Functional diversity of sub-Antarctic benthos under HABs and glacial influence

This dataset contains a comprehensive functional trait database compiled for benthic taxa collected from four sub-Antarctic fjord localities in the Magallanes Region, southern Chile. The study encompasses two proglacial fjords and two fjords with a documented history of recurrent harmful algal blooms (HABs), providing a standardized trait dataset for evaluating patterns of functional diversity and community responses to contrasting environmental stressors. The Excel spreadsheet is organized into multiple worksheets, including: Locality-specific trait matrices, containing the functional trait information assigned to the taxa recorded at each study locality. These worksheets also include the corresponding literature references used to assign trait information for each taxon. Trait categories, describing each functional trait and the categorical coding scheme adopted throughout the database. Literature sources used to select functional traits are also provided. Access is provided to a GitHub repository containing the R scripts used for the functional diversity analyses performed in this study. The repository includes the workflows developed using the mFD package (Magneville et al., 2022), allowing users to reproduce the calculation of functional diversity indices and associated analyses.