TY - JOUR T1 - From genes to ecosystems: a synthesis of the effects of plant genetic factors across levels of organization. JF - Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences Y1 - 2009 A1 - JK Bailey A1 - Jennifer A Schweitzer A1 - Ubeda,Francisco A1 - Koricheva,Julia A1 - LeRoy,Carri J A1 - Madritch,Michael D A1 - Rehill,Brian J A1 - RK Bangert A1 - Fischer,Dylan G A1 - Allan,Gerard J A1 - Whitham,Thomas G KW - Animals KW - Arthropods KW - Ecosystem KW - Genetic Variation KW - Genetics, Population KW - Models, Genetic KW - Plant Development KW - Plants AB -

Using two genetic approaches and seven different plant systems, we present findings from a meta-analysis examining the strength of the effects of plant genetic introgression and genotypic diversity across individual, community and ecosystem levels with the goal of synthesizing the patterns to date. We found that (i) the strength of plant genetic effects can be quite high; however, the overall strength of genetic effects on most response variables declined as the levels of organization increased. (ii) Plant genetic effects varied such that introgression had a greater impact on individual phenotypes than extended effects on arthropods or microbes/fungi. By contrast, the greatest effects of genotypic diversity were on arthropods. (iii) Plant genetic effects were greater on above-ground versus below-ground processes, but there was no difference between terrestrial and aquatic environments. (iv) The strength of the effects of intraspecific genotypic diversity tended to be weaker than interspecific genetic introgression. (v) Although genetic effects generally decline across levels of organization, in some cases they do not, suggesting that specific organisms and/or processes may respond more than others to underlying genetic variation. Because patterns in the overall impacts of introgression and genotypic diversity were generally consistent across diverse study systems and consistent with theoretical expectations, these results provide generality for understanding the extended consequences of plant genetic variation across levels of organization, with evolutionary implications.

VL - 364 SN - 0962-8436 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&DbFrom=pubmed&Cmd=Link&LinkName=pubmed_pubmed&LinkReadableName=Related%20Articles&IdsFromResult=19414474&ordinalpos=3&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSumhttp://www.ncbi. IS - 1523 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Genetic structure of a foundation species: scaling community phenotypes from the individual to the region. JF - Heredity Y1 - 2008 A1 - RK Bangert A1 - E V Lonsdorf A1 - Wimp,G M A1 - Shuster,S M A1 - Fischer,D A1 - Schweitzer,J A A1 - Allan,G J A1 - JK Bailey A1 - Whitham,T G KW - Animals KW - biodiversity KW - Ecosystem KW - Environment KW - Populus KW - Trees AB -

Understanding the local and regional patterns of species distributions has been a major goal of ecological and evolutionary research. The notion that these patterns can be understood through simple quantitative rules is attractive, but while numerous scaling laws exist (e.g., metabolic, fractals), we are aware of no studies that have placed individual traits and community structure together within a genetics based scaling framework. We document the potential for a genetic basis to the scaling of ecological communities, largely based upon our long-term studies of poplars (Populus spp.). The genetic structure and diversity of these foundation species affects riparian ecosystems and determines a much larger community of dependent organisms. Three examples illustrate these ideas. First, there is a strong genetic basis to phytochemistry and tree architecture (both above- and belowground), which can affect diverse organisms and ecosystem processes. Second, empirical studies in the wild show that the local patterns of genetics based community structure scale up to western North America. At multiple spatial scales the arthropod community phenotype is related to the genetic distance among plants that these arthropods depend upon for survival. Third, we suggest that the familiar species-area curve, in which species richness is a function of area, is also a function of genetic diversity. We find that arthropod species richness is closely correlated with the genetic marker diversity and trait variance suggesting a genetic component to these curves. Finally, we discuss how genetic variation can interact with environmental variation to affect community attributes across geographic scales along with conservation implications.

VL - 100 SN - 0018-067X UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&DbFrom=pubmed&Cmd=Link&LinkName=pubmed_pubmed&LinkReadableName=Related%20Articles&IdsFromResult=17047690&ordinalpos=3&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSumhttp://www.ncbi. IS - 2 ER -