Data from: Climate change shifts natural selection and the adaptive potential of the perennial forb Boechera stricta in the Rocky Mountains

Heritable genetic variation is necessary for populations to evolve in
response to anthropogenic climate change. However, antagonistic genetic
correlations among traits may constrain the rate of adaptation, even if
substantial genetic variation exists. We examine potential genetic
responses to selection by comparing multivariate genetic
variance-covariances of traits and fitness (multivariate Robertson-Price
identities) across different environments in a reciprocal transplant
experiment of the forb Boechera stricta in the Rocky Mountains. By
transplanting populations into four common gardens arrayed along an
elevational gradient, and exposing populations to control and snow removal
treatments, we simulated future and current climates and snowmelt regimes.
Genetic variation in flowering and germination phenology declined in
plants moved downslope to warmer, drier sites, suggesting that these
traits may have a limited ability to evolve under future climates.
Simulated climate change via snow removal altered the strength of
selection on flowering traits, but we found little evidence that genetic
correlations among traits are likely to affect the rate of adaptation to
climate change. Overall, our results suggest that climate change may alter
the evolutionary potential of B. stricta, but reduced expression of
genetic variation may be a larger impediment to adaptation than
constraints imposed by antagonistic genetic correlations.