Phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation jointly shape plant responses to environmental variation, but their relative contributions and trait-specific interactions remain poorly understood. (1) We quantified metabolites and measured growth, reproduction and herbivore resistance-related traits in 15 Fragaria vesca genotypes from a European latitudinal gradient grown reciprocally in four common gardens over two years. (2) Environment explained most trait variance (30

ABSTRACT Premise of study Under increasingly frequent pollinator-limited environments, plants need to rely on modes of reproductive assurance such as selfing and cloning. However, few studies investigate the interplay between selfing and cloning in plants that can do both. Here, we explore mechanisms determining the relative expression of selfing and cloning throughout the European distribution of the wild woodland strawberry ( Fragaria vesca ) under a pollinator-free environment. Methods We established an outdoor common garden with 121 woodland strawberry genotypes from across Europe and excluded them from pollinators. For each genotype, we recorded reproductive traits and performed hand-pollination treatments. Key Results We found a weak trade-off between cloning and selfing, driven by increased seed and fruit provisioning rather than flower production. The capacity to autonomously self-fertilize was determined by the lateral proximity of the anthers to the pistils (lateral herkogamy), but not by early inbreeding depression. Genotypes sampled at lower latitudes and altitudes were better at self-fertilizing and had smaller petals. The propensity to clone increased towards the east, where genotypes also had smaller petals, particularly at higher latitudes. Conclusion At the species level, we detected a trade-off between the propensity for clonal reproduction and the capacity for self-fertilization. At a continental scale, the capacity to self-fertilize varied along a north–south gradient, whereas clonal propensity varied along an east–west gradient. Our results suggest that these two modes of reproductive assurance may compensate for reduced pollinator attractiveness (smaller petals) in regions where each mode is most strongly expressed.

Plant genotypes can vary in multiple functional traits due to adaptation to heterogenous environments. However, whether such variation can extrapolate to effects on soils and further on performance of subsequent plants, thus generating a genotypic variation in soil legacy, remains unclear. In this study, we studied how plant genotypic variation impacts soil legacy when exposed to aboveground insect herbivores. We used 11 wild genotypes of woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.) experimentally exposed to leaf beetles (Galerucella tenella) to condition live soil. We then replaced the conditioning plants with naïve plants to examine soil legacy effects on growth and resistance on the subsequent plant genotype (referred to as the focal genotype) against the generalist herbivore Spodoptera littoralis. This allowed us to test the extent to which plant genotypic variation in soil legacy is altered by aboveground herbivory. We found an overall positive soil legacy effect of woodland strawberry, indicated by 69.9% higher belowground biomass of the subsequent focal genotype grown in conditioned soil compared to in unconditioned soil. We also observed a genotype-dependent soil legacy effect on performance of S. littoralis indicated as relative growth rates reduced by 37.9% on the subsequent focal genotype in soil conditioned by the focal genotype itself compared to by other genotypes, though the legacy effect was cancelled out when conditioning genotypes were exposed to G. tenella herbivory. A genotypic variation was further detected in soil legacy on the efficiency of conversion of ingested food by S. littoralis caterpillars feeding on the focal genotype. However, the genotypic variation was only present when the focal genotype was excluded from the conditioning genotypes at the exposure of G. tenella herbivory. Collectively, our study shows a conditional plant genotype-dependent soil legacy effect on herbivore resistance (measured as herbivore performance) rather than on plant growth, and the magnitude of the legacy effects depends on both the identity of the conditioning genotypes and the measures of the herbivore resistance. The findings of this study provide new insights into how plant genotypes or herbivory affects soil feedback on plant growth and herbivore resistance.

Herd immunity describes indirect disease protection in heterogeneous, partly immune populations. This concept is rarely discussed for agricultural crops, although crop heterogeneity can reduce pathogen transmission. We discuss disease suppression in diversified crop fields and illustrate how entire fields could benefit from treatment of individual plants, leading to herd immunity.

