Phenotypic plasticity of floral traits and pollination adaption in an alpine plant <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pedicularis siphonantha</Emphasis> D. Don when transplanted from higher to lower elevation in Eastern Himalaya

Phenotypic plasticity and/or pollinator-mediated selection may be responsible for the changes in floral traits of plants when they are forced to live in new conditions. Although the two events could be independent, we hypothesized that phenotypic plasticity in floral traits might help to coordinate plant-pollinator interactions and enhance plant reproductive success in changing habitats. To test this hypothesis, we investigated floral traits and pollination on three natural populations of a lousewort (Pedicularis siphonantha) ranging at different elevations, as well as two downward transplanted populations in Shangeri-La County and Deqin County, northwest Yunnan, China. The results indicated that floral traits, i.e. phenology, longevity, display size, corolla tube length and pollen production differed significantly among populations. Moreover, or the two transplanted populations, floral traits diverged from their original populations, but converged to their host populations. Although the phenotypic plasticity in floral traits might be a rapid response to abiotic factor such as warmer environment, the changes in floral traits were found to be well adapted to pollination environment of the host population. Compared with plants of their original habitats in higher elevation, the transplanted individuals advanced flowering time, shortened flower longevity, reduced floral display size and pollen production, received higher visiting frequency and yielded more seeds. These findings suggested that phenotypic plasticity of floral traits might help plants adjust their resource allocation strategy between preand post-pollination stages in response to harsh or temperate conditions, which might correspondingly meet a pollinator-poor or hyphen rich environment. This would be beneficial for the widely-distributed species to adapt to various environmental changes.     

Loss of preferred habitat and pollen limitation threatens reproduction in a rare mountain Paeonia delavayi

Paeonia delavayi is a wild tree peony species endemic to high-altitude regions in southwestern China.Recent agricultural land expansion,however,not only causes its dwindling population size,but also poses a severe threat to its long-term persistence.Since our knowledge of the reproductive biology of P.delavayi is very limited,and some management misconceptions have further exacerbated the already worrisome situation,the aim of the present study is to provide some scientific evidence regarding habitat preference and breeding system of P.delavayi,and to help correct some management misconceptions.Specifically,morphological traits of P.delavayi populations growing in two different habitats(i.e.,the open area versus forest understory),including basal stem diameter,plant height and flower numbers per plant,were measured and compared with each other.A range of floral manipulation experiments was further conducted to study the extent of self-compatibility and pollen limitation.The results showed that P.delavayi preferred the open habitat over forest understory as it generally grew bigger with thickerstems,and produced a higher number of flowers in the former habitat.Therefore,the open habitat should receive immediate priority for conservation action instead of being converted to agricultural land;also,P.delavayi is pollen limited,as evidenced by the fact that experimental flowers receiving supplemental non-self pollen generally displayed elevated seed production than flowers subjected to other treatments(e.g.,non-supplemental self pollen,non-supplemental non-self pollen and supplemental self pollen),which is consistent with reported observations that alpine plants are more likely to be pollen-limited than lowland plants.We suggest that human intervention might be necessary to guarantee the long-term persistence of P.delavayi as harsh alpine environment,intense competition for pollinators and different anthropogenic perturbations co-limit its reproductive success.     

Loss of preferred habitat and pollen limitation threatens reproduction in a rare mountain <Emphasis Type="Italic">Paeonia delavayi</Emphasis>

Paeonia delavayi is a wild tree peony species endemic to high-altitude regions in southwestern China. Recent agricultural land expansion, however, not only causes its dwindling population size, but also poses a severe threat to its long-term persistence. Since our knowledge of the reproductive biology of P. delavayi is very limited, and some management misconceptions have further exacerbated the already worrisome situation, the aim of the present study is to provide some scientific evidence regarding habitat preference and breeding system of P. delavayi, and to help correct some management misconceptions. Specifically, morphological traits of P. delavayi populations growing in two different habitats (i.e., the open area versus forest understory), including basal stem diameter, plant height and flower numbers per plant, were measured and compared with each other. A range of floral manipulation experiments was further conducted to study the extent of self-compatibility and pollen limitation. The results showed that P. delavayi preferred the open habitat over forest understory as it generally grew bigger with thicker stems, and produced a higher number of flowers in the former habitat. Therefore, the open habitat should receive immediate priority for conservation action instead of being converted to agricultural land; also, P. delavayi is pollen limited, as evidenced by the fact that experimental flowers receiving supplemental non-self pollen generally displayed elevated seed production than flowers subjected to other treatments (e.g., non-supplemental self pollen, non-supplemental non-self pollen and supplemental self pollen), which is consistent with reported observations that alpine plants are more likely to be pollen-limited than lowland plants. We suggest that human intervention might be necessary to guarantee the long-term persistence of P. delavayi as harsh alpine environment, intense competition for pollinators and different anthropogenic perturbations co-limit its reproductive success.     

