Accelerated flowering and differential florigen gene expression of seagrass Zostera marina under experimental warming

Flowering is an important trait for the resilience of marine angiosperms (seagrasses) as they face rising seawater temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, and anthropogenic disturbances. Using the seagrass Zostera marina, we applied a common garden approach to experimentally test how flowering and its underlying molecular mechanisms responded to elevated water temperature (+3°C). We focused on developmental and reproductive traits paired with florigen gene expression to gain insight to the molecular mechanism underpinning differences in flowering responses. We compared annual seedlings from two source populations (Willapa Bay along the coast, and Padilla Bay in the Salish Sea, Washington, USA) to understand natural variation not only in morphological and reproductive traits, but also the gene-environment interactions governing flowering onset. At the individual and population levels, annual seedlings in the +3°C heated treatment produced more spathes and ..., , # Accelerated flowering and differential florigen gene expression of seagrass Zostera marina under experimental warming

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.612jm64hd](10.5061/dryad.612jm64hd)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset contains the data and code required for analyses in Nolan et al. (in review). This dataset includes morphological data, flowering phenotype data, and quantitative RT-PCR data for gene expression analyses of eelgrass samples. All samples were collected from mesocosm tanks at Shannon Point Marine Center (SPMC) in Anacortes WA. Shoots and seedlings used were originally collected from Padilla Bay, WA and Willapa Bay, WA USA.

### Files and variables

#### File: SPMC-AnnualTransplantExp2025-GeneExpData.xlsx

**Description:** qPCR data from annual eelgrass shoots collected from Willapa Bay Washington. Data summary on “Readme” sheet within file.

##### Variables

* Date: collection date of samples, month/day/year
* Pop: Population (JL = Joe Leary/Padil...,