Local Adaptation and the Effects of Isolation and Population Size – the Semelparous Perennial Carlina vulgaris as a Study Case

Authors: Jakobsson, Anna¹; Dinnetz, Patrik²

Source: Evolutionary Ecology, Volume 19, Number 5, September 2005 , pp. 449-466(18)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

We made a reciprocal transplantation experiment with Carlina vulgaris, among 12 semi-natural grassland sites situated in southwest Sweden. The fate of seeds and seedlings were followed during 2 years. Local adaptation was investigated both by native superiority over non-natives, and by comparing the observed performance of a population to the fitted value of a reduced statistical model that showed the populations’ performance at all sites and the performance of all other populations at its home site. The latter method indicates presence of local adaptation even when natives are inferior to introduced populations as long as the negative difference in fitness between the populations is smaller at the native population’s home site. The strength of local adaptation was measured as the ratio of the observed to the expected performance in reduced statistical models and regressed on the degree of isolation and population size. We found no evidence of local adaptation in terms of native superiority compared to non-natives, but with the relative method we found one of six fitness components, juvenile survival, to be 6% higher for natives at their home sites compared to how they performed at other sites and how others performed at their site. Further, our results indicate that both isolation and population size have a positive effect on the process of local adaptation.

Keywords: gene-flow; isolation; natural selection; population size; reciprocal transplantation experiment

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10682-005-8830-0

Affiliations: 1: Department of Botany, Stockholm University, 106 91, Stockholm, Sweden, Email: anna.jakobsson@botan.su.se 2: Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Kalmar, 391 82, Kalmar, Sweden,

Publication date: 2005-09-01

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