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Genome size varies among individuals within plant species and their populations. Interspecific variation in plant genome size is associated with phenology, climate, and latitude and longitude—suggesting that genome size may be linked with environmental adaptation—but the evolutionary significance of intraspecific variation in genome size remains unresolved. In particular, little is known regarding how selection under different climatic and micro‐environmental conditions shapes intraspecific variation in genome size. We measured genome size within Festuca ovina populations collected from grassland plots exposed to 16 years of experimental drought treatment at the Buxton Climate Change Impacts Laboratory. We assessed whether genome size was associated with either drought treatment or fine‐scale heterogeneity in soil depth within grassland plots. Genome size varied by up to 1.28‐fold among F. ovina individuals, but was not associated with either drought treatment or plant phenotypes (cell size, flowering time, and biomass). Genome size was, however, negatively associated with fine‐scale variation in soil depth, implying that abiotic and biotic conditions linked with soil depth impose either direct or indirect selection on genome size. We suggest that the higher nutrient availability and reduced competition associated with shallow soils enable individuals with larger genomes to persist locally within the grassland. Intraspecific variation in plant genome size could allow adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Using the world's longest running drought manipulation experiment, we make a long‐term experimental test of the relationship between population‐level plant genome size and drought. We show that while plant genome size is not altered by drought treatment, it is associated with fine‐scale natural heterogeneity in soil depth.

Drought imposes stress on plants and associated soil microbes, inducing coordinated adaptive responses, which can involve plant–soil signalling via phytohormones. However, we know little about how microbial communities respond to phytohormones, or how these responses are shaped by chronic (long-term) drought. Here, we added three phytohormones (abscisic acid, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid, and jasmonic acid) to soils from long-term (25-year), field-based climate treatments to test the hypothesis that chronic drought alters soil microbial community responses to plant stress signalling. Phytohormone addition increased soil respiration, but this effect was stronger in irrigated than in droughted soils and increased soil respiration at low phytohormone concentrations could not be explained by their use as substrate. Thus, we show that drought adaptation within soil microbial communities modifies their responses to phytohormone inputs. Furthermore, distinct phytohormone-induced shifts in microbial functional groups in droughted vs. irrigated soils might suggest that drought-adapted soil microorganisms perceive phytohormones as stress-signals, allowing them to anticipate impending drought.Emma Sayer et al. use a 25-year field experiment to investigate how microbial community responses to phytohormones are affected by drought. Phytohormone-induced shifts in microbial functional groups suggest that drought adaptation within soil microbial communities mediates responses to plant stress signalling.

1. Understanding the effects of intraspecific genetic diversity on the structure and functioning of ecological communities is a fundamentally important part of evolutionary ecology and may also have conservation relevance in identifying the situations in which genetic diversity coincides with species-level diversity. 2. Early studies within this field documented positive relationships between genetic diversity and ecological structure, but recent studies have challenged these findings. Conceptual synthesis has been hampered because studies have used different measures of intraspecific variation (phenotypically adaptive vs. neutral) and have considered different measures of ecological structure in different ecological and spatial contexts. The aim of this study is to strengthen conceptual understanding by providing an empirical synthesis quantifying the relationship between genetic diversity and ecological structure. 3. Here, I present a meta-analysis of the relationship between genetic diversity within plant populations and the structure and functioning of associated ecological communities (including 423 effect sizes from 70 studies). I used Bayesian meta-analyses to examine (i) the strength and direction of this relationship, (ii) the extent to which phenotypically adaptive and neutral (molecular) measures of diversity differ in their association with ecological structure and (iii) variation in outcomes among different measures of ecological structure and in different ecological contexts. 4. Effect sizes measuring the relationship between adaptive diversity (genotypic richness) and both community- and ecosystem-level ecological responses were small, but significantly positive. These associations were supported by genetic effects on species richness and productivity, respectively. 5. There was no overall association between neutral genetic diversity and measures of ecological structure, but a positive correlation was observed under a limited set of demographic conditions. These results suggest that adaptive and neutral genetic diversity should not be treated as ecologically equivalent measures of intraspecific variation. 6. Synthesis. This study advances the debate over whether relationships between genetic diversity and ecological structure are either simply positive or negative, by showing how the strength and direction of these relationships changes with different measures of diversity and in different ecological contexts. The results provide a solid foundation for assessing when and where an expanded synthesis between ecology and genetics will be most fruitful.

