To understand the origins and dynamics of plant diversity, this project will investigate the evolutionary roots of plant diversity, how plant traits diversified, and how evolutionary history and traits now affect the ability of plants to persist in landscapes subject to climate change, disturbance, and habitat fragmentation. The project focuses on Wisconsin where remarkably detailed data exist on plant distributions and abundances and how these have changed over the past 50+ years. Gene sequences will be used to reconstruct evolutionary relationships. Plant traits will be mapped onto these trees to infer when they evolved, how they changed, and how ancestry and traits affect species success and co-occurrences. Analyses of genome size and genetic variation in some species will show how patterns of local and regional variation relate to dispersal traits, geographic range, habitat fragmentation, and landscape dynamics. Data on historical community changes and climate projections will be used to predict future changes in range and abundance. This project will thus integrate our understanding of how plant traits evolve, how traits relate to ecological success, and how traits interact with phylogeny, genome size, and landscape conditions to affect species persistence and invasions.
Plant diversity underlies ecosystem productivity and diversity, yet we still lack a clear picture of why most habitats are losing species while weedy plants are invading. This project will illuminate the mechanisms driving these changes and so improve our ability to manage natural and constructed ecosystems wisely. The trait and sequence data will also enhance national databases, facilitating further research. The project will contribute substantially to human resources by training cadres of undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral researchers in a broad set of skills related to biodiversity science.
