Only time will tell? Looking deeply into variable drivers of plant evolution
For organisms that lack legs, plants get around plenty. Their variability across the landscape begs an evolutionary lens for geographical studies. This perspective promises to be increasingly insightful as global warming and anthropogenic environmental alteration take root as the new normal. Dr. Julie Etterson, Professor of Biology at University of Minnesota Duluth and co-editor of this American Journal of Botany special issue, says the adaptive capacity of wild plants offers "the basis for hope" for continued persistence of wild plants and our existence among them. Prior research has established that plants, by and large, are capable of evolution as their surroundings transform. This collection, "Evolutionary Insights from Studies of Geographic Variation: Contemporary Variation and Looking to the Future," builds on that knowledge by looking deeply into variable drivers of plant evolution.