Warming-induced changes in seasonal priority effects drive shifts in community composition

Shifting community assembly dynamics are an underappreciated mechanism by which warming will alter plant community composition. Germination timing (which can determine the order in which seedlings emerge within a community) will likely shift unevenly across species in response to warming. In seasonal environments where communities reassemble at the beginning of each growing season, changes in germination timing could lead to changes in seasonal priority effects, and ultimately community composition. We test this expectation by assembling mesocosms of fifteen species in one of two orders – “ambient” assembly order or “warmed” assembly order – based on the order in which the constituent species germinated under ambient and warmed conditions. Community composition differed significantly between mesocosms assembled in ambient versus warmed orders. The impact of assembly order on species mean biomass was largely explained by how much earlier (or later) a species arrived in the warmed-order t..., , , # Warming-induced changes in seasonal priority effects drive shifts in community composition

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh4](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frh4)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset is from a mesocosm experiment exploring how changes in the timing of plant species' germination with warming impacts plant community composition. The assembly (order of germination) treatments were derived from a growth chamber experiment where all the species in the experiment germinated under ambient or +3 C warmed spring conditions and germination time was assessed. 

### Files and variables

#### File: Dawson-Glass\_ECY24-0464\_assembly\_data.csv

**Description:** The primary dataset associated with this manuscript, containing mesocosm-level treatment information and final biomass values for each individual plant growth in the experiment.

##### Variables

* Pot: Mesocosm ID number.
* Species: Plant species latin name.
* init_height: Initial height ...