Middle and Late Permian palynoflora in Tianshan Township,southeast of Bogda Mountain,Xinjiang, China

The Permian is one of the most important periods during which the vegetative earth witnessed the transition from icehouse to greenhouse climate and the global environment changes. Organisms on the planet en-countered great challenge and the demise of swamp caused the extinction of arborescent lycopods and the rising of Mesophytic plants accomplished the floral transition from the Paleophytic to Mesophytic vegetation. In order to depict the climatic changes and floral succession in the middle and high latitudes of the North Hemisphere, palynological investigation was engaged, and 40 samples collected from the uppermost of Taerlang Formation, Hongyanchi Formation and Quanzijie Formation in the Tianshan Town, Turpan-Hami Basin, eastern Xinjiang, China. The result shows that the palynoflora in the studied area is composed of 50 species of 33 genera, domi-nated by disaccites and striatiti gymnosperm pollen, and characterized by diverse Protohaploxypinus, Hamia-pollenites, Alisporites and Klausipollenites. It is quite similar to those Middle and Late Permian palynological as-semblages reported in the Dalongkou section and other localities in southern margin of Junggar Basin, and aged at Middle and Late Permian. The diversity of typical Angara and sub-Angara pollen, such as Falcisporites, Alisporites, Protohaploxypinus, Vittatina, Lunatisporites, Hamiapollenites, etc. indicates that the studied palyno-flora belonged to the sub-Angara phytoprovince, while the presence of Lueckisporites virkkiae implied Euramerica pollen intruded northward sometimes. The paleoclimate of the studied area might be warm and humid with fluc-tuated dry seasons during the late Guadalupian and early Lopingian time.     

Opportunistic-tended life history traits of Siniperca kneri in the Three Gorges Reservoir,China: potential responses to impoundment

Reservoir impoundment changes original fluvial habitats into lentic environments. Fish species adapted to lentic habitats may take the advantage of such habitat changes and show typical life history traits might facilitate the population increase. Siniperca kneri rarely occurred in fishery landing in the Three Gorges Reservoir(TGR) area before its impoundment in 2003, but it is now a dominant species. In this study, a total of 438 females of S. kneri were collected monthly during September 2012 through January2014 using gill nets in the TGR. The age, growth, and reproductive biology were then investigated, and compared with other S. kneri populations. The standard length at age 1 was 149.9 mm in the TGR, which is larger than the three compared populations(i.e., Sandaohe Reservoir, Xinfengjiang Reservoir, and North River), but smaller than one(the Guishi Reservoir). The youngest mature female in the TGR was age 1,which is younger than that of the two compared populations(i.e., Xinfengjiang Reservoir and the North River). The relative fecundity in the TGR was 140 eggs/g, which is higher than that of the only available compared population(Xinfengjiang Reservoir, 96 eggs/g). Our results demonstrated that S. kneri in the TGR tended to have faster growth in the first year, a younger age at first maturation, and higher reproductive ef fort.We suggest that such opportunistic-tended life history traits might facilitate rapid increase of the population.     

Significant effects of fishing gear selectivity on fish life history

Over the past few decades, extreme changes have occurred in the characters of exploited fish populations. The majority of these changes have affected the growth traits of fish life history, which include a smaller size-at-age, an earlier age-at-maturation and among others. Currently, the causes of these life history traits changes still require systematic analyses and empirical studies. The explanations that have been cited are merely expressed in terms of fish phenotypic adaptation. It has been claimed that the original traits of fish can be recovered once the intensity of exploitation of the fish is controlled. Sustained environmental and fishing pressure will change the life history traits of most fish species, so the fish individual’s traits are still in small size-at-age and at earlier age-at-maturation in exploited fish populations. In this paper, we expressed our view of points that fishing gear has imposed selectiv-ity on fish populations and individuals as various other environmental factors have done and such changes are unrecoverable. Ac-cording to the existing tend of exploited fish individual’s life history traits, we suggested further researches in this field and provided better methods of fishery management and thereby fishery resources protection than those available early.     

