Examinando por Autor "Morente Lopez, Javier"

Mostrando 1 - 5 de 5

Gene flow effects on populations inhabiting marginal areas: origin matters.
(British Ecological Society, 2020-06-24) Morente Lopez, Javier; Lara-Romero, Carlos; Garcia-Fernández, Alfredo; Rubio Teso, Maria L.; Prieto-Benitez, Samuel; Iriondo, Jose M
The evolutionary potential of populations inhabiting marginal areas has been extensively debated and directly affects their conservation value. Gene flow is one of the main factors influencing selection, adaptive potential and thus, local adaptation processes in marginal areas. The effects of differential gene flow provenance are still not well understood, since studies on gene flow between marginal populations have been underrepresented in the literature. This kind of gene flow can be especially beneficial because it can provide both adaptive allelic combinations originated under similar environmental conditions and genetic variation on which selection can act.
Geography and Environment Shape Landscape Genetics of Mediterranean Alpine Species Silene ciliata Poiret. (Caryophyllaceae)
(2018-11-27) Morente Lopez, Javier; García, Cristina; Lara-Romero, Carlos; Garcia-Fernández, Alfredo; Draper, David; Iriondo, Jose M
Linking ecological niche models and common garden experiments to predict phenotypic differentiation in stressful environments: Assessing the adaptive value of marginal populations in an alpine plant
(John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2022-03-31) Morente Lopez, Javier; Kass, Jamie; Lara-Romero, Carlos; Serra-Diaz, Josep M; Soto-Correa, José Carlos; Anderson, Robert P.
Environmental variation within a species’ range can create contrasting selective pressures, leading to divergent selection and novel adaptations. The conservation value of populations inhabiting environmentally marginal areas remains in debate and is closely related to the adaptive potential in changing environments. Strong selection caused by stressful conditions may generate novel adaptations, conferring these populations distinct evolutionary potential and high conservation value under climate change. On the other hand, environmentally marginal populations may be genetically depauperate, with little potential for new adaptations to emerge. Here, we explored the use of ecological niche models (ENMs) linked with common garden experiments to predict and test for genetically determined phenotypic differentiation related to contrasting environmental conditions. To do so, we built an ENM for the alpine plant Silene ciliata in central Spain and conducted common garden experiments, assessing flowering phenology changes and differences in leaf cell resistance to extreme temperatures. The suitability patterns and response curves of the ENM led to the predictions that: (1) the environmentally marginal populations experiencing less snowpack and higher minimum temperatures would have delayed flowering to avoid risks of late-spring frosts and (2) those with higher minimum temperatures and greater potential evapotranspiration would show enhanced cell resistance to high temperatures to deal with physiological stress related to desiccation and heat. The common garden experiments revealed the expected genetically based phenotypic differentiation in flowering phenology. In contrast, they did not show the expected differentiation for cell resistance, but these latter experiments had high variance and hence lower statistical power. The results highlight ENMs as useful tools to identify contrasting putative selective pressures across species ranges. Linking ENMs with common garden experiments provides a theoretically justified and practical way to study adaptive processes, including insights regarding the conservation value of populations inhabiting environmentally marginal areas under ongoing climate change.
Past selection shaped phenological differentiation among populations at contrasting elevations in a Mediterranean alpine plant
(Elsevier B.V., 2020-06-14) Morente Lopez, Javier; Scheepens, JF; Lara-Romero, Carlos; Ruiz-Checa, Raquel; Tabarés, Pablo; Iriondo, Jose M
Flowering phenology is an important life-history trait strongly influenced by the environment that directly affects plant fitness. Climate change is bringing about shifts in flowering time caused by adaptive evolution and phenotypic plasticity, but their relative contributions and effects are poorly understood. This is especially critical in Mediterranean alpine species, which experience steep environmental gradients at short distances characteristic of alpine environments and an intense summer drought period derived from the Mediterranean climate. Moreover, tracking climate change through migration to higher elevations is not always possible for alpine species since many already find their optimal niche at mountain summits. In this study, we aimed to determine if flowering phenology is genetically differentiated among populations inhabiting contrasting environmental conditions and ascertain if it has been subjected to past selection. This knowledge is crucial to understanding adaptation of alpine plants to current environmental gradients and to provide insight about what adaptations may be necessary to cope with future and ongoing climate warming. We used a common garden experiment to analyze genetic differentiation in phenological traits of nine populations of Silene ciliata Pourret (Caryophyllaceae) distributed at two environmentally differentiated areas (optimal and marginal habitat suitability) in three mountain ranges of Central Spain. Environmentally optimal areas for this species are close to the mountain tops, whereas marginal areas are found at the lower distribution edge. We also studied the relation between neutral genetic differentiation (FST) and quantitative trait differentiation (PST) to infer past selection on characters under contrasting environmental conditions. We found genetic differentiation for the onset, peak and end of flowering between populations in optimal and marginal areas in the presence of substantial gene flow. This finding highlights the strong diverging selection pressures between the different Mediterranean alpine environments. We also found evidence of past diversifying selection for flowering peak and end of flowering. This evidence of past adaptation in addition to adaptive phenotypic plasticity to advance flowering dates under warmer temperatures suggest that adaptation of flowering phenology to current and future warming should be feasible, especially for populations inhabiting optimal areas.
Phenology drives species interactions and modularity in a plant - flower visitor network
(Springer Nature, 2018-06-20) Morente Lopez, Javier; Lara-Romero, Carlos; Ornosa, Concepción; Iriondo, Jose M
Phenology is often identifed as one of the main structural driving forces of plant – fower visitor networks. Nevertheless, we do not yet have a full understanding of the efects of phenology in basic network build up mechanisms such as ecological modularity. In this study, we aimed to identify the efect of within-season temporal variation of plant and fower visitor activity on the network structural conformation. Thus, we analysed the temporal dynamics of a plant – fower visitor network in two Mediterranean alpine communities during one complete fowering season. In our approach, we built quantitative interaction networks and studied the dynamics through temporal beta diversity of species, interaction changes and modularity analysis. Within-season dissimilarity in the identity of interactions was mainly caused by species replacement through time (species turnover). Temporal replacement of species and interactions clearly impacted modularity, to the extent that species phenology emerged as a strong determinant of modularity in our networks. From an applied perspective, our results highlight the importance of considering the temporal variation of species interactions throughout the fowering season and the requirement of making comprehensive temporal sampling when aiming to build functionally consistent interaction networks.