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The spatial scale of adaptation in a native annual plant and its implications for responses to climate change

Amanda J. Gorton, View ORCID ProfileJohn W. Benning, Peter Tiffin, David A. Moeller
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.22.477135
Amanda J. Gorton
1Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 1479 Gortner Ave, St. Paul, MN, 55108
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John W. Benning
2Department of Botany, University of Wyoming, 1000 E. University Ave, Laramie, WY, 82071
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Peter Tiffin
3Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota, 1479 Gortner Ave, St. Paul, MN, 55108
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David A. Moeller
3Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota, 1479 Gortner Ave, St. Paul, MN, 55108
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Abstract

Spatial patterns of adaptation provide important insights into agents of selection and expected responses of populations to climate change. Robust inference into the geographic scale of adaptation can be gained through reciprocal transplant experiments that combine multiple source populations and common gardens. To quantify the scale of local adaptation and examine the consequences of a warming climate on the species’ range, we performed reciprocal transplant experiments at four common gardens with 22 populations sampled across a ~1200 km latitudinal gradient within the native range of common ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia. We found evidence of local adaptation at the northernmost common garden, but maladaptation at the two southern gardens, where more southern populations outperformed local populations. Overall, the spatial scale of climate adaptation was large — at the three gardens where distance between source populations and gardens explained variation in fitness, it took an average of 820 km for fitness to decline to 50% of its predicted maximum. However, fitness declined more sharply with distance in southern transplant sites. Taken together, these results suggest that climate change has already caused maladaptation, especially across the southern portion of the range, and may result in northward range contraction over time.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 23, 2022.
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The spatial scale of adaptation in a native annual plant and its implications for responses to climate change
Amanda J. Gorton, John W. Benning, Peter Tiffin, David A. Moeller
bioRxiv 2022.01.22.477135; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.22.477135
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The spatial scale of adaptation in a native annual plant and its implications for responses to climate change
Amanda J. Gorton, John W. Benning, Peter Tiffin, David A. Moeller
bioRxiv 2022.01.22.477135; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.22.477135

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