DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6h82b
title: Data from: Both flowering time and distance to conspecific plants affect reproduction in Echinacea angustifolia, a common prairie perennial

description: 1. In small fragmented plant populations, reproductive failure due to
 pollen limitation is often attributed to spatial isolation of individuals.
 While flowering time has been shown to affect seed set, its role in pollen
 limited fragmented populations is less understood. 2. In this study, we
 quantified near-neighbour distances, flowering phenology, and how they
 interact to affect seed set in individual plants. We followed the daily
 flowering phenology of over 2,400 heads on over 500 Echinacea angustifolia
 individuals and quantified the resulting seed set during three consecutive
 flowering seasons. The study was conducted in an experimental plot where
 we randomised planting locations to eliminate spatial patterns of mate
 availability which are common in fragmented populations of Echinacea, a
 self-incompatible plant. 3. We found that individual flowering time had a
 larger and more consistent effect on seed set than did spatial location.
 Seed set in the earliest flowering plants exceeded seed set in the latest
 by 46 - 70% in all three years. The role of spatial isolation,
 characterized both by individual distance to conspecific plants and by
 location in the plot, was less consistent and showed a weaker relationship
 with seed set than did flowering phenology. The most isolated plants set
 20 - 27% less seed than the least isolated plants in 2005-2006 with no
 difference in 2007. 4. In one year, we quantified seed set by floret
 position within a flowering head. We found significant positional effects;
 however, effects due to flowering time were much greater. These results
 were more consistent with the pollen limitation hypothesis than the
 resources limitation hypothesis. 5. Synthesis: Our results illustrate that
 flowering time and distance to neighbouring conspecifics can cause
 reproductive failure in fragmented populations, even in the absence of
 mate limitation caused by mating incompatibility. These findings suggest
 that flowering time may be an underappreciated contributor to reproductive
 failure in small fragmented populations.
description: flowering phenology data
 file for 2007Metadata is in file
 "flPhenology.xy.C1.readMe.txt"flPhenology.xy.C1.2007.csvflowering phenology data file for 2006Metadata is in file "flPhenology.xy.C1.readMe.txt"flPhenology.xy.C1.2006.csvflowering phenology data file for 2005Metadata is in file "flPhenology.xy.C1.readMe.txt"flPhenology.xy.C1.2005.csvAnalysis of 2007 dataset- R scriptInformation about this R script is in file "flPhenology.xy.C1.readMe.txt"flPhenology.xy.C1.2007.rAnalysis of 2006 dataset- R scriptInformation about this R script is in file "flPhenology.xy.C1.readMe.txt"flPhenology.xy.C1.2006.rAnalysis of 2005 dataset- R scriptInformation about this R script is in file "flPhenology.xy.C1.readMe.txt"flPhenology.xy.C1.2005.rR script that generates figuresInformation about this R script is in file "flPhenology.xy.C1.readMe.txt"flPhenology.xy.C1.makeSixPanelFig.rreadMe file for flowering phenology datasets & analysisReadme file for the following seven files: flPhenology.xy.C1.2005.csv, flPhenology.xy.C1.2006.csv, flPhenology.xy.C1.2007.csv, flPhenology.xy.C1.2005.r, flPhenology.xy.C1.2006.r, flPhenology.xy.C1.2007.r, and flPhenology.xy.C1.makeSixPanelFig.r.flPhenology.xy.C1.readMe.txtwithin-head seed set -- dataFor metadata of this dataset see file "seedSetBasedOnPositionWithinHead.txt"seedSetBasedOnPositionWithinHead.csvwithin-head seed set -- analysisFor information on this R script see file "seedSetBasedOnPositionWithinHead.txt"seedSetBasedOnPositionWithinHead.rwithin-head seed set -- readMeThis readMe files contains metadata on the data file "seedSetBasedOnPositionWithinHead.csv" and information about the script "seedSetBasedOnPositionWithinHead.r"seedSetBasedOnPositionWithinHead.txt