Data for: Increasing aridity may threaten the maintenance of a plant defense polymorphism

It is unclear how environmental change influences standing genetic variation in wild populations. Here, we characterized environmental conditions that protect vs. erode polymorphic chemical defenses in Boechera stricta (Brassicaceae), a short-lived perennial wildflower. By manipulating drought and herbivory in a four-year field experiment, we measured the effects of driver variation on vital rates of genotypes varying in defense chemistry and then assessed interacting driver effects on total fitness (estimated as each genotype’s lineage growth rate, λ) using demographic models. Drought and herbivory interacted to shape vital rates, but contrasting defense genotypes had equivalent total fitness in many environments. Defense polymorphism thus may persist under a range of conditions; however, ambient field conditions fall close to the boundary of putatively polymorphic environment space, and increasing aridity may drive populations to monomorphism. Consequently, elevated intensity and/or frequency of drought under climate change may erode genetic variation for defense chemistry in B. stricta.

NOTE: A previously published version of this dataset was removed due to licensing issues. Please use the updated version now available.
Methods
Data were collected by monitoring the survival, growth, and reproduction of experimental genotypes differing at a genetic locus controlling defense chemistry. These genotypes were transplanted into field conditions where we manipulated two putative drivers of natural selection on defense chemistry: drought and herbivory. We then process raw census data from the field to parameterize demographic models that integrate the effects of these two drivers on vital rates and total fitness for each genotype.