Paper Reviewed
Preite, V., Stocklin, J., Armbruster, G.F.J. and Scheepens, J.F. 2015. Adaptation of flowering phenology and fitness-related traits across environmental gradients in the widespread Campanula rotundifolia. Evolutionary Ecology 29: 249-267.

By way of introduction to their study, Preite et al. (2015) write that "in increasingly fragmented landscapes the necessary migration rate needed to track climate change is probably too high for most plant species," but they say that "as an alternative to migration, populations can adjust to changing climatic conditions through phenotypic plasticity or through evolution of trait means or through evolution of plasticity itself," citing Joshi et al. (2001) and Shaw and Etterson (2012). And, therefore, they performed "a common-garden experiment with European populations of Campanula rotundifolia" -- a rhizomatous perennial flowering plant in the bellflower family native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere -- "to investigate current adaptation in fitness-related traits and the potential for future adaptation."

This experiment was conducted in Switzerland with plants the four researchers obtained from 18 unique populations growing in four different regions (Central Europe, The Netherlands, Scandinavia and the Swiss Alps), wherein they "assessed current plant adaptations with trait-environment correlations," comparing "molecular markers with trait differentiation to investigate past selection." And what did they thereby conclude?

Preite et al. report that "selection analyses and trait-trait correlations showed that most traits can respond to selection under a warmer climate," and they say that since the climate change they simulated "may only happen over multiple decennia and not, as in our treatment, at once, these populations may in reality have time to respond to selection appropriately." Or as they state in their paper's concluding sentence, "our results suggest that C. rotundifolia populations across a wide geographic range in Europe are currently adapted to their local climate and may well be able to adapt to future climate change." Or as they state in the concluding sentence of their paper's abstract, "this study suggests that flowering phenology and other fitness-related traits of C. rotundifolia are adapted to the current climatic conditions and have the potential to evolve under climate change."

Sure sounds like good news!

References
Joshi, J., Schmid, B., Caldeira, M., Dimitrakopoulos, P., Good, J. and Harris, R. 2001. Local adaptation enhances performance of common plant species. Ecology Letters 4: 536-544.

Shaw, R.G. and Etterson J.R. 2012. Rapid climate change and the rate of adaptation: insight from experimental quantitative genetics. New Phytologist 195: 752-756.