DOI: 10.5061/dryad.67nd5
title: Data from: Effects of light and topography on regeneration and coexistence of evergreen and deciduous tree species in a Chinese subtropical forest

description: 1. Evergreen broad-leaved forests are widely distributed in eastern Asia
 with evergreen (EBL) and deciduous (DBL) broad-leaved tree species
 coexisting under the same climatic regime, raising questions as to the
 underlying mechanisms. Since EBL and DBL species differ in leaf lifespan,
 a key component of resource economic strategies, their coexistence might
 be attributed to regeneration niche partitioning across habitats varying
 in resource supply. 2. We investigated the effects of variation in
 insolation and topography on regeneration of EBL and DBL species in a
 subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest of eastern China after an ice
 storm that caused severe canopy disturbance. 3. Using a mixed-effects
 modeling framework and census data from 2011 to 2014 on 8548 wild
 seedlings of 123 species, we quantified habitat preferences of EBL and DBL
 species during post-disturbance regeneration and how their survival and
 height relative growth rates varied among habitats. 4. The relative
 density of DBL seedlings (proportional to all seedlings) was greater in
 habitats with greater (canopy gaps) compared to lesser (understory)
 insolation and increased with canopy gap size. However, DBL seedlings were
 not more frequent in higher (valleys) compared to lower (ridges) fertility
 habitats. Although DBL seedlings exhibited larger differences in growth
 between higher and lower resource habitats than EBL seedlings, their
 growth rates did not increase with canopy gap size. Seedlings of EBL
 species had high survival in all habitats, but larger DBL seedlings
 survived equally well on ridges. Consequently, the relative density of DBL
 seedlings declined in valleys, so that by 2014 it became more similar in
 valley and ridge habitats, whereas it remained higher in gaps than in the
 understory, and especially in larger gaps. 5. Synthesis. Specialization on
 contrasting topographic habitats is considered the primary mechanism
 mediating coexistence between DBL and EBL species. Our results, however,
 suggest this may not always be true, since seedlings of DBL and EBL
 species partitioned regeneration niches based on light more so than
 topography. We propose that coexistence of DBL and EBL species can
 strongly depend upon canopy disturbance to create a mosaic of habitat
 patches, including high light gaps favoring regeneration of DBL species.
description: Seedling
 regenerationData were collected in a
 subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest in eastern China between 2011
 and 2014. The zip file contains five xlsx files, of which "Recruits
 between 2011 and 2014.xlsx" contains the number of deciduous (DBL)
 and evergreen (EBL) broad-leaved seedlings recruited into each 1 m2
 seedling quadrat between 2011 and 2014. The other four xlsx files each
 contain two datasheets, one is "community", represents the
 community data; the other is "sparseMatrix", represents the
 inverse phylogenetic covariance matrix of the species present in the
 community data, for performing generalised linear mixed models with
 correlated random effect arising from phylogeny. Specifically,
 "Survival.across.All.Habitats.xlsx" and
 "Survival.in.Canopy.Gaps.xlsx" contains the survival status in
 2014 of seedlings recorded in the 2011 census across all habitats and only
 in canopy gaps, respectively. "RGR.across.All.Habitats.xlsx" and
 "RGR.in.Canopy.Gaps.xlsx" contain the height relative growth
 rate of seedlings alive both in the 2011 and 2014 censuses across all
 habitats and only in canopy gaps, respectively. Abbreviated headlines are
 as follows: "canopy.gap.size"= the size of canopy gap, in m2;
 "survival" = survival status in 2014, of which "0"
 means death and "1" means alive; "canopy.status" = the
 status of canopy, can be "gap" or "understory";
 "DBL. number"=the number of deciduous broad-leaved seedlings
 recruited into a 1 m2 seedling quadrat between 2011 and 2014; "EBL.
 number"=the number of evergreen broad-leaved seedlings recruited into
 a 1 m2 seedling quadrat between 2011 and 2014; "leaf.habit"=
 leaf habit, can be deciduous (DBL) or evergreen (EBL) broad-leaved;
 "quadrat"= 1 m2 seedling quadrat; "RGR"= seedling
 height relative growth rate between 2011 and 2014;
 "seedling.height"= seedling height recorded in the 2011 census,
 in cm; "site"= sampling gap site; "species"= species;
 "topographic.habitat"= habitat classified according to
 topographic condition, can be "valley" or
 "ridge".Data.zip