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Increments in weed seed size track global range expansion and contribute to colonization in a non-native region

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Abstract

Assessing global variation in phenotypic traits and linking that variation to colonization and range expansion is notably rare in invasion biology. Here, we studied variation in seed size in Centaurea solstitialis, a weed with worldwide distribution. Additionally, we explored how seed size variation affects seedling survival of C. solstitialis under favorable precipitation conditions in Anatolia, an ancestral region, and unfavorable precipitation conditions in Argentina, a non-native region. To that end, we conducted seed collections following dispersal pathways of C. solstitialis in ancestral, expanded, and non-native ranges. Locally, collections followed elevation gradients. Also, we performed a greenhouse experiment with C. solstitialis populations varying in seed size and water additions simulating precipitation patterns in Anatolia and Argentina. Seeds from ancestral populations at low elevation were smaller than those from the rest of study populations. Also, seed size in populations at high elevation in the expanded range, the main source of non-native populations, was similar to that in all, but one non-native population, where seeds exhibited further increase. Increments in seed size thus track range expansion in C. solstitialis. Locally, seed size increased with elevation in all three ranges, suggesting convergent responses to that gradient. Seedlings from larger seeds displayed greater survival than those from smaller seeds only under Argentinean conditions. Consequently, populations with large seeds may have been instrumental for colonizing that non-native region. Our findings suggest that ancient and recent dispersal of large-seeded populations contribute to explain the reported global pattern of seed size divergence and worldwide distribution of C. solstitialis.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M.N. Doĝan for generously facilitating greenhouse space, M. Şenturk, L. Ramirez Brumatti, N.B. Ramirez Haberkon, N. Loyola, and A. Parras for field, lab, and greenhouse assistance, G. Vergara for rainfall data from Santa Rosa, and J. Lembrechts and an anonymous reviewer for critically commenting an earlier version of this manuscript. Margherita Gioria provided major insights to our study. This project was partially funded by CONICET (Abroad Fellowship for Young Researchers) and UNLPam (CN219).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Ecología Biogeografía y Evolución Vegetal (LEByEV), Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa (INCITAP), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Universidad Nacional de La Pampa (UNLPam), Mendoza 109, 6300, Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina

    José L. Hierro

  2. Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UNLPam, Av. Uruguay 151, 6300, Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina

    José L. Hierro

  3. Biyoloji Bölümü, Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi, Adnan Menderes Üniversitesi, 09010, Aydın, Turkey

    Özkan Eren & Rabia Özcan

  4. Department of Life Sciences, Centre for Functional Ecology, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal

    Daniel Montesinos

  5. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA

    Krikor Andonian

  6. Institute of Botany, Ilia State University, 0105, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Liana Kethsuriani

  7. Institute of Biological Research, Branch of NIRDBS, 700107, Iasi, Romania

    Alecu Diaconu

  8. Institute of Ecology and Botany, MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Vácrátót, 2163, Hungary

    Katalin Török

  9. Departamento de Botánica, Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, 160, Concepción, Chile

    Lohengrin Cavieres

  10. School of Biological Sciences, Wollongong University, Wollongong, 2522, Australia

    Kristine French

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  1. José L. Hierro
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  2. Özkan Eren
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Hierro, J.L., Eren, Ö., Montesinos, D. et al. Increments in weed seed size track global range expansion and contribute to colonization in a non-native region. Biol Invasions 22, 969–982 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-019-02137-z

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