Galloway, L. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2025

Heterogeneous evolutionary history defines the rear edge of the North American herb Campanula americana

AimWarmer range limits of species distributions offer a window into the ecological and evolutionary processes associated with long-term warming, as they often harbor relicts of refugial populations from last glaciation. However, warm-edge populations vary in their refugial, evolutionary, and climatic histories, complicating their use as models. Here, we characterize this variation at the warmer range limit of the North American herb Campanula americana. LocationEastern North America TaxonCampanula americana MethodsWe evaluated the warmer range limit using species distribution model hindcasting, range-wide analyses of population structure, effective migration and phylogenetic relationships. ResultsWarm-edge populations vary in their refugial history; most are relicts of historic refugial populations (i.e. rear edge), but some result from southward postglacial colonization. Within the rear edge, populations exhibit pronounced genetic structure, forming highly isolated clusters despite contiguous geography and only modest landscape barriers. Distinct rear-edge clusters also varied in climate history and gene flow among population, with the more southern populations experiencing higher habitat decline, fragmentation and isolation. Finally, only rear-edge populations from northern refugial areas contributed to postglacial range expansion. Main conclusionsOur study highlights the challenges of using warm-edge populations as ecological and evolutionary models of response to climate change. Even in a geographically simple setting, warm-edge populations exhibit refugial, genetic, and climatic heterogeneity. Characterizing this variation is essential for accurately identifying rear-edge populations and inferring their evolutionary history. Knowledge of the contribution of warm-edge populations to range-wide genetic variation is key when considering how these populations may inform studies of adaptation to future climate change.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2025

The legacy of past climate warming: strong local adaptation in rear-edge populations

Improving forecasts of species responses to climate change has become a central challenge in ecology and evolution as species distributions are increasingly disrupted by ongoing climate warming. Insight into this challenge may be gained through a better understanding of evolutionary responses to past climate change. The rear edges of species distributions are typically relict populations persisting in former glacial refugia at warmer range limits. As such, they form natural laboratories to study the evolutionary outcomes of past climate warming. Three such outcomes have been proposed for rear-edge populations: maintenance of high diversity due to long-term persistence, strong genetic drift following habitat decline, and strong local adaptation allowing persistence despite environmental change. Empirical studies rarely explicitly test these alternate outcomes limiting our understanding of evolutionary responses to warming climates. We tested all three evolutionary outcomes at the rear edge of the North American herb Campanula americana, by assessing genetic variation in a genome-wide population genetic study, drift load as measure of fitness decline due to drift in a controlled crossing study, and local adaptation in a transplant study. Rear-edge populations exhibited reduced genetic diversity within populations and high differentiation among populations, typically interpreted as evidence of genetic drift, yet show limited drift load. Instead, these populations expressed strong local adaptation, thriving in rear-edge habitats that were unsuitably warm for populations in the expanded range. This indicates that warm-edge populations may persist under warming climates by gradually adapting, even in the face of genetic erosion. Our findings highlight the importance of explicitly testing for all evolutionary outcomes, and particularly going beyond measures of genetic variation, when inferring evolutionary history. More broadly, these findings identify rear-edge populations not as relics of decline, but as underappreciated models for studying successful adaptation under long-term climate change.

evolutionary biology↗