Data for Romera et al. 2024 (Ecological succession shapes size–density scaling relationships of trees and soil invertebrates)

The phenomenon of a negative relationship between body mass and abundance is a universal property observed across virtually all organisms and ecosystems. Yet, we still do not understand what causes the wide range in variability observed in the slope of this mass–abundance relationship, despite the expectation of a negative ¾ power scaling exponent according to the metabolic theory of ecology. Here we argue that deviations from the expected –¾ power exponent arise from varying stages of ecological succession following disturbances. We further investigate how differences in fundamental life history traits of organisms (by comparing communities of soil invertebrate and trees) determine reassembly processes of organisms that give rise to observed variations in the body size structure of regenerating ecosystems. Our results highlight the fundamental influence of ecosystem succession by demonstrating that, despite notable differences between trees and soil invertebrates, mass–abundance scaling exponents generally flatten over time due to the increased relative dominance of large–bodied organisms.