Selection favors high spread and asymmetry of flower opening dates within plant individuals

Natural selection on traits expressed repeatedly by individuals is usually investigated with a focus on mean values, although within-individual trait distributions often differ also in other aspects, such as their spread and shape. In plants producing multiple flowers during a season, there might not be a single optimal flowering time, but rather an optimal distribution of flower opening dates. This optimal distribution might depend on both resource allocation patterns and interactions with the abiotic and biotic environment. In this study, we quantified mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis of 495 individual flowering schedules (5287 flowers) over three years, and assessed phenotypic selection on these aspects of the within-individual distribution of opening dates in the perennial herb Lathyrus vernus. We also explored how selection on within-individual variation in flowering schedules was related to effects on two fitness components: fruit set and the proportion of seeds escaping pre-..., , , # Selection favors high spread and asymmetry of flower opening dates within plant individuals [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2jm63xsz1](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2jm63xsz1) This data includes data on individuals (data_ids_clean.csv) and on individual flowers (data_id_flowers_clean.csv) coming from recordings of 5287 individual flowers of *Lathyrus vernus* belonging to 495 flowering events (i.e. one individual flowering in one year) over three years. It also includes weather data from a nearby meteorological station (weather_clean.csv). The code used in the manuscript is on the file 5_code_analyses_dryad.Rmd. ## Description of the data and file structure The file data_ids_clean.csv contains the following columns: * id: identifier of the plant individual * fr_set: fruit set (proportion of flowers that developed to mature fruits) * n_seed: total number of seeds * fitness: total number of intact seeds * prop_seed_preyed: proportion of preyed seeds * year: the year of th...针对个体重复表达的性状开展的自然选择研究，通常多聚焦于性状均值；但个体内的性状分布往往还在其他维度存在差异，例如分布的离散程度与形态特征。对于花期内会产生多朵花的植物而言，其最优开花策略或许并非单一的开花时间，而是花朵开放日期的最优分布模式。这类最优分布既取决于资源分配模式，也与非生物和生物环境的交互作用相关。 本研究中，我们量化了3年间495个个体的开花物候（共5287朵花）的均值、方差、偏度与峰度，并针对多年生草本植物牧地香豌豆（*Lathyrus vernus*）的个体内开花日期分布的各特征维度，评估了其表型选择作用。此外，我们还探讨了针对开花物候个体内变异的选择，如何与两个适合度组分的效应相关联：坐果率与逃脱植食性取食的种子比例（原文此处截断为pre-...）。 # 自然选择青睐植物个体内花朵开放日期的高离散程度与不对称分布 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2jm63xsz1](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2jm63xsz1) 本数据集包含个体水平数据（data_ids_clean.csv）与单花水平数据（data_id_flowers_clean.csv），这些数据源自3年间对495个开花事件（即单一个体在单一年份的开花过程）的5287朵牧地香豌豆（*Lathyrus vernus*）的记录。数据集同时包含邻近气象站的气象数据（weather_clean.csv）。论文中使用的分析代码存储于文件5_code_analyses_dryad.Rmd。 ## 数据集与文件结构说明 文件data_ids_clean.csv包含以下列： * id：植物个体标识符 * fr_set：坐果率（发育为成熟果实的花朵占比） * n_seed：种子总数量 * fitness：完整种子总数 * prop_seed_preyed：被取食种子的占比 * year：数据采集年份（原文此处截断为th...）