Reconsidering warming effects on seedling recruitment in Tibetan plateau's alpine meadows via Open-Top chamber experiments

Open-Top Chambers (OTCs), widely used as field warming facilities, not only generate warming effects but also reduce water availability through rain interception effect. While OTCs are extensively applied to explore the effects of warming on seedling recruitment which act as a fundamental driver of population dynamics, the potential experimental biases introduced by the rain interception effect remains largely unexplored. This knowledge gap raises concerns about the interpretation of warming experiments using OTC facilities. We conducted warming experiments in alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau using OTCs. Three treatments were applied: control (no OTC), warming alone (W, +2 °C without OTC precipitation interception), and warming with decreased precipitation (WDP, +2 °C with OTC precipitation interception). Focusing on 50 plant species across various functional groups, we disentangled the independent effects of warming and decreased precipitation caused by OTC interception on seedlin..., Seedling emergence monitoring
Seedling recruitment was monitored from March 2022 until October 2022 in all experimental plots. Seedling emergence was recorded every two days, with time of seedling exposure to the soil surface defined as the initial emergence time. Each emergent seedling was labeled with a colored label and inserted into the soil beside the seedling. Different colored labels were used each month to allow seedling survival to be monitored. Seedlings began to appear in May and continued to emerge until July, with very few emergences afterward. We recorded the seedling mortality rate each month. Additionally, we calculated the seedling emergence rate, mean emergence time , emergence index, survival rate, and establishment rate.
Seedling growth trait measurements
Seedlings were manually thinned out three months after the first emergence. Five healthy, pest- and disease-free, well-grown seedlings of each species were retained for seedling trait measurements. Leaf and root tra..., , # Reconsidering warming effects on seedling recruitment in Tibetan plateau's alpine meadows via Open-Top chamber experiments

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vmcvdnd31](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vmcvdnd31)

## Description of the data and file structure

We conducted warming experiments in alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau using OTCs. Three treatments were applied: control (no OTC), warming alone (W, +2 °C without OTC precipitation interception), and warming with decreased precipitation (WDP, +2 °C with OTC precipitation interception). Focusing on 50 plant species across various functional groups, we disentangled the independent effects of warming and decreased precipitation caused by OTC interception on seedling emergence, survival, and establishment. We applied structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the relationships between emergence timing, rate, survival, and establishment success.

### Files and variables

#### File: data.xlsx

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* W：...