1. A recent experiment varied the genetic diversity of model grassland communities under standardized soil and management conditions and at constant initial species diversity. After 5 years' growth, genetically diverse communities retained more species diversity and became more similar in species composition than genetically impoverished communities. 2. Here we present the results of further investigation within this experimental system. We proposed that two mechanisms-the first invoking genetically determined and constant differences in plant phenotypes and the second invoking genotype-environment interactions-could each underpin these results. This mechanistic framework was used as a tool to interpret our findings. 3. We used inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) DNA markers to confirm which of the individuals of six study species initially included in the model communities were unique genotypes. We then used the molecular markers to assess the survival and abundance of each genotype at the end of the 5-year experimental period. 4. The DNA marker data were used to create, for the first time, a genotype abundance hierarchy describing the structure of a community at the level of genotypes. This abundance hierarchy revealed wide variation in the abundance of genotypes within species, and large overlaps in the performance of the genotypes of different species. 5. Each genotype achieved a consistent level of abundance within genetically diverse communities, which differed from that attained by other genotypes of the same species. The abundance hierarchy of genotypes within species also showed consistency across communities differing in their initial level of genetic diversity, such that species abundance in genetically impoverished communities could be predicted, in part, by genotypic identity. 6. Three species (including two canopy-dominants) experienced shifts in their communitylevel genotype abundance hierarchies that were consistent with an increased influence of genotype-environment interactions in genetically impoverished communities. 7. Our results indicate that under relatively constant environmental conditions the species abundance structure of plant communities can in part be predicted from the genotypic composition of their component populations. Genotype-environment interactions also appear to shape the structure of communities under such conditions, although further experiments are needed to clarify the magnitude and mechanism of these effects.

To predict the threat of biological invasions to native species, it is critical that we understand how increasing abundance of invasive alien species (IAS) affects native populations and communities. The form of this relationship across taxa and ecosystems is unknown, but is expected to depend strongly on the trophic position of the IAS relative to the native species. Using a global metaanalysis based on 1,258 empirical studies presented in 201 scientific publications, we assessed the shape, direction, and strength of native responses to increasing invader abundance. We also tested how native responses varied with relative trophic position and for responses at the population vs. community levels. As IAS abundance increased, native populations declined nonlinearly by 20%, on average, and community metrics declined linearly by 25%. When at higher trophic levels, invaders tended to cause a strong, nonlinear decline in native populations and communities, with the greatest impacts occurring at low invader abundance. In contrast, invaders at the same trophic level tended to cause a linear decline in native populations and communities, while invaders at lower trophic levels had no consistent impacts. At the community level, increasing invader abundance had significantly larger effects on species evenness and diversity than on species richness. Our results show that native responses to invasion depend critically on invasive species’ abundance and trophic position. Further, these general abundance–impact relationships reveal how IAS impacts are likely to develop during the invasion process and when to best manage them.

Human-induced abiotic global environmental changes (GECs) and the spread of nonnative invasive species are rapidly altering ecosystems. Understanding the relative and interactive effects of invasion and GECs is critical for informing ecosystem adaptation and management, but this information has not been synthesized. We conducted a meta-analysis to investigate effects of invasions, GECs, and their combined influences on native ecosystems. We found 458 cases from 95 published studies that reported individual and combined effects of invasions and a GEC stressor, which was most commonly warming, drought, or nitrogen addition. We calculated standardized effect sizes (Hedges’ d) for individual and combined treatments and classified interactions as additive (sum of individual treatment effects), antagonistic (smaller than expected), or synergistic (outside the expected range). The ecological effects of GECs varied, with detrimental effects more likely with drought than the other GECs. Invasions were more strongly detrimental, on average, than GECs. Invasion and GEC interactions were mostly antagonistic, but synergistic interactions occurred in >25% of cases and mostly led to more detrimental outcomes for ecosystems. While interactive effects were most often smaller than expected from individual invasion and GEC effects, synergisms were not rare and occurred across ecological responses from the individual to the ecosystem scale. Overall, interactions between invasions and GECs were typically no worse than the effects of invasions alone, highlighting the importance of managing invasions locally as a crucial step toward reducing harm from multiple global changes.

