DOI: 10.5061/dryad.5mkkwh7f6
title: Data from: Environmental conditions differently shape leaf, seed and seedling trait composition between and within elevations of tropical montane forests

description: The composition of plant functional traits varies in response to
 environmental conditions due to processes of community assembly and
 species sorting. However, there is a lack of understanding of how plant
 trait composition responds to environmental conditions at different
 spatial scales and across the plant life cycle. We investigated the trait
 composition of leaves (specific leaf area), seeds (seed mass) and
 seedlings (initial seedling height) across elevations and within
 elevations in relation to soil and light conditions in a tropical montane
 forest in southern Ecuador. We surveyed traits and communities of adult
 trees, seeds and seedlings on nine plots at three elevations (1000-3000 m
 a.s.l.) and calculated community-weighted mean trait values to analyse
 trait variation across and within elevations. In addition, we measured two
 environmental factors (soil C/N ratio and canopy openness) to quantify
 local-scale variation in environmental conditions within elevations. We
 found that community-weighted means of specific leaf area, seed mass and
 initial seedling height decreased consistently with increasing elevation.
 Within elevations, mean trait values of trees, seeds and seedlings
 responded differently to local-scale environmental conditions. Specific
 leaf area decreased with increasing soil C/N ratio, and initial seedling
 height decreased with increasing canopy openness. Seed mass was associated
 neither with soil nor with light conditions. Our findings show that
 broad-scale and local-scale processes differently shape the composition of
 leaf, seed and seedling traits in tropical forests, indicating a
 scale-dependence in trait-environment associations. Furthermore, plant
 traits corresponding to different life stages were related differently to
 environmental conditions within elevations. Community assembly processes
 may therefore lead to differences in species sorting at early and late
 plant life stages.
description: Seedling recruitment along the elevational gradient (1000, 2000
 and 3000 m a.s.l.) in primary forest of Podocarpus National Park and San
 Francisco Reserve. The data was collected on 81 study subplots in the
 years 2019 and 2020. The dataset includes height measurements of recruting
 seedlings.
description: # Environmental conditions differently shape leaf, seed and seedling trait
 composition between and within elevations of tropical montane forests
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5mkkwh7f6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5mkkwh7f6) #### Description of the data and file structure Time of data collection: Between August 2019 and July 2020 Geographic location of data collection: Podocarpus National Park and San Francisco Reserve, Ecuador **DATA & FILE OVERVIEW** dataset’s name "recruitment-census_Ecuador2020_PodocarpusNP_MB_oikos2024.csv": Data on seedling recruitment collected during one year seedling monitoring along an 2000-m elevational gradient in southern Ecuador elevation: meters about sea level of one of the three elevations (1000, 2000 or 3000 m a.s.l.), where the study plots were situated plot: plot id (9 plots) subplot: subplot id (81 recruitment census subplots) family: taxonomic family of plant species; NA means that no seedlings were found in the subplot species: scientific name of plant species or morphospecies id for undetermined plant species; NA means that no seedlings were found in the subplot type: growth type or group of plant functional type assigned by the research project (PFTs are preselected tree species grouped to plant functional types predefined in the RESPECT project); NA means that no seedlings were found in the subplot plant ID: individual plant ID according to (morpho)species; NA means that no seedlings were found in the subplot working ID: id of seedling used repetitively in each subplot; NA means that no seedlings were found in the subplot after 4 months: presence (1) of seedling at the first census; NA means that seedling germinated later or never was recorded date of 1. check: date of the first census of seedling recruitment, date format: dd/mm/yyyy height1: seedling height measured at the first census [cm]; NA – no data available; n/a – no seedling was recorded comments I: additional information on seedling at the first census; n/a – no additional information after 8 months: presence (1) of seedling at the second census; 0 means that seedling was recorded at the previous census, but not survived till the second census; NA means that seedling germinated later or never was recorded date of 2. check: date of the second census of seedling recruitment, date format: dd/mm/yyyy height2: seedling height measured at the second census [cm]; NA – no data available; n/a – no seedling was recorded comments II: additional information on seedling at the second census; n/a – no additional information after 12 months: presence (1) of seedling at the third census; 0 means that seedling was recorded at the previous census, but not survived; NA means that seedling never was recorded date of 3. check: date of the third census of seedling recruitment, date format: dd/mm/yyyy height3: seedling height measured at the third census [cm]; NA – no data available; n/a – no seedling was recorded comment III: additional information on seedling at the third census; n/a – no additional information CANOPY_OPEN: canopy openness [0-100%] at the subplot level; NA – no data available CANOPY_CLO: canopy closure [0-100%]at the subplot level; NA – no data available LAI: leaf area index (LAI = leaf area / ground area, m2 / m2); NA – no data available SM1: soil moisture, volumetric water content in the soil [0-100%] during the dry season (October 2019) SM2: soil moisture, volumetric water content in the soil [0-100%] during the wet season (May 2020); NA – no data available height4MON: initial seedling height defined as the height of seedling [cm]; NA – no data available; n/a – no seedling was recorded DayInt1: time interval between the first and the second census measured in days DayInt2: time interval between the second and the third census measured in days DayIntFull: time interval between the first and the third census measured in days **METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION** See "Methods" section in the original publication for detailed information on data collection. See references for other datasets used for data analysis. Data on climatic conditions on plot level is included in "Supporting information".