2025/09/08 by Loaiza, Juliana, Handy Ranarivelo, Schmidt, Dylan +1
#Plasticity #ecotype #fixed genetic differentiation #habitat #sticky monkeyflower (Diplacus aurantiacus)
paper · doi:10.21973/n3s09v
Trait variation can be a result of environmentally induced phenotypical changes. These variations can be observed at a variety of ecological scales, which has wide implications in ecology. To see how these variations may prevail at a small scale, we conducted an observational study on sticky monkey flower (Diplacus aurantiacus) vegetative traits in Rancho Marino Reserve in Cambria, CA across coastal sage scrub habitat, Monterey pine forest habitat, and their corresponding gulches. We predicted that compared to the forest habitat, sage scrub would have more saline soil and lower soil water capacity, which would result in more compacted plants, more old leaf loss, and higher stomatal density. Our results support our hypothesis for all variables but the soil water capacity. Soil water capacity was higher in coastal sage scrub rather than forest, which can likely be explained by higher clay content in the soil. Overall, our findings suggest that habitat differences can significantly impact plant trait variation even in small scales. We were unable to determine plasticity versus fixed genetic differences to be the source of trait variation, but given the proximity of the plant populations, we assumed that these variations were due to plastic responses to the respective environmental conditions.