Genetic variation in plant functional traits as drivers in arthropod community structure

Abstract

Genetic variation and environmental influences are important drivers of variation in individual traits. Environment is an important selective force in shifting genetic variation as individuals respond to climate change. Climate change has a very strong effect on precipitation which affect many organisms especially plants, which leads to genetic variation among plant species as they respond to the effects of climate change. Genetic variation in plants has been shown to influence not only phenotypes of the plant itself, but also the community of organisms the plant interacts with. The objective of this study is to determine how traditional and extended phenotypes differ among source populations and maternal families and what plant traits drive differences among arthropod community interactions. We studied Valeriana edulis Nutt. ex Torr. and A. Gray subsp. edulis, a long lived dioecious perennial herb native to western North America and its associated arthropod community. A common-garden was planted containing 424 replicates of Valeriana edulis from five source populations across an elevation gradient. On these plants, we measured traits known to influence arthropod abundances and sampled the arthropod community. The results showed a significant difference in the variation of traits across the source populations as expected, however there was no significant effect of arthropod communities being associated to any specific traits on the plants. This can lead to further analysis looking at the development of the plant to determine at what point the plant traits are important for arthropod communities. Telling us more about the variation in community genetics depending on the maturity of the host plants.

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