(Photo by Mariana Vargas Cruz and Gustavo M. Mori)
Trees cannot move. At least once they establish and grow. So, environmental changes pose important challenges to these organisms. These changes may be through time (i.e. climate changes) or the surroundings of a given place may be quite different compared to difference spots! Sometimes, even across the road! In two recent papers lead by Mariana Vargas Cruz (Mari), we described how two black mangroves, Avicennia germinans and A. schaueriana have responded to different conditions. We discovered that natural selection have likely acted such that plants that better coped with freshwater deprivation (and solar radiation differences) have had better chances of survival or have produced more seeds. Do you want to know more! If you are curious, check the details of the papers regarding A. schaueriana and A. germinans!
If you are facing a paywall, please directly contact me or any of the authors, or check my ResearchGate.
PS: These papers brought our team's 2019 to a great end! Let 2020 begin!