Feb 2020: OK, the title might be a biiiiit of an exaggeration... But what I'm trying to say is that some plant species become globally invasive because multiple introductions mix their genetic stock, making them highly adaptable. This means they're no longer beholden to environmental constraints that existed in their native range.
This is what me and a team of 48 scientists found when we set out to test some ecological theories about how plants adapt to new environments, focussing on changes in demography and dispersal.
PLANTPOPNET, established in 2015 by Prof. Yvonne Buckley and an international steering committe, provided the gobal network to undertake such an ambitious quest, using Plantago lanceolata as a model species.
We were a bit shocked to find that some of the ‘rules of ecology’ simply didn't apply to this species. For example - Plantago lanceolata had no regard for the pesky ecological prediction that genetic diversity will increase with population size and fecundity. And, while the species was strongly associated with environmental gradients in it's native Europe, outside of that range, it didn't matter what kind of environment they were living in, Plantago almost always had high genetic diversity and high adaptability.
This is what me and a team of 48 scientists found when we set out to test some ecological theories about how plants adapt to new environments, focussing on changes in demography and dispersal.
PLANTPOPNET, established in 2015 by Prof. Yvonne Buckley and an international steering committe, provided the gobal network to undertake such an ambitious quest, using Plantago lanceolata as a model species.
We were a bit shocked to find that some of the ‘rules of ecology’ simply didn't apply to this species. For example - Plantago lanceolata had no regard for the pesky ecological prediction that genetic diversity will increase with population size and fecundity. And, while the species was strongly associated with environmental gradients in it's native Europe, outside of that range, it didn't matter what kind of environment they were living in, Plantago almost always had high genetic diversity and high adaptability.
For more information, check out the paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
And see the media reports here and here.
And see the media reports here and here.