Data from: Dissecting the contributions of plasticity and local adaptation to the phenology of a butterfly and its host plants

Phenology affects the abiotic and biotic conditions that an organism encounters and consequently its fitness. For populations of high latitude species, spring phenology often occurs earlier in warmer years and regions. Here we apply a novel approach to decompose spatiotemporal covariation between spring temperature and the phenology of two flowering plants, Cardamine pratensis and Alliara petiolata, and a Lepidopteran herbivore, Anthocharis cardamines, across the UK, into the contributions of plasticity and local adaptation. All three species overlap in the time-window over which mean temperatures best predict variation in phenology and we find little evidence that the position of time-windows varies latitudinally, as expected if they were initiated by day-length. The focal species show pronounced temperature-mediated phenological plasticity of similar magnitude. While we find no evidence for local adaptation in the flowering times of the plants, geographic variation in the phenology of the butterfly reveals countergradient local adaptation. Geographic variation in the butterfly's phenology appears to be more sensitive to variation in temperature than the flowering times of the host plants and we find no evidence that coevolution has generated geographic variation in adaptive phenological plasticity.物候学（Phenology）会影响生物体所遭遇的非生物与生物条件，进而作用于其适合度（fitness）。对于高纬度物种（high latitude species）的种群而言，温暖年份与温暖区域的春季物候（spring phenology）通常出现得更早。本研究采用一种全新方法（novel approach），将英国全境春季温度与两种显花植物——草地碎米荠（Cardamine pratensis）和大蒜芥（Alliara petiolata）——以及鳞翅目植食性昆虫（Lepidopteran herbivore）橙尖粉蝶（Anthocharis cardamines）的物候之间的时空协变关系（spatiotemporal covariation），分解为可塑性（plasticity）与本地适应（local adaptation）的贡献分量。三种目标研究类群在“平均温度可最佳预测物候变异”的时间窗口（time-window）上存在重叠，且我们几乎未发现时间窗口的位置随纬度变化的证据，这与“时间窗口由日照长度（day-length）启动”的预期不符。目标类群均表现出程度相近的、由温度介导的显著物候可塑性。尽管未发现植物开花时间存在本地适应的证据，但蝴蝶物候的地理变异却呈现出逆梯度本地适应特征。蝴蝶物候的地理变异对温度变化的敏感性似乎高于寄主植物（host plants）的开花时间，且我们未发现协同进化（coevolution）催生适应性物候可塑性地理变异的相关证据。