These data are public domain in accordance with the data archiving policies of DRYAD and the Journal of Ecology, but data authors would appreciate the courtesy of notification and consultation if the data are used in other studies. Full names and contact information for the authors are presented in the paper. DATA AUTHORS: CHM: Balvanera, Bhaskar, Mora, Paz, Pineda-García NIZ: Bongers, Lebrija-Trejos, Meave, Muñoz, Pérez-García, Romero-Pérez CHI: Kennard, Killeen KIU: Dupuy, Hernández-Stefanoni, Sanaphre-Villanueva GUA: Becknell, González-Jiménez, Powers, Quesada-Monge FES: Brancalion, César, Rodrigues, Viani CAR: Muscarella, Swenson, Uriarte FOD: Brancalion, César, Rodrigues, Viani BRA: Andrade, Bentos, Massoca, Mesquita, Laurance, Williamson PAN: Craven, Hall, Harms, van Breugel, Wright CHJ: Bongers, Hietz, Lohbeck, Martínez-Ramos, Schüller, Tauro, van Breugel LUQ: Muscarella, Swenson, Uriarte SAR: Boukili, Chazdon, D.A. Clark, D.B. Clark, DeFrancesco, Finegan, Letcher, Wendt, Vargas-Ramírez Links to data that were already published or archived elsewhere are given in the Data Accessibility section of the paper. "taxa.csv" is a text file containing the following variables: *name: "genus_species" *pri.abund: # individuals in old growth forest *sec.abund: # individuals in secondary forest *site: corresponding to site code in Table 1 of Letcher et al. 2015 *size: diameter threshold (cm; see text for details) *fam: family (APG III) *gen: genus (verified in TROPICOS) *sp: specific epithet (verified in TROPICOS) *auth: auctor *phyname: name in Phylomatic format *det.to.gen: binary variable indicating whether the individual is identified to genus, Y = yes