Data from: Community-level trait variation of epiphytic bryophytes supports trade-off aligned with leaf-economic spectrum in vertically stratified tropical montane cloud forest canopies

Tropical montane cloud forests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on
Earth, and are vulnerable to climate change due to reliance on atmospheric
moisture. Epiphytic bryophytes (i.e., mosses, liverworts, hornworts)
dominate these ecosystems and drive important ecosystem processes, yet
their underlying strategies of resource use and functional structure
within the canopy are not well understood. Community-level functional
trait analyses along environmental gradients are valuable for
understanding patterns of plant resource use in ecosystems. Along
environmental gradients, intraspecific trait variation may obscure or
drive patterns of functional structure but has often been overlooked. We
examined bryophyte community functional structure among three vertically
stratified zones in a Caribbean slope tropical montane cloud forest near
Monteverde, Costa Rica. We tested how morphological and water-related
traits associated with bryophyte economic spectra differ among vertical
zones within cloud forest trees and determined the relative importance of
intraspecific variation in shaping this structure. Functional structure
differed significantly among zones and is suggestive of an economic
trade-off whereby structural investment toward water holding capacity for
species in the canopy comes at the cost of photosynthetic capacity, and
vice versa on the trunk and base. Patterns of functional structure were
mostly due to species turnover rather than intraspecific trait variation,
which was supported by clear shifts in community composition among zones,
and by species with high fidelity to specific zones. We found 171
bryophyte species (50 mosses, 120 liverworts, 1 hornwort), including 9 new
species for Costa Rica, and 4 new for Central America. Our results suggest
that these extremely diverse epiphytic bryophyte communities exhibit
acquisition-conservation trade-offs in resource use like those known in
vascular plants.