A greenhouse experiment was conducted to test the ability of the invasive clonal plant, Lepidium draba, to cope with damage to local and different ramets. The experiment was arranged in a fully factorial split-pot design that was blocked by bench position and provenance population of the plant. Plants were grown in 'split pots', where two adjoining pots were glued together with a small opening for a lateral root to pass through. A plant with a long lateral root was placed such that one ramet was in one pot, and a connected ramet was in the adjoining pot. One ramet was randomly assigned as the 'local' ramet and the other was assigned as the 'neighbor' ramet. Three treatments were applied in a fully factorial manner: (1) connection of lateral root (connected / not connected), (2) damage to local ramet by a generalist herbivore Trichoplusia ni (damaged / undamaged); (3) damage to the local ramet by a specialist herbivore Pieris rapae (damaged / undamaged). Measured responses were the amount of foliar damage to plants, the relative growth rate of a newly applied (bioassay) herbivore (T. ni), the belowground and aboveground biomass of each ramet, and the ability of the neighboring ramet to regrow following removal of aboveground biomass.

These tabular data were compiled to document how key plant trait values change during plant development, particularly seedling stages, and in relation to soil moisture. An objective of our study was to answer three main research questions: (1) Do seedling trait values differ across early to late stages of seedling development and do those trajectories vary among plant species and functional types (i.e., forbs vs. grasses)?; (2) Does water availability influence seedling ontogenetic trait variation? and, if so, does this variation affect plant species drought performance?; and (3) Do seedling trait values at early stages of development differ from complied trait database values for species? These data represent key trait values, including specific leaf area, root:shoot ratio, specific root length, and root dry matter content of 20 – 62-day-old seedlings grown under low and high levels of water availability. These data were collected from July-October 2019 at the Research Greenhouse at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. These data were collected by U.S. Geological Survey staff and greenhouse assistants at Northern Arizona University using observations and destructive harvesting of plants in a greenhouse setting. These data can be used to understand variation in functional traits early in plant development to predict community level processes and ecosystem responses to environmental change and ecological restoration practices.

These data were acquired from two native Mojave Desert species, Ambrosia dumosa and Larrea tridentata, from 3 sites (50 m x 50 m garden plots) distributed across the differing Mojave Desert ecotones. These sites were located on the Fort Irwin National Training Center (CA), north of Joshua Tree National Park (CA), and north of Saint George (UT). Growth and survivorship data were collected monthly from 2014 to 2018. Canopy projection data was calculated from the measurements using the mathematical equation: pi x 0.5 x L1 x 0.5 x L2, L1 is the longest diameter, L2 is the perpendicular longest diameter (cm squared). Height was measured from the ground to the tallest green leaf (cm).

These data were acquired from two native Mojave Desert species, Ambrosia dumosa and Larrea tridentata, from 3 sites (50 m x 50 m garden plots) distributed across the differing Mojave Desert ecotones. These sites were located on the Fort Irwin National Training Center (CA), north of Joshua Tree National Park (CA), and north of Saint George (UT). Growth and survivorship data were collected monthly from 2014 to 2018. Canopy projection data was calculated from the measurements using the mathematical equation: pi x 0.5 x L1 x 0.5 x L2, L1 is the longest diameter, L2 is the perpendicular longest diameter (cm squared). Height was measured from the ground to the tallest green leaf (cm).

This dataset contains information on seedling survival, physiochemical, morphological, and eco-physiological characteristics of seedlings grown and planted from seed collected from different sagebrush populations as well as the climatic conditions of those seed source sites in relation to the common garden location in which they were planted.

This dataset contains information on seedling survival, physiochemical, morphological, and eco-physiological characteristics of seedlings grown and planted from seed collected from different sagebrush populations as well as the climatic conditions of those seed source sites in relation to the common garden location in which they were planted.