Data from: Trade-offs among restored ecosystem functions are context-dependent in Mediterranean-type regions
Data files
Mar 27, 2025 version files 167.54 MB
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README.md
1.55 KB
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Simulation_Data_FunctionsTraits.RData
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Simulation_Data_PFTBiomass.RData
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Abstract
Global biodiversity hotspots, including Mediterranean-type ecosystems worldwide, are highly threatened by global change that alters biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and services. Some restoration activities enhance ecosystem functions by reintroducing plant species based on known relationships between plant traits and ecosystem processes. Achieving multiple functions across different site conditions, however, requires understanding how abiotic factors like climate and soil, along with plant assemblages, influence ecosystem functions, including their trade-offs and synergies. We used the ModEST ecosystem simulation model, which integrates carbon, water, and nutrient processes with plant traits, to assess the relationships between restored plant assemblages and ecosystem functions in Mediterranean-type climates and soils. We investigated whether maximised carbon increment, water use efficiency, and nitrogen use efficiency, along with their trade-offs and synergies, varied across different abiotic contexts. Further, we asked whether assemblages that maximised functions varied across environments and among these functions. We found that maximised ecosystem carbon increment and nitrogen use efficiency occurred under moist, warm conditions, while water use efficiency peaked under drier conditions. Generally, the assemblage that maximised one function differed from those for other maximised functions. Synergies were rare, except between water and nitrogen use efficiencies in loam soils across most climates. Trade-offs among maximised functions were common, varying in strength with abiotic context and plant assemblages, and were more pronounced in sandy loam soils compared to clay-rich soils. Our findings suggest that due to variation in abiotic conditions within and across Mediterranean-type regions at the global scale, site-specific plant assemblages are required to maximise ecosystem functions. Thus, lessons from a single site cannot be transferred to another site, even where the same plant functional types are available for restoration. Our simulation results offer valuable insights into potential ecosystem performance under specific abiotic conditions following restoration with particular plant functional types, thereby informing local restoration efforts.
The dataset includes species lists and trait data (Species List.txt), simulated data from the ModEST model (Simulation Data_FunctionsTraits.RData, Simulation Data_PFTBiomass.RData), and R scripts for data evaluation (Fig-4.R, Fig-5.R, Fig-6.R). Details on the simulated data and its evaluation can be found in the main text.
The simulated data header meanings are:
- PFTs: Restoration scenario
- MAP: Mean annual precipitation (mm)
- MAT: Mean annual temperature (°C)
- LAT: Solar radiation (1/deg)
- ST: Soil texture
- EWU: Water-use efficiency (g L⁻¹ year⁻¹)
- ENU: Nitrogen-use efficiency (kg NPP m⁻² g N⁻¹ m⁻³)
- ECI: Ecosystem carbon increment (t ha⁻¹ year⁻¹)
- CNleaf: Carbon to nitrogen ratio of the leaves (-)
- kStore: Constant for maximum N storage differing between deciduuous and evergreen species (-)
- maxCA: Maximum possible crown area (m²)
- SLA: Specific leaf area (m² kg⁻¹)
- WD: Wood density (kgC m⁻³)
- rootsL2: Fraction of roots between 0-50cm of the soil horizon (-)
- PFT: Plant functional type
- Biomass [kg/m²]: Biomass (kg m⁻²)
For the species list data header, refer to Table S3 in the Supplementary. “Original” refers to the aggregated data from databases in Table S3, and “imputed” data is gap-filled as described in the Supplementary section “Identification and Parameterisation of Plant Functional Types.”