Data from: Environmental variation is a major predictor of global trait turnover in mammals

Aim: To evaluate how environment and evolutionary history interact to
influence global patterns of mammal trait diversity (a combination of 14
morphological and life-history traits). Location: The global terrestrial
environment. Taxon: Terrestrial mammals. Methods: We calculated patterns
of spatial turnover for mammalian traits and phylogenetic lineages using
the mean nearest taxon distance. We then used a variance partitioning
approach to establish the relative contribution of trait conservatism,
ecological adaptation and clade specific ecological preferences on global
trait turnover. Results: We provide a global scale analysis of trait
turnover across mammalian terrestrial assemblages, which demonstrates that
phylogenetic turnover by itself does not predict trait turnover better
than random expectations. Conversely, trait turnover is consistently more
strongly associated with environmental variation than predicted by our
null models. The influence of clade-specific ecological preferences,
reflected by the shared component of phylogenetic turnover and
environmental variation, was considerably higher than expectations.
Although global patterns of trait turnover are dependent on the trait
under consideration, there is a consistent association between trait
turnover and environmental predictive variables, regardless of the trait
considered. Main conclusions: Our results suggest that changes in
phylogenetic composition are not always coupled with changes in trait
composition on a global scale and that environmental conditions are
strongly associated with patterns of trait composition across species
assemblages, both within and across phylogenetic clades.