Phenotypic plasticity and genetic diversity shed light on endemism of rare Boechera perstellata and its potential vulnerability to climate warming

Premise of the study: The rapid pace of contemporary environmental change puts many species at risk, especially rare species constrained by limited capacity to adapt or migrate due to low genetic diversity and/or fitness. But the ability to acclimate can provide another way to persist through change. We compared the capacity of rare Boechera perstellata (Braun’s rockcress) and widespread B. laevigata to acclimate to change.
Methods: We investigated the phenotypic plasticity of growth, biomass allocation, and leaf morphology of individuals of B. perstellata and B. laevigata propagated from seed collected from several populations throughout their ranges in a growth chamber experiment to assess their capacity to acclimate. Concurrently, we assessed the genetic diversity of sampled populations using 17 microsatellite loci to assess evolutionary potential.
Key results: Plasticity was limited in both rare B. perstellata and widespread B. laevigata, but differences in the plasticity of root tr..., , , Phenotypic plasticity and genetic diversity shed light on endemism and vulnerability of rare Boechera perstellata relative to a widespread congener---

The following data files are available for download:

1. Boechera\_Traits\_Data.xlsx
2. Boechera\_Genetic\_Data\_GenAlEx\_format.xlsx
3. Boechera\_FSTAT\_MLGs\_for\_Illinois.dat

Description of the data and file structure:

1. Boechera\_Traits\_Data\_Set.xlsx includes all data from the growth chamber experiments. The first sheet provides a description of the data in the other sheets of the spreadsheet. The second sheet includes survival and trait values data. The third sheet contains trait plasticity data. Variables include:
TREATMENT: Environmental condition (ambient, light = double ambient = 500 mmol photons m-2 s-1, temperature = 2 degrees C warmer than ambient = 22/32 degrees C day/night, water = double ambient = 100% field capacity)
SPECIES: Plant species (rare Boechera perstellata, common Boechera laevigata)
POPULATION:...