Conclusion
We conclude that plants of V. alpina populations from different provenances are generally able to cope with scenarios resulting from global warming. Both local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity play a role with this regard. Overall, the plant performance under warm temperatures reflects adaptation to reduced water availability. Phenotypic plasticity enables to adjust the photosynthetic efficiency to of V. alpina plants experiencing heat spells and such response is higher in populations possessing higher genetic diversity and experiencing warmer temperatures. However, exposure to heat spells associated with drought is detrimental to plants from all populations because of strongly increased mortality.