News
27.08.2020
Rapid evolution under climate change
Team of the University of Tübingen studied how plants adapt to increasing drought
Certain plant species can evolve very quickly under drought conditions. This means that the modified plant traits are genetically fixed and passed on to the next generation. A research team led by Professor Katja Tielbörger from the Institute of Evolution and Ecology, together with other colleagues from the University of Tübingen and the Universities of Hildesheim, Münster and Cologne, has shown this in a new study. However, the plants in the experiment were not able to quickly adapt all important traits to the lack of water. The study has been published in the journal Ecology Letters.
Anthropogenic climate change is progressing faster and faster, leading to higher temperatures and altered precipitation. For many regions that are already very dry today, such as deserts or semi-deserts, climate scenarios predict even lower precipitation levels. In order to survive under these new conditions, organisms must adapt very quickly.
Utilization of a long-term field experiment
Tielbörger's research group could build on a unique long-term experiment in Israel to investigate whether and how plants can realize such rapid adaptation. For twelve years, the precipitation was manipulated for entire plant communities in the field, either by providing additional irrigation or by reducing the rainfall using special rainout shelters. “Such long-term experiments are rarely conducted. That's why there are hardly any studies in which the evolution of plants can be investigated under near-natural conditions,” says Tielbörger. In an earlier study, the scientist had already found that the plant communities were extremely resistant to drought, and she then suspected that this could be partly due to rapid adaptation of the predominantly annual species.
In the current study, Tielbörger's team focused on a small annual crucifer (Biscutella didyma), a species that occurs in extreme deserts up to rather wet Mediterranean regions. “We have looked at a large number of traits whose genetic information has been well researched and which have a huge influence on the plant's ability to withstand drought,” said Tielbörger. A special feature of the long-term experiment was that it included four locations along a very steep rainfall gradient. The research team investigated the plant traits that change along the gradient and compared them with the response of the plants to the experiments.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Katja Tielbörger
University of Tübingen
Faculty of Science
Institute of Evolution and Ecology
Department of Biology, Plant Ecology Group
+49 7071 29-74246
katja.tielboerger@uni-tuebingen.de
Contact for press:
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Public Relations Department
Dr. Karl Guido Rijkhoek
Director
Janna Eberhardt
Research Reporter
Phone +49 7071 29-76753
Fax +49 7071 29-5566
janna.eberhardt@uni-tuebingen.de
www.uni-tuebingen.de/en/university/news-and-publications