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.