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Climate extremes are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude as a consequence of global warming. Managed permanent grasslands cover a large surface in Europe and contribute substantially to agricultural production. These managed plant communities are dominated by perennial clonal species. Their capacity to adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions may be limited. We hypothesize that those plant populations that have already been exposed to conditions that are expected to occur due to future climate change, particularly conditions that would be 'extreme' in the target area, are able to cope better with these conditions. For a common-garden experiment we selected ecotypes (provenances as supported by accessions in seed banks) of important European grass species: Arrhenatherum elatius, Festuca pratensis, Holcus lanatus and Alopecurus pratensis. Southern target locations of ecotypes (populations) were identified based on climate model projections for the local site in Northern Bavaria, Germany. In a controlled experiment, the plants were exposed to warming and extreme drought. Drought conditions(16-19 days, depending on the species) were imposed starting from the end of May in combination with and without an increase in the average temperature from May to September 2009 (+1.5 K compared with control; +2.5 K compared with ambient conditions outside of the experimental units). Ecotypes and drought manipulation had significant impacts on biomass production and tissue die-back. Significant interactions between ecotype and drought indicated a different drought tolerance of the ecotypes in some cases. The warming treatment yielded a less significant response. The local ecotype generally did not perform significantly worse than the presumably better-adapted southern ecotypes. Synthesis. The selection of ecotypes that are adapted to more extreme climatic conditions could be an option for maintaining future ecosystem functioning in temperate managed grasslands, as was indicated by the clear differences between ecotypes in our experiment. Based on our data, however, performance cannot be predicted from climatic origin. Therefore, we recommend enhancing the genetic variability within populations of species in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The frequency of extreme drought events is projected to increase under global climate change, causing damage to plants and crop yield despite potential acclimation. We investigated whether grasses remain acclimated to drought even after a harvest and remember early summer drought exposure over a whole vegetation period. For this, we compared the response of Arrhenatherum elatius plants under a second, late, drought (they were pre-exposed to an early drought before), to plants exposed to a single, only late, extreme drought. Surprisingly, the percentage of living biomass after a late drought increased for plants that were exposed to drought earlier in the growing season compared to single-stressed plants, even after harvest and resprouting after the first drought. Relative leaf water content did not differ between the two treatments. Net photosynthesis was non-significantly reduced by 25% in recurrent drought treatment. Maximum quantum efficiency (F v/F m) and maximum fluorescence (F m) were reduced in plants that were exposed to recurrent drought. These findings indicated improved photoprotection in double-stressed plants. Our results provide first hints towards a “drought memory” over an entire vegetation period, even after harvest and resprouting. However, the advantage of improved photoprotection might also cause reductions in photosynthesis that could have adverse effects on crop yield under more severe or longer droughts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The use of local provenances in restoration, agriculture and forestry has been identified as measure to sustain biological diversity and to improve local productivity. However, the delineation of regional provenances is challenging because it requires the identification of well-defined groups based on spatiogenetic differentiation and/or the evidence of local adaptation. In this study, we investigate genetic variation at 186 AFLP loci in 46 European accessions of the important grassland species Arrhenatherum elatius and ask (1) whether genetic variation within accessions differs between European geographical regions; (2) at which spatial scale populations are structured across Europe and (3) whether putatively adaptive markers contribute to this pattern and whether these markers can be related to climatic site conditions. Basic expectations of population genetics are likely to be altered in autotetraploid species, thus, we adopted a band-based approach to estimate genetic diversity and structuring. Compared to other grasses A. elatius showed high genetic diversity and considerable differentiation among accessions (ΦST = 0.24). Accessions separated in a Western European and a Central/Eastern European group, without further structure within groups. A genome scan approach identified four potentially adaptive loci, whose band frequencies correlated significantly with climatic parameters, suggesting that genetic differentiation in A. elatius is also the result of adaptive processes. Knowledge on adaptive loci might in the long run also help to adapt ecosystems to adverse climate change effects through assisted migration of ecotypes rather than introduction of new species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]