Flower plantings in agricultural landscapes can contribute to sustainable crop production by enhancing pollination and biological control services. However, selecting plant species that promote multiple ecosystem services is challenging, since plants that favor pollinators may not equally foster natural enemies, and potential trade-offs, such as inadvertently promoting crop pests, must be considered. This complexity increases when accounting for belowground effects. We evaluated 27 candidate plant species for their ability to host functionally important above- and belowground organisms—pollinators, natural enemies, herbivores, and decomposers—and assessed how plant characteristics such as floral area, timing of peak bloom, life cycle, and plant cover affect these organism groups. We found that certain plant species have the potential to support several groups of beneficial organisms, suggesting they can enhance multiple ecosystem services. Annual plants had higher abundances of both above- and belowground beneficial organisms compared to perennials. Greater plant cover was positively associated with hoverfly abundance. Several functionally important organism groups were positively correlated across plant species, but these positive correlations were not explained by shared responses to plant characteristics. Our findings underscore the significance of plant species identity and characteristics in designing flower plantings for enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services and highlight the importance of including belowground organisms like nematodes in future studies. Our results for specific plant species and plant characteristics can be used to design flower mixtures supporting several ecosystem service providers while considering potential trade-offs, thereby increasing the efficiency of flower plantings.

Island biogeography theory predicts that island plants should exhibit reduced defences compared with their mainland relatives due to relaxed herbivory pressure. However, growing empirical evidence challenges this prediction, revealing substantial variation among systems, plant lineages and defence types. These inconsistencies suggest that simple expectations of reduced defence on islands overlook the diversity of selective agents and strategies plants use to cope with herbivores. A more integrative perspective proposes that island – mainland comparisons should simultaneously consider multiple defensive mechanisms, including resistance – both constitutive and inducible – and tolerance‐related traits. In this study, we conducted two complementary greenhouse experiments to examine resistance and tolerance responses in seven island–mainland species pairs of oaks Quercus across three biogeographical regions: Bornholm Island versus mainland Sweden, the Balearic Islands versus mainland Spain, and Lesbos Island versus mainland Greece. Seedlings were exposed to controlled foliar herbivory by the generalist Lymantria dispar , with undamaged plants serving as controls. Resistance was quantified by measuring key chemical defences – namely total phenolic content and volatile organic compounds – assessed both at constitutive levels and in terms of inducibility following herbivore damage. Tolerance, in contrast, was evaluated as the plant's capacity for growth compensation, quantified through height regrowth after herbivory. Our results show that, contrary to traditional expectations, island and mainland oak seedlings did not differ significantly in either chemical resistance or growth‐based tolerance to herbivory. These results suggest that the evolution of plant defences on islands may not be universally reduced and that both island and mainland oaks maintain comparable strategies to cope with herbivory, highlighting the importance of considering multiple defence mechanisms and local ecological contexts when assessing insularity effects.

Flower strips are an agri-environmental measure to contribute to sustainable crop production by enhancing pollinators and natural enemies of pests. However, most strips are designed to target a single ecosystem service, often overlooking simultaneous effects on multiple functional groups of arthropods. In Sweden, large-scale adoption of flower strips to promote pollinators through the 'Sweden Blossom' initiative represents an opportunity to deliver benefits beyond single goals, and to support multiple ecosystem services. We assessed how an annual flower strip mixture influences the pollinators targeted as well as the abundance of natural enemies and herbivores, their spillover 10 m into neighbouring crops and pest control. Pollinators were recorded via visual observations in the strips. Leaf-dwelling arthropods were recorded with yellow sticky traps, and ground-dwelling predators with pitfall traps in both the strips and adjacent spring barley fields. Natural enemies and herbivores in the crop were also assessed through tiller counts, while aphid predation rates were estimated using sentinel prey cards for leaf- and ground-dwelling predators. The flower strips strongly increased pollinator abundances as intended but also increased the abundance of certain natural enemy and herbivore taxa, some of which also dispersed into neighbouring crops. However, arthropods present on crop tillers or pest control rates by leaf-dwelling predators were not affected. Aphid predation by ground-dwelling predators tended to increase in crop areas near the flower strips. These findings have implications for designing agri-environmental measures, stressing the importance of context-specific factors to maximise ecosystem service delivery and minimise potential unintended consequences.

