common garden experiment (Brassicaceae)

Knowledge graph centered on common garden experiment (Brassicaceae) with 76 nodes and 184 connections. Top connected: Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gothic, Beetles, Crested Butte, Pollinator-Plant Interactions.

Method synopsis

A large-scale reciprocal transplant experiment across five elevational gardens with factorial snow and temperature manipulations to test local adaptation and evolutionary rescue potential under climate change scenarios.

Synthesized from method descriptions across 34 papers using this protocol.

Procedure from a recent peer-reviewed implementation

Steps below were extracted from the most recent peer-reviewed implementation of this protocol in the corpus — Adaptation and gene flow are insufficient to rescue a montane plant under climate change (2025), Science. The protocol was originally introduced by Hybridization between the invasives <i>Tragopogon pratensis</i> and <i>T. dubius</i> in the Gunnison Valley (2011). Implementations in other papers (listed below) may differ.

1. Establish common gardens across elevational gradient
   Five common gardens were established across an elevational gradient around the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado, USA, to characterize the spatial scale of local adaptation by manipulating snowpack and temperature conditions
   Quantities: 5 gardens at elevations of 2553m, 2710m, 2890m, 3133m, and 3340mDuration: Multi-year experiment from 2002-2021Conditions: Natural field conditions with factorial manipulations of both snow dynamics and growing season temperature
   Equipment: Open-top chambers, Snow removal tools, Temperature monitoring equipment
2. Collect and prepare genetic material
   Seeds and juvenile plants were collected from inbred maternal half-sib families. Genotypes were sampled that spanned a broad elevational gradient to examine local adaptation under four climate scenarios
   Quantities: 102,272 transplants from 115 source populations, with genotypes spanning from 2490m to 3690m elevation across five gardensDuration: Collection occurred 2013-2019, with experiments running 2014-2022Conditions: Seeds collected from wild populations across elevation gradient
   Equipment: Collection containers, Plant labels, GPS units for location recording

Typical Equipment

• Open-top chambers
• Snow removal tools
• Temperature monitoring equipment
• Transplant tools

Output Measurements

• fitness components
• survival rates
• growth rates
• fecundity
• stochastic lambda

Papers Using This Protocol (34)

Species Studied With This Protocol

Places Where Used