[en] Plant populations are expected to face gradual climatic variation in the next decades. Understanding and quantifying evolutionary and non-evolutionary mechanisms allowing populations response to climate is therefore crucial to anticipate the actual consequences of climate change on plants. However, studying the direct effects of climate change in wild populations is of little anticipating interest… there invasive plants can help!
We studied the sources of phenotypic variation in populations that gradually invaded different climatic zones over the last century, and assessed the role of local adaptation, non-adaptive genetic differentiation, phenotypic plasticity and environmental maternal effects in plant population response to climate.
