DOI: 10.5061/dryad.53130
title: Data from: Riparian plant guilds become simpler and most likely fewer following flow regulation

description: 1. River regulation affects riparian systems worldwide and conservation
 and restoration efforts are essential to retain biodiversity, and the
 functioning and services of riverine ecosystems. Effects of regulation on
 plant species richness have been widely addressed, but the filtering
 effect of regulation on guilds has received less attention. 2. We used a
 functional trait approach to identify adaptive plant strategies through
 regulation-tolerant traits and predict shifts of riparian vegetation
 communities in response to regulation. We analysed variation in functional
 diversity across gradients of hydrological alteration in northern Sweden
 in relation to modified timing and infrequent major floods, along with
 frequent short-term inundation. 3. Functional richness was similar in all
 study sites, but species richness declined with increasing intensity of
 regulation, and the species lost were largely functionally redundant (i.e.
 co-existing species that have similar contribution to an ecosystem
 function). Guilds of species intolerant to waterlogging were particularly
 unsuccessful in most regulated sites as they were affected by hydropower
 dams which replace major fluvial disturbances with frequent short
 inundation events. We predict that this guild will disappear, with likely
 consequences for the entire riverine ecosystem. 4. Synthesis and
 applications. We conclude that functional traits tolerant to waterlogging
 or submergence, and lack of major fluvial disturbances, were key to
 understanding our results. We suggest that the functional-trait approach
 can be integrated with knowledge of other ecosystem components to provide
 an understanding of ecosystem function that can be used to guide fluvial
 ecosystem management.03-May-2017
description: Initial_Dataset_veg213sitesInitial Dataset refers to the 213 sites that were initially available from the rivers in northern Sweden, with information on presence/absence of woody riparian species1_Initial_Dataset_veg213sites_CSV.csvFinal_Dataset_veg94sitesFinal Dataset refers to the 94 sites that were finally selected for the study, after grouping adjacent hydrologically similar sites. 94 selected final sites have information on presence/absence of woody riparian species2_Final_Dataset_veg94sites_CSV.csvInitial_Dataset_flow213sitesInitial Dataset refers to the 213 sites that were initially available from the rivers in northern Sweden, with information on long series of daily flows (recorded or modelled). See the README file for abbreviations of the hydrological variables3_Initial_Dataset_flow213sites_CSV.csvFinal_Dataset_flow94sitesFinal Dataset refers to the 94 sites that were finally selected for the study, after grouping adjacent hydrologically similar sites. 94 selected final sites have information on long series of daily flows (recorded or modelled). See README file for abbreviations of the hydrological variables4_Final_Dataset_flow94sites_CSV.csvTrait_Attributes_DatasetFirst column contains the 44 woody riparian species used in the study. Second column specifies the guild in which each species was included after analysis. Following columns correspond to the traits. See Table 2 in the main manuscript for further details on species names and Table S2.1 in Appendix S2 and Bejarano et al. 2016 for details on traits names, categories and units.5_Trait_Attributes_Dataset_CSV.csv