DOI: 10.5061/dryad.fqz612js9
title: Data from: Plantago spp. as models for studying the ecology and evolution of species interactions across environmental gradients

description: A central challenge in ecology and evolutionary biology is to understand
 how variation in abiotic and biotic factors combine to shape the
 distribution, abundance, and diversity of focal species. Environmental
 gradients, whether natural (e.g., latitude, elevation, ocean proximity) or
 anthropogenic (e.g., land use intensity, urbanization), provide compelling
 settings for addressing this challenge. However, not all organisms are
 amenable to the observational and experimental approaches required for
 untangling the factors that structure species along gradients. Here we
 highlight herbaceous plants in the genus Plantago as models for studying
 the ecology and evolution of species interactions along abiotic gradients.
 Plantago lanceolata and P. major are native to Europe and Asia but
 distributed globally, and are established models for studying population
 ecology and interactions with herbivores, pathogens, and soil microbes.
 Studying restricted range congeners in comparison to those cosmopolitan
 species can provide insight into abiotic and biotic determinants of range
 size and population structure. We highlight one such species, P. rugelii,
 which is endemic to eastern North America. We give an overview of
 literature on these focal Plantago species, and explain why they are
 logical candidates for studies of species interactions across
 environmental gradients. Finally, we emphasize collaborative and community
 science approaches that can facilitate such research, and note the
 amenability of Plantago for authentic research projects in science
 education.
description: We performed literature searches to quantify the number of
 published studies featuring each currently accepted
 <i>Plantago</i> species name, and to assess the relative
 number of those studies in ecology and evolutionary biology journals. On
 19-20 February 2021, we queried the Web of Science Core Collection
 (Indexes: SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI, ESCI), all years, using
 search terms of this general format: "Plantago [species
 name]" OR ("Plantago" AND "P. [species name]"),
 for each of the 242 accepted <i>Plantago </i>species in the
 International Plant Names Index (IPNI 2021) plus two additional accepted
 species in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS 2021) and
 three species names that are no longer accepted, but which we knew to be
 represented in the literature (Table S1). We retrieved the native range
 for each species from Plants of the World Online (POWO 2019; Table S1).
 For species with ten or more records returned, we then used the results
 analysis function in Web of Science to generate a list of records by
 subject category for each species, where subject categories are attributes
 of the journals in which the articles were published. For those species,
 we curated a list of the current geographic distribution and number of
 records in subject categories "Ecology", "Evolutionary
 Biology", and "Environmental Science" (Table
 S2).  <strong>References</strong>
 IPNI. 2021.
 International Plant Names Index. Published on the Internet
 http://www.ipni.org, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Harvard University
 Herbaria & Libraries and Australian National Botanic Gardens.
 Retrieved 19 February 2021. ITIS. 2021.
 Integrated Taxonomic Information System, Published on the Internet
 http://www.itis.gov. Retrieved 19 February 2021. POWO. 2019.
 Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
 Published on the Internet; http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org.
 Retrieved 19 February 2021.
description: <strong>Table S1. </strong>Native range and total
 number of Web of Science records returned for each of the 247
 <em>Plantago </em>species names included in the literature
 search. Species names retrieved from POWO (http://powo.science.kew.org/)
 and ITIS (https://www.itis.gov/). Native range information is from
 https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/search, https://www.cabi.org/isc,
 and http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/.
 <strong>Table S2. </strong>Native range, current
 distribution, and literature search results for the twenty-five
 <em>Plantago</em> species with the most Web of Science records
 (see Table S1 for the complete list of 247 species in the literature
 search). Species names retrieved from POWO (http://powo.science.kew.org/)
 and ITIS (https://www.itis.gov/). Native range information is from
 https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/search, https://www.cabi.org/isc,
 and http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/. Information on current
 distributions is from GBIF (https://www.gbif.org/) with "human
 observation" selected as the basis of record.