Range-wide intraspecific variation reflects past adaptation to climate in a gypsophile Mediterranean shrub

Phenotypic differences among populations stem from the interaction between neutral and adaptive processes, and phenotypic plasticity. Although clinal trait variation along climatic gradients often evolves in widely-distributed species, it is unknown whether substrate specialization, such as that of Mediterranean gypsum plants, has constrained adaptation to climate. Using a common garden experiment with two contrasting watering treatments, we quantified phenotypic plasticity, assessed evidence for footprints of selection using FST - QST comparisons, and identified the ecological factors driving genetically-based phenotypic differentiation of 11 populations encompassing the full environmental range of the gypsum shrub Lepidium subulatum. We found evidence for genetic differentiation among populations related to climatic differences, with populations from warmer and drier sites showing lower specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf N, earlier phenology, greater water use efficiency (WUE) and grea..., , , # Range-wide intraspecific variation reflects past adaptation to climate in a gypsophile Mediterranean shrub

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f1vhhmh4c](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f1vhhmh4c)

The dataset contains the phenotypic and genetic data generated from the experiment.

## Description of the data and file structure

All datasets include a sheet called “Metadata”, which describes all the traits and variables included in the datasets. Trait abbreviations match with those in Table 2 and Figure 4 in the main text (but are precisely explained in the “Metadata” sheet). In all datasets, data collected in the well-watered and the drought treatment are labeled as WW and DR, respectively. Missing data are coded as NA.

If you have any questions about the datasets, please contact [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

## Code/Software

All analyses were performed in R v4.0.5 (R Core Team, 2018). If you have any questions about any specific analysis, please contact [mario.blan...