One way to measure how a plant's form influences how it works is to measure the relationship between specific aspects of the plant's form and its performance. Although consistent tradeoffs among plant traits and consistent relationships between those traits and the environment are found among all plants, we do not know the form of those trade-offs and relationships for smaller groups in specific locations. This project will use the plant genus Protea to investigate functional traits in an environmentally diverse region of the world. The project will also determine the genetic bases for those trade-offs and relationships. This project will connect regional relationships between traits and the environment with experimental manipulations and advanced genetic techniques. It will contribute to the fields of ecology, phylogenetics, and evolution, and provide a new context and potentially new directions to the study of plant functional traits. Additionally, the project includes the training of graduate and undergraduate students, the mentoring of middle and high school students, and the development of online educational materials.
Although trait-based ecology is a huge field of study, little attention has been paid to how these ecologically important traits have evolved or to the genetic architecture underlying them. This research will integrate genetic analyses with field and greenhouse observations to explore the role of environmental adaptation in shaping plant functional traits. This project will use advanced techniques to examine DNA differences among individuals and to unravel the genetics of individual differences in a hybrid zone between two different Protea species. A manipulative dry-down experiment based on intensive, microgeographic field sampling and collection of seeds is being performed to determine the scale of trait-environment patterns and to identify mechanisms underlying niche filtering in the hybrid zone. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data derived from restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) will be used for association mapping of ecologically important traits. Maternal hybridity from offspring arrays will be estimated to refine analyses of trait-environment relationships along the cline from which the material is collected.
