Historical and Geographic Context for the Evolution of Climate Niche Breadth in Temperate Plants Brad Oberle Washington University in St
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Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) January 2009 Historical and Geographic Context for the Evolution of Climate Niche Breadth in Temperate Plants Brad Oberle Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd Recommended Citation Oberle, Brad, "Historical and Geographic Context for the Evolution of Climate Niche Breadth in Temperate Plants" (2009). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 263. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/263 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences Program in Evolution, Ecology and Population Biology Dissertation Examination Committee: Barbara A. Schaal, co-chair Peter H. Raven, co-chair Alan R. Templeton Tiffany M. Knight Peter C. Hoch Ellen I. Damschen HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHIC CONTEXT FOR THE EVOLUTION OF CLIMATE NICHE BREADTH IN TEMPERATE PLANTS by Brad Joseph Oberle A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2009 Saint Louis, Missouri Copyright by Brad Joseph Oberle September 2009 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION In order to predict how species will respond to global climate change, scientists must understand the relationships between traits, fitness, environments and distributions. Niche theory provides a useful framework. Niche breadth describes the range of environmental conditions necessary for population growth. Among these conditions, climate is especially important. Climate niche breadth in turn may reflect a confluence of different forces. This dissertation presents a series of projects that assess the relative roles of historical, geographic and population processes that contribute to climate niche breadth in temperate plants. The first project evaluates the predictive power of a classical hypothesis. If gene flow slows divergent adaptation, then range fragmentation should promote niche breadth. By quantifying the relationships between environmental difference, geographic distance and genetic isolation among European plants, I show that the effect of allopatry on niche breadth depends on the role of the geographic distance among populations. The remaining projects focus in increasingly finer detail on the evolution of niche breadth in a taxonomically complex group. Dodecatheon sect. Dodecatheon grow in diverse habitats across North America. They have confounded taxonomists with polyploidy, hybridization and convergent adaptation. Currently recognized species are either widespread or rare microclimate specialists. First, with multilocus phylogenetics, I show that the difference in niche breadth among rare and widespread species is not simply due to differences in environmental tolerance. In eastern North America, geographic heterogeneity and paleoclimate history strongly contribute to taxonomic rarity. The next project focuses on this group. Both rare eastern species are considered ii glacial relicts. I test this hypothesis by combining ecophysiological and population genetic data in a new phylogeographic framework. The analysis shows that the match between traits and habitats is largely due to local gene flow and selection rather than migration and habitat sorting. Finally, through morphometrics, cytology, population genetics and greenhouse experiments, I show that dynamic polyploidy permits local movement of alleles between rare and widespread taxa. Overall, these results suggest that anthropogenic climate change may threaten biodiversity not by forcing impossible migrations, but by promoting hybridization and complicating taxonomy just as it has in the past. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the National Science Foundation (Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant DEB-0608317), Sigma Xi (Grant in Aid of Research), the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and the Graduate Program at the Missouri Botanical Garden. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the guidance and inspiration provided by my advisors, committee members and other area faculty. Dr. Barbara Schaal provided unwavering support during the development and execution of this project. Without her encouragement, this project would have been utterly impossible. Dr. Peter Raven provided his incomparable perspective on all things botanical. I sincerely hope this project reflects his brilliance, if only in some dim way. I thank my committee members, Dr. Alan Templeton, Dr. Tiffany Knight, Dr. Peter Hoch and Dr. Tiffany Knight, for their incisive comments and direction. Among them, my acting committee chair, Dr. Templeton, deserves special recognition for allowing me the opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant in his population genetic course, where I learned tremendously. I would also like to thank Dr. George Yatskyeivych, whose understanding of the local flora and its unusual plants provided invaluable direction during the early stages of this project. I also worked closely with several area scientists and students on many aspects of this project. Dr. Betsy Esselman shared the wonderful resources at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Our collaboration made many routine aspects of this project a true joy. Also Dr. Iván Jiménez and Trisha Distler contributed to the development and execution of the first chapter. I look forward to working with both of these brilliant people in the future. This project would have been impossible without the contributions iv of several talented and hardworking students. I had the privilege of mentoring two outstanding Washington University undergraduate honors majors with Dr. Schaal during the course of this project. Robert Montgomery and Anne Greenberg collected vital data for Chapter 4. Kirthika Vijayakumar, a work study student at Washington University, helped extract DNA and measure leaves for Chapter 3. The hard work of these students is a testament to the quality of the student body at Washington University. I am certain each will have great success in her or his career. I also mentored several biology students with Dr. Esselman and Sue Eder at SIUE. Robert Brammeier and Anjoli Martinez-Singh worked diligently to collect morphometric and seed count data for Chapter 4. Christina Rogenski and Jordon Bell photographed and measured hundreds of pollen grains for Chapter 3. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge Tim Rye for providing plant material and contacts for preliminary data collection. I would also like to acknowledge the staff of the Biology Department at Washington University. Mike Dyer managed the greenhouse facilities where the germination experiment took place. Mike Malolespy helped with several computer problems encountered during the course of this project. This project entailed a considerable amount of fieldwork. That work, and the project itself, would have been impossible without the assistance of a host of individuals and institutions. John Schenk, Dr. Jim and Fay Lacefield, Matt Valente, David Dannely, Dr. Tass Kelso, Calvin Hwang, Chris Schlieckert, Colin and Sharon Phillips, Al and Mary Agnew and Jessica and Bruce Wilton showed tremendous hospitality by sharing their homes with me as I collected. John, Jim, David and Tass, along with Ken Chambers, Theo Witsell, Mike Powers, Gene Gercinovic, Tim Draude, Larry Klotz and v Carol Loeffler and Bryan Wender joined me in the field and helped me make important contacts. Taina Matheson-Price, Dr. Tass Kelso and Dr. Jim Reveal collected material on my behalf. I also gratefully acknowledge the hard work by numerous botanists and administrators at the USDA Forest Service who processed many permits and shared collection data for plants on land they managed. Among them I especially thank Shawnee National Forest for permitting work in southern Illinois. I also acknowledge the Nature Conservancy, the Ministry of Environment of British Columbia, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Nature Preserves Commission, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Travis County (TX) Department of Natural Resources, the Arkansas Division of Nature Preserves, the Tennessee Division of Nature Preserves, the Kentucky Department of Parks and State Nature Preserves Commission, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources: Division of Nature Preserves, the Virginia Department of Conservation of Resources-Division of Nature Preserves, the Lancaster County (PA) Department of Parks and Recreation, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. These conservation agencies play a vital role in preserving the natural heritage of North America and facilitating scientific research into how to best accomplish that goal. I would finally like to thank Jim and Cindy O’Neill and Dr. Tim and Faye Lacefield for allowing collection on their own property. I would also like to thank several current and former graduate students who contributed to this project, both directly and indirectly. Dr. James Beck generously shared his time to collect cytological data and provide comments. He and Dr. Jason Londo taught