Temporal variation in selection influences microgeographic local adaptation

Ecological heterogeneity can lead to local adaptation when populations exhibit fitness trade-offs among habitats. However, the degree to which local adaptation is affected by the spatial and temporal scale of environmental variation is poorly understood. A multi-year reciprocal transplant experiment was performed with populations of the annual plant Leptosiphon parviflorus living on adjacent serpentine and non-serpentine soil. Local adaptation over this small geographic scale was observed, but there were differences in the temporal variability of selection across habitats. On serpentine soil, the local population had a consistently large survival advantage, presumably due to the temporal stability in selection imposed by soil cation content. In contrast, a fecundity advantage was observed for the sandstone population on its native soil type, but only in the two years of study with the highest rainfall. A manipulative greenhouse experiment demonstrated that the fitness advantage of the s..., ReciprocalTransplant.csv:
Reciprocal transplant experiments were conducted at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (JRBP) in San Mateo County California during four spring growing seasons between 2012-2015 with populations of Leptosiphon parviflorus. These populations grow on serpentine soil and sandstone soil in close proximity (~100 m.) at JRBP.
Plants were transplanted at the seedling stage. Source seeds were collected from maternal plants grown in common greenhouse conditions that descended from plants collected from both populations at the study locations. After germination, seedlings were first transplanted into plug trays containing either serpentine or sandstone soil collected from the study site, and then transplanted into the field. During the first 1-2 weeks of growth, all plants were watered, after which supplemental watering ceased. Any seedlings that died before establishment (defined as 10 days after field transplant) were excluded from the dataset.
Study plants were censused..., Scripts require R