Intraspecific functional trait variation and coordination in Schizachyrium scoparium

Plant functional traits are increasingly recognized as vital tools in ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation. While functional traits and functional diversity are increasingly being used to inform restoration efforts, challenges remain in the characterization of trait variation in many systems, including within-species. This dataset supports the investigation of intraspecific trait variation and coordination among five populations of Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem), a species commonly used for restoration, from different habitat types across a gradient from southern Wisconsin to Northern Illinois. The dataset contains leaf, root, and chemical functional trait measurements recorded at the individual plant level as well as identifying information associating trait measurements with individual plant genotype and population membership. In addition to the data, this repository contains an R script demonstrating the analytical workflow used to model trait variation and..., Trait values contained in this repository reflect measurments from plants that were germinated and propagated in vitro using tissue culture techniques (see manuscript for details). All plants were harvested for trait measurement after growing for 13 weeks ex vitro. Plants were removed from their pots, and the growing media was gently washed from the root systems. The above-ground and below-ground tissues were separated at the crown, and the root systems were temporarily wrapped in damp paper towels, stored in plastic bags, and refrigerated for subsequent root scanning. Five fully expanded leaves were randomly chosen from each plant for leaf trait measurements and removed at the leaf collar, taking only the lamina and leaving the sheath tissue behind. The selected leaves were scanned at 600 dpi, and the surface area (mm2) of each leaf was calculated using ImageJ software (Schneider et al. 2012). The selected leaves were then weighed to retrieve the fresh leaf mass (g), dried at 60°C for ..., , # Intraspecific functional trait variation and coordination in Schizachyrium scoparium

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3xsj3txrs](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3xsj3txrs)

## Description of the data and file structure

This repository contains the data and code demonstrating the analyses in Zeldin et al.\"Intraspecific functional trait variation and coordination in *Schizachyrium scoparium*\", evaluating the structure of intraspecific functional trait variation within and among five populations of Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem) a wide-spread, perennial, warm season restoration-relevant C4 grass species native to the United States and southern Canada. The plants for this study were propagated from wild-collected seeds using tissue culture techniques to accomplish replication at the genotype level. The data consists of leaf, root, and chemical functional trait measurements recorded in the summer 2022 after 13 weeks of ex vitro growth in a greenhouse setting. Leaf trait data inclu...,