Genomes record past climatic impact on species’ range shifts, admixture, refugial isolation, and adaptative evolution. However, these processes are poorly understood in perennial herbaceous species forming a dominant group of temperate flora. We present a demographic history of the perennial herb woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.) reconstructed from 200 genomes spanning most of its European range. Temporal population structure reveals a strong division into western and eastern genetic clusters along a longitudinal climatic gradient, with eastern core populations showing greater resilience during glaciations. Divergence patterns indicate that postglacial recolonization of western and eastern Europe occurred from distinct refugia in multiple waves. The current largest, admixed populations from the Mediterranean to northern Europe form a continuous chain maintained by east–west gene flow through Central Europe, with historical migration patterns indicating comparable connections during earlier interglacials. Our reconstruction of woodland strawberry’s climatic history with high temporal resolution reveals how the late Pleistocene core-periphery dynamics shaped its survival and genome evolution under climate change. The data points to populations that are essential for maintaining the long term genetic diversity of the species and opens new avenues to understand climatic adaptation of temperate flora. Population genomics of European woodland strawberry reveal distinct western and eastern genetic clusters with contrasting demographic histories across multiple glacial-interglacial cycles.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:Climate change is causing increasing temperatures and drought, creating new environmental conditions, which species must cope with. Plant species can respond to these shifting environments by escaping to more favourable environments, undergoing adaptive evolution or exhibiting phenotypic plasticity. In this study, we investigate genotype responses to variation in environmental conditions (genotype-by-environment interactions) over multiple years to gain insights into the plasticity and potential adaptive responses of plants to environmental changes in the face of climate change. METHODS:We transplanted 16 European genotypes of Fragaria vesca (Rosaceae), the woodland strawberry, reciprocally between four sites along a latitudinal gradient from 40°N (Spain) to 70°N (northern Finland). We examined genotype-by-environment interactions in plant performance traits (fruit and stolon production and rosette size) in ambient weather conditions and a reduced precipitation treatment (as a proxy for drought) at these sites over 2 years. KEY RESULTS:Our findings reveal signals of local adaptation for fruit production at the latitudinal extremes of F. vesca distribution. No clear signals of local adaptation for stolon production were detected. Genotypes from higher European latitudes were generally smaller than genotypes from lower latitudes across almost all sites, years and both treatments, indicating a strong genetic control of plant size in these genotypes. We found mixed responses to reduced precipitation: several genotypes exhibited poorer performance under the reduced precipitation treatment across most sites and years, with the effect being most pronounced at the driest site, whereas other genotypes responded to reduced precipitation by increasing fruit and/or stolon production and/or growing larger across most sites and years, particularly at the wettest site. CONCLUSIONS:This study provides insights into the influence of different environments on plant performance at a continental scale. Although woodland strawberry seems locally adapted in more extreme environments, reduced precipitation results in winners and losers among its genotypes. This might ultimately reduce genetic variation in the face of increasing drought frequency and severity, with implications for the capacity of the species to adapt.

