The competition-tolerance trade-off as a cause of species turnover along environmental gradients: The role of population differentiation

One of the latest advances in studying species distribution proposes that the universal occurrence of a trade-off between competition and environmental tolerance explains the segregated distribution of closely related species along environmental gradients. Given that this proposition applies to species that are closely related, here we moved one step down and explored the possibility that a trade-off between competition and tolerance also controls the distribution of populations within species that occupy different environments. We tested our hypothesis with populations of the annual herb Centaurea solstitialis that grow at low versus high elevation (hereafter, Mediterranean versus steppe populations, respectively) in Anatolia. We characterized climatic conditions in which these populations grow and conducted a common garden, where we measured traits predicted to affect environmental tolerance, and an intraspecific competition experiment, that included different densities, with Med..., , # The competition-tolerance trade-off as a cause of species turnover along environmental gradients: The role of population differentiation

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.gf1vhhn3d](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gf1vhhn3d)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data are from two experiments conducted under common conditions in the greenhouse.

### Files and variables

#### File: Length_of_longest_leaf_through_time_for_Anatolian_pops.csv

**Description:** This file includes the length of the longest leaf at 30, 60, and 105 days after emergence in our common garden experiment.

##### Variables

* Sampling (days): Days after seedling emergence on which leaf length was recorded.
* Region: Region from where populations were collected; that is, Mediterranean or Steppe.
* Population: Number given to study populations.
* Individual: Number of the individual measured within each population.
* Length longest leaf (cm):  Length of the longest leaf in cm. Empty cells respond to the fact that ...,