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Category Archives: plants
Humans, selection, evolution and ecological timescales … a potent cocktail
It’s been awhile since I last was able to write for TME. But, finally, I’ve stolen away some time to write about a recent study in Ecology Letters that I couldn’t put down once I started reading it. Yes, it’s about mating … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, evolution, natural history, plants, population genetics, selection, theory
Tagged Evolution, mating system, pesticide, selection
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Conifer convergence
Convergent local adaptation is typically studied within a species or between closely related species. In these cases, it is perhaps not unexpected to observe parallel evolution due to common genetic variation, constraints, etc. Convergence between species is somewhat less studied, … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, association genetics, genomics, plants, selection, Uncategorized
Tagged adaptation, convergence, Evolution
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The Genomics of Rapid Adaptation
Phenology (the timing of life cycle events such as growth, breeding, or migration) is among the most sensitive organismal traits to climate and environmental change. In recent years, phenological shifts have been documented in numerous taxa, in traits such as … Continue reading
A new (quantitative!) method for comparative phylogeography
Comparative phylogeographic studies usually involve a) documenting a phylogeographic pattern and b) recognizing that the same pattern is congruent in multiple species. But what if species histories are only sortof congruent? Perhaps they share one major splitting event but not later … Continue reading
Posted in Coevolution, phylogeography, plants, software
Tagged comparative phylogeography, concordance factors
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What makes a range?
Why do species have restricted geographic distributions? Classic ecological perspectives tell us distribution limits occur where ecological parameters coincide with the boundaries of ecological niches. Evolutionary perspectives, on the other hand, surmise distribution boundaries reflect a failure of niche evolution. Though small … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, evolution, plants, selection, theory
Tagged ecology, Evolution, latitude, multivariate traits, quantitative genetics, Range limits
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There and back again: an angiosperm's tale
Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is the dominant seagrass in the northern hemisphere and provides the foundation of highly productive ecosystems that rival tropical rain forests and coral reefs in ecosystem services. Zostera isn’t really a grass, but a monocot, like a … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, bioinformatics, community ecology, evolution, genomics, plants
Tagged Evolution, genome, plants, salinity, seagrass
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An Oedipus complex in mosses?
Nannandrous … phyllodioicous … gotta love botanical terms and these will most definitely find their way into this week’s list of favorite words! Both refer to the tiny epiphytic nature of males situated on much larger female shoots. There may be many … Continue reading
Posted in bioinformatics, evolution, genomics, haploid-diploid, plants, population genetics
Tagged haploid-diploid, mating system evolution, mosses, SNPs
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