Flower strips are a valuable agri-environmental measure to foster ecological intensification by providing floral and nesting resources to beneficial organisms. Nevertheless, few flower strip studies integrate assessments of multiple ecosystem services and their providers (simultaneous promotion of pollinators and natural enemies) or consider trade-offs (unintended promotion of pests in adjacent crops). This gap is further exacerbated if below-ground functions are considered. We sampled pollinators, natural enemies, and herbivores using visual observations, yellow sticky traps, pitfall traps, and tiller counts in ten pairs of perennial flower strips and control field margins, and their adjacent cereal fields in Scania, Sweden, in 2021. In addition, we estimated predation and below-ground decomposition rates with sentinel prey cards and bait lamina strips. Flower strips increased floral availability, pollinator, natural enemy and herbivore abundances, relative to control field margins. Natural enemy and herbivore responses to the implemented strips were taxon-specific. The positive effects of flower strips extended beyond the strips themselves, as spillover effects were evident for several natural enemy groups, with increased abundances in adjacent crop fields. A trade-off was also observed: pest thrips were more abundant in crop tillers near flower strips than near controls. No effect of flower strips on aphid predation rates was observed. Decomposition rates were as high in flower strips as in controls, despite flower strips only being established for two years. These findings emphasize flower strips’ potential to support multiple ecosystem service providers, while underscoring the importance of context-specific design and management to maximize benefits and avoid unintended trade-offs.

Ecological theory predicts that herbivory should be weaker on islands than on mainland based on the assumption that islands have lower herbivore abundance and diversity. However, empirical tests of this prediction are rare, especially for insect herbivores, and those few tests often fail to address the mechanisms behind island-mainland divergence in herbivory. In particular, past studies have not addressed the relative contribution of top-down (i.e. predator-driven) and bottom-up (i.e. plant-driven) factors to these dynamics. To address this, we experimentally excluded insectivorous vertebrate predators (e.g. birds, bats) and measured leaf traits associated with herbivory in 52 populations of 12 oak (Quercus) species in three island-mainland sites: The Channel Islands of California vs. mainland California, Balearic Islands vs. mainland Spain, and the island Bornholm vs. mainland Sweden (N = 204 trees). In each site, at the end of the growing season, we measured leaf damage by insect herbivores on control vs. predator-excluded branches and measured leaf traits, namely: phenolic compounds, specific leaf area, and nitrogen and phosphorous content. In addition, we obtained climatic and soil data for island and mainland populations using global databases. Specifically, we tested for island-mainland differences in herbivory, and whether differences in vertebrate predator effects or leaf traits between islands and mainland contributed to explaining the observed herbivory patterns. Supporting predictions, herbivory was lower on islands than on mainland, but only in the case of Mediterranean sites (California and Spain). We found no evidence for vertebrate predator effects on herbivory on either islands or mainland in any study site. In addition, while insularity affected leaf traits in some of the study sites (Sweden-Bornholm and California), these effects were seemingly unrelated to differences in herbivory. Synthesis. Our results suggest that vertebrate predation and the studied leaf traits did not contribute to island-mainland variation patterns in herbivory, calling for more nuanced and comprehensive investigations of predator and plant trait effects, including measurements of other plant traits and assessments of predation by different groups of natural enemies. La teor & iacute;a ecol & oacute;gica predice que la herbivor & iacute;a ha de ser m & aacute;s d & eacute;bil en las islas que en el continente, ya que las islas tienen una menor abundancia y diversidad de herb & iacute;voros. Sin embargo, todav & iacute;a no contamos con suficiente evidencia emp & iacute;rica que apoye estas predicciones, especialmente en lo que se refiere a la herbivor & iacute;a por insectos, y los pocos estudios que existen a menudo no abordan los mecanismos que generan estos patrones de divergencia entre islas y continente en los niveles de herbivor & iacute;a. En particular, las investigaciones previas no han examinado la contribuci & oacute;n relativa de las fuerzas top-down (es decir, efectos mediados por los depredadores) y bottom-up (es decir, efectos mediados por los rasgos funcionales de las plantas) en estas din & aacute;micas. En este trabajo, excluimos experimentalmente a depredadores insect & iacute;voros vertebrados (p. ej., aves, murci & eacute;lagos) y medimos rasgos foliares asociados con la herbivor & iacute;a en 52 poblaciones de 12 especies de robles (Quercus) en tres sitios insulares y continentales: las Islas del Canal de California vs. California continental, las Islas Baleares vs. Espa & ntilde;a continental, y la isla de Bornholm vs. Suecia continental (N = 204 & aacute;rboles). En cada sitio, al final de la & eacute;poca de crecimiento, medimos el da & ntilde;o foliar causado por insectos herb & iacute;voros en ramas control vs. ramas con exclusi & oacute;n de depredadores, y medimos diferentes rasgos foliares, en particular, la concentraci & oacute;n de compuestos fen & oacute;licos, el & aacute;rea foliar espec & iacute;fica y el contenido de nitr & oacute;geno y f & oacute;sforo. Adem & aacute;s, obtuvimos datos clim & aacute;ticos y de suelo de las poblaciones insulares y continentales utilizando bases de datos globales. Espec & iacute;ficamente, evaluamos los efectos de la insularidad sobre la herbivor & iacute;a y si exist & iacute;an patrones contrastados de los efectos de depredaci & oacute;n y expresi & oacute;n de rasgos foliares entre islas y continentes que contribuyesen a explicar los patrones observados en la herbivor & iacute;a. De acuerdo con la teor & iacute;a ecol & oacute;gica, la herbivor & iacute;a fue menor en las islas en comparaci & oacute;n con el continente, pero solo en el caso de los sitios mediterr & aacute;neos (California y Espa & ntilde;a). No encontramos evidencia de efectos de los depredadores sobre la herbivor & iacute;a en ninguno de los sitios de estudio, ya sea en las islas o en el continente. Adem & aacute;s, aunque la insularidad afect & oacute; a la expresi & oacute;n de rasgos foliares en algunos de los sitios de estudio (Suecia-Bornholm y California), estos efectos no estuvieron aparentemente relacionados con las diferencias observadas en la herbivor & iacute;a. S & iacute;ntesis. Nuestros resultados sugieren que la depredaci & oacute;n por vertebrados y los rasgos foliares estudiados no contribuyeron a los patrones de variaci & oacute;n entre islas y continente observados en los niveles de herbivor & iacute;a, lo que plantea la necesidad de investigaciones m & aacute;s exhaustivas que incluyan la evaluaci & oacute;n de otros rasgos funcionales y evaluaciones de la depredaci & oacute;n por otros grupos de enemigos naturales de los herb & iacute;voros.

