Staying in situ or shifting range under ongoing climate change: A case of an endemic herb in the Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains across elevational gradients

Aim: How species respond to ongoing climate change has been a hot research topic, especially with the controversy in shifting range (movement) or persisting in local habitat (in situ) as the primary response. Assessing the relative roles of range shifts, phenotypic plasticity and genetic adaptation helps us predict the evolutionary fate of species. We aim to explore the evolutionary strategies of plants under climate change from a keystone herb in alpine ecosystems, Mirabilis himalaica, along its elevational gradient.
Location: Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains, China.
Methods: We combined evidence from population genomics and ecological data in both space and time to investigate the state of “staying” or “moving”. We identified migration events by assessing historical and contemporary gene flow, and changes in species distribution. Morphological variation was compared by measuring five traits using specimen data. Moreover, we explored climate-driven genetic variation and local selection regi..., ,