Document: SER-3-39-2

Differences in life history and local adaptation in populations of Hordeum spontaneum.

VOLIS, S.*, S.MENDLINGER and D.WARD

Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva 84100 Israel ¹

Abstract:
Genotype-by-environment interactions of wild barley, Hordeum spontaneum, from four habitats were tested by reciprocal transplanting in all four environments. Three population habitats represented two parallel gradients of amount of rainfall and its predictability: Desert, semi-steppe batha and Mediterranean grassland, and one population was apart with specific conditions of mountain. There was the following difference in average population fitness estimated by survival of seedlings and fecundity and reproductive biomass of adults: Plants originating from stressed habitats (desert and mountain) had the poorest fitness in opposite environmental extremes and plants from productive habitats (batha and grassland) were the best fit to the most productive environment (grassland). We also found striking differences in germination pattern, seed mass and life span of plants from the four populations. For the three populations (from desert, batha and grassland) yield and seed mass were related to the gradient of productivity/predictability in opposite manner: Yield was decreasing and seed mass was increasing from desert to grassland. The plant life span increased in the following way: Desert, batha, grassland, mountain. The results demonstrate that local adaptation within a species is achieved through a limited number of evolutionary pathways corresponding to plant strategies of Grime's model.

Keywords: local adaptation, plant strategies

This abstract is being presented at: 3:30 PM in session:
Poster Session #17: Vegetative Analysis.