Local Adaptation in Plants

Local adaptation in plants

• This part of the workshop aims to demonstrate local adaptation (often
called ecotype variation) and show you how to distinguish between
direct environmental effects versus genetic differences that have
evolved between populations.

• Plants are very suitable for studying local adaptation, because they
don’t move. A classic experimental design to test between
environmental and genetic differences uses ‘common garden
experiments’, i.e. growing individuals from different populations under
the same treatment, in the lab, greenhouse, or experimental garden. 
Some examples of plant variation
•Growth form. Common garden experiments have been used to show that common phenotypes seen
in plants from high altitude populations, but not in low altitude populations of the same species,
such as small size and a rosette growth form, are genetic differences between the populations.

•Cold-tolerance and/or cold requirements. Plants from northern latitudes tend to be more cold-
tolerant than individuals from more southerly populations, and they often require cold treatment for
seeds to germinate, or for the young plants to be switched into the flowering mode.

•Tolerance of toxins and toxic compounds. Similarly, plants from localities where the soil is
contaminated with poisonous heavy metals, such as near copper smelters, have a genetic ability to
tolerate copper in their soil or growth medium, whereas plants of the same species, or of closely
related species, do not.
Effect of heavy grazing by animals
•Grazing by animals can cause plants which
are able to flower more rapidly to
propagate over slower-growing members of
that species.

•Here you can see that Persicaria longiseta

in areas heavily grazed by deers produce
more flowers (and hence potentially more
offspring) than areas which are not grazed.
Adaptation to heavy metal stresses in soil
•This figure demonstrates that when zinc
salts are elevated in soil (in this case as a
result of corrosion of pylons), plants will
adapt to become more tolerant to zinc.

•It can also be seen that there may be a

fitness trade-off occurring here: some of
the zinc-tolerant plants appear to produce
smaller roots in general than their less
tolerant peers.
Adaptation to low temperatures
•Plants from northern latitudes tend to be
more cold-tolerant than individuals from
more southerly populations, and they often
require cold treatment for seeds to
germinate, or for the young plants to be
switched into the flowering mode.

•In this case, you can see that plants from

more northerly latitudes flower later in the
year when grown alongside plants from
further south, indicating that the trigger to
flower is a lower temperature for these
plants.