Coordination of bark and wood traits underlies forest-to-savanna evolutionary transitions

Aim:
To test the hypothesis that adaptive shifts leading to the assembly of tropical savannas involved coordination between bark and wood traits, and to understand the underlying mechanisms.
Location: Tropical South America.
Taxon: Angiosperms (woody).
Methods:
We compiled data on three bark traits (total, inner, and outer relative bark thickness), wood density, maximum height, five secondary xylem traits, and on species’ habitat information (light environment, climate, soil, and fire history) for Neotropical savanna, forest, and generalist species (biome groups). We tested for pairwise and multivariate associations among traits across species, and if biome group and habitat conditions explained species positions along the resulting strategy axes.
Results:
Traits covaried along four different axes. The first axis was consistent with a trade-off between fire (thick barks) and shade tolerance (low bark to diameter ratio, high vessel density) and contributed to differentiate the three biom..., This dataset was compiled from 83 published studies conducted in the following tropical South America biomes: moist forest, dry forest and savannas (including flooded savannas). We compiled data on bark thickness divided by stem diameter (i.e., relative bark thickness; relBT), discriminating between the inner (relIBT) and the outer parts (relOBT), vessel diameter (VDi; i.e. vessel lumen diameter, excluding the walls), vessel density (VDe; i.e., quantity of vessels per millimetre square), intervessel pit diameter (IPD; i.e., the size of pits that link the vessels horizontally), vessel element length (VEL), fiber wall thickness (FWT), wood density (WD) and maximum tree height (HMax). We classified species as savanna (s), forest (f), and generalist (g) species (biome groups). The dataset includes both individual and species level information, depending on how the data were reported in the literature studies. Literature sources can be found in the published article.
We also searched the Glo..., , # Data from: Coordination of bark and wood traits underlies forest-to-savanna evolutionary transitions

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1ns1rn92j](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1ns1rn92j)

This dataset includes functional trait data compiled from 83 published studies conducted in the following tropical South America biomes: moist forest, dry forest and savannas (including flooded savannas). The traits included are bark thickness divided by stem diameter (i.e., relative bark thickness; relBT), discriminating between the inner (relIBT) and the outer parts (relOBT), vessel diameter (VDi; i.e. vessel lumen diameter, excluding the walls), vessel density (VDe; i.e., quantity of vessels per millimetre square), intervessel pit diameter (IPD; i.e., the size of pits that link the vessels horizontally), vessel element length (VEL), fiber wall thickness (FWT), wood density (WD) and maximum tree height (HMax). We classified species as savanna (s), forest (f), and generalist (g) species (biome groups)...