DOI: 10.5061/dryad.98sf7m0n3
title: Data and code for: Functional traits mediate individualistic species-environment distributions at broad spatial scales while fine-scale species’ associations remain unpredictable

description: Ecological communities are structured by a diverse set of processes acting
 at different spatial scales. In plant communities, assembly processes like
 ecological sorting, limiting similarity, and stochastic events are all
 expected to influence plant distributions and co-occurrence patterns. We
 assembled a data set describing the distribution of 139 herbaceous plant
 species within and among 257 forest stands in Wisconsin (USA) to elucidate
 the spatial scales at which these assembly processes operate. Analyses of
 these data in conjunction with detailed information about environmental
 conditions, plant functional traits, and phylogenetic relationships
 provided new insights into the scale-dependent drivers of plant community
 assembly in temperate forest understories. Traits like leaf height,
 specific leaf area, and seed mass all influenced individualistic plant
 distributions along landscape-scale gradients in soil texture, soil
 fertility, light availability, and climate while phylogenetic
 relationships did not predict species-environment relationships. These
 findings point to the importance of trait-mediated ecological sorting in
 shaping individualistic plant distributions at broad spatial scales.
 Contrary to our expectations about the importance of limiting similarity
 at local scales, neither functionally similar nor phylogenetically related
 herbs segregated among microsites within forest stands. We hypothesize
 strong ecological sorting among forest stands coupled with stochastic
 fine-scale interactions among species appear deterministic, niche-based
 assembly processes at local scales.
description: Vegetation surveys and measures of soil fertility, soil texture,
 and tree basal area were collected following the protocols outlined in
 Waller et al. (2012). Climate data were obtained following the protocols
 outlined in Beck et al. (2022). Species functional trait means were
 obtained from the database and protocols described in Waller et al.
 (2022). The phylogeny used in the analysis was obtained following the
 procedures described in Spalink et al. (2018). All data were proofed and
 verified for accuracy. References: Beck, J. J., D. Li, S. E. Johnson, D. A. Rogers, K. M. Cameron, K. J. Sytsma, T. J. Givnish, and D. M. Waller. <em>In press</em>. Functional traits mediate individualistic species-environment distributions at broad spatial scales while fine-scale species’ associations remain unpredictable. American Journal of Botany. Spalink, D., R. Kriebel, P. Li, M. C. Pace, B. T. Drew, J. G. Zaborsky, J. Rose, C. P. Drummond, M. A. Feist, W. S. Alverson, D. M. Waller, K. M. Cameron, T. J. Givnish, and K. J. Sytsma. 2018. Spatial phylogenetics reveals evolutionary constraints on the assembly of a large regional flora. American Journal of Botany 105:1938–1950. Waller, D. M., K. Amatangelo, S. Johnson, and D. Rogers. 2012. Wisconsin Vegetation Database – plant community survey and resurvey data from the Wisconsin Plant Ecology Laboratory. Biodiversity & Ecology 4:255–264. Waller, D. M., A. K. Paulson, J. H. Richards, W. S. Alverson, K. L. Amatangelo, C. Bai, S. E. Johnson, D. Li, G. Sonnier, and R. H. Toczydlowski. 2022. Functional trait data for vascular plant species from northeastern North America. Ecology 103:e03527.
description: Species distribution data as well as environmental and trait data
 are saved in .csv files. The phylogeny is saved in a .tre file. Code
 provided in R script (.R) file. The script uses functions from a handful
 of open-source packages readily available through CRAN. Analyses require
 the 'phyr' package (version 1.0.3):
 https://github.com/daijiang/phyr