Evolutionary Agroecology: Individual fitness, population yield and resource availability in wheat
Evolutionary Agroecology theory predicts that the relationship between population yield and individual fitness among genotypes of a crop species is unimodal, and experimental evidence supports this. We test the theory further by investigating the role of resource availability on this relationship by...
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| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Basic and Applied Ecology |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179124000768 |
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| author | Xiao-Wei Yang Jacob Weiner Jing-Wei Fan Jie-Ying Ren Wen-Yuan Luo Feng-Min Li Yan-Lei Du |
| author_facet | Xiao-Wei Yang Jacob Weiner Jing-Wei Fan Jie-Ying Ren Wen-Yuan Luo Feng-Min Li Yan-Lei Du |
| author_sort | Xiao-Wei Yang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Evolutionary Agroecology theory predicts that the relationship between population yield and individual fitness among genotypes of a crop species is unimodal, and experimental evidence supports this. We test the theory further by investigating the role of resource availability on this relationship by comparing growth and reproductive output of three old and three modern cultivars of wheat (Triticum aestivum) in mixture and monocultures grown at three resource levels. The relationship between population grain yield and individual fitness (mean individual grain yield in mixture) of genotypes was resource dependent in a way that is consistent with the theory: when resource levels are low and limit individual growth directly, individual and population yield are positively correlated. When resource levels are high and the growth of individual plants is limited by competition for these resources, the relationship between individual fitness and population yield becomes negative. There was evidence for the unimodal relationship at the intermediate resource level. Old cultivars had higher fitness than newer cultivars at all three resource levels. Old cultivars had higher yields at low resource levels, but the newer cultivars yielded more when resource levels were high. Evaluating individual fitness and population yield in different environments may help wheat breeders to develop locally adapted, cooperative cultivars to increase production across large wheat-producing areas. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4c596a7cf7c84d3bad5568dc9e4a1780 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1439-1791 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Basic and Applied Ecology |
| spelling | doaj-art-4c596a7cf7c84d3bad5568dc9e4a17802024-12-05T05:19:45ZengElsevierBasic and Applied Ecology1439-17912024-12-01815358Evolutionary Agroecology: Individual fitness, population yield and resource availability in wheatXiao-Wei Yang0Jacob Weiner1Jing-Wei Fan2Jie-Ying Ren3Wen-Yuan Luo4Feng-Min Li5Yan-Lei Du6State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, ChinaDepartment of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, DK-1871 Frederiksberg, DenmarkState Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China; College of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, Jiangsu Province, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China; Corresponding author.Evolutionary Agroecology theory predicts that the relationship between population yield and individual fitness among genotypes of a crop species is unimodal, and experimental evidence supports this. We test the theory further by investigating the role of resource availability on this relationship by comparing growth and reproductive output of three old and three modern cultivars of wheat (Triticum aestivum) in mixture and monocultures grown at three resource levels. The relationship between population grain yield and individual fitness (mean individual grain yield in mixture) of genotypes was resource dependent in a way that is consistent with the theory: when resource levels are low and limit individual growth directly, individual and population yield are positively correlated. When resource levels are high and the growth of individual plants is limited by competition for these resources, the relationship between individual fitness and population yield becomes negative. There was evidence for the unimodal relationship at the intermediate resource level. Old cultivars had higher fitness than newer cultivars at all three resource levels. Old cultivars had higher yields at low resource levels, but the newer cultivars yielded more when resource levels were high. Evaluating individual fitness and population yield in different environments may help wheat breeders to develop locally adapted, cooperative cultivars to increase production across large wheat-producing areas.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179124000768Darwinian agriculturePlant breedingPopulation performanceTragedy of the commons |
| spellingShingle | Xiao-Wei Yang Jacob Weiner Jing-Wei Fan Jie-Ying Ren Wen-Yuan Luo Feng-Min Li Yan-Lei Du Evolutionary Agroecology: Individual fitness, population yield and resource availability in wheat Basic and Applied Ecology Darwinian agriculture Plant breeding Population performance Tragedy of the commons |
| title | Evolutionary Agroecology: Individual fitness, population yield and resource availability in wheat |
| title_full | Evolutionary Agroecology: Individual fitness, population yield and resource availability in wheat |
| title_fullStr | Evolutionary Agroecology: Individual fitness, population yield and resource availability in wheat |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evolutionary Agroecology: Individual fitness, population yield and resource availability in wheat |
| title_short | Evolutionary Agroecology: Individual fitness, population yield and resource availability in wheat |
| title_sort | evolutionary agroecology individual fitness population yield and resource availability in wheat |
| topic | Darwinian agriculture Plant breeding Population performance Tragedy of the commons |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179124000768 |
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