PREMISE Evolutionary adaptation may enable plants to inhabit a broad range of environments. However, germination and early life-history stages have seldom been considered in estimates of evolutionary adaptation. Moreover, whether soil microbial communities can influence evolutionary adaptation in plants remains little explored. METHODS We used reciprocal transplant experiments to investigate whether two populations of an invasive plant Solidago canadensis that occur in contrasting habitats of low versus high salinity expressed adaptation to the respective salinity levels. We germinated S. canadensis seeds collected from low-and high-salinity habitats under low- and high-salt treatments. We also raised S. canadensis seedlings from the two salinity habitats under low- and high-salt treatments and in the presence versus absence of microbial communities from the two habitats. RESULTS Genotypes from a low-salinity habitat had higher germination rates under low-salt treatment than genotypes from a high-salinity habitat. However, both genotypes had similar germination rates under a high-salt treatment. The two genotypes also had similar seedling survival and biomass responses to low- and high-salt treatments. Nevertheless, seedling biomass was significantly higher under low salt treatment. Soil microbial communities did not influence biomass of S. canadensis under the two salt treatments. CONCLUSIONS The results on germination rates suggest partial local adaptation to low salinity. However, there was no evidence of local adaptation to salinity at the seedling survival and growth stages. The finding that germination and seedling biomass responded to different salt treatments suggests that the two traits are important for salt tolerance.

中文翻译：

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入侵植物加拿大一枝黄花在萌发时表现出对低盐度的部分局部适应，但在生命后期阶段则不然

前提 进化适应可能使植物能够栖息在广泛的环境中。然而，在进化适应的估计中很少考虑萌发和早期生活史阶段。此外，土壤微生物群落是否可以影响植物的进化适应仍然很少被探索。方法我们使用互惠移植实验来研究两种入侵植物加拿大一枝黄花的种群，它们出现在低盐度和高盐度的对比生境中，是否表达了对各自盐度水平的适应。我们在低盐和高盐处理下使从低盐度和高盐度栖息地收集的加拿大 S. canadensis 种子发芽。我们还提出了 S。在低盐和高盐处理下，以及存在与不存在来自两个栖息地的微生物群落的情况下，来自两个盐度栖息地的 canadensis 幼苗。结果 低盐度栖息地的基因型在低盐处理下的发芽率高于高盐度栖息地的基因型。然而，两种基因型在高盐处理下具有相似的发芽率。这两种基因型对低盐和高盐处理也具有相似的幼苗存活率和生物量响应。然而，在低盐处理下，幼苗生物量显着更高。两种盐处理下土壤微生物群落不影响S. canadensis的生物量。结论 发芽率的结果表明对低盐度的局部适应。然而，没有证据表明在幼苗存活和生长阶段局部适应盐度。发芽和幼苗生物量对不同盐处理有反应的发现表明这两个性状对耐盐性很重要。