Study Data Set

Two hundred and twenty two genotypes of A. thaliana were planted in 4 European field sites scattered over 3 seasons in 2006 and 2007 for a total of 7 plantings (Table S1, Appendix S1), as described in Wilczek et al. (2009, 2014). Across the 7 plantings, 5623 plants were phenotyped for a phenological trait (days-to-bolting, DTB) which marks the transition from vegetative to reproductive phase (Pouteau & Albertini, 2009) and a fitness trait (seed proxy, SP; number of siliques per plant x average length of 5 representative siliques from the plant in mm). All genotypes were present in more than one planting, although no planting contained all genotypes.
The time to bolting is regulated by environmental and genetic factors (Amasino, 2010; Koornneef et al., 1998; Sasaki et al., 2015) and influences reproductive success (Korves et al., 2007). SP measures reproductive output and was weakly correlated with DTB (Pearson’s ρ= 0.058), justifying the construction of separate models. Both traits were chosen due to their relevance for revegetation. SP is a reproductive trait that provides a straightforward component of plant fitness, which revegetation efforts would aim to maximise. Beyond its relevance to reproductive success, a phenological trait like DTB may be relevant to land managers for other purposes. For example, managers may want to introduce plants with phenologies that align with the feeding requirements of specific animals or that can restore lost ecosystem services (Buisson et al., 2017).