BES Grant Report: Studying rapid evolution in plants using resurrection ecology.
Abstract
This study employs the resurrection method to investigate contemporary evolution in 2 natural populations of the arable weed Centaurium erythraea. By growing ancestral genotypes alongside contemporary descendants in a common garden and genotyping them with ddRAD SNPs, the research aimed to ascertain if phenotypic trait shifts have occurred over the past 30 years in response to environmental changes, particularly climate change and pollinator decline. The findings offered insights into the potential for contemporary evolution in natural populations. Furthermore, the project established protocols for future resurrection studies on different arable species, utilizing within-generation within-population open pollination to produce seeds for "refreshed" F1 generations, thereby minimizing storage and maternal effects in future experiments.