New paper: Meta-analysis of local adaptation experiments compares sources of natural selection

Low clouds surround mountaintops in the San Gabriel Mountains. The analysis in the new paper suggests that selection by abiotic factors like high-elevation conditions may often be weaker than selection created by interactions between species. (Flickr: Jeremy Yoder)

Local adaptation, in which populations of a species become better able to survive and thrive in their home environment than in conditions found elsewhere in the species’ range, is a widespread pattern that evolutionary biologists have long used to study the causes and consequences of natural selection. My newest paper, which is now online ahead of print in The American Naturalist, combines data across many studies of local adaptation to answer a persistent question about the history of life on Earth — has evolution been influenced more by selection arising from environmental conditions, or by interactions among living things?

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