DOI: 10.5061/dryad.v9s4mw741
title: Cardamine pratensis early/late ecotype transects Dibbinsdale Nature Reserve 2012-2014

description: Phenological escape, whereby species alter the timing of life-history
 events to avoid seasonal antagonists, is usually analyzed either as a
 potential evolutionary outcome given current selection coefficients or as
 a realized outcome in response to known enemies. We here gain mechanistic
 insights into the evolutionary trajectory of phenological escape in the
 brassicaceous herb Cardamine pratensis, by comparing the flowering
 schedules of two sympatric ecotypes in different stages of a disruptive
 response to egg-laying pressure imposed by the pierid butterfly
 Anthocharis cardamines, whose larvae are pre-dispersal seed predators
 (reducing realized fecundity by ~70%). When the focal point of highest
 intensity selection (peak egg-laying) occurs early in the flowering
 schedule, selection for late flowering dependent on reduced egg-laying
 combined with selection for early flowering dependent on reduced predator
 survival results in a symmetrical bimodal flowering curve; when the focal
 point occurs late, an asymmetrical flowering curve results with a large
 early flowering mode due to selection for reduced egg-laying augmented by
 selection for infested plants to outrun larval development and dehisce
 before seed-pod consumption. Unequal selection pressures on high and low
 fecundity ramets, due to asynchronous flowering and morphologically
 targeted (size-dependent) egg-laying, constrain phenological escape, with
 bimodal flowering evolving primarily in response to disruptive selection
 on high fecundity phenotypes. These results emphasize the importance of
 analyzing variation in selection coefficients among morphological
 phenotypes over the entire flowering schedule to predict how populations
 will evolve in response to altered phenologies resulting from climate
 change.
description: # *Cardamine pratensis* early/late ecotype transects Dibbinsdale Nature
 Reserve 2012-2014
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v9s4mw741](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v9s4mw741) ## Description of the data and file structure The data comprise six Excel spreadsheets covering two *Cardamine pratensis* ecotypes (early and late) during a three-year study period (2012-2014) in Dibbinsdale Nature Reserve on the Wirral peninsula in NW England. Data include the phenological state (number of flowers, buds, seed pods) of each *C. pratensis* plant and the number and life-history stage of any *Anthocharis cardamines* eggs and larvae found upon it. Each file is structured as follows: First line: Ecotype Code (CpE = *Cardamine pratensis* Early, CpL = *Cardamine pratensis* Late), Year. Second line: Column headings. These are: * Plant Number (assigned to each ramet on the transect) * Date (day of year; half-dates indicate transect was surveyed over two successive days)  * Height (plant height in cm) - only applies to plants in flower; n/a when not in flower * Flowers (number of flowers open on the plant on the corresponding date) * Buds (number of unopened buds) * Seed-pods (number of seed-pods (or siliquae)) * NAI (number of Non-Axial Inflorescences (or side-branches)) * New Eggs (number of newly laid *A. cardamines* eggs) * Old Eggs (number of previously laid *A. cardamines* eggs) * L1-L5 (number of first (L1), second (L2), third (L3), fourth (L4) and fifth (L5) instar *A. cardamines* larvae) * Notes (further information, where relevant) The data relating to each column heading is then given in the remainder of the file. Dehisced plants are marked "d" in the Height column (a reminder is provided at the top of each file).