The potential for an adaptive response to global climatic change was evaluated for an annual C$ sb3$ weed, Brassica juncea, by performing a selection on fecundity for eight generations. During the selection, atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature were gradually increased from current levels (370 $ rm mu L cdot L sp{-1}$ CO$ sb2$, 20$ sp circ$C) to conditions predicted during the next century by climate models (650 $ rm mu L cdot L sp{-1}$ CO$ sb2$, 23.6$ sp circ$C) including heat stress events at 32$ sp circ$C/26$ sp circ$C day/night), At the end of the selection, a reciprocal transplant experiment was conducted to identify genetic differences between control selection lines of plants and those selected under increasing CO$ sb2$ and temperature. I observed a genetic adaptation of early vegetative growth elevated CO$ sb2$ and temperature, which resulted in to 63% more biomass and 11% higher photosynthetic rates. Reproductive biomass, however, was decreased during the selection, mainly due to temperature stress, which disrupted flower development and induced strong maternal effects, counteracting the selection on fecundity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.69693 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Tousignant, Denise |
| Contributors | Potvin, Catherine (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001358227, proquestno: AAIMM91791, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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