds that had been placed in a petri dish on the 12th day) 100%.MO & SO & SC TB sheet
Microbial communities origin: 1-microbal community from soil collected from low salt concentration location; 2-microbal community from soil collected from high salt concentration location
Seeds origin: 1- seeds collected from low salt concentration location; 2- seeds collected from high salt concentration location
Salt concentration: 1-high salt concentration 2-low salt concentration
Total biomass (g): The dry weith of whole plantSO & MO & SC SS sheet
Seeds origin: 1- seeds collected from low salt concentration location; 2- seeds collected from high salt concentration location
Microbial community origin: 1-microbal community from soil collected from low salt concentration location; 2-microbal community from soil collected from high salt concentration location
Salt concentration: 1-high salt concentration 2-low salt concentration
Seedling survival rate: The proportions of seedlings that survived at the pot level after three months growth
Methods
Seed and soil sampling
In November 2016, we collected seeds and rhizospheric soil of S. canadensis in two contrasting habitats with low (inside a dam) and high (outside a dam) NaCl concentration near Haixing village in Zhejiang province (Table 1). The two habitats were separated by c.1000 m. Although high soil salinity may be due to high concentrations of Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl-, SO42-, CO32- or HCO3- ions, high concentrations of NaCl is considered to be a major cause of soil salinity (Yadav et al., 2011). Therefore, we used NaCl content of the soil as an indicator of soil salinity. Accordingly, we considered soil inside the dam that had a NaCl concentration of 0.2% to represent low salinity while soil outside the dam that had a NaCl concentration of 0.4% to represent high salinity. We measured soil salinity in the two habitats by determining the total soluble salts by evaporation of a soil water extract (Bao, 1999). In each habitat, we collected seeds and rhizospheric soil from 10 randomly sampled S. canadensis individuals (i.e. 10 maternal families per habitat) that were separated by more than 10 meters to avoid sampling the same genet. We stored seeds from each maternal family separately, but pooled and homogenized rhizospheric soils across individuals within each habitat. We stored seeds at 4℃ and soils at -20℃ until use.
Experiment 1: Testing whether S. canadensis had evolved adaptation to soil salinity at the germination stage
To test whether S. canadensis was adapted to low and high salinity levels at the germination stage of development, we performed germination tests by sowing S. canadensis seeds from low-saline and high-saline habitats in media with low and high salt contents. Four treatment combinations resulted from a fully factorial crossing of S. canadensis seed origin with salt treatment: two levels of S. canadensis seed source (low-salinity vs. high-salinity) x two levels of salt concentration (0.2% vs. 0.4% NaCl). Each treatment combination was replicated six times (i.e. six Petri dishes per S. canadensis seed source per salt treatment). We placed 10 S. canadensis seeds per Petri dish (each maternal family was represented by one seed). The Petri dishes (11 cm in diameter) were lined with a sterilized filter paper. In each Petri dish, we applied 3 ml of the corresponding salt solutions daily for 12 days. To attain salt solutions corresponding to 0.2% and 0.4% NaCl, we dissolved 0.2g and 0.4g of NaCl in 100 ml of sterilized deionized water, respectively. In a pilot experiment, we found that S. canadensis seeds germinated within 10 days. As such, in this experiment, we recorded the proportion of seeds that germinated on the 12th day following sowing. We conducted the experiment in a walk-in climate chamber (25°C/20°C day/night and 12h/12h light/dark cycles) at Taizhou University, China in July 2017. The Petri dishes were arranged randomly within the climate chamber. For each maternal family, we determined germination rate on the 12th day as follows: (total number of seeds that germinated / total number of seeds that had been placed in a Petri dish) × 100. In each Petri dish, we had marked the individual positions of each family and hence it was possible to track germination per family.
Experiment 2: Testing the potential effect of soil microbial community on adaptation of S. canadensis to salinity
To test whether soil microbial community influenced adaptation of S. canadensis to salinity, we grew S. canadensis seedlings raised from seeds that had been collected from low-salinity and high-salinity habitats in a substrate with low (0.2% NaCl) and high (0.4% NaCl) salt concentrations and in the presence versus absence of soil microbial communities from low-salinity and high-salinity habitats. We grew the seedlings in small plastic pots (diameter =5.2 cm; height =9 cm; four holes at the bottom) filled with a sterilized commercial potting substrate (a mix of peat, sand and vermiculite in the ratio 6:3:1, v/v/v) that had been inoculated with soil microbes from low-salinity and high-salinity habitats and treated with 0.2% NaCl and 0.4% NaCl. We transplanted four 20-day old S. canadensis seedlings (c. 2-cm tall) into each pot. A total of ten seedlings, which were distributed in the different treatment combinations died within the first seven days of transplant. We considered the seedlings to have died of transplant shock rather than salt toxicity because transplant shock had previously been reported for S. canadensis in a non-saline soil (Yuan et al., 2013). Therefore, we replaced a dead seedling with another one from the same maternal family and age in the seedling stock. We inoculated each pot with microbial communities by adding 5% (volume/ volume) (see Lau and Lennon, 2011) of the rhizospehric soil collected as described above. Prior to inoculation, the rhizospheric soil was taken out of storage at -20℃ and incubated on a laboratory bench at 20oC for 48 hours (see Li et al., 2017). We sterilized the potting substrate by autoclaving at 121°C for two hours. The fully factorial experimental design resulted in a total of eight treatment combinations: two levels of S. canadensis seed source (low - salinity vs. high - salinity) x two levels of salt concentration (0.2% vs. 0.4% NaCl) x two sources of soil microbial community origin (low-salinity vs. high-salinity). Each treatment combination was replicated four times (i.e. four pots per treatment combination). The pots were arranged randomly within a climate chamber with the same growth conditions as the germination experiment above. The plants were watered regularly as needed. We monitored plant responses to treatment conditions for three months, spanning August - October 2017. After three months of growth, we harvested all the experimental plants and washed their roots to remove soil particles and oven-dried them at 105°C for one hour and then at 80°C to a constant weight. We then determined the total biomass (root and shoot together) of individual S. canadensis plants to an accuracy of 0.01 g.