Roberto Salguero-Gómez
School of Biological Sciences
University of Queensland
Brisbane, 4072 Australia
   and
Evolutionary Biodemography Laboratory
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Rostock DE-18057, Germany

Helen Kempenich
U.S. Forest Service
Ashley National Forest 355 N. Vernal Avenue
Vernal, Utah 84078 USA

Irwin N. Forseth
Department of Biology
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland 20742 USA
    and
Present address: National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Virginia 22230 USA

Brenda B. Casper
Biology Department
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 USA
E-mail: bcasper@sas.upenn.edu

Climate_data.txt (MD5: 2177e250ad42ca1c88c283d1f20c7265)

Population_dynamics_data.txt (MD5: f392760fde47de38f641648dcd8ffe76)

Georeference_location_data.kmz (MD5: 0e74aff74928cdc4558da7758e8bc7c3)

Long-term data sets of population dynamics of plants are scarce, yet provide valuable information for addressing critical ecological and evolutionary questions. Such data can be used to determine how climate change affects demographic viability and evolutionary stable demographic strategies. Here we provide a long-term data set with longitudinal (1997–2012) individual records for 3835 plants of the chamaephyte Cryptantha flava L. (A. Nelson) Payson (Boraginaceae) near Redfleet State Park in Uintah County, Utah, USA (40° 35' 42.63" N, 109°25' 55.92" W, 1790 m a.s.l.). We used permanent plots to track the individual responses (survival, changes in size, reproduction, and recruitment) to artificial manipulations of precipitation via rainout shelters in 1998 and 1999 in subsets of those plots. These data provide unique opportunities to examine the effect of ambient climatic variation and interpret longer-term climate change effects on native plant species’ population dynamics in interaction with the surrounding plant communities. We provide the following data and data formats: (1) monthly background precipitation and temperature at the closest permanent weather station, (2) individual-level population dynamics from 1997 to 2012 with point location (x, y coordinates) of the individuals of C. flava within the permanent plots as well as microhabitat conditions, and (3) geo-referenced location of each permanent plot.

Key words:  climate change; Colorado Plateau desert; Cryptantha flava; long-term demography; plant population dynamics; rainout shelter.