DOI: 10.5061/dryad.hdr7sqvtn
title: Data from: Evolution of competitive ability and the response to nutrient availability: A resurrection study with the calcareous grassland herb, Leontodon hispidus

description: Rapid environmental changes across Europe include warmer and increasingly
 variable temperatures, changes in soil nutrient availability, and
 pollinator decline. These abiotic and biotic changes can affect natural
 plant populations and force them to optimize resource use against
 competitors. To date, the evolution of competitive ability in the context
 of changes in nutrient availability remains understudied. In this study,
 we investigated whether the common calcareous grassland herb Leontodon
 hispidus recently evolved its competitive ability and response to nutrient
 availability. We compared ancestors sampled in 1995 and descendants
 sampled in 2018 and applied a competition treatment in
 combination with weekly nutrient treatments (no fertilizer, nitrogen,
 phosphorus, and both). We found evidence for evolution of
 increased competitive ability, with descendants producing more
 vegetative biomass than ancestors when grown under competition.
 The competitive ability also depended on the nutrient treatment,
 indicating that descendants might be adapted to lower
 nitrogen concentrations, which could be linked to the decreasing
 nitrogen emissions into the atmosphere since the 1990s. Our study
 demonstrates rapid contemporary evolution of competitive ability,
 but also the complexity of the underlying processes
 of contemporary evolution, and sheds light on the importance of
 understudied potential selection agents such as nutrient
 availability.
description: # Data from: Evolution of competitive ability and the response to nutrient
 availability: A resurrection study with the calcareous grassland herb,
 Leontodon hispidus
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hdr7sqvtn](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hdr7sqvtn) ## Description of the data and file structure This is the raw data of a greenhouse experiment performed within the framework of the resurrection approach. We investigated whether the common calcareous grassland herb Leontodon hispidus recently evolved its competitive ability and response to nutrient availability. We compared ancestors sampled in 1995 and descendants sampled in 2018 in a greenhouse environment and applied a competition treatment (Brachypodium pinnatum) in combination with weekly nutrient treatments (no fertilizer, nitrogen, phosphorus, and both). ### Files and variables #### File: Data\_Karitter\_2025.xlsx **Description:** All the measurements taken for the experiment on the seedlings of Leontodon hispidus. Missing values are indicated by "NA". The experiment is divided into 5 treatment groups with 5 replicates per seed family and we applied the following competition and nutrient treatments: (i) without competition and without fertilizer (C-C); (ii) with competition and without fertilizer (C); (iii) with competition and nitrogen fertilizer (N); (iv) with competition and phosphorus fertilizer (P); (v) with competition and nitrogen + phosphorus fertilizer (NP). Given are TemporalOrigin (Descendants, Ancestors), Seedfamily (i.e., maternal line), Treatment (C, C-C, N, NP, P), Replicate, SowingDate, VegetativeBiomass in mg, Leafweight for calculated Specific Leaf Area (SLA) in mg, Leafarea for calculation of SLA in qcm, Rootbiomass in mg, ReproductiveBiomass in mg, Stemcount, Leafnumber on the 05/11/2022,  Leafdiameter on the 05/11/2022 in cm,  Leafdiameter on the 06/01/2022 in cm,  Leafdiameter on the 06/22/2022 in cm,  Leafdiameter on the 07/13/2022 in cm,  FloweringDate and FloweringHeight in cm. ##### Variables * TemporalOrigin * SeedFamily * Treatment (C, C-C, N, NP, P) * Replicate (1-5) * Sowingdate * VegetativeBiomass[mg] * Leafweight[mg] * Leafarea[cm²] * RootBio[mg] * ReproductiveBiomass[mg] * Stemcount * Leafnumber(05/11/2022) * Leafdiameter at different dates  * Floweringdate * Floweringheight[cm] ## Code/software Data can be viewed with standard Excel.