Sustainable strategies are needed to manage plant pathogens and pests without disrupting ecological functions provided by beneficial organisms. Hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae), such as Eupeodes corollae , provide ecosystem services and are applied especially in cultivations of horticultural crops: adults serve as pollinators, while larvae prey on pests like aphids. Here, we investigated whether E. corollae can also function as an entomovector for delivering microbial biocontrol agents into flowering crops, similar to systems developed for bees. Targeting the strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa )–grey mould ( Botrytis cinerea ) pathosystem, we tested the yeast Metschnikowia fructicola (isolate UDA10) for its suitability in hoverfly entomovectoring and suppression of grey mould. Dual culture assays confirmed that M. fructicola inhibits B. cinerea growth. We further demonstrated that E. corollae effectively vectors M. fructicola to strawberry flowers. In a greenhouse experiment, we tested whether hoverflies and yeast, alone or combined, can suppress grey mould in postharvest strawberries from flowers artificially inoculated with B. cinerea . Hoverfly activity significantly reduced the fungal infection (lesion and mycelial coverage) on cold stored fruit by 50–70% after two weeks, especially in combination with the yeast. Additionally, fruits from hoverfly-pollinated flowers were of higher shape quality, indicating improved pollination. Our findings add value to E. corollae as a multifunctional ‘ flying agent ’ for integrated pest and pollination management, capable of enhancing pollination, entomovectoring for targeted plant pathogen suppression and controlling pests via larval predation. The ‘ flying agent ’ multitool can potentially be extended to other horticultural systems, contributing to both quality and yield improvements, while reducing reliance on chemical inputs for pest and disease control.

