2023 Spring Seminar Series Presents

Dr. Megan Bontrager

Assistant Professor
University of Toronto
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

WHEN:  February 17, 2023, at Noon
WHERE:   Seminar will be presented via Zoom and in person in the North Classroom,
Room 1207.

Everyone is welcome to join the seminar, please email jacki.craig@ucdenver.edu to receive the Zoom link. Requests can be submitted any time before the seminar but not after 10:00am the day of the seminar.

Local adaptation at range edges and under anomalous climates

Species’ geographic ranges are limited on the landscape. A major focus of work in the Bontrager lab is identifying which evolutionary and ecological forces interact to shape species’ geographic distributions and limit adaptation. In addition, populations are frequently adapted to their local environments, and my lab works to identify which components of the environment are the most important factors driving local adaptation. To test the effects of gene flow at range edges, we deployed a large common garden experiment at the northern range edge of the wildflower Clarkia pulchella. Our results indicate that gene flow has generally positive effects at this edge and that these effects can be attributed to both heterosis and the movement of alleles from warm climates. We then conducted a quantitative synthesis of transplant experiments to 1) examine how climate change is altering patterns of local adaptation, 2) evaluate the relative importance of temperature and precipitation to local adaptation and 3) examine how the magnitude of local adaptation changes from range centres to range edges. We found that temperature adaptation is a major component of local adaptation, and that as little as two degrees of warming is adequate to disrupt patterns of local adaptation. This work confirms temperature as a critical driver of plant population performance and characterizes general patterns of adaptation across species' ranges.