This research tests whether plants will be able to survive on a warming planet using a mustard plant species as a model. Climate change threatens the persistence of many organisms worldwide. Vulnerable species must adapt or migrate to avoid extinction. Species such as plants that are unable to move will face particular challenges when coping with rapid changes in climate. In the meadows of the wildflower capital of Colorado, natural communities of plants are confronting hotter and drier conditions. Drummond's rockcress (Boechera stricta) is native to the Rocky Mountains and can grow at elevations as low as 5,000 feet and higher than 12,000 feet in sites as far north as Alaska and as far south as Arizona. The climate varies dramatically across this broad range, and rockcress plants have developed adaptations that enable them to perform best in their home sites. But can they adapt to the current pace of climate change quickly enough to survive? This research combines large-scale field studies with laboratory experiments to ask whether natural populations have enough genetic diversity to adapt in the short-term to rapidly changing conditions. Populations or species with limited adaptive potential may have to be relocated to more hospitable areas to conserve biodiversity. This project engages high school students, future high school teachers, and undergraduate researchers in the scientific method, increasing scientific literacy, and career opportunities.
Field and laboratory studies use the ecological model species B. stricta to examine: (1) how short-term fitness consequences of climate change influence the migratory and adaptive potential of populations; and (2) how plasticity, adaptation, and gene flow contribute to longer-term population persistence. To achieve these aims, researchers will evaluate how snow pack dynamics and temperatures interact to shape adaptation in nature, analyze the direct and indirect effects of climate on fitness and optimal phenotypes, assess clinal variation in local adaptation, and investigate the stability of the genetic covariance matrix in multiple environments.
