Evidence of local adaptation to aridity but not nitrogen deposition in invasive annuals

Rapid adaptation of traits and trait plasticity may contribute to plant invasiveness and confer fitness advantages in novel environments resulting from global change. The importance of trait differentiation in invasive plant populations is well-recognized, particularly in response to climate. However, it is largely unknown how invasive plant populations will respond evolutionarily to atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition resulting from air pollution, which is a major contributor to invasion success in many ecosystems. Using a common garden experiment, a widely used method for testing local adaptation, we assessed potential differences in plant functional traits and nitrogen plasticity across populations of two widespread invasive annuals from sites spanning a range of N deposition and aridity throughout southern California. These species exhibited clear population-level differences in traits and N responses, but these were unrelated to N deposition. Instead, we detected significant relati..., , # Evidence of local adaptation to aridity but not nitrogen deposition in invasive annuals

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.r4xgxd2r3](10.5061/dryad.r4xgxd2r3)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data collected from a common garden experiment in which multiple populations of two invasive plant species, *Bromus diandru*s and *Centaurea melitensis*, were grown under high and low nitrogen. Plant traits and responses were then related to aridity and nitrogen deposition of the source populations.

### Files and variables

#### File: BRODIA\_data.csv

**Description:** Plant trait data for *Bromus diandrus* populations grown under high and low nitrogen availability. For some plant traits (i.e., Amax, Cond, WUE, SLA, perc_N, CN, and d13C), data were collected only on a subset of individuals in each treatment, so these columns contain blank cells.

##### Variables

| **Variable** | **Description** | **Units** |
| :------------ | :--------------...,