It is becoming apparent that genetic diversity can influence the species diversity and structure of ecological communities. Here, we investigated the intraspecific trait variation responsible for this relationship. We grew 10 genotypes of the sedge Carex caryophyllea , as monocultures, under standardized conditions and measured traits related to morphology, growth, and life history. The same genotypes had been prominent in determining the structure of multispecies experimental communities, equivalent in species diversity, in which the genetic diversity of the constituent plant species had been varied in parallel. The trait measurements revealed substantial phenotypic variation among Carex genotypes, related predominantly to differences in physical size and to the spatial deployment of above- and belowground tissue. Genotypes successful in experimental communities were larger in size and tended to adopt a \"guerrilla\" clonal growth strategy. In general, multivariate trait summaries of genotype size (and to a lesser extent, variation along a linear discriminant axis) predicted genotype and species abundance in experimental communities. However, one genotype exhibited a large disparity in this respect. The performance of this genotype lay closer to prediction when it was growing with a highly competitive grass genotype. The strength of the relationship between genotype size and performance within communities decreased with decreasing community genetic diversity. These results indicate that intraspecific trait measurements are useful for predicting and understanding community structure. They also imply that competitive interactions between the genotypes of different species play an increased role in determining phenotype in genetically impoverished communities.

Background Threatened species often have small and isolated populations where mating among relatives can result in inbreeding depression increasing extinction risk. Effective management is hampered by a lack of syntheses summarising the magnitude of, and variation in inbreeding depression. Here we describe the nature and scope of the literature examining phenotypic/fitness consequences of inbreeding, to provide a foundation for future syntheses and management. Methods We searched the literature for articles documenting the impact of inbreeding in natural populations. Article titles, abstracts and full-texts were assessed against a priori defined criteria, and information relating to study design, quality and other factors that may influence inbreeding responses (e.g. population size) was extracted from relevant articles. Results The searches identified 11457 articles, of which 614 were assessed as relevant and included in the systematic map (corresponding to 703 distinct studies). Most studies (663) assessed within-population inbreeding resulting from self-fertilisation or consanguineous pairings, while 118 studies assessed among-population inbreeding due to drift load. Plants were the most studied taxon (469 studies) followed by insects (52 studies) and birds (43 studies). Most studies investigated the effects of inbreeding on components of fitness (e.g. survival or fecundity; 648 studies) but measurements were typically under laboratory/greenhouse conditions (486 studies). Observations were also often restricted to the first inbred generation (607 studies) and studies frequently lacked contextual information (e.g. population size). Conclusions Our systematic map describes the scope and quality of the evidence describing the phenotypic consequences of inbreeding. The map reveals substantial evidence relating to inbreeding responses exists, but highlights information is still limited for some aspects, including the effects of multiple generations of inbreeding. The systematic map allowed us to define several conservation-relevant questions, where sufficient data exists to support systematic reviews, e.g. How do inbreeding responses vary with population size? However, we found that such syntheses are likely to be constrained by incomplete reporting of critical contextual information. Our systematic map employed the same rigorous literature assessment methods as systematic review, including a novel survey of study quality and thus provides a robust foundation to guide future research and syntheses seeking to inform conservation decision-making.

The number of genetically distinct individuals within a community is a key component of biodiversity and yet its impact at different trophic levels, especially upon the diversity of functionally important soil microorganisms is poorly understood. Here, we test the hypothesis that plant communities that are genetically impoverished will support fewer species of root-associated fungi. We used established grassland mesocosms comprising non-sterile natural soil supporting defined communities of 11 clonally-propagated plant species. Half of the mesocosms contained one genotype per species and half 16 genotypes per species. After 8 years growth, we sampled roots from the mesocosms and measured root-associated fungal richness and diversity using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP). Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that the roots of genetically impoverished communities contained more species of fungi and had greater diversity compared to genetically rich communities. Analysis of the plant species composition of the mesocosm communities indicated that genotypic diversity affects root-fungal diversity indirectly through its influence upon plant species diversity. Our findings highlight the need to include feedbacks with plant intraspecific diversity into existing models describing the maintenance of soil biodiversity.