Herbivory modifies the role of spatial processes in a grassland plant metacommunity
Data files
Nov 07, 2025 version files 173.07 KB
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README.md
6.71 KB
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vegetation_trait_data_aland
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whole_patch_vegetation_aland.csv
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Abstract
Trophic interactions can strongly influence metacommunity dynamics and patterns of biodiversity in spatially heterogeneous environments. Herbivory is predicted to facilitate plant species coexistence on small scales by reducing extinctions and promoting colonisations, but could lead to a reduction in the size of the regional species pool and homogenization at larger scales. We examined how mammalian herbivory interacts with habitat size and connectivity to affect plant diversity in a natural grassland metacommunity. We found that herbivory increased plant diversity across scales of measurement. In addition, herbivory reversed the diversity-area relationship such that there was a positive diversity-area relationship in grazed grasslands, but a negative relationship in ungrazed grasslands. Connectivity exhibited a unimodal relationship with diversity but did not interact with herbivory. Our results demonstrate that herbivores can promote plant coexistence across scales and highlight the interplay between habitat area and trophic interactions in facilitating plant biodiversity in grassland metacommunities.
Dryad DOI: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2bvq83c2p
This file describes the variables in the datasets that accompany:
Lena Huovinen, Marjo Saastamoinen, Jonathan M. Chase, Anna-Liisa Laine, Aleksi Räsänen and Anu Eskelinen
Herbivory modifies the role of spatial processes in a grassland plant metacommunity.
Ecology Letters.
dataset: vegetation_trait_data_aland.csv
Variable Description:
shannon: Shannon diversity H = - Σipilog1pi, where pi is the proportional abundance of species (Hurlbert 1971)
evenness: Evenness = H/log(richness) (Pielou 1966)
richness: species richness as the number of vascular plant species in each 1 m2 plot
patch_nr: grassland patch identifier
plot: plot replicate nr in each patch
herbivory: grazed, ungrazed
connect: Connectivity = Σ j≠i, di,j ≤r Aj * (r-di,j), where r = maximum dispersal distance, here defined as 1 km, di,j = the distance between sampled focal patch i and adjacent patch j. Aj equals the area of the adjacent patch.
near_dist: distance calculated from edge to edge of two adjacent patches, (m)
area: patch area (m2)
dispersal_distance: CWM dispersal potential, which is calculated as the relative abundance of the species (% cover) multiplied by the species’ dispersal potential (Lososova et al. 2023) and summed across species.
SLA: CWM of SLA (cm2 g-1), which is calculated as the relative abundance of the species (% cover) multiplied by the species´ SLA and summed across species.
tannin: CWM of foliar condensed tannin (mg g-1), which is calculated as the relative abundance of the species (% cover) multiplied by the species´ tannin and summed across species.
height: CWM of plant height (cm), which is calculated as the relative abundance of the species (% cover) multiplied by the species´ height and summed across species.
wue: CWM of water use efficiency (WUE, proportion of the isotopes 237 13C/12C compared to the VPDB standard), which is calculated as the relative abundance of the species (% cover) multiplied by the species´ WUE and summed across species.
cn: CWM of C:N (from C, N%), which is calculated as the relative abundance of the species (% cover) multiplied by the species´ C:N and summed across species.
dataset: whole_patch_vegetation_aland.csv
Variable Description
patch_nr: grassland patch identifier
richness: whole patch richness, the number of vascular plant species summed across the plots and transects within each patch
herbivory: grazed, ungrazed
area: patch area (m2)
connectivity: Connectivity = Σ j≠i, di,j ≤r Aj * (r-di,j), where r = maximum dispersal distance, here defined as 1 km, di,j = the distance between sampled focal patch i and adjacent patch j. Aj equals the area of the adjacent patch.
near_dist: distance calculated from edge to edge of two adjacent patches (m)
X: X coordinates in the EUREF-FIN ETRS-TM35FIN coordinate system. Please note that as these coordinates include sensitive information, we have obscured the last 4 digits of both y- and x-coordinates with the permission of the journal. The analyses run with these obscured coordinates will therefore likely give different results than those reported in the article, and are not correct.
Y: Y coordinates in the EUREF-FIN ETRS-TM35FIN coordinate system. Please note that as these coordinates include sensitive information, we have obscured the last 4 digits of both y- and x-coordinates with the permission of the journal. The analyses run with these obscured coordinates will therefore likely give different results than those reported in the article, and are not correct.
N: Total soil nitrogen (%) averaged per site from air-dried samples and analysed with the Flash Smart CHNS/O (Thermo Scientific).
Moisture: Soil moisture (VWC%; TDR 100, Spectrum Technologies, USA) averaged per site measured during plant community sampling
Artificial_surface_percent_1000m: percentage of land cover type Artificial Surface within 1000 m of the edge of the patch. Calculation based on 20 m spatial resolution CORINE Land Cover 2018 data from the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) (https://ckan.ymparisto.fi/dataset/corine-maanpeite-2018).
Artificial_surface_percent_100m: percentage of land cover type Artificial Surface within 100 m of the edge of the patch. Calculation based on 20 m spatial resolution CORINE Land Cover 2018 data from the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) (https://ckan.ymparisto.fi/dataset/corine-maanpeite-2018).
Arable_land_plantations_percent_1000m: percentage of land cover type Arable Lands within 1000 m of the edge of the patch. Calculation based on 20 m spatial resolution CORINE Land Cover 2018 data from the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) (https://ckan.ymparisto.fi/dataset/corine-maanpeite-2018).
Arable_land_plantations_percent_100m: percentage of land cover type Arable Lands within 100 m of the edge of the patch. Calculation based on 20 m spatial resolution CORINE Land Cover 2018 data from the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) (https://ckan.ymparisto.fi/dataset/corine-maanpeite-2018).
Forest_percent_1000m: percentage of land cover type Forest within 1000 m of the edge of the patch. Calculation based on 20 m spatial resolution CORINE Land Cover 2018 data from the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) (https://ckan.ymparisto.fi/dataset/corine-maanpeite-2018).
Forest_percent_100m: percentage of land cover type Forest within 100 m of the edge of the patch. Calculation based on 20 m spatial resolution CORINE Land Cover 2018 data from the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) (https://ckan.ymparisto.fi/dataset/corine-maanpeite-2018).
Water_percent_1000m: percentage of land cover type Water within 1000 m of the edge of the patch. Calculation based on 20 m spatial resolution CORINE Land Cover 2018 data from the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) (https://ckan.ymparisto.fi/dataset/corine-maanpeite-2018).
Water_percent_100m: percentage of land cover type Water within 100 m of the edge of the patch. Calculation based on 20 m spatial resolution CORINE Land Cover 2018 data from the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) (https://ckan.ymparisto.fi/dataset/corine-maanpeite-2018).