DOI: 10.5061/dryad.sf7m0cgkd
title: Data from: Demographic rate directional change and its determinants reveal how plant species win in a patchy landscape with frequent droughts

description: Relative growth rate (RGR) has been a core demographic performance trait
 in community ecology because its species-specific divergent responses to
 light often determine community structure and dynamics. Nevertheless, how
 divergent responses of plant species in RGR to water stress govern
 community assembly, alongside the mechanistic basis of inter- and
 intra-specific variations in functional traits, remains elusive. We
 propose a theoretical framework for describing how directional change of
 RGR across dry and wet patches drives community assembly in a landscape
 with frequent droughts. The framework was applied to a subtropical
 understory shrub community where rock fragment content, an important proxy
 for water stress, shows strong spatial variability. Our empirical evidence
 demonstrated that RGR directional change (RGRdir change) was more robust
 than RGR in wet patches, RGR in dry patches, and the mean RGR in
 predicting species’ dominance hierarchy. Intraspecific variation in
 functional traits contributed equally to interspecific variation in
 mediating shifts in species’ RGRdir change. Species with increasing RGR as
 substrate water availability decreased were dominant (with higher relative
 abundance and importance). Dominant species generally had acquisitive
 roots and hydraulically safe stems. In response to decreasing substrate
 water availability, dominant species further increased their leaf drought
 tolerance and optimized root specific length, which not only contributed
 to their faster radial stem growth but also likely to their release from
 light competition. Our results highlight the roles of RGR directional
 change across contrasting water-stress situations in driving community
 assembly in patchy landscapes with frequent droughts and may improve our
 understanding of how global climate change-related droughts shape plant
 community assembly.
description: # Data from: Demographic rate directional change and its determinants
 reveal how plant species win in a patchy landscape with frequent droughts
 Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.sf7m0cgkd](10.5061/dryad.sf7m0cgkd) ##
 Description of the data and file structure Demographic rate directional
 change and its determinants reveal how plant species win in a patchy
 landscape with frequent droughts This is the dataset of “Demographic rate
 directional change and its determinants reveal how plant species win in a
 patchy landscape with frequent droughts” (FE-2024-01375.R2), which has
 accepted by *Functional Ecology*. ### Files and variables #### File:
 FE-2024-01375.R2.xlsx **Description:** The sheet 'trait data':
 contains the values of 11 functional traits for 15 target tree species in
 the planting experiment; the sheet 'dir change data': contains
 the plasticity values (with positive/negative signs) of the 11 functional
 traits for the target tree species; the sheets 'Growth experiment RGR
 data' and 'field RGR data': contain the relative growth
 rate data for the 15 target tree species (from the growth experiment) and
 11 target tree species (from the field experiment) under different
 environmental conditions, respectively; the sheet 'community
 parameter data': contains the and relative abundance data and
 relative importance value for the 15 target tree species across 17 sample
 plots. The ‘n/a’ indicates that data of species was non-existent. #####
 Variables * The abbreviations of the traits studied and their unit can be
 seen below: Leaf N, the trait value (%) or dir change (/) of total
 nitrogen concentration in leaf A, the trait value (μmol m-2 s-1) or dir
 change (/) instantaneous photosynthetic rate SLA, the trait value (cm2
 g-1) or dir change (/) in specific leaf area WD, the trait value (g cm-3)
 or dir change (/) in wood density Hv, the trait value (cm2 m-2) or dir
 change (/) in Huber value TLP, the trait value (MPa) or dir change (/) in
 turgor loss point FTP, the trait value (MPa) or dir change (/) in osmotic
 potential at full turgor SWC, the trait value (%) or dir change (/) in
 stem saturated water content RD, the trait value (mm) or dir change in
 diameter of first order root SRL, the trait value (m g-1) or dir change in
 root specific length RTD, the trait value (g cm-3) or dir change in root
 tissue density RGRwet patch, the relative growth rate in the wet patches
 (mm mm-1 year-1) RGRdry patch, the relative growth rate in the dry patches
 (mm mm-1 year-1) RGRmean, the mean relative growth rate across patches (mm
 mm-1 year-1) RGRdir change, the dir change of relative growth rate across
 patches (/) SE1, SE2, SE3, …. were the standard errors Relative abundance,
 the relative abundance value of each species across 17 plots (%) Relative
 importance value, the relative importance value of each species across 17
 plots (%) ## Code/software No code or scripts are included with our
 submission. ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of
 the data: * n/a Data was derived from the following sources: * n/a