Data from: Continent-wide climatic variation drives local adaptation in North American white clover

Climate-associated clines in adaptive polymorphisms are commonly cited as evidence of local adaptation within species. However, the contribution of the clinally varying trait to overall fitness is often unknown. To address this question, we examined survival, vegetative growth and reproductive output in a central US common garden experiment using 161 genotypes of white clover (Trifolium repens L.) originating from 15 locations across North America. White clover is polymorphic for cyanogenesis (hydrogen cyanide release upon tissue damage), a chemical defense against generalist herbivores, and climate-associated cyanogenesis clines have evolved repeatedly across the species range. Over a 12 month experiment, we observed striking correlations between population of origin and plant performance in the common garden, with climatic distance from the common garden site predicting fitness more accurately than geographic distance. Assessments of herbivore leaf damage over the 2015 growing season indicated marginally lower herbivory on cyanogenic plants; however, this effect did not result in increased fitness in the common garden location. Linear mixed modeling suggested that while cyanogenesis variation had little predictive value for vegetative growth, it is as important as climatic variation for predicting reproductive output in the central US. Together, our findings suggest that knowledge of climate similarity, as well as knowledge of locally favored adaptive traits, will help to inform transplantation strategies for restoration ecology and other conservation efforts in the face of climate change.White clover pictures (April)This file contains pictures of 483 white clover plants taken at 1 of 4 time points over the course of a 12 month common garden experiment in St. Louis, MO. The pictures have been cropped to remove adjacent plants, and red circles have been added to the pictures using ImageJ software. These circles cover pennies that were present for scale in the original images. For this publication, the pictures were analyzed with Easy Leaf Area software (Easlon & Bloom 2014).1of4-April.zipWhite clover pictures (May)This file contains pictures of 483 white clover plants taken at 1 of 4 time points over the course of a 12 month common garden experiment in St. Louis, MO. The pictures have been cropped to remove adjacent plants, and red circles have been added to the pictures using ImageJ software. These circles cover pennies that were present for scale in the original images. For this publication, the pictures were analyzed with Easy Leaf Area software (Easlon & Bloom 2014).2of4-May.zipWhite clover pictures (October)This file contains pictures of 483 white clover plants taken at 1 of 4 time points over the course of a 12 month common garden experiment in St. Louis, MO. The pictures have been cropped to remove adjacent plants, and red circles have been added to the pictures using ImageJ software. These circles cover pennies that were present for scale in the original images. For this publication, the pictures were analyzed with Easy Leaf Area software (Easlon & Bloom 2014).3of4-October.zipWhite clover pictures (March)This file contains pictures of 483 white clover plants taken at 1 of 4 time points over the course of a 12 month common garden experiment in St. Louis, MO. The pictures have been cropped to remove adjacent plants, and red circles have been added to the pictures using ImageJ software. These circles cover pennies that were present for scale in the original images. For this publication, the pictures were analyzed with Easy Leaf Area software (Easlon & Bloom 2014).4of4-March.zipVCF file with SNP dataThis VCF file contains SNPs generated using genotyping by sequencing (GBS), which were used for population genomics analyses in this paper. The file contains data from additional white clover samples not used in the study. See the two separate files for more information on the individual samples.all.mergedSNPs.mergedTaxa.vcf.gzSample Key for VCF fileThis file contains information on the individual samples included in the VCF file.white_clover_olsen_key.txtFunding provided by: National Science FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001Award Number: DEB-0845497, IOS-1557770, DGE-1143954, DEB-160164