Spatial Selection and Local Adaptation Jointly Shape Life-History Evolution during Range Expansion

Katrien H. P. Van Petegem, Jeroen Boeye, Robby Stoks, Dries Bonte
2016 American Naturalist  
In the context of climate change and species invasions, range shifts increasingly gain attention because the rates at which they occur in the Anthropocene induce rapid changes in biological assemblages. During range shifts, species experience multiple selection pressures. For poleward expansions in particular, it is difficult to interpret observed evolutionary dynamics because of the joint action of evolutionary processes related to spatial selection and to adaptation toward local climatic
more » ... tions. To disentangle the effects of these two processes, we integrated stochastic modeling and data from a common garden experiment, using the spider mite Tetranychus urticae as a model species. By linking the empirical data with those derived form a highly parameterized individual-based model, we infer that both spatial selection and local adaptation contributed to the observed latitudinal lifehistory divergence. Spatial selection best described variation in dispersal behavior, while variation in development was best explained by adaptation to the local climate. Divergence in life-history traits in species shifting poleward could consequently be jointly determined by contemporary evolutionary dynamics resulting from adaptation to the environmental gradient and from spatial selection. The integration of modeling with common garden experiments provides a powerful tool to study the contribution of these evolutionary processes on life-history evolution during range expansion. v o l . 1 8 8 , n o . 5 t h e a m e r i c a n n a t u r a l i s t n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 6
doi:10.1086/688666 pmid:27788346 fatcat:vhy6roqupnfljgnmxj5msovk7i