Data and code from: Succession in a tropical dry forest: A test of the chronosequence and inference of community assembly dynamics

Résumé fourni par la source

To better understand successional changes and drivers of changes in forests, we must 1) test assumptions of successional studies and 2) quantify patterns in species and functional traits in stands varying in successional age. We examined patterns in species composition and functional traits along a chronosequence of tropical dry forest (TDF) sites in North Key Largo, Florida in 1993. To test patterns identified along the chronosequence, we quantified longitudinal change in species and functional traits by remeasuring the sites in 2013. We tested the following predictions: 1) dynamic changes within sites in species composition and functional trait composition will corroborate a pattern indicated by the chronosequence; 2) a growth-survival demographic tradeoff will be consistent with increasing dominance of evergreen species over the course of succession; and 3) forest succession will demonstrate convergence in both composition and function. Data include tree species basal areas, community-weighted trait data, and environmental vectors (site age, site soil depth, site elevation). Also included are data analysis files and results of analyses for principal component analysis (PCA) of species by functional traits, delineation of functional groups (deciduous, evergreen, and leaf exchanger species) and basal areas of functional groups over the course of succession, NMDS analyses of species basal area by site age and community-weighted traits by site age, and analyses of convergence of species composition and functional traits by site age class using the DispRity package in R. These data may be reused, and there are no legal or ethical considerations associated with reuse.

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