Warming and community context drive rapid plant evolution

Abiotic and biotic factors are important drivers of plant evolution, but how these factors interact to influence plant evolution in multispecies communities is still poorly understood. We performed experimental evolution exposing Brassica rapa plants to a combination of abiotic (ambient and hot temperatures) and biotic (visitation by bumblebees, butterflies or both) conditions. After six generations of selection, we grew plants at both temperatures and assessed floral divergence, temperature‐induced floral plasticity and complex patterns of non‐additive evolution. We found that the combined abiotic and biotic factors led to unique evolutionary trajectories: effects of warming on the evolution of plant traits and their plasticity were highly dependent on community context. Of all traits, the evolution of floral scent and its plasticity was most strongly affected by the combination of warming and biotic interactors, especially butterflies. We found abundant non‐additive effects that resulted from evolution in a multispecies community, and such effects were altered by warming. Complex interactive and non‐additive effects between abiotic and biotic factors will complicate predicting evolution in multispecies communities but provide crucial knowledge to understand rapid adaptation to current global change. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.