Data from: A pan-European citizen science study shows population size, climate and land use are related to biased morph ratios in the heterostylous plant Primula veris
Data files
Dec 23, 2024 version files 277.48 KB
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Data_for_Dryad_20-12-2024.xlsx
275.31 KB
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README.md
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Abstract
The distylous plant Primula veris has long served as a model species for studying heterostyly, i.e., the occurrence of multiple floral morphs within a population to ensure outcrossing. Habitat loss, reduced plant population sizes, and climate change have raised concerns about the impact of these factors on morph ratios and the related consequences on fitness of heterostylous species. We studied the deviation of floral morphs of P. veris from isoplethy (i.e., equal frequency) in response to plant population size, landscape context and climatic factors, based on a pan-European citizen science campaign involving observations from 28 countries. In addition, we examined the relative frequency of morphs to determine whether landscape and climatic factors disrupt morph frequencies or whether a specific morph has an advantage over the other. Theory predicts equal frequencies of short-styled S-morphs and long-styled L-morphs in populations at equilibrium. However, data from > 3000 populations showed a substantial morph deviation from isoplethy and a significant excess (9%) of S-morphs compared to L-morphs. Deviation of morph frequency from equilibrium was substantially stronger in smaller populations and was not affected by morph identity. Higher summer precipitation and land use intensity were associated with an increased prevalence of S-morphs. Five populations containing individuals exhibiting short homostyle phenotypes (with the style and anthers in low positions) were found. Genotyping of the individuals at CYP734A50 gene of the S locus, which determines the length of the style and the position of anthers of P. veris, revealed no mutations in this region. Our results based on an unprecedented geographic sampling suggest that changes in land use and climate may be responsible for non-equilibrium morph frequencies. This large-scale citizen science initiative sets foundations for future studies to clarify whether the unexpected excess of S-morphs is due to partial intra-morph compatibility, disruption of heterostyly or survival advantage of S-morphs.
Synthesis. Human-induced environmental change may affect biodiversity indirectly through altering reproductive traits, which can also lead to reduced fitness and genetic diversity. Further research should consider the possible role of pollinators in mediating the ecological and evolutionary consequences of recent landscape and climatic shifts on plant reproductive traits.
README: Heterostyly data used in the paper "A pan-European citizen science study shows population size, climate and land use are related to biased morph ratios in the heterostylous plant Primula veris"
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.k3j9kd5jj
Description of the data and file structure
The dataset represents information on the morph type of the heterostylous plant species Primula veris. It was collected by volunteer observers within the frames of the pan-European citizen science campaign "Looking for Cowslips" that took place in 2021 and 2022 (Looking for Cowslips). Campaign participants were asked to provide information about the approximate size of the observed population (Small: some plants, up to 100 individuals; Medium: about 100-200 individuals; Large: more than 200 to thousands) and the morph identity of 100 randomly chosen cowslip individuals (fewer in case of small populations) occurring at least 0.5 meters apart from each other. Most participants also uploaded GPS coordinates.
Files and variables
File: Data_for_Dryad_20-12-2024.xlsx
Description: The file contains a data sheet with 3014 observations submitted by the citizen scientists in 2021 and 2022. In the data sheet, "N/A" denotes cases when specific information, such as the date of data submission on the data submission platform or GPS coordinates, was missing.
Variables in the data sheet
- ID: identification number of the population
- Date: date of the observation
- Prim_pop_size: categorical population size of the observed Primula veris population (small; medium; large)
- S_morph: observed number of Primula veris individuals with the floral morph of S
- L_morph: observed number of Primula veris individuals with the flower morph of L
- Latitude: latitudinal decimal degrees
- Longitude: longitudinal decimal degrees
- Country: the country where the observation was done
- Sprop: proportion of S-morphs calculated as S/(S+L)
- ABSdev: general deviation of morphs from an even morph frequency, i.e., isoplethy calculated as|(S/(S+L))-0.5|
Missing data: N/A
Methods
Data on the morph identity of Primula veris
The dataset of heterostyly (i.e., whether the observed plant was of L- or S-morph; Barrett 2019) was collected by volunteer observers within the frames of the pan-European citizen science campaign "Looking for Cowslips" that took place in 2021 and 2022 (Looking for Cowslips). Citizens from the following countries contributed data: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Campaign participants were asked to provide information about the approximate size of the observed population (Small: some plants, up to 100 individuals; Medium: about 100-200 individuals; Large: more than 200 to thousands) and the morph identity of 100 randomly chosen cowslip individuals (fewer in case of small populations) occurring at least 0.5 meters apart from each other.
Data collected by citizen scientists was filtered during several steps: (1) exclusion of populations where wrongly identified species were detected based on submitted digital photographic material (about 80 % of observations included photos of the study species), (2) revision and correction of any mistakes in geographical coordinates of the observations performed, (3) omission of empty observations or observations with too few observed plant individuals (< 10), (4) exclusion of observations with unrealistic number of observed plant individuals and low-quality observations, and (5) retaining only one of spatially adjacent observations (closer than 100 m) in case of those populations, which were submitted together with spatial coordinates.
References:
Barrett, S.C.H. (2019) ‘A most complex marriage arrangement’: recent advances on heterostyly and unresolved questions. New Phytologist, 224, 1051-1067.