Format: ORAL

Shengman Lyu,John R. Pannell

Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Plants originating from different populations and environments often exhibit distinct trait values for life history, morphology, and physiology as a result of local adaptation. Similarly, in plants with separate sexes, males and females often have distinct phenotypes that optimise their respective sexual functions (sexual dimorphism). This phenotypic variation can be summarised in terms of a trait correlation matrix, which can limit responses to selection. There has been substantial research on trait correlation matrices within populations and their implications for constraints on adaptation, but there is still limited work on how these matrices differ among environments and between the sexes. We sowed seeds of the European ruderal plantMercurialis annuaL. (Euphorbiaceae) sampled from 21 populations from seven regions across Europe and the Middle East, spanning a wide range of environmental conditions, and measured a suite of life history and morphological traits associated with fitness and sexual reproduction in a large common garden. We present the results of our analyses that point to substantial variation in trait correlations among populations, regions and sexes. I will discuss the results in relation to environmental variation among source sites and in terms of constraints that limit evolutionary responses to selection and phenotypic divergence between the sexes. Our study provides valuable insights into the multidimensional nature of plant adaptation across spatial scales seldom studied for wild populations, especially for species with separate sexes.