population: There were three distinct study populations. low: Horse Ranch Park (2703 m a.s.l); mid: Maxfield Meadow, at Rocky Mountain Biological Lab (2886 m a.s.l); high: Virginia Basin (3407 m a.s.l) plant.ID: Unique ID assigned to each individual plant year: Year in which vital rates were measured (corresponds to T, or year t) presentT: Was the plant present in year t, yes or no? presentT1: Was the plant present in year t+1, yes or no? present and presentT1 were used to calculate the survival response survival: If a plant was present in year t and t+1, then surv = 1. Plants must be gone for 2 years before they are considered to have died (because we often observe a plant in year t that was gone or not found in t-1). Thus, if a plant is present in year t but not in t+1, surv = NA. If a plant was present in year t, not present in t+1, and not present in t+2, then surv = 0. seedling: This variable describes whether the plant is a seedling (y/n). If a plant is a seedling, it is assigned an NA value for size in that year (sizeT). sizeT: Plant size in year t for non-seedlings: this shows the number of clumps of leaves (above ground meristems) per plant in year t sizeT1: Plant size in year t+1 for non-seedlings: this shows the number of clumps of leaves (above ground meristems) per plant in year t+1 pflowerT: Probability of flowering in year t: this shows whether an individual made at least one flowering stalk in year t (y/n), regardless of whether that stalk was frosted pflowerT1: Probability of flowering in year t+1: this shows whether an individual made at least one flowering stalk in year t+1 (y/n), regardless of whether that stalk was frosted abort.stalks: Number of aborted flower stalks per plant in year t; stalks are aborted if they are damaged by frost, so another way to label this would be Ôfrosted stalksÕ. Frost damage typically occurs at the level of the stalk. To calculate abortion rate, simply take abort.stalks/fertilityT fertilityT: Total number of flowering stalks in which the plant invested (i.e., the plant attempted to make) in year t, regardless of whether they were frosted or not fertilityT1: Total number of flowering stalks in which the plant invested in year t+1, regardless of whether they were frosted or not