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: English
• Published: Dryad 2017
• Subjects: alpine ecosystem; snowmelt microhabitats; SSR markers; long-lived plants; 2011-2012; adaptive evolution; animal model; Salix herbacea
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cc03n; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.cc03n

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, longer ... : Sedlacek_etal_MarkerDataThis data file provides the data on the SSR markers. An explanation of the variables is provided in the ReadMe file.Sedlacek_etal_PhenotypicDataThis data file provides all raw phenotypic data collected on the Salix herbacea plants in the field. Note that some of these variables were not used for the publication. An explanation of the variables is given in the ReadMe file. ...