Editing Environmental gradient (section)

== Local adaptation along environmental gradients ==
Depending on the size of the landscape and the [[gene flow]] between populations, local adaptation could arise between populations inhabiting two extremes of the landscape. The opposing extremes in abiotic conditions that are faced between populations and the lack of homogenizing gene flow could present conditions where two populations are able to differentiate.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hereford|first1=Joe|last2=Winn|first2=Alice A.|date=2008|title=Limits to local adaptation in six populations of the annual plant Diodia teres|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18384510/|journal=The New Phytologist|volume=178|issue=4|pages=888–896|doi=10.1111/j.1469-8137.2008.02405.x|issn=1469-8137|pmid=18384510|doi-access=free}}</ref> Often times when comparing [[fitness (biology)|fitness]] or [[phenotype|phenotypic]] values across an environmental gradient, the data are fixated into a [[reaction norm]] framework. In this way, an individual can directly assess the changes across a landscape of a particular species' phenotype or compare fitness and phenotypes of populations within a species across environmental gradients (particularly when performing [[reciprocal transplant]] studies).