Contrasting environmental factors drive local adaptation at opposite ends of an environmental gradient in the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus).

Premise: Identifying the environmental factors responsible for natural selection across different habitats is crucial for understanding the process of local adaptation in plants. Despite its importance, few studies have successfully isolated the environmental factors driving local adaptation in nature. In this study, we evaluated the agents of selection responsible for local adaptation of the monkeyflower Mimulus guttatus to California's coastal and inland habitats.

Methods: We implemented a manipulative reciprocal transplant experiment at coastal and inland sites, where we excluded aboveground stressors in an effort to elucidate their role in the evolution of local adaptation.

Results: Excluding aboveground stressors, most likely a combination of salt spray and herbivory, completely rescued inland annual plant fitness when transplanted to coastal habitat. The exclosures in inland habitat provided a benefit to the performance of coastal perennial plants. However, the exclosures are unlikely to provide much fitness benefit to the coastal plants at the inland site because of their general inability to flower in time to escape from the summer drought.

Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that a distinct set of selective agents (aboveground vs. belowground) are responsible for local adaptation at opposite ends of an environmental gradient.