DOI: 10.5061/dryad.12jm63z32
title: Plants metacommunity from temporary ponds

description: The database comprises a long-term survey of a plant metacommunity of
 temporary ponds. The metacommunity is located in a flat landscape
 surrounded by hills, where a maximum of 61 ponds, every year, are filled
 with water in winter and dry out in summer in the same spatial locations.
 Information on species occurrences at the sampling unit level was recorded
 since 2005 (until 2022 and continuous).  The database
 includes:  Species occurrences at the sampling unit level for 61
 temporary ponds along 14 years (to be periodically updated). 
 Species traits database and functional description of traits. 
 Environmental information of each pond including connectivity, area,
 heterogeneity and hydroperiod.
description: Every spring since 2005, ponds have been sampled
 equidistantly using 20x20 cm quadrants on the major axis. On average, five
 quadrants were sampled in most ponds. However, to account for the range of
 pond areas, which exhibits differences in several orders of magnitude
 (from 6.6 m2 to 24,673 m<sup>2</sup>) when the quadrants were
 closer than two meters, the number of sampled units was reduced, and if
 the quadrants were more than 10 meters apart, then the number of sampled
 units was increased. 
 A species-by-trait matrix was
 constructed from a review
 of the literature and
 direct observations. The
 list of traits considered is presented, introducing their description and
 functional roles. Different traits related to dispersal strategy, competitive ability,
 drought resistance strategy, life history, and tolerance to stress were
 considered. Environmental data. Community
 connectivity was quantified by two centrality metrics, degree, closeness,
 and betwenness estimated on a percolation graph, which is a network that
 connects all ponds with the minimum linkage Euclidean distance required
 for linkage. Degree
 centrality is the number of direct connections of a local pond with other
 ponds, and closeness centrality is the reciprocal of
 the average distances of a local pond with all the other ponds in the
 metacommunity, representing metrics of direct and global
 connectivity, respectively. The area of the pond was estimated as the area
 of an oval using the length of the major and minor axes of the
 ponds. The
 hydroperiod was estimated
 as the proportion of sampling times with water for sampling carried out
 between 2006 and 2009 when the ponds were visited several times.
 Heterogeneity was estimated as the number of 'islands', emergent
 mounds above water level, per meter of the main and minor axes of the ponds.
 The average
 environmental values during the sampling time were used.
description: # Metacommunity of plants from temporary ponds The metacommunity of
 located in a flat landscape surrounded by hills, where a maximum of 61
 ponds, every year, are filled with water in winter and dry out in summer
 in the same spatial locations. The study area is located in the Castillos
 Lagoon basin, in the Rocha department, Uruguay (3415'16.9 "S 53
 58'51.6 "W; 5-8 meters altitude). Information on species
 occurrences at the sampling unit level were recorded since 2005 (until
 2022 and continue). Databases of species occurrences, species traits, and
 local environment conditions are provided. ### Species Occurrences FILE:
 "Supplementary3_Table_3_Ponds_x_Species_Database.xlsx" Matrix
 with columns: year, month, sampling unit, pond, and 100 species in which
 each column represent the observation or not of the species. ### Species
 Traits FILE:
 "Supplementary1_Table_1_Species_Traits_Database.xlsx" A
 species-by-trait matrix constructed from literature review and direct
 observations. The list of traits considered is presented, introducing
 their description and functional roles. Different traits related to
 dispersal strategy, competitive ability, drought resistance strategy, life
 history, and tolerance to stress were considered. ### Functional roles of
 Species Traits FILE:
 "Supplementary2_Table_2_Descritpion_of_Traits_and_Functional_role" A brief summary of the functional roles potentially associated with the species traits ### Environmental data FILE: "Supplementary4_Table_4_Ponds_x_Environmental_variablesEnvironment.xlsx" Environmental variables available for each pond (further information may be upload in the future) A ponds by environmental variable matrix. With columns: X: latitude; Y: Longitude; DM: major diameter (mts), ddmm: minor diamter (mts); Shape: dm/Dm; Islands: Number of islands observed per meter of major and minor diameter (Islands/meter);log.Area: Pond Area (m2) expressed in log10 scale; log.Volumen: Pond Volume (m3) expressed in log10 sclae; Mean.Depth: mean depth of the pond (cm); Sd.Depth: Standard deviation in depth meassures (cm); CV.Depth: coefficient of vairation in depth (cm); Hydroperiod: Frequency of times in which the pond presented water standirized by the number of survies; Degree: number of direct links with other ponds; log.Betweenness: log of the number of couples of ponds that have to pass through this pond to be connected by the shortest path; Closenness: inverse of the topological distance of this ponds with all the other ponds Depth was measured at least 10 times in major and minor axes. Hydroperiod was estimated from a series of survives performed between 2005-2009 in which ponds were visited several times along the year. Community connectivity was quantified by the centrality metrics, degree, closeness, and betweenness estimated on a percolation graph, which is a network that connects all ponds with the minimum linkage Euclidean distance required for linkage. Degree centrality is the number of direct connections of a local pond with other ponds, and closeness centrality is the reciprocal of the average distances of a local pond with all the other ponds in the metacommunity, representing metrics of direct and global connectivity, respectively. The area of the pond was estimated as the area of an oval using the length of the major and minor axes of the ponds. The hydroperiod was estimated as the proportion of sampling times with water for sampling carried out between 2006 and 2009, when the ponds were visited several times. Heterogeneity was estimated as the number of 'islands', emergent mounds above water level, per meter of the main and minor axes of the ponds. The average environmental values during the sampling time were used.