PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Victor, Sasha
AU  - Doherty, Kyle
AU  - DuPre, Mary Ellyn
AU  - Ramsey, Philip W
AU  - Lekberg, Ylva
TI  - Fine-scale trait variation of five native forbs along environmental gradients
AID  - 10.3368/npj.24.3.192
DP  - 2023 Sep 21
TA  - Native Plants Journal
PG  - 192--205
VI  - 24
IP  - 3
4099  - http://npj.uwpress.org/content/24/3/192.short
4100  - http://npj.uwpress.org/content/24/3/192.full
SO  - NATIVE PLANTS JOURNAL2023 Sep 21; 24
AB  - Seed-transfer zones attempt to match seed source and habitat, but the extent of environmental variation within climate-based zones can be substantial and potentially relevant to seed-transfer guidelines. We surveyed abiotic and biotic soil properties across elevation and insolation (amount of solar radiation) gradients within a 5 km2 (1.9 mi2) area in Montana and assessed relationships with plant traits in 5 native species. We detected substantial variation in soil physical, chemical, and biological properties along gradients. Differences in insolation due to topographical features predicted variation in soil moisture and maximum temperature, organic matter content, and magnesium, whereas elevation predicted minimum soil temperature and relative abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Elevation and insolation combined predicted plant productivity, soil potassium, calcium, sulfate, and iron concentrations. Yet, neither elevation nor insolation consistently correlated with variation in plant traits across species, potentially because of insufficient selection pressure or widespread seed dispersal throughout the area. Nonetheless, specific leaf area and seed weight, both heritable traits, correlated with changes in elevation and insolation in some species. Whether this variation is attributable to local adaptation or plasticity requires reciprocal transplant experiments and longer-term monitoring of the survival and fitness of plants. We show that elevation and insolation gradients can be effective predictors of some aspects of the soil environment. Systematically collecting seeds along elevation and insolation gradients can provide a breadth of plant traits to test trait-by-environment interactions in reciprocal transplant studies and reveal if matching heritable traits to environments within a climatic seed zone is beneficial.