Habitat fragmentation affects climate adaptation in a forest herb

Abstract: Climate change and the resulting increased drought frequencies pose considerable threats to forest herb populations, especially when compounded by additional environmental challenges. Specifically, habitat fragmentation may disrupt climate adaptation and cause shifts in mating systems. To examine this, we conducted a garden experiment with Primula elatior offspring from 24 populations across a climate and landscape fragmentation gradient. We evaluated vegetative, regulatory, and reproductive traits under different soil moisture regimes, assessing local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity. We also conducted a field study in 60 populations along the same gradient to examine potential breakdown of reciprocal herkogamy. Our results showed an evolutionary shift from drought avoidance in southern populations to drought tolerance in northern populations for large, connected populations. However, fragmentation disrupted climate clines and adaptive responses to drought in key traits related to growth, biomass allocation and water regulation. Our findings also indicate the beginning of an evolutionary breakdown in reciprocal herkogamy. These disruptions resulted in significantly reduced flowering investment, especially in southern fragmented populations. These findings provide new evidence of how habitat fragmentation disrupts climate adaptation and drought tolerance in Primula elatior, emphasizing the need to account for habitat fragmentation in conservation strategies to preserve resilient forest herb populations amidst global changes.