Aim Ecological theory predicts lower herbivory on islands. However, most island-mainland comparisons have focused on vegetative tissues, while reproductive structures remain understudied despite their direct influence on plant fitness and recruitment. This study investigates how insularity affects insect herbivory in oak (Quercus) acorns across multiple island-mainland regions and explores the role of acorn traits (chemical defences and nutrients) and climate as potential drivers.Location Three island-mainland regions in Europe: Lesbos Island-mainland Greece, the Balearic Islands-mainland Spain, and Bornholm Island-mainland Sweden.Time Period Acorns were collected in autumn 2023. Climatic data are long-term averages for each population.Major Taxa Studied Seven oak (Quercus) species across regions.Methods We aimed to sample up to three island and three mainland populations per species, with four trees per population, but logistical constraints reduced these numbers, resulting in a total of 150 sampled trees. We assessed acorn damage by insect herbivores and analysed chemical defences (phenolics) and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) to test their influence on island-mainland differences in herbivory. Climatic data from the WorldClim database were used to assess climate-mediated insularity effects on acorn traits and herbivory.Results Acorn damage did not differ overall between mainland and island populations. However, in the Balearic Islands, damage was higher than in mainland Spain, while no significant differences were found in the other regions. There were no general insularity effects on acorn traits, but a region-by-insularity interaction influenced phosphorus levels, with higher values in mainland Sweden than Bornholm Island, while the reverse was observed in Greece. Climate influenced acorn traits, but trait differences did not explain herbivory patterns.Main Conclusions Our findings challenge the expectation that insularity reduces herbivory, highlighting region-specific processes. While climate influenced acorn traits, these traits did not mediate insularity effects on herbivory, suggesting local ecological factors drive variation across regions.

Urban forests provide essential ecosystem services, including pest control, biodiversity conservation, and human health benefits. Herbivory is a widespread biotic interaction that shapes ecosystem functions, such as primary productivity and soil fertility, which underpin these services. Urbanization can disrupt plant–herbivore interactions by altering plant traits, such as nutrient content or phenolic compounds (bottom–up factors), or by changing the abundance of herbivore natural enemies (top–down control), potentially threatening pest regulation and the ecosystem services provided by urban forests. Disentangling these drivers of herbivory is crucial for designing and managing urban forests to enhance resilience. To address this, we examined insect leaf herbivory on Quercus robur trees in urban and rural forest stands across 13 European cities (n = 104 trees). To assess top–down effects on herbivory, we excluded vertebrate (e.g. birds, bats), invertebrate (e.g. ants), or both groups of predators from branches on each tree using different exclosure types. We then measured insect damage on both control and predator‐excluded branches. To evaluate bottom–up drivers, we measured leaf traits, specifically nutrients and phenolic compounds, and tested for correlations with leaf damage. Additionally, we recorded temperature within stands, an abiotic factor that may modulate both top–down and bottom–up forcing on herbivory. Herbivory was 24% lower on urban trees compared to rural trees. In turn, excluding vertebrate (but not invertebrate) predators increased herbivory, on average, by 40%, but predator effects were stronger in urban stands. Urban trees also had higher leaf quality, with higher nutrient and lower phenolic concentrations; however, these traits did not correlate with herbivory. Temperature was positively associated with urbanization and correlated positively with predation, but did not correlate with herbivory and did not mediate the bottom–up or top–down effects of urbanization. Overall, we find that urbanization affects herbivory through both bottom–up and top–down processes, independent of temperature‐related local conditions. Despite stronger predator effects and higher leaf quality, urban trees experienced lower herbivory, suggesting that unmeasured factors, such as changes in herbivore behaviour or community structure, may play an important role. Further studies are needed to deepen our understanding and inform urban forest management.

