A framework for community and ecosystem genetics: from genes to ecosystems

By T. Whitham, J. Bailey, J. Schweitzer, S. Shuster, R. Bangert, C. LeRoy, E. Lonsdorf, G. J. Allan, S. DiFazio, Brad M. Potts and 7 more. Nature reviews genetics, 2006

1,101 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Can heritable traits in a single species affect an entire ecosystem? Recent studies show that such traits in a common tree have predictable effects on community structure and ecosystem processes. Because these 'community and ecosystem phenotypes' have a genetic basis and are heritable, we can begin to apply the principles of population and quantitative genetics to place the study of complex communities and ecosystems within an evolutionary framework. This framework could allow us to understand, for the first time, the genetic basis of ecosystem processes, and the effect of such phenomena as climate change and introduced transgenic organisms on entire communities.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f92946e17ac8218abc45e72ba1e9e2f03cf49c3b

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Citations in the corpus

How does selection operate on whole-organism functional performance capacities? A review and synthesis (2008, methodology): “References: (1) Janzen (1995); (2) Le Galliard and Ferriere (2008); (3) Le Galliard et al. (2004); (4) Kissner and Weatherhead (2005); (5) Watkins (1996) ; (6) Walker et al. (2005); (7) Kaplan and Phillips (2006); (8) Miles et al. (2000); (9) Warner and Andrews (2002); (10) Clobert et al. (2000); (”
Genetic containment of forest plantations (2007, background): “Genes for general pest or abiotic stress resistance, including against native herbivores or pathogens, might also provide net ecological benefits by increasing the vigor of a native organism like poplar, which provides habitat for myriad dependent organisms (Whitham et al. 2006), even if some introd”
Facilitation in communities: underlying mechanisms, community and ecosystem implications (2016, background): “All this complex network of indirect and feedback effects has the potential to affect selective pressures on the facilitator species and ultimately the ecoevolutionary stability of the whole interaction network (Bascompte, Jordano & Olesen 2006; Whitham et al. 2006; Bronstein 2009; Michalet et al. 2”
Facilitation and the niche: implications for coexistence, range shifts and ecosystem functioning (2016, background): “of associated insects and microbes (Whitham et al. 2006) that, at the landscape scale, should result in a more diverse-associated community.”
Genetic divergence in forest trees: understanding the consequences of climate change (2014, background): “…complex as (i) trees are foundation species embedded in a complex network of intra- and interspecific biotic interactions (community context – Whitham et al. 2006; Ikeda et al. in press), which in cases may override abiotic responses (Pautasso et al. 2010); and (ii) evolutionary response…”
The role of forest genetic resources in responding to biotic and abiotic factors in the context of anthropogenic climate change (2014, background): “Given the pivotal role of trees in ecosystem function, abrupt climate change impacts on them may thus have profound consequences for forests as a whole (Whitham et al., 2006).”
Identifying future research needs in landscape genetics: where to from here? (2009, background): “However, gene flow and population connectivity are relatively narrow topics, and landscape genetics can contribute substantially to other research areas, such as community genetics (Whitham et al. 2006).”
Evolution on ecological time‐scales (2007, background): “Empirical work in natural populations has lagged behind theoretical developments, but we now at least have a number of intriguing examples of how genetic variation in populations can influence community dynamics and ecosystems function (Whitham et al. 2006).”
From Genes to Ecosystems: The Genetic Basis of Condensed Tannins and Their Role in Nutrient Regulation in a Populus Model System (2008, background): “In most Northern hemisphere plants, condensed tannins are composed of the four flavan-3-ols catechin, epicatechin, gallocatechin and epigallocatechin.”
Herbivore‐induced plant responses in Brassica oleracea prevail over effects of constitutive resistance and result in enhanced herbivore attack (2010, background): “…plants and insects have been extensively investigated in order to understand how variation in constitutive plant resistance traits affects insect communities associated with a plant (Wimp et al., 2005; Johnson & Agrawal, 2005; Whitham et al., 2006; Bukovinszky et al., 2008; Newton et al., 2009).”
Genetic variation in productivity of foundation riparian species at the edge of their distribution: implications for restoration and assisted migration in a warming climate (2011, background): “fremontii and the extended floral and faunal community it supports could have great environmental repercussions beyond the loss of tree itself, which could potentially justify such breeding efforts (Whitham et al., 2006).”
Plant intraspecific variation modulates nutrient cycling through its below ground rhizospheric microbiome (2019, background): “A handful of studies have reported that particular genotypes of a given species may impact ecosystem functions through changes in the taxonomic composition of associated communities (Crutsinger, Souza, & Sanders, 2008; Gamfeldt, Wallén, Jonsson, Berntsson, & Havenhand, 2005; Whitham et al., 2006).”
A critique for eco‐evolutionary dynamics (2019, background): “First, my examples draw from—and my suggestions often apply to—studies of the effects of variation within populations (often discussed as “community genetics”: Hughes et al., 2008; Tack, Johnson, & Roslin, 2012; Whitham et al., 2006), as well as the evolution of that variation.”
Intraspecific variability in leaf traits strongly affects alder leaf decomposition in a stream (2008, background): “, 1992) and plant genes have been found to regulate litter quality and decomposability (Madritch & Hunter, 2005; Silfver et al., 2007; Whitham et al., 2006).”