Readme file General Information Name of data set: Effects of landscape structure on restoration success in tropical premontane forest San-José et al. 2022 Name of data files in data set: Landscape_variables.csv – landscape structure data measured in 17 radii surrounding 13 restoration sites with tree plantation treatment Birds_database.csv – mean number of detections per year, over 7 years of highly forest dependent birds in 12 restoration sites with tree plantation treatment Recruits_database.csv –abundance (sum of new individuals) over 7 years of seedlings of late-successional species in 13 restoration sites with tree plantation treatment Funder: National Science Foundation NSF-DEB 14-56520 How to cite data: San José et al. (2022), Effects of landscape structure on restoration success in tropical premontane forest. Scientific Reports 12: 13452 Data Collection Description of data collected: Includes yearly surveys of tree recruitment (abundance of new individuals) and annual average detections of birds in tree plantations. Tree species’ successional stage was determined based on the expert opinion of two taxonomists who have each worked in the region for >20 years, herbarium specimens at Las Cruces, and literature resources (Chazdon et al. 2011 A novel statistical method for classifying habitat generalists and specialists. Ecology 92, 1332–1343. De Souza 2001 Seed size, seed germination, and seedling survival of Brazilian tropical tree species differing in successional status. Biotropica 33, 447–457. Werden et al. 2020 Effects of dispersal- and niche-based factors on tree recruitment in tropical wet forest restoration. Ecol. Appl. 30, e02139). From all bird detections recorded, we extracted observations of species categorized as highly forest-dependent by BirdLife International (Buchanan et al. 2011 Identifying priority areas for conservation: a global assessment for forest-dependent birds. PLoS ONE 6, e29080) Full data-collection methodology can be found in: Reid, J. L., Mendenhall, C. D., Rosales, J. A., Zahawi, R. A. & Holl, K. D. Landscape context mediates avian habitat choice in tropical forest restoration. PLoS ONE 9, e90573 (2014). Holl, K. D., Reid, J. L., Chaves-Fallas, J. M., Oviedo-Brenes, F. & Zahawi, R. A. Local tropical forest restoration strategies affect tree recruitment more strongly than does landscape forest cover. J. Appl. Ecol. 54, 1091–1099 (2017). Data collected by: Juan Abel Rosales, Federico Oviedo?Brenes, Miguel Chavez, Rebecca Cole, Leighton Reid, Rakan Zahawi, Karen Holl, undergraduate students, and field assistants Date of data collection: Tree recruitment data collected annually in June-July from 2011-2017. Bird data collected three times per year from 2011-2017. Landscape structure data measured from aerial images from 2014. Data collected near Agua Buena, Puntarenas, Costa Rica at 13 restoration sites separated by a minimum of 800 m. Each site contained a 0.25-ha2 tree plantation restoration plot. For more information see the Islas Project website (http://www.holl-lab.com/islas-project.html) or Holl, K. D., et al. (2020). "Applied nucleation facilitates tropical forest recovery: Lessons learned from a 15-year study." Journal of Applied Ecology 57:2316-2328 Person to contact with questions: Miriam San José – sanjosemiriam@gmail.com Data entry Software (including version #) used to prepare data set: Excel (Microsoft Office 2016), R v.4.0.3, FRAGSTATS v4.2, QGIS v.3.10.12 Data processing that was performed: Spatial analysis of previously tree cover classified images by Mendenhall et al. 2016 Quantifying and sustaining biodiversity in tropical agricultural landscapes. PNAS 113, 14544–14551. Following a combination of several authors’ criteria (i.e. Arroyo-Rodríguez et al. 2020 Designing optimal human-modifed landscapes for forest biodiversity conservation. Ecol. Lett. 23, 1404–1420. Leal-Ramos et al. 2020 Forest and connectivity loss drive changes in movement behavior of bird species. Ecography 43, 1203–1214. Galán-Acedo et al. 2018 Drivers of the spatial scale that best predict primate responses to landscape structure. Ecography 41, 2027–2037. Pardini et al. 2005 The role of forest structure, fragment size and corridors in maintaining small mammal abundance and diversity in an Atlantic forest landscape. Biol. Cons. 124, 253–266) and personal field observations, we classified all tree cover elements in the landscapes according to their area (A), perimeter (P), and compactness (SI), where the compactness ratio of the polygons was calculated using the shape index formula