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This study was funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 676876 (GenTree project). ASM was supported by a PhD fellowship (FPI-SGIT-INIA) and TP by the Academy of Finland (287431). We are greatly indebted to all GenTree partner teams that participated in the seed collection campaigns: NIBIO, NERC, CNR, WSL, INRA and THUNEN. Finnish seeds were provided by Natural Resources Institute Finland, (LUKE). We thank Eduardo Ballesteros, Julius Bette, Fernando del Cano, Tabea Mackenbach, Tuomas Hamala, Sergio San Segundo, Ricardo Alia, Jose Climent, Silvia Matesanz, Mario Blanco-Sanchez, Marina Ramos-Munoz, Tiina M. Mattila, Weixuan Ning and Dario I. Ojeda for fieldwork assistance. We thank Ricardo Alia, Jose Climent and Regina Chambel for suggestions and comments on earlier versions of the manuscript and Silvia Matesanz for her suggestions on the final versions of the manuscript. We thank the staff at the Servicio Territorial de Medio Ambiente de Segovia for the authorization and assistance in establishing the Spanish experimental site. We also thank AEMET for providing the data of the climatic station next to the Spanish experimental site.

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Selection patterns on early-life phenotypic traits in Pinus sylvestris are associated with precipitation and temperature along a climatic gradient in Europe

Publicated to:New Phytologist. 229 (5): 3009-3025 - 2021-01-01 229(5), DOI: 10.1111/nph.17029

Authors: Ramirez-Valiente, Jose Alberto; Sole-Medina, Aida; Pyhajarvi, Tanja; Savolainen, Outi; Cervantes, Sandra; Kesalahti, Robert; Kujala, Sonja T; Kumpula, Timo; Heer, Katrin; Opgenoorth, Lars; Siebertz, Jan; Danusevicius, Darius; Notivol, Eduardo; Benavides, Raquel; Robledo-Arnuncio, Juan Jose

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Abstract

Understanding the dynamics of selection is key to predicting the response of tree species to new environmental conditions in the current context of climate change. However, selection patterns acting on early recruitment stages and their climatic drivers remain largely unknown in most tree species, despite being a critical period of their life cycle. We measured phenotypic selection on Pinus sylvestris seed mass, emergence time and early growth rate over 2 yr in four common garden experiments established along the latitudinal gradient of the species in Europe. Significant phenotypic plasticity and among-population genetic variation were found for all measured phenotypic traits. Heat and drought negatively affected fitness in the southern sites, but heavy rainfalls also decreased early survival in middle latitudes. Climate-driven directional selection was found for higher seed mass and earlier emergence time, while the form of selection on seedling growth rates differed among sites and populations. Evidence of adaptive and maladaptive phenotypic plasticity was found for emergence time and early growth rate, respectively. Seed mass, emergence time and early growth rate have an adaptive role in the early stages of P. sylvestris and climate strongly influences the patterns of selection on these fitness-related traits.

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