The rapid pace of contemporary environmental change puts many species at risk, especially rare species constrained by limited capacity to adapt or migrate due to low genetic diversity and/or fitness. But the ability to acclimate can provide another way to persist through change. We compared the capacity of rare
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Abstract Boechera perstellata (Braun's rockcress) and widespreadB. laevigata to acclimate to change. We investigated the phenotypic plasticity of growth, biomass allocation, and leaf morphology of individuals ofB. perstellata andB. laevigata propagated from seed collected from several populations throughout their ranges in a growth chamber experiment to assess their capacity to acclimate. Concurrently, we assessed the genetic diversity of sampled populations using 17 microsatellite loci to assess evolutionary potential. Plasticity was limited in both rareB. perstellata and widespreadB. laevigata , but differences in the plasticity of root traits between species suggest thatB. perstellata may have less capacity to acclimate to change. In contrast to its widespread congener,B. perstellata exhibited no plasticity in response to temperature and weaker plastic responses to water availability. As expected,B. perstellata also had lower levels of observed heterozygosity thanB. laevigata at the species level, but population‐level trends in diversity measures were inconsistent due to high heterogeneity amongB. laevigata populations. Overall, the ability of phenotypic plasticity to broadly explain the rarity ofB. perstellata versus commonness ofB. laevigata is limited. However, some contextual aspects of our plasticity findings compared with its relatively low genetic variability may shed light on the narrow range and habitat associations ofB. perstellata and suggest its vulnerability to climate warming due to acclimatory and evolutionary constraints. -
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Summary Species differ dramatically in their prevalence in the natural world, with many species characterized as rare due to restricted geographic distribution, low local abundance and/or habitat specialization.
We investigated the ecoevolutionary causes and consequences of rarity with phylogenetically controlled metaanalyses of population genetic diversity, fitness and functional traits in rare and common congeneric plant species. Our syntheses included 252 rare species and 267 common congeners reported in 153 peer‐reviewed articles published from 1978 to 2020 and one manuscript in press.
Rare species have reduced population genetic diversity, depressed fitness and smaller reproductive structures than common congeners. Rare species also could suffer from inbreeding depression and reduced fertilization efficiency.
By limiting their capacity to adapt and migrate, these characteristics could influence contemporary patterns of rarity and increase the susceptibility of rare species to rapid environmental change. We recommend that future studies present more nuanced data on the extent of rarity in focal species, expose rare and common species to ecologically relevant treatments, including reciprocal transplants, and conduct quantitative genetic and population genomic analyses across a greater array of systems. This research could elucidate the processes that contribute to rarity and generate robust predictions of extinction risks under global change.
