Genetic diversity may play an important role in allowing individual species to resist climate change, by permitting evolutionary responses. Our understanding of the potential for such responses to climate change remains limited, and very few experimental tests have been carried out within intact ecosystems. Here, we use amplified fragment length polymorphism ( AFLP ) data to assess genetic divergence and test for signatures of...

It is becoming apparent that genetic diversity can influence the species diversity and structure of ecological communities. Here, we investigated the intraspecific trait variation responsible for this relationship. We grew 10 genotypes of the sedge Carex caryophyllea , as monocultures, under standardized conditions and measured traits related to morphology, growth, and life history. The same genotypes had been prominent in det...