One effect of climate change is that plants are exposed to increasing local variation in weather conditions, including more episodes of heat stress. Should plants evolve to perform better at high temperatures, or should they become more plastic and cope with a broader range of temperatures? This project compares a large panel of duckweed genotypes for genetic differences in thermal plasticity in gene expression. Because duckweeds are the fastest growing plants in the world, we can use experimental evolution approaches to test if more plastic genotypes have a selective advantage when temperature environments become more variable.

This collaborative project is led by Folgert Karsdorp of the KNAW Meertens Institute, and investigates the social biases and cultural aspects of historical botanical records (that is, citizen science avant la lettre). In collaboration with FLORON, our contribution to this project is to implement a case study that explores historical botanical records from the Netherlands to characterize patterns of distribution and abundance of Asteraceae species in cities through time. We aim to let these historical records inform us about which species are winners and which are losers of the urbanization process. This can provide unique information on the plant traits that mediate successful adaptation to urbanization.

This is a collaborative project that is led by John Pannell and Shengman Lyu at the University of Lausanne. The project investigates the genetic, demographic and evolutionary processes that determine species range margins, using Mercurialis annua as a model species. Our contribution to this project is to set up and maintain a field experiment in which experimental plant populations of different admixture histories are monitored for performance at Wageningen, which is at the current distributional range margin of the species.