Phenotypic trait and dendrometric data (1971-2023) for Pinus nigra Arn., the European black pine, from French common gardens

Data on mortality, height and radial growth (diameter and annual tree rings), architecture and health from measurements and observations from common gardens covering most representative French bioclimates over the period 1971 - 2023. This type of data can be used to test genetic diversity, phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation of life-history traits linked to selective value (fitness) as a function of various soils and local climates. The European black pine, Pinus nigra Arnold, 1785, is composed of several recent, post-glacial evolutionary lineages, corresponding fairly-well to the subspecies classically recognized by botanists: Pinus nigra salzmannii (Dunal) Franco, 1943, in North Africa, Spain and France, P.n. laricio (Poir.) Maire, 1928, in France and Italy, P.n. nigra (nigricans, Host, 1827) throughout Central Europe and the western Balkans, P.n. dalmatica (Vis.) Franco, 1943, on the Dalmatian coast in Croatia, P.n. pallasiana (Lamb.) Holmboe, 1914, with a genetic group in the eastern Balkans, Greece, Turkey and Ukraine and a separate group in Cyprus (Scotti-Saintagne et al. 2019, https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02465935v1). This hardy, often fast-growing conifer species has been widely planted throughout Europe since the end of the 19th century. The dataset explores the phenotypic variability of over 150 provenances and families within provenances, from the entire native range and representing well the material introduced in France and other countries. The common gardens from which the data are derived belong to the GEN4X (Forest genetics for research and experimentation) network of INRAE, a service of the IN-Sylva-France research infrastructure (https://in-sylva-france.hub.inrae.fr/services/in-situ/reseau-gen4x). The common gardens, installed between 1968 and 1981, are mostly located in public forests, under contract with the Office National des Forêts. In addition to the data files themselves (one per common garden, each containing between 1648 and 10109 individuals), the publication contains two tables describing the genetic units ("Desciption genotypes") and the common gardens ("Description jardins communs"). The common garden code numbers are built according to rules established by the GEN4X network, and are available in the publication: https://doi.org/10.57745/VRG8TI. The variables in these two "description" files are described in the "readme_Description" text file. The publication also contains a "readme_data Pinus nigra" text file describing the variables presented in each of the data files. This "readme_data Pinus nigra" file contains the headers of the data files in the format used for integration into the INRAE information system that manages the different versions of the files. These headers include the list of variables and all information necessary to analyze the data (date, operator, variable type, comment, meaning of codes used for missing or non-measurable data). The "readme_data Pinus nigra" file also contains a summary of the main abbreviations used in the comment columns. The publication also contains climate data for each of the four sites, spanning several decades (maximum 1958-2013) that can be used to analyze growth climate relationships. There are four climate tabular data files (Climate_data_SiteName) and one text metadata file (Readme_climate_data_Pinus_nigra).