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Abstract
Background: Reductions of genetic diversity and phenotypic changes in invasive plants are often observed to occur at high elevations. Genetic/phenotypic changes of invasive plants along elevation help to understand mechanisms of the presumed resistance of mountain ecosystems to invasion.
Aims: To assess genetic variability and phenotypic plasticity along an elevation gradient of Eschscholzia californica in the Andes, central Chile.
Methods: Eleven microsatellites were used to describe the genetic structure and the allelic diversity individuals, distributed at three elevations and two sites. We assessed the number of flowers per plant, floral biomass, leaf area, number of leaves, vegetative biomass and plant height of plants at each elevation.
Results: Genetic diversity as genetic structure did not decrease with elevations. Plant height and flower numbers decreased while leaf number and vegetative biomass increased with elevation. The ratio of the number of flowers to vegetative biomass, decreased significantly with elevation.
Conclusions: Strong genetic differences among elevations and similar genetic diversity along elevation do not suggest dispersal limitation to higher elevation. Reduction of reproductive and vegetative traits concomitantly with an increase of the reproductive cost suggests reproductive stress with increasing elevation, reducing the invasiveness of this species to higher elevation.
Acknowledgements
We thank R Gauci and L Carrasco for helping with the genetic analysis, R Zuñiga for the field work and E. Thompson for the English editing.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Ramiro O. Bustamante
Ramiro O. Bustamante, Professor, is interested in plant population ecology, geographical ecology, conservation biology and invasion ecology.
América P. Durán
America P. Duran studies the effectiveness of protected areas, land use conflicts and the impact of food supply chains.
Francisco T. Peña-Gómez
Francisco T. Peña-Gómez is a Ph.D. student, focussing on population ecology, geographical ecology and biological invasions
David Véliz
David Veliz, Lecturer, has been studying pattern of population structure using molecular markers in different species.