@article{wooliver_vtipilthorpe_wiegmann_sheth_2022, title={A viewpoint on ecological and evolutionary study of plant thermal performance curves in a warming world}, volume={14}, ISSN={["2041-2851"]}, DOI={10.1093/aobpla/plac016}, abstractNote={Abstract
               We can understand the ecology and evolution of plant thermal niches through thermal performance curves (TPCs), which are unimodal, continuous reaction norms of performance across a temperature gradient. Though there are numerous plant TPC studies, plants remain under-represented in syntheses of TPCs. Further, few studies quantify plant TPCs from fitness-based measurements (i.e. growth, survival and reproduction at the individual level and above), limiting our ability to draw conclusions from the existing literature about plant thermal adaptation. We describe recent plant studies that use a fitness-based TPC approach to test fundamental ecological and evolutionary hypotheses, some of which have uncovered key drivers of climate change responses. Then, we outline three conceptual questions in ecology and evolutionary biology for future plant TPC studies: (i) Do populations and species harbour genetic variation for TPCs? (ii) Do plant TPCs exhibit plastic responses to abiotic and biotic factors? (iii) Do fitness-based TPCs scale up to population-level thermal niches? Moving forward, plant ecologists and evolutionary biologists can capitalize on TPCs to understand how plasticity and adaptation will influence plant responses to climate change.}, number={3}, journal={AOB PLANTS}, author={Wooliver, Rachel and Vtipilthorpe, Emma E. and Wiegmann, Amelia M. and Sheth, Seema N.}, year={2022}, month={May} }
 @article{coughlin_wooliver_sheth_2022, title={Populations of western North American monkeyflowers accrue niche breadth primarily via genotypic divergence in environmental optima}, volume={12}, ISSN={["2045-7758"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9434}, DOI={10.1002/ece3.9434}, abstractNote={AbstractNiche breadth, the range of environments that individuals, populations, and species can tolerate, is a fundamental ecological and evolutionary property, yet few studies have examined how niche breadth is partitioned across biological scales. We use a published dataset of thermal performance for a single population from each of 10 closely related species of western North American monkeyflowers (genus Mimulus) to investigate whether populations achieve broad thermal niches through general purpose genotypes, specialized genotypes with divergent environmental optima, and/or variation among genotypes in the degree of generalization. We found the strongest relative support for the hypothesis that populations with greater genetic variation for thermal optimum had broader thermal niches, and for every unit increase in among‐family variance in thermal optimum, population‐level thermal breadth increased by 0.508°C. While the niche breadth of a single genotype represented up to 86% of population‐level niche breadth, genotype‐level niche breadth had a weaker positive effect on population‐level breadth, with every 1°C increase in genotypic thermal breadth resulting in a 0.062°C increase in population breadth. Genetic variation for thermal breadth was not predictive of population‐level thermal breadth. These findings suggest that populations of Mimulus species have achieved broad thermal niches primarily through genotypes with divergent thermal optima and to a lesser extent via general‐purpose genotypes. Future work examining additional biological hierarchies would provide a more comprehensive understanding of how niche breadth partitioning impacts the vulnerabilities of individuals, populations, and species to environmental change.}, number={10}, journal={ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION}, author={Coughlin, Aeran O. and Wooliver, Rachel and Sheth, Seema N.}, year={2022}, month={Oct} }
 @article{querns_wooliver_vallejo-marin_sheth_2022, title={The evolution of thermal performance in native and invasive populations of Mimulus guttatus}, volume={2}, ISSN={["2056-3744"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1002/evl3.275}, DOI={10.1002/evl3.275}, abstractNote={AbstractThe rise of globalization has spread organisms beyond their natural range, allowing further opportunity for species to adapt to novel environments and potentially become invaders. Yet, the role of thermal niche evolution in promoting the success of invasive species remains poorly understood. Here, we use thermal performance curves (TPCs) to test hypotheses about thermal adaptation during the invasion process. First, we tested the hypothesis that if species largely conserve their thermal niche in the introduced range, invasive populations may not evolve distinct TPCs relative to native populations, against the alternative hypothesis that thermal niche and therefore TPC evolution has occurred in the invasive range. Second, we tested the hypothesis that clines of TPC parameters are shallower or absent in the invasive range, against the alternative hypothesis that with sufficient time, standing genetic variation, and temperature-mediated selection, invasive populations would re-establish clines found in the native range in response to temperature gradients. To test these hypotheses, we built TPCs for 18 