On the capacity for rapid adaptation and plastic responses to herbivory and intraspecific competition in insular populations of Plectritis congesta.

ABSTRACT: A capacity for rapid adaptation should enhance the persistence of populations subject to temporal and spatial heterogeneity in natural selection, but examples from nature remain scarce. Plectritis congesta (Caprifoliaceae) is a winter annual that exhibits local adaptation to browsing by ungulates and hypothesized to show context-dependent trade-offs in traits affecting success in competition versus resistance or tolerance to browsing. We grew P. congesta from 44 insular populations historically exposed or naïve to ungulates in common gardens to (1) quantify genetic, plastic and competitive effects on phenotype; (2) estimate a capacity for rapid adaptation (evolvability); and (3) test whether traits favoured by selection with ungulates present were selected against in their ab

SUBMITTER: Skaien CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9108306 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature