Data from: The circular nature of recurrent life-cycle events: a test comparing tropical and temperate phenology

1. The high diversity of plant species in the tropics has revealed complex
phenological patterns and reproductive strategies occurring throughout the
year. Describing and analysing tropical plant phenology, and detecting
triggers, demands to consider the circular nature of recurrent life-cycle
events and the use of appropriated statistical metrics. 2. Here we explore
analytical pitfalls potentially affecting results of studies that do not
consider the circular nature of phenology data when comparing resting and
non-resting systems, especially when accounting for phylogeny. We discuss
definitions of the widely-used first flowering date and revisit the
literature on phylogenetic signal in plant phenology. We compare
statistical analyses for tropical and temperate phenology by simulating
communities with known phenological and phylogenetic structures. 3. We
demonstrate that ignoring the circular nature of phenological data
underestimates the phylogenetic signal in plant phenology. Using the
proposed circular transformation for non-resting tropical ecosystems and
resting temperate systems prevented errors, yielding precise comparisons.
4. Synthesis. The analysis of both non-resting and resting systems must
consider the circularity of phenological events. Circular statistics is
the appropriate approach to calculate phenological parameters, identify
phylogenetic signal and assess drivers, allowing accurate
cross-comparisons of phenology across environments at large spatial
scales.