DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17405006
title: Tree elevational range shift distances and directions in the 20-ha Dinghushan Forest Dynamics Plot (2005–2020)

description: This dataset documents species-specific elevational range shifts in a subtropical forest. The data originate from the 20-ha Dinghushan (DHS) permanent forest plot, established in 2005 in southern China. All woody stems with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 1 cm were tagged, measured, and mapped during four full censuses conducted in 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 (Shen et al., 2013; Ni et al., 2021). The plot (400 × 500 m) is divided into 500 subplots (20 × 20 m each), with elevation ranging from 230 m to 470 m above sea level and measured at the southwest corner of each subplot (Li et al., 2009). Individual-level elevations were interpolated using the Universal Kriging method (function krige, R package gstat) (Pebesma, 2004).

 

Tree elevational range shifts distance

To quantify tree elevational range shifts, we calculated changes in three range indicators for 74 species between 2005 and 2020: mean elevation (elevational centroid), the 5th percentile of individual tree elevations (lower limit), and the 95th percentile of individual tree elevations (upper limit). Individuals of the 74 focal species accounted for 94.6% of all stems in the fourth census.

 

Tree elevational range shifts direction

To assess whether the observed changes represented significant trends, a bootstrap procedure was implemented (10,000 iterations) for each indicator (Goodwin et al., 2025). In Step 1, individuals of each species were divided into three subsets according to their status in the first (2005) and the last (2020) censuses: (i) individuals that survived throughout the census interval (subset 1), (ii) individuals that were alive in the first census but died during the interval (subset 2), and (iii) newly recruited individuals that were alive in the last census but absent from the first census (subset 3). In Step 2, random sampling with replacement was performed within each subset, with the sample size equal to the size of the corresponding subset. In Step 3, the resampled data from subset 1 and subset 2 were merged to generate combined sample A (representing the distribution in the first census), and subset 1 and subset 3 were merged to generate combined sample B (representing the distribution in the last census). For each combined sample, the centroid, the 5th percentile (lower limit), and the 95th percentile (upper limit) were calculated. The differences between combined sample B and combined sample A were then computed, representing the elevational shifts in centroid, lower limit, and upper limit between the first and last censuses. In Step 4, Steps 2 and 3 were repeated 10,000 times to generate distributions of the differences mentioned above. We then estimated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and variances of these distributions. For each species, 95% CIs entirely above or below zero indicated significant upward or downward shifts, respectively, whereas CIs including zero indicated no significant shift between censuses.

 

 

Reference

Goodwin, K. J. A., Chardon, N. I., Pradhan, K., Hille Ris Lambers, J., & Angert, A. L. (2025). Lagged climate-driven range shifts at species' leading, but not trailing, range edges revealed by multispecies seed addition experiment. Ecography, e07331. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.07331 

Li, L., Huang, Z., Ye, W., Cao, H., Wei, S., Wang, Z., Lian, J., Sun, I.-F., Ma, K., & He, F. (2009). Spatial distributions of tree species in a subtropical forest of China. Oikos, 118(4), 495-502. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2009.16753.x 

Ni, Y., Wang, T., Cao, H., Li, Y., Bin, Y., Zhang, R., Wang, Y., Lian, J., & Ye, W. (2021). An old-growth subtropical evergreen broadleaved forest suffered more damage from Typhoon Mangkhut than an adjacent secondary forest. Forest Ecology and Management, 496, 119433. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119433 

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Shen, Y., Santiago, L. S., Ma, L., Lin, G.-J., Lian, J.-Y., Cao, H.-L., & Ye, W.-H. (2013). Forest dynamics of a subtropical monsoon forest in Dinghushan, China: recruitment, mortality and the pace of community change. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 29(2), 131-145. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266467413000059