INVESTIGADORES
RODRIGUEZ CABAL mariano Alberto
artículos
Título:
Testing a ?genes-to-ecosystems? approach to understanding aquatic-terrestrial linkages.
Autor/es:
GREGORY M. CRUTSINGER; SETH M. RUDMAN; MARIANO A. RODRIGUEZ CABAL; ATHENA D. MCKOWN; TAKUYA SATO; ANDREW M. MACDONALD; JULIAN HEAVYSIDE; ARNALDO GERALDES; EDMUND M. HART; CARRI J. LEROY; RANA W. EL-SABAAWI
Revista:
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY
Editorial:
WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2014 vol. 23 p. 5888 - 5903
ISSN:
0962-1083
Resumen:
A ?genes-to-ecosystems? approach has been proposed as a novel avenue for integrating the consequences of intraspecific genetic variation with the underlying genetic archi- tecture of a species to shed light on the relationships among hierarchies of ecological organization (genes ? individuals ? communities ? ecosystems). However, attempts to identify genes with major effect on the structure of communities and/or ecosystem processes have been limited and a comprehensive test of this approach has yet to emerge. Here, we present an interdisciplinary field study that integrated a common garden containing different genotypes of a dominant, riparian tree, Populus trichocar- pa, and aquatic mesocosms to determine how intraspecific variation in leaf litter alters both terrestrial and aquatic communities and ecosystem functioning. Moreover, we incorporate data from extensive trait screening and genome-wide association studies estimating the heritability and genes associated with litter characteristics. We found that tree genotypes varied considerably in the quality and production of leaf litter, which contributed to variation in phytoplankton abundances, as well as nutrient dynamics and light availability in aquatic mesocosms. These ?after-life? effects of litter from different genotypes were comparable to the responses of terrestrial communities associated with the living foliage. We found that multiple litter traits corresponding with aquatic community and ecosystem responses differed in their heritability. More- over, the underlying genetic architecture of these traits was complex, and many genes contributed only a small proportion to phenotypic variation. Our results provide fur- ther evidence that genetic variation is a key component of aquatic?terrestrial linkages, but challenge the ability to predict community or ecosystem responses based on the actions of one or a few genes.