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Dryad

Data from: Succession and seasonality drive tropical butterfly assembly after an extreme hurricane

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Mar 08, 2024 version files 17.91 KB

Abstract

We monitored butterfly communities in two Puerto Rican forests differing in structure to assess butterfly diversity, abundances, and community-level wing traits (size and color) over one year, beginning six months after Hurricane Maria. This dataset includes monthly species counts (abundances), species mean wing trait values, and site level characteristics including abiotic (temperature, humidity, canopy openness) and derived community-weighted mean metrics (i.e., functional diversity, and community-weighted mean trait values). Monthly sampling revealed no significant relationships between abundances and canopy openness or humidity; instead, species abundances fluctuated seasonally and were non-linearly correlated with temperature. In contrast, wing size and color were linearly correlated with changes in abiotic conditions, indicating that the hurricane differentially impacted larger-sized and functionally rare species. Specifically, wings were larger in cooler and more open conditions. Wing saturation was positively correlated with lower temperatures and negatively correlated with humidity. Our results suggest that, first, a functional approach may provide better insight into the factors mediating species responses to disturbances and, second, disentangling abundance seasonality from successional processes necessitates long-term monitoring.