SI=P/2?A?. A criterion to distinguish live-fences, remnant trees, fragments, and corridors was to assign threshold shape index values according to the minimal observed values for well detected live-fences (n=45) and corridors (n=15) within the study region. Categories include: (1) patches— A?0.25 ha, SI<2 and wider than 40 m; (2) corridors—A>0.25 ha and SI>2; (3) remnant trees—A<0.25 ha and SI<1.6; and (4) live-fences – A<0.25 ha and SI>1.6. Response variables – Additive species richness of birds and tree recruits from 2011-2017. Mean annual abundance of tree recruits and mean annual detections of birds. Person to contact with questions: Miriam San José – landscape structure data – sanjosemiriam@gmail.com Leighton Reid – bird data - jlreid@vt.edu Karen D. Holl – tree recruit data - kholl@ucsc.edu Variables List of variables – Landscape_variables.csv Site = Two letter identifier of the 13 restored forest sites used in the study. These acronyms are mostly based on the original landowner names: AC = Alexis Campos BB = Bambu EC = El Cenizo JG = Julio Gonzalez GN = Generoso HB = Heriberto LL = Loma Linda MM = Melissa's Meadow OM = Omar RS = Reserve SC = Scott SG = San Gabriel SP = Sparks coord_x = Longitudinal location (m) of the center of each tree plantation plot (WSG86/UTM zone 17 N) coord_y = Latitudinal location (m) of the center of each tree plantation plot (WSG86/UTM zone 17 N) All following columns are the landscape variables measured at 17 buffer radii (20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 m). The number associated with each variable indicates the buffer size at which the variable was obtained. FC = Percentage of tree cover in the landscape area surrounding the plantation plot. Tree cover included old-growth and secondary forest fragments of all sizes, single or groups of remnant trees, live-fences, hedgerows, as well as non-native timber and fruit tree plantations. Tree cover represents any source of fruits and seeds within the landscape. LF = Percentage of tree cover in the landscape area surrounding the plantation plot located in live fences. CO = Percentage of tree cover in the landscape area surrounding the plantation plot located in corridors (riparian and non-riparian). PD = Patch Density or number of patches (i.e. tree cover polygons >0.25 ha) per 100 ha. RD = Remnant Density or number of isolated trees (i.e. tree cover polygons <0.25 ha) per 100 ha. LPI = Largest Patch Index of forest patches. The largest patch index represents the percentage of the landscape comprised by the largest patch which can provide important habitat for forest-dependent birds and late-successional trees. ENN = Euclidean Nearest Neighbor distance (meters) among forest patches (i.e. tree cover polygons >0.25 ha). This is the Euclidean or straight-line (edge-to-edge) distance among all forest patches in the landscape and it is a simple measure of patch context and has been used extensively to quantify degree of landscape isolation and act as a proxy for structural connectivity at the landscape scale. AI = Aggregation Index of forest patches (i.e. tree cover polygons >0.25 ha). The patch aggregation index is a percentage of like-adjacencies (nearness of the same land cover) among forest patches, where a single compact patch has a maximum aggregation. NV = no value, value couldn’t be calculated at that buffer distance List of variables – Birds_database.csv Species = genus and species of highly forest dependent birds detected in the 0.25-ha tree plantation sites. The following columns correspond to the two letter identifier of the 13 restored tree plantations sites used in the study (see List of variables – Landscape_variables.csv above) and the average number of detections during per year (totaled from 3, 20-min visits) from 2011-2017 for each species. List of variables – Recruits_database.csv Species = first three letters of genus and specific epithet of tree recruits (i.e. GEN_SPE) Family = family of tree recruit Genus = genus of tree recruit Specific.Epithet = specific epithet of tree recruits The following columns correspond to the two letter identifier of the 13 restored tree plantations sites used in the study (see above List of variables – Landscape_variables.csv, Site). Each column contains the sum of the number of new individuals for each species recorded in the period 2011-2017 using methods explained in Holl et al. 2017. "Local tropical forest restoration strategies affect tree recruitment more strongly than does landscape forest cover." Journal of Applied Ecology 54: 1091-1099.