Local Adaptation in Island Populations of Plectritis congesta that Differ in Historic Exposure to Ungulate Browsers

摘要

Spatial variation in the occurrence of browsing ungulates among island pop-ulations can drive local adaptation in plant traits. We monitored 4,392 seablushplants from populations with and without deer to test for local adaptation viasurvival, fecundity, and growth form. We observed local adaption; plants fromislands with deer survived five times better and had twice the fecundity outsideexclosures when compared to plants from islands without deer. Survival wasattributed to delayed elongation of vegetative tissue, but this plant is neverthe-less rapidly driven to extinction where deer are overabundant. Such traits likelyevolved in recent years.