Mean Traits Data Compiled for Tree Taxa from BIEN Database for HJA, HFR, BCI, CWT, LUQ, and NWT

Patterns of biodiversity, such as the increase toward the tropics and the peaked curve during ecological succession, are fundamental phenomena for ecology. Such patterns have multiple, interacting causes, but temperature emerges as a dominant factor across organisms from microbes to trees and mammals, and across terrestrial, marine, and freshwater environments. However, there is little consensus on the underlying mechanisms, even as global temperatures increase and the need to predict their effects becomes more pressing. The purpose of this project is to generate and test theory for how temperature impacts biodiversity through its effect on biochemical processes and metabolic rate. A combination of standardized surveys in the field and controlled experiments in the field and laboratory measure diversity of three taxa -- trees, invertebrates, and microbes -- and key biogeochemical processes of decomposition in seven forests distributed along a geographic gradient of increasing temperature from cold temperate to warm tropical. This dataset contains list of all tree taxa from all experimental sites at HJA, HFR, BCI, CWT, LUQ, and NWT was compiled and traits for each were downloaded from BIEN database. Averages for each BIEN trait were calculated using R code below at the family, genus, and species taxonomic level. The "best" average (to the finest taxonomic resolution) was then used. Traits included isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen, plant height, leaf area, leaf carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations, seed mass, specific leaf area, and wood density. This was done by the Enquist Lab (PI, Brian Enquist) from the University of Arizona to measure annual tree growth as part of a macrosystems biodiversity and latitude project supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement DEB#1065836.