Water regime and nitrogen enrichment facilitate the encroachment of woody plants at various developmental stages in freshwater marshes

It is often presumed that the establishment of woody plants into grass-dominated freshwater marshes is influenced by environmental changes such as alterations in water regimes and nutrient availability. However, it has not been rigorously tested through empirical studies. We conducted a three-year common garden experiment in a freshwater marsh to investigate the separate and combined effects of water (flooded vs. drained) and nitrogen levels (ambient vs. added) on germination, seedling survival, growth of seven woody plant species, and their potential competitive interactions with the resident vegetation. Drainage in the first year significantly improved both seed germination and seedling survival of woody plants, and these survival benefits persisted over the following two years. The structural equation model revealed that drainage indirectly facilitated seedling survival by reducing light asymmetry. In contrast, continuous flooding over three years resulted in complete seedling mortal..., , , Our dataset have four files including \"Seed_germination\",\"Seedling_survival\",\"Seedling_growth\"and \"Survival_SEM\".

1. Explanation for the header in “Seed_germination”:
ID: the plot number in each block, eg plot1_2 means the second plot in the first block;
Block: the block in our experiment, total ten block, and each block has 28 plots.
Species: species of woody plants, which as random effect in all models;
Genus: genus of woody species;
Family: family of woody species
Sowing: the seed numbers that sowed in each plot;
Nutrient: nutrient availability treatment include two levels of \"High_N\" vs. \"Low_N\", which was specified as fixed-effect-independent variable in all modes;
Water: simulated herbivory treatmet including two levels of \"flooded\"vs. \"drained\", which was specified as fixed-effect-independent variable in all modes;
Survival20_07: Seed germination numbers in each plot, which was specified as response variable.
2. Explanation for the header in “Seed_surv...,