Ongoing anthropogenic climate change alters the local climatic conditions to which species may be adapted. Information on species’ climatic requirements and their intraspecific variation is necessary for predicting the effects of climate change on biodiversity. We used a climatic gradient to test whether populations of two allopatric varieties of an arctic seashore herb (Primula nutans ssp. finmarchica) show adaptation to their local climates and how a future warmer climate may affect them. Our experimental set-up combined a reciprocal translocation within the distribution range of the species with an experiment testing the performance of the sampled populations in warmer climatic conditions south of their range. We monitored survival, size, and flowering over four growing seasons as measures of performance and, thus, proxies of fitness. We found that both varieties performed better in experimental gardens towards the north. Interestingly, highest up in the north, the southern variety outperformed the northern one. Supported by weather data, this suggests that the climatic optima of both varieties have moved at least partly outside their current range. Further warming would make the current environments of both varieties even less suitable. We conclude that Primula nutans ssp. finmarchica is already suffering from adaptational lag due to climate change, and that further warming may increase this maladaptation, especially for the northern variety. The study also highlights that it is not sufficient to run only reciprocal translocation experiments. Climate change is already shifting the optimum conditions for many species and adaptation needs also to be tested outside the current range of the focal taxon in order to include both historic conditions and future conditions.

中文翻译：

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北极海滨植物的易位揭示了对气候条件变化的适应不良的迹象

持续的人为气候变化改变了物种可能适应的当地气候条件。有关物种气候要求及其种内变异的信息对于预测气候变化对生物多样性的影响是必要的。我们使用气候梯度来测试北极海滨草本植物 (Primula nutans ssp. finmarchica) 的两个异域变种的种群是否表现出对当地气候的适应以及未来气候变暖对它们的影响。我们的实验设置将物种分布范围内的相互易位与测试样本种群在其分布范围以南较温暖气候条件下的表现的实验相结合。我们监测了四个生长季节的存活率、大小和开花情况，作为衡量性能的指标，从而作为健康的替代指标。我们发现这两个品种在朝北的实验花园中表现更好。有趣的是，在北方最高的地方，南方品种的表现优于北方品种。在天气数据的支持下，这表明这两个品种的最佳气候至少部分超出了目前的范围。进一步变暖将使这两个品种的当前环境更加不适合。我们得出结论，Primula nutans ssp。由于气候变化，finmarchica 已经遭受了适应滞后的影响，进一步变暖可能会加剧这种适应不良，特别是对于北方品种。该研究还强调，仅进行相互易位实验是不够的。