Ecological and evolutionary responses of an arctic plant to variation in microclimate and soil

The arctic and alpine regions are predicted to experience some of the highest rates of climate change, and the arctic vegetation is expected to be especially sensitive to such changes. Understanding the ecological and evolutionary responses of arctic plant species to changes in climate is therefore a key objective. Geothermal areas, where natural temperature gradients occur over small spatial scales, and without many of the confounding environmental factors present in latitudinal and other gradient studies, provide a natural experimental setting in which to examine the response of arctic-alpine plants to increasing temperatures. To test the ecological and evolutionary response of the circumpolar alpine bistort (Persicaria vivipara) to temperature, we collected plant material and soil from areas with low, intermediate, and high soil temperatures and grew them at three different temperatures in a threefactorial growth chamber experiment. At higher experimental soil temperatures, sprouting...