Data from: The response of the alpine dwarf shrub Salix herbacea to altered snowmelt timing: lessons from a multi-site transplant experiment ...

• Main Authors: Sedlacek, Janosch, Wheeler, Julia A., Cortés, Andrés J., Bossdorf, Oliver, Hoch, Guenter, Lexer, Christian, Wipf, Sonja, Karrenberg, Sophie, Van Kleunen, Mark, Rixen, Christian
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2016
• Subjects: snowmelt timing; microhabitats; home site advantage; 2011-2013; Salix herbacea; Arctic; Climate change
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.12c56; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.12c56

Climate change is altering spring snowmelt patterns in alpine and arctic ecosystems, and these changes may alter plant phenology, growth and reproduction. To predict how alpine plants respond to shifts in snowmelt timing, we need to understand trait plasticity, its effects on growth and reproduction, and the degree to which plants experience a home-site advantage. We tested how the common, long-lived dwarf shrub Salix herbacea responded to changing spring snowmelt time by reciprocally transplanting turfs of S. herbacea between early-exposure ridge and late-exposure snowbed microhabitats. After the transplant, we monitored phenological, morphological and fitness traits, as well as leaf damage, during two growing seasons. Salix herbacea leafed out earlier, but had a longer development time and produced smaller leaves on ridges relative to snowbeds. Longer phenological development times and smaller leaves were associated with reduced sexual reproduction on ridges. On snowbeds, larger leaves and intermediate ... : Raw data of Sedlacek et al. 2015 in PLOS ONEThis is the data set used for the analyses presented in Sedlacek et al. 2015 (PLOS ONE). The data come from a reciprocal transplant experiment of Salix herbacea plants between snowbed and ridge microhabitats in the Swiss Alps. On the transplanted plants, we determined phenology (leaf expansion, flowering, fruiting), damage by herbivores and pathogens, leaf size, and fitness proxies (flowering and change in stem number).Sedlacek_etal_TransplantData.csv ...