以色列二穗短柄草物候期及农艺性状研究

二穗短柄草是一种理想的研究温带禾谷类植物和牧草的模式植物。对源于以色列4个不同地区(群体)90个生态型二穗短柄草的物候期和农艺性状差异及其相关性进行了研究。结果表明,在贵州自然气候条件下,以色列二穗短柄草生态型间和群体间在生长期、各农艺性状表现均有所不同,方差分析呈极显著差异(P<0.0001);各群体生长期平均值的顺序为:Tibigha相似文献   

Sedimentological features and biostratigraphy of Jurassic/Cretaceous deposits in continental basins in Priamurie, Far East Russia

The paper describes the sedimentary features and biostratigraphy of the transitional Jurassic to Cretaceous deposits in the continental basins of Priamurie formed after the collision between the Siberian and North China blocks. In Upper Priamurie, the collision occurred in the late Early Jurassic as dated by the emplacement of the post-collisional granites (191Ma) . While in Lower Priamurie and West Priokhotie it could take place in the late Middle Jurassic on the basis of fossil evidence from an accretionary turbidite complex. This event reflected the environmental change from coastal-marine to alluvial plains, often boggy, where coals accumulated. The environmental change is in harmony with that of biota. Systematic study of floral and spores/pollen assemblages, particularly in the sections of interbedded marine and non-marine deposits, makes clear the chronostratigraphic succession of floral associations and shows the possibility of their application for subdivision and correlation of the continental deposits of Priamurie. The coastal-marine environment of the residual post-collisional sublatitudinal basins in the western part of Priamurie (Upper Amur and Dep basins) was replaced by the continental in the late Middle Jurassic and in the eastern part in the Berriasian-Valanginian ( Torom Basin) . Similar environmental change commenced in the submeridional rift basins: the Bureya Basin in the Callovian and the Partizansk Basin in the Hauterivian. Changes in ecosystems occurred frequently during theMiddle Jurassic-Neocomian, but the most substantial changes took place in the late Middle Jurassic and in the end of Late Jurassic.     

Polysaccharides purified from wild Cordyceps activate FGF2/FGFR1c signaling

Land animals as well as all organisms in ocean synthesize sulfated polysaccharides. Fungi split from animals about 1.5 billion years ago. As fungi make the evolutionary journey from ocean to land, the biggest changes in their living environment may be a sharp decrease in salt concentration. It is established that sulfated polysaccharides interact with hundreds of signaling molecules and facilitate many signaling transduction pathways, including fibroblast growth factor(FGF) and FGF receptor signaling pathway. The disappearance of sulfated polysaccharides in fungi and plants on land might indicate that polysaccharides without sulfation might be sufficient in facilitating protein ligand/receptor interactions in low salinity land. Recently, it was reported that plants on land start to synthesize sulfated polysaccharides in high salt environment, suggesting that fungi might be able to do the same when exposed in such environment. Interestingly, Cordyceps, a fungus habituating inside caterpillar body, is the most valued traditional Chinese Medicine. One of the important pharmaceutical active ingredients in Cordyceps is polysaccharides. Therefore, we hypothesize that the salty environment inside caterpillar body might allow the fungi to synthesize sulfated polysaccharides. To test the hypothesis, we isolated polysaccharides from both lava and sporophore of wild Cordyceps and also from Cordyceps militaris cultured without or with added salts. We then measured the polysaccharide activity using a FGF2/FGFR1 c signaling-dependent Ba F3 cell proliferation assay and found that polysaccharides isolated from wild Cordyceps activated FGF2/FGFR signaling, indicating that the polysaccharides synthesized by wild Cordyceps are indeed different from those by the cultured mycelium.     

