Climate change and exotic pathogens shift carbon allocation in Mediterranean mixed forests

Forecasting the effects of global change drivers on ecosystems is one of the most pressing challenges for scientists worldwide. Particularly, climate change and exotic pathogens might have a large impact on plant community dynamics and ecosystem functioning through changes in carbon uptake and sinks. Nevertheless, we still have a poor understanding of the combined effects of these two drivers on plant communities. Here, we explored the impact of rainfall reduction and exotic pathogens on the carbon balance of Mediterranean tree species. For this, we performed a three-year field experiment taking advantage of rainfall exclusion infrastructures (30% exclusion) installed in the southernmost European oak forests invaded by the aggressive exotic pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi. We measured a set of 10 variables representative of tree carbon sources (photosynthetic rates) and sinks (primary production, reproduction, defence and reserves) in adult trees of three species in two forest types: cl..., , , # Data from: Climate change and exotic pathogens shift carbon allocation in Mediterranean mixed forests

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Author Information: Álvaro Gaytán, Luis Matías, Óscar Godoy, Ignacio M. Pérez-Ramos, Pablo Homet, Xoaquín Moreira and Lorena Gómez-Aparicio
2. Date of data collection: 2016-2018
3. Geographic location of data collection: PN Los Alcornocales, Cadiz (Spain)

DATA & FILE OVERVIEW
In the Data file, two datasets are available:
One for the Closed forest and other for the Open woodand, which contain the same variables

Variable List:

* Block: Block of tres in the experiment containing a rainfall exclusion and a control plot
* Treatment: Rainfall exclusion or Control
* Tree: Individual tree numbers
* Species: Tree species (Quercus suber, Quercus canariensis or Olea europea)
* DBH: Trunk diameter at breast height (cm)
* Sand: Percentage of sand in the soil (%)
* Pci16: Levels of P. cinnamomi in 2016 (number of colonies)
* Pci17: Levels of P. cinnamomi in 2017 (num...