Data from: Population climatic history predicts phenotypic responses in novel environments for Arabidopsis thaliana in North America

1. Premise of the study: Determining how species perform in novel climatic
environments is essential for understanding responses to climate change,
and evolutionary consequences of biological invasions. For the vast
majority of species, the population characteristics that will predict
performance and patterns of natural selection in novel locations in the
wild remains limited. 2. Methods: We evaluated phenological, vegetative,
architectural and fitness-related traits in experimental gardens in
contrasting climates (ON and SC) in the North American non-native
distribution of Arabidopsis thaliana. We assessed the effects of climatic
distance, geographic distance, and genetic features of history on
performance and patterns of natural selection in the novel garden
settings. 3. Key results: We found plants had greater survivorship,
flowered earlier, were larger, and produced more fruit in the south, and
that genotype by environment interactions were significant between
gardens. However, our analyses revealed similar patterns of natural
selection between gardens in distinct climate zones. After accounting for
genetic ancestry, we also detected that population climatic distance best
predicted performance within gardens. 4. Conclusion: These data suggest
that colonization success in novel, non-native environments is determined
by a combination of climate and genetic history. When performance at novel
sites was assessed with seed sources from geographically and genetically
disparate established non-native populations, proximity to the garden
alone was insufficient to predict performance. Our study highlights the
need to evaluate seed sources from diverse origins to describe
comprehensively phenotypic responses to novel environments, particularly
for taxa where many source populations may contribute to colonization.