Evolution of competitive ability and the response to nutrient availability: a resurrection study with the calcareous grassland herb, Leontodon hispidus

• DOI: 10.1007/s00442-024-05657-1
• Publication Date: 2025-01-04T04:29:40Z
• Authors: Pascal Karitter; Emma Corvers; Marie Karrenbauer; Martí March-Salas; Bojana Stojanova; Andreas Ensslin; Robert Rauschkolb; Sandrine Godefroid; J. F. Scheepens

Abstract Rapid environmental changes across Europe include warmer and increasingly variable temperatures, in soil nutrient availability, pollinator decline. These abiotic biotic can affect natural plant populations force them to optimize resource use against competitors. To date, the evolution of competitive ability context availability remains understudied. In this study, we investigated whether common calcareous grassland herb Leontodon hispidus recently evolved its response availability. We compared ancestors sampled 1995 descendants 2018 applied a competition treatment combination with weekly treatments (no fertilizer, nitrogen, phosphorus, both). found evidence for increased ability, producing more vegetative biomass than when grown under competition. Furthermore, supplementing nutrients (especially N) reduced differences between descendants, suggesting that are limiting factor interspecific competition, which could be linked decreasing nitrogen emissions into atmosphere since 1990s. Our study demonstrates rapid contemporary but also complexity underlying processes evolution, sheds light on importance understudied potential selection agents such as