Divergent selection across the landscape can favor the evolution of local adaptation in populations experiencing contrasting conditions. Local adaptation is widely observed in a diversity of taxa, yet we have a surprisingly limited understanding of the mechanisms that give rise to it. For instance, few have experimentally confirmed the biotic and abiotic variables that promote local adaptation, and fewer yet have identified the phenotypic targets of selection that mediate local adaptation. Here, we highlight critical gaps in our understanding of the process of local adaptation and discuss insights emerging from in-depth investigations of the agents of selection that drive local adaptation, the phenotypes they target, and the genetic basis of these phenotypes. We review historical and contemporary methods for assessing local adaptation, explore whether local adaptation manifests differently across life history, and evaluate constraints on local adaptation.

中文翻译：

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局部适应：选择和适应性特征分歧的因果因素


整个景观中的不同选择可以有利于经历对比条件的种群的局部适应的进化。局部适应在多种类群中被广泛观察到，但我们对产生局部适应的机制却知之甚少。例如，很少有人通过实验证实促进局部适应的生物和非生物变量，而很少有人确定介导局部适应的选择表型目标。在这里，我们强调了我们对局部适应过程理解中的关键差距，并讨论了对驱动局部适应的选择因子、它们针对的表型以及这些表型的遗传基础进行深入研究所得出的见解。我们回顾了评估局部适应的历史和当代方法，探讨局部适应在整个生命史中是否表现不同，并评估局部适应的限制。