Data from: Evolutionary potential in the Alpine: trait heritabilities and performance variation of the dwarf willow Salix herbacea from different elevations and microhabitats ...

• Main Authors: Sedlacek, Janosch, Cortés, Andrés J., Wheeler, Julia, Bossdorf, Oliver, Hoch, Guenter, Klápště, Jaroslav, Lexer, Christian, Rixen, Christian, Wipf, Sonja, Karrenberg, Sophie, Van Kleunen, Mark
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: The University of British Columbia 2020
• Subjects: Salix herbacea
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0397994; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0397994

Abstract Alpine ecosystems are seriously threatened by climate change. One of the key mechanisms by which plants can adapt to changing environmental conditions is through evolutionary change. However, we still know little about the evolutionary potential in wild populations of long-lived alpine plants. Here, we investigated heritabilities of phenological traits, leaf size, and performance traits in natural populations of the long-lived alpine dwarf shrub Salix herbacea using relatedness estimates inferred from SSR (Simple Sequence Repeat) markers. Salix herbacea occurs in early- and late-snowmelt microhabitats (ridges and snowbeds), and we assessed how performance consequences of phenological traits and leaf size differ between these microhabitats in order to infer potential for evolutionary responses. Salix herbacea showed low, but significant, heritabilities of leaf size, clonal and sexual reproduction, and moderate heritabilities of phenological traits. In both microhabitats, we found that larger leaves, ...