Data from: Functional and phylogenetic implications of forest Mesophication in temperate hardwood forests

Forest mesophication involves the shifting of plant communities from
fire-adapted, drought tolerant systems to those dominated by species
better adapted to shaded, closed-canopy environments. While commonly
understood from a taxonomic perspective, the phylogenetic underpinnings
and functional implications of forest mesophication have received less
quantitative testing. We applied phylogenetic and functional trait data to
legacy datasets of changing forest composition in Wisconsin from the
latter half of the 20th century. In both the 1950s and 2000s, forests
demonstrated a phylogenetