Rapid trait evolution under climate manipulations
Three out of ten traits showed significant divergence among climate manipulations and hence rapid evolution within 10 years of field experiments. It was always the dry treatment that had diverged from control and wet treatments (Table 1, Fig. 1). Plants descending from dry manipulated plots flowered on average 3-4 days (c. 4%) earlier and with 4-5 (c. 13%) fewer leaves, and had 10-15% higher reproductive allocation than plants from control and wet manipulated plots (Table 1, Fig. 1). These evolutionary responses to drought were consistent in both sites (no site × climate manipulation and site × water × climate manipulation interactions; Table 1).
The seven remaining traits showed no divergence among climate manipulation treatments (Table 1, Fig. 1).