Patterns of univariate and multivariate plasticity to elevated carbon dioxide in six European populations of Arabidopsis thaliana

The impact of elevated carbon dioxide on plants is a growing concern in evolutionary ecology and global change biology. Characterizing patterns of phenotypic integration and multivariate plasticity to elevated carbon dioxide can provide insights into ecological and evolutionary dynamics in future human-altered environments. Here we examined univariate and multivariate responses to carbon enrichment in six functional traits among six European accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana. We detected phenotypic plasticity in both univariate and multivariate phenotypes, but did not find significant variation in plasticity (genotype by environment interactions) within or among accessions. Eigenvector, eigenvalue variance, and common principal components analyses showed that elevated carbon dioxide altered patterns of trait covariance, reduced the strength of phenotypic integration, and decreased population-level differentiation in the multivariate phenotype. Our data suggest that future carbon dioxide conditions may influence evolutionary dynamics in natural populations of A. thaliana.

大气二氧化碳浓度升高对植物的影响是进化生态学与全球变化生物学领域日益受到关注的研究议题。解析植物对高浓度二氧化碳的表型整合模式与多维度可塑性，可为解析人类活动干扰下未来环境中的生态与进化动态提供重要参考。本研究以6份欧洲生态型拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）的6项功能性状为研究对象，检测了各材料在二氧化碳富集条件下的单变量与多变量响应。研究发现单变量与多变量表型均存在可塑性，但未在生态型内部或生态型间检测到可塑性的显著差异（即基因型-环境互作）。特征向量、特征值方差与共同主成分分析结果显示，高浓度二氧化碳改变了性状间的协变模式，削弱了表型整合强度，并降低了多变量表型的种群水平分化程度。本研究数据表明，未来的二氧化碳浓度环境可能会对拟南芥自然种群的进化动态产生影响。