Data from: Limits to future adaptation in the invasive plant Polygonum cespitosum: expression of functional and fitness traits at elevated CO2

For organisms to adapt to future environments, they must both evolve
appropriate functional responses and phenotypically express those
responses under future climatic and CO2 conditions. We examined these 2
components of future adaptation in an invasive annual plant (Polygonum
cespitosum) by performing a “resurrection” experiment under field
conditions simulating a future environment. Resurrection experiments
reveal recent evolution by comparing genotypes from natural populations
sampled across a multigeneration interval. We collected genotypes from the
same 3 North American populations in 1994 and 2005 and raised inbred lines
from these collections under free air CO2 enrichment to examine functional
and fitness traits expressed in hot, dry conditions at both ambient and
elevated CO2 (N = 295 plants). The species has rapidly evolved in its
introduced range to increase photosynthetic rate (collection year effect P
≤ 0.011) and delay senescence (P = 0.017) under full-sun, dry field
conditions, but these adaptive changes were not expressed when the field
environment included elevated CO2 (within-treatment year effect P ≥ 0.20
for both traits). Populations showed different levels of reproductive
output and its genetic variance in these novel, stressful conditions.
These findings illustrate constraints on evolutionary adaptation to
predicted future conditions at both the species and population levels.