Changes of taxonomical composition of Late Jurassic- Early Cretaceous palynofioras of Bureya Basin, Russia

The changes of taxonomical composition of the Late Jurassic- Early Cretaceous palynofloras are revealed, in the upper stream of Bureya River in Bureya Basin. The palynofloras are dominated as follows： the Berriasian one by ferns （Cyatheaceae, Dicksoniaceae, Osmundaceae）, Classopollis and bisaccate pollen; the Valanginiar-Hauterivian one by ferns （Cyatheaceae, Dicksoniaceae）, Ginkgocycadophytus and bisaccate pollen; the Barremian one by ferns （Cyatheaceae, Dicksoniaceae）; the Aptian one by ferns （Cyatheaceae, Dicksoniaceae, Gleicheniaceae） and Ginkgocycadophytus; and the Albian one by ferns （Schizaeaceae） and bisaccate pollen. In the Albian the floral diversity raises with the angiosperms appearing.     

Changes of taxonomical composition of Late Jurassic Early Cretaceous palynofloras of Bureya Basin,Russia

The changes of taxonomical composition of the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous palynofloras are revealed,in the upper stream of Bureya River in Bureya Basin.The palynofloras are dominated as follows:the Berriasian one by ferns (Cyatheaceae,Dicksoniaceae,Osmundaceae), Classopollis and bisaccate pollen;the Valanginian-Hauterivian one by ferns (Cyatheaceae,Dicksoniaceae), Ginkgocycadophytus and bisaccate pollen;the Barremian one by ferns(Cyatheaceae,Dieksoniaceae);the Aptian one by ferns(Cyatheaceae,Dieksoniaceae,Gleicheniaceae)and Ginkgocycadophytus;and the Albian one by ferns(Schizaeaceae)and bisaccate pollen.In the Albian the floral diversity raises with the angiosperms appearing.     

Changes of taxonomical composition of Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous palynofloras of Bureya Basin,Russia

The changes of taxonomical composition of the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous palynofloras are revealed,in the upper stream of Bureya River in Bureya Basin.The palynofloras are dominated as follows:the Berriasian one by ferns(Cyatheaceae,Dicksoniaceae,Osmundaceae),Classopollis and bisaccate pollen;the Valanginian-Hauterivian one by ferns(Cyatheaceae,Dicksoniaceae),Ginkgocycadophytus and bisaccate pollen;the Barremian one by ferns(Cyatheaceae,Dicksoniaceae);the Aptian one by ferns(Cyatheaceae,Dicksoniaceae,Gleicheniaceae) and Ginkgocycadophytus;and the Albian one by ferns(Schizaeaceae) and bisaccate pollen.In the Albian the floral diversity raises with the angiosperms appearing.     

Alpine Activity Patterns of Mitopus morio （Fabricius, 1779） are Induced by Variations in Temperature and Humidity at Different Scales in Central Norway

Our research addresses questions about how micro-climate affects activity abundance of a common and widespread harvestman in an alpine ecosystem. Activity patterns of the Harvestman Mitopus morio （Fabricius, 1779） were studied along different alpine gradients in the central Norwegian Scandes. Within a nested design, we surveyed 18 alpine habitats with pitfall traps and microclimatological equipment along oceanic-continental, two elevational, and （fine-scaled） microtopographic gradients. Sites in the oceanic region of the Scandes showed generally higher abundance of M. morio than sites in the continental region. Furthermore, along the elevational gradient, middle-alpine sites showed higher abundances than low-alpine sites. These general patterns are best explained by higher humidity in the oceanic region and in the middlealpine belt. Focusing at a finer scale, i.e. one elevational level within each region, revealed partly opposing activity patterns within relatively short distances. While in the western middle-alpine belt these patterns were best explained by humidityrelated measures but now with higher activity abundance during drier conditions, in the drier eastern middle-alpine belt heat sums rather than humidity were found to be the best explanatoryvariables for the observed patterns. Hence, our results imply a pronounced different reaction of the two populations towards climatic variables that partly even contradict the previously described general pattern. Regardless whether these differences in activity abundance in M. morio are a form of phenotypic plasticity or adaptation, our findings stress the importance of detailed autecological knowledge combined with fine-scaled climatic measurements when aiming at predictions about possible future ecosystem structures and spatiotemporal phenomena. M. morio proves to be an ideal biogeographic model organism for understanding spatio-temporal responses of alpine ecosystems under modified climatic conditions.     

Birds in rocky habitats of the Tatra Mountains (Carpathians): species diversity and multiple ecological relationships

Rocky habitats are regarded as biodiversity hot-spots.Along with high species diversity,diverse ecological relationships can be observed in these habitats.Large groups of bird species use rocks in various ways:as perching/roosting sites,breeding or foraging habitats,information exchange sites,display arenas or as sources of minerals and water.Because of the inaccessibility of these environments,their role and importance to animals has been underestimated.We evaluated the use of rocky habitats by birds in the Tatra Mountains(49°13'N,19°57'E,Carpathians,central Europe).Rocky habitats were used by 29 bird species,eight of which used cliffs directly(i.e.for nesting,foraging or resting).The number of species recorded as using cliffs was correlated with the surface area of the cliff face.A total of 20 forms of rocky habitat use were recorded,in five behavioural categories:vocalization,foraging,perching,flight and nesting.Prevailing behaviours were flying by a rock face,circling above the face,and vocalization on a tree/shrub growing next to a rock.Rocks provide a nesting habitat for specialized petrophilic species and permit the existence of numerous ecological relations between species and habitats.The results of this study show that rocky habitats support the diversity of ecological relationships.     

河南登封二叠纪煤系地层植物化石组合

依据化石的层位分布和组成内容，登封二叠纪煤系地层植物群由下而上可划分为三个植物化石组合带：１．早二叠世中期山西组Ｅｍｐｌｅｃｔｏｐｔｅｒｉｓｔｒｉａｎｇｕｌａｒｉｓ－Ｔａｅｎｉｏｐｔｅｒｉｓｍｕｌｔｉｎｅｒｖｉｓａｓ－ｓｅｍｂｌａｇｅｚｏｎｅ；２．早二叠世晚期下石盒子组Ｇｉｇａｎｔｏｐｔｅｒｉｓｎｉｃｏｔｉａｎａｅｆｏｌｉａ－Ｃｈｉｒｏｐｔｅｒｉｓｒｅｎｉｆｏｒｍｉｓａｓｓｅｍｂｌａｇｅｚｏｎｅ；３．晚二叠世早期上石盒子组Ｌｏｂａｔａｎｎｕｌａｒｉａｈｅｉａｎｅｎｓｉｓ－Ｐｔｅｒｏｐｈｙｌｌｕｍｅｒａｔｕｍａｓ－ｓｅｍｂｌａｇｅｚｏｎｅ。另外，文中还讨论了这些植物组合的主要特点     

Relationship between surface pollen and modern vegetation in Southwestern China

Based on the pollen data obtained from thirty-five surface soil samples and investigated vegetation data from seven plant quadrats, the quantitative relationship between surface soil pollen and modern vegetation are studied in the longitudinal range-gorge region (LRGR) in Southwestern China. R-values (referring to pollen assemblages) are calculated with pollen percentage and plant abundance. The coefficients of similarity between pollen and vegetation are analyzed. The results show that the pollen assemblages on surface soil of all vegetation zones can basically represent the native vegetation, but the pollen assemblages are not fully according with the vegetation. This is due to the influencing factors including pollen preservation ability, pollen production, amount of exotic pollen and pollen identification. The pollen representation in surface soil is different in families and genera. The pollen of woody plants such as Pinus, Tsuga, Alnus, Fagus and Castanopsis are over-representative, but those of Quercus, Carpinus Myrica, Elaeocarpaceae, Ericaceae, Theaceae and Llex are underrepresentative; the pollen of herbaceous plants such as Artemisia and Rubiaceae are over-representative, while those of others including Gramineae and Araliaceae are under-representative. The R-values of the same taxon pollen in different vegetation zones are different, depending on their distances from the pollen sources. The coefficients of the similarity between plant communities and pollen assemblages are mostly over 70%, which indicate again that the surface soil pollen and spores assemblages can represent the vegetation. It is concluded that there is a good corresponding relationship between surface pollen assemblages and native vegetation in LRGR, and it is of great significance for reconstructing the past vegetation and paleoclimate using quantitative fossil pollen data in this region.     

Impacts of ontogenetic and altitudinal changes on morphological traits and biomass allocation patterns of Fritillaria unibracteata

Environmental variations and ontogeny may affect plant morphological traits and biomass allocation patterns that are related to the adjustments of plant ecological strategies. We selected 2-, 3-and 4-year-old Fritillaria unibracteata plants to explore the ontogenetic and altitudinal changes that impact their morphological traits(i.e., plant height, single leaf area,and specific leaf area) and biomass allocations [i.e.,biomass allocations of roots, bulbs, leaves, stems, and flowers] at relatively low altitudinal ranges(3400 m to 3600 m asl) and high altitudinal ranges(3600 m to4000 m asl). Our results indicated that plant height,root biomass allocation, and stem biomass allocation significantly increased during the process of individual growth and development, but single leaf area, specific leaf area, bulb biomass allocation, and leaf biomass allocation showed opposite trends.Furthermore, the impacts of altitudinal changes on morphological traits and biomass allocations had no significant differences at low altitude, except for single leaf area of 2-year-old plants. At high altitude,significantly reduced plant height, single leaf area and leaf biomass allocation for the 2-year-old plants,specific leaf area for the 2-and 4-year-old plants, and stem biomass allocation were found along altitudinal gradients. Significantly increased sexual reproductive allocation and relatively stable single leaf area and leaf biomass allocation were also observed for the 3-and 4-year-old plants. In addition, stable specific leaf area for the 3-year-old plants and root biomass allocation were recorded. These results suggested that the adaptive adjustments of alpine plants, in particular F. unibracteata were simultaneously influenced by altitudinal gradients and ontogeny.     

Exploring seven hundred years of transhumance,climate dynamic,fire and human activity through a historical mountain pass in central Spain

A high-altitude peat sequence from the heart of the Spanish Central System (Gredos range) was analysed through a multi-proxy approach to determine the sensitivity of high-mountain habitats to climate, fire and land use changes during the last seven hundred years, providing valuable insight into our understanding of the vegetation history and environmental changes in a mountain pass close to a traditional route of transhumance. The pollen data indicate that the vegetation was dominated by shrublands and grasslands with scattered pines in high-mountain areas, while in the valleys cereals, chestnut and olive trees were cultivated. Strong declines of high-mountain pines percentages are recorded at 1540, 1675, 1765, 1835 and 1925 cal AD, which may be related to increasing grazing activities and/or the occurrence of anthropogenic fires. The practice of mountain summer farming and transhumance deeply changed and redesigned the landscape of the high altitudes in central Spain (Gredos range) since the Middle Ages, although its dynamics was influenced in some way by climate variability of the past seven centuries.     

Methods used to study bacterial diversity in the marine environment around Qingdao

Pollution has a considerable effect on biological communities, in terms of size and diversity of the populations. Yet, the precise consequences of human activity on microbial communities in the marine environment are poorly understood. Therefore, in an ongoing collaborative research programme between Heriot-Watt University and the Ocean University of Qingdao, bacteria were isolated in 1999 and 2000 from marine sediment, seawater, seaweed, fish and shellfish, taken from locations in Shandong Province adjacent to Qingdao. Sampling locations were comprised of industrial and aquacultural sites and a clean, control site. In order to analyse microbial diversity, a polyphasic approach was adopted for characterisation of these isolates, specifically through examination of key phenotypic traits, i.e. using Biolog GN MicroPlate^™ profiles, bacterial whole cell protein profiles and 16S and 23S rRNA gene sequences. These techniques yielded complex taxonomic data, which were subjected to statistical and cluster analyses. The application of these methods to studies of microbial communities is discussed.     

High Phenotypic Variation in Morus alba L. along an Altitudinal Gradient in the Indian Trans-Himalaya

Ten quantitative morphological characters were studied in 56 Morus alba L. trees representing three natural populations from the trans-Himalayan Ladakh region. The altitude of collection sites ranged from 2815 to 3177 m above the sea level(asl). Coefficient of variation(CV) showed high phenotypic variation in M. alba. Linear regression analysis revealed that leaf and fruit size decreases with an increase in altitude. High CV was observed for leaf length, leaf width, petiole length, leaf area, internodal distance, number of nodes, bud length, fruit length, fruit width and fruit weight. Similarly, a high phenotypic plasticity index was observed for bud length, leaf length, leaf width, petiole length, leaf area, inter-nodal distance, number of nodes, fruit length, fruit width and fruit weight. For every 100 m increase in altitude, leaf length, leaf width and leaf area decreased by 1 cm, 0.8 cm and 16.6 cm2, respectively. Analysis of covariance showed a predominant altitudinal effect on the morphological characters in comparison to the population effect. A small change in the altitude caused significant change in the plant morphological characteristics. The present investigation represents to our knowledge the first study addressing phenotypic variation in mulberryalong an altitudinal gradient.