Plant breeding for disease resistance typically focuses on the traits that target pathogens, although such traits may antagonise beneficial microbes, thus thwarting any opportunities for biocontrol. In this paper, we propose the concept of Breeding for Integrated Pest Management (B-IPM) which requires the simultaneous optimisation of plant traits that confer resistance to pathogens and facilitation of biocontrol agents. We tested the prospects for B-IPM by screening wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) genotypes for resistance to the detrimental pathogens Botrytis cinerea (causing grey mould disease) and Colletotrichum acutatum (causing anthracnose disease) and facilitation of the beneficial biocontrol agent Aureobasidium pullulans. The plant genotypes showed strong variation in their resistance to the two pathogens and their ability to facilitate biocontrol. However, while the resistance of plant genotypes to both pathogens was strongly correlated, there was no correlation between this and facilitating biocontrol, suggesting that resistance and biocontrol facilitation can be independently optimised to prepare plants for pesticide-free farming.

Climate change creates novel environmental conditions that plant species must adapt to. Since plants are finely tuned to the seasonality of their environments, shifts in their phenology serve as some of the most compelling evidence of climate change’s impact. Understanding how key fitness-related phenological traits, such as flowering onset, respond to novel environments is crucial for assessing species’ plasticity and/or adaptive potential under climate change. Here, we investigated the onset of flowering in Fragaria vesca (woodland strawberry; Rosaceae) by translocating genotypes between four sites along a south-north gradient in Europe, encompassing its entire latitudinal distribution range with varying temperatures, precipitation patterns, and photoperiods. At each site, we included a reduced precipitation treatment using rain-out shelters to simulate drought conditions and assess their impact on flowering onset. Our findings revealed that southern and central European genotypes exhibited a delayed onset of flowering when translocated to the northernmost site. In contrast, no difference among genotypes was found in the onset of flowering when grown in more southerly sites. Reduced precipitation accelerated flowering across several sites and all genotypes, irrespective of their latitudinal origin. Overall, northern European genotypes showed a greater capacity to adjust their onset of flowering in response to the different photoperiods and temperatures across the latitudinal gradient compared to southern European genotypes, suggesting that they may be more resilient to shifting environmental conditions. Differences in phenotypic plasticity among genotypes translocated to higher versus lower latitudes highlight the role of photoperiod in evaluating a species’ capacity to cope with climate change.

Plant-enemy interactions on islands are shaped by ecological and evolutionary processes during the history of the islands. It is, however, rare to be able to observe the foundational phases on islands, but opportunities exist in areas with land-rising coastlines, such as in parts of the Baltic Sea. Using several plant-enemy systems, a pattern appears where low-defended plants are typically dominating on young islands and on shores of older islands. One reason for this pattern is that the main seed sources are plants from sites with low enemy attack rates and with high reproductive output. Later on in succession, once herbivore populations become established and attack rates increase, selection acts to increase plant resistance traits. Even though the number of studied plant species is still low, it is apparent that processes during foundational phases may be complex and simplified explanations for current patterns may be hard to find.

Exploring a species paleohistory is crucial for understanding its responsiveness to climatic events, identifying drivers of adaptation, and developing effective biodiversity conservation strategies in the face of ongoing climate change. We analyzed 200 genomes of the perennial herb woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.) from across Europe and investigated the population structure and demographic history of the species during past geoclimatic events. We found a clear division of populations into western and eastern genetic clusters, indicative of distinct glacial refugia and adaptations to variation in temperature seasonality. The eastern core populations were several times larger (defined as effective population size, NE) than populations in other regions, showed no evidence of inbreeding, and were resilient to several glacial maxima. However, we observed decreasing NE and higher inbreeding in populations toward range edges, particularly in the north, where these individuals went through bottlenecks during glaciations. Population divergence suggested that western and eastern Europe were colonized from separate refugia in multiple waves during the Holocene, while the largest current populations from the northern Mediterranean to southern regions of the Nordic countries formed a connected population chain with gene flow between eastern core populations and western Europe, primarily occurring through Central Europe. Similar patterns of colonization and hybridization may have occurred during past interglacial periods, contributing to the present-day population structure of woodland strawberry. We suggest that the unprecedented resolution of the species climatic history across six glacial-interglacial cycles presented here holds the promise of transforming the general understanding of species paleohistory through geoclimatically tracing ancestral haplotypes. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.