Modern Approaches to Local Adaptation

Abstract

The study of local adaptation has been very important for the development of evolutionary biology broadly. This tradition continues; through new developments in diverse areas, we have more insight into the nature of the ongoing evolutionary process in a heterogeneous spatial context than ever before. This special issue follows from the 2014 Vice-Presidential Symposium of the American Society of Naturalists, bringing together outstanding researchers doing theoretical and empirical work, laboratory work, and fieldwork, with new data and new nodes of analysis. Through study of local adaptation, we learn about a tremendous source of biodiversity, both genetic and phenotypic, within and among species.