native (United States) and 13 invasive (United Kingdom) populations of the yellow monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus. We grew clones of multiple genotypes per population at six temperature regimes in growth chambers. We found that invasive populations have not evolved different thermal optima or performance breadths, providing evidence for evolutionary stasis of thermal performance between the native and invasive ranges after over 200 years post introduction. Thermal optimum increased with mean annual temperature in the native range, indicating some adaptive differentiation among native populations that was absent in the invasive range. Further, native and invasive populations did not exhibit adaptive clines in thermal performance breadth with latitude or temperature seasonality. These findings suggest that TPCs remained unaltered post invasion, and that invasion may proceed via broad thermal tolerance and establishment in already climatically suitable areas rather than rapid evolution upon introduction.}, journal={EVOLUTION LETTERS}, author={Querns, Aleah and Wooliver, Rachel and Vallejo-Marin, Mario and Sheth, Seema Nayan}, year={2022}, month={Feb} }
 @article{preston_wooliver_driscoll_coughlin_sheth_2021, title={Spatial variation in high temperature-regulated gene expression predicts evolution of plasticity with climate change in the scarlet monkeyflower}, volume={12}, ISSN={["1365-294X"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16300}, DOI={10.1111/mec.16300}, abstractNote={AbstractA major way that organisms can adapt to changing environmental conditions is by evolving increased or decreased phenotypic plasticity. In the face of current global warming, more attention is being paid to the role of plasticity in maintaining fitness as abiotic conditions change over time. However, given that temporal data can be challenging to acquire, a major question is whether evolution in plasticity across space can predict adaptive plasticity across time. In growth chambers simulating two thermal regimes, we generated transcriptome data for western North American scarlet monkeyflowers (Mimulus cardinalis) collected from different latitudes and years (2010 and 2017) to test hypotheses about how plasticity in gene expression is responding to increases in temperature, and if this pattern is consistent across time and space. Supporting the genetic compensation hypothesis, individuals whose progenitors were collected from the warmer‐origin northern 2017 descendant cohort showed lower thermal plasticity in gene expression than their cooler‐origin northern 2010 ancestors. This was largely due to a change in response at the warmer (40°C) rather than cooler (20°C) treatment. A similar pattern of reduced plasticity, largely due to a change in response at 40°C, was also found for the cooler‐origin northern versus the warmer‐origin southern population from 2017. Our results demonstrate that reduced phenotypic plasticity can evolve with warming and that spatial and temporal changes in plasticity predict one another.}, journal={MOLECULAR ECOLOGY}, publisher={Wiley}, author={Preston, Jill C. and Wooliver, Rachel and Driscoll, Heather and Coughlin, Aeran and Sheth, Seema N.}, year={2021}, month={Dec} }
 @misc{wooliver_pellegrini_waring_houlton_averill_schimel_hedin_bailey_schweitzer_2019, title={Changing perspectives on terrestrial nitrogen cycling: The importance of weathering and evolved resource-use traits for understanding ecosystem responses to global change}, volume={33}, ISSN={["1365-2435"]}, DOI={10.1111/1365-2435.13377}, abstractNote={AbstractOur understanding of terrestrial nitrogen (N) cycling is changing as new processes are uncovered, including the sources, turnover and losses of N from ecosystems.We integrate recent insights into an updated N‐cycling framework and discuss how a new understanding integrates eco‐evolutionary dynamics with nutrient cycling. These insights include (a) the significance of rock weathering as a biologically meaningful N source to plants and microbes; (b) the lack of consistent N limitation of organic matter decomposition by soil microbes; (c) species‐specific variation in plant N limitation; and (d) how fire effects on soil N shift with ecosystem properties.Using an eco‐evolutionary framework and revised knowledge of N cycling, we describe how (a) rock N weathering could have contributed more strongly to gradients in soil N availability than previously recognized, (b) evolution and co‐evolution of plant and soil microbial resource‐use traits underlie whether decomposition and production are N‐limited, and (c) the effects of fire on soil N pools are mediated by composition of plant species and time‐scale.Our revised framework of N cycling provides a way forward for improving biogeochemical models to more accurately estimate rates of plant production and decomposition, and total soil N.A freePlain Language Summarycan be found within the Supporting Information of this article.}, number={10}, journal={FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY}, author={Wooliver, Rachel and Pellegrini, Adam F. A. and Waring, Bonnie and Houlton, Benjamin Z. and Averill, Colin and Schimel, Joshua and Hedin, Lars O. and Bailey, Joseph K. and Schweitzer, Jennifer A.}, year={2019}, month={Oct}, pages={1818–1829} }