DOI: 10.5061/dryad.fm654
title: Data from: Functional traits as predictors of vital rates across the life cycle of tropical trees

description: The ‘functional traits’ of species have been heralded as promising
 predictors for species’ demographic rates and life history. Multiple
 studies have linked plant species’ demographic rates to commonly measured
 traits. However, predictive power is usually low – raising questions about
 the practical usefulness of traits – and analyses have been limited to
 size-independent univariate approaches restricted to a particular life
 stage. Here we directly evaluated the predictive power of multiple traits
 simultaneously across the entire life cycle of 136 tropical tree species
 from central Panama. Using a model-averaging approach, we related wood
 density, seed mass, leaf mass per area and adult stature (maximum
 diameter) to onset of reproduction, seed production, seedling
 establishment, and growth and survival at seedling, sapling and adult
 stages. Three of the four traits analysed here (wood density, seed mass
 and adult stature) typically explained 20–60% of interspecific variation
 at a given vital rate and life stage. There were strong shifts in the
 importance of different traits throughout the life cycle of trees, with
 seed mass and adult stature being most important early in life, and wood
 density becoming most important after establishment. Every trait had
 opposing effects on different vital rates or at different life stages; for
 example, seed mass was associated with higher seedling establishment and
 lower initial survival, wood density with higher survival and lower
 growth, and adult stature with decreased juvenile but increased adult
 growth and survival. Forest dynamics are driven by the combined effects of
 all demographic processes across the full life cycle. Application of a
 multitrait and full-life cycle approach revealed the full role of key
 traits, and illuminated how trait effects on demography change through the
 life cycle. The effects of traits on one life stage or vital rate were
 sometimes offset by opposing effects at another stage, revealing the
 danger of drawing broad conclusions about functional trait–demography
 relationships from analysis of a single life stage or vital rate. Robust
 ecological and evolutionary conclusions about the roles of functional
 traits rely on an understanding of the relationships of traits to vital
 rates across all life stages.
description: BCI_SeedlingDynamics2001_2021The growth, recruitment and mortality of seedlings ≥20 cm tall on Barro Colorado Island, Panama (625773 easting and 1011774 northing in UTM Zone 17). Seedlings were monitored in ~20,000 one square-meter plots within the 50-ha forest dynamics plot (FDP). The 50-ha FDP plot is a 1000 m by 500 m rectangle of lowland tropical moist forest inside of which all woody trees and shrubs with stems at least 1 cm in diameter at 1.3m tall (dbh) have been censused at ~5 year intervals since the early 1980’s. In 2001, 20,000 1 m2 seedling plots were established in a 5-m grid across the FDP, where all freestanding woody plants greater than 20 cm in height and less than 1 cm d.b.h. are measured, tagged and identified yearly until 2013 (except in 2005, 2007 and 2010; seedlings were not censused in a small subset of the 20,000 plots to avoid damage to previously established research plots; see Comita et al. 2007 and Comita and Hubbell 2009 for more details).final.csv