Dataset: Selecting tree species to restore forest under climate change conditions: complementing species distribution models with field experimentation

This repository contains the files associated with the following article:

Jesús Sandoval-Martínez, Ernesto I. Badano, Francisco A. Guerra-Coss, Jorge A. Flores Cano, Joel Flores, Sandra Milena Gelviz-Gelvez, Felipe Barragán-Torres, “Selecting tree species to restore forest under climate change conditions: complementing species distribution models with field experimentation”, submitted to Journal of Environmental Management.

Supplementary material 01 is a compressed file that contains two Microsoft Excel files with data that support the results of the study. A file correspond to Vachellia pennatula and the another file correspond to Prosopis laevigata. In both files, the first spreadsheet shows the occurrence data (latitude and longitude) used to calibrate the distribution model (SDM) of the corresponding species, the current values of the 19 bioclimatic variables associated with these coordinates and the Spearman correlation coefficients used to select the variables included in the SDM (selected variables are indicated in green). The second spreadsheet shows the current habitat occupancy probabilities of the target species estimated with the SDM at the geographic coordinates of occurrence points, while the table on the side shows the fraction of true presences dropping at the following probability categories: (1) habitat occupancy probabilities below 0.1 = unsuitable spatial units for the species, (2) habitat occupancy probabilities between 0.1 and 0.4 = barely suitable spatial units for the species, (3) habitat occupancy probabilities between 0.4 and 0.7 = moderately suitable spatial units for the species, and (4) habitat occupancy probabilities above 0.7 = highly suitable spatial units for the species. The third spreadsheet shows the one-thousand random geographic coordinates and the corresponding current and future habitat occupancy probabilities of each species. Future habitat occupancy probabilities are provided for three time periods (2041-2060, 2061-2080 and 2081-2100) at four radiative forcing levels each (2.6, 4.5, 7.0 and 8.5 W/m2).

Supplementary material 02 is a compressed file that contains a folder for Vachellia pennatula and another folder for Prosopis laevigata. Each of these folders contains the summaries of the MaxEnt outputs that support the results of the corresponding SDM.

Supplementary material 03 is a compressed Keyhole Markup Language file (KMZ) that contains interactive maps that are optimized for the desktop version of Google Earth. To accelerate visualization of maps, we recommend installing this software in a computer meeting the following requirements: CPU Intel Core i5 9th generation or higher, CPU clock speed 1.8 GHz or higher, random-access memory (RAM) 8 GB or higher, and video random access memory (VRAM) 1 GB or higher. Otherwise, opening this file may take several minutes. These maps are organized in a folder for Vachellia pennatula and another folder for Prosopis laevigata, which must be expanded for accessing the following information (click on the arrow on the left of folders to expand them):

Current climate – Activating this folder (click the fox on the left of the folder) display the map of habitat occupancy probabilities of species across Mexico under the current climate.

Period 2041-2060, 2061-2080  and 2081-2100 – Expanding each of these folders (click on the arrow on the left of folders) shows four subfolders that correspond to different radiative forcing levels (2.6, 4.5, 7.0 and 8.5 W/m2). Activating each of these sub folders (click the fox on the left of subfolders) display the map of habitat occupancy probabilities of species across Mexico expected on the corresponding time period and radiative forcing level. These maps also show the areas classified as climatically unsuitable in the multivariate environmental similarity surface (MESS) analysis. Clicking on the names of subfolders displays a figure showing the relationship between current and future habitat occupancy probabilities of the species on the corresponding time period and radiative forcing level. In these figures, the red line is the empirical relationship between these variables and the solid blue line is the theoretical relationship with intercept = 0 and slope = 1. The statistical results that support these relationships are also shown in these figures.

Supplementary material 04 is a compressed file that contains two Microsoft Excel files with data that support the results of the study. the file labeled as “Microclimate data” contains two spreadsheets, which correspond to the temperature and rainfall values measured in controls under the current climate and climate change simulation plots located of the field experiments. The file levelled as “Seedling emergence and survival” contains a spreadsheet for Vachellia pennatula and another one for Prosopis laevigata, which contains the data used to estimate the seedling emergence and survival rates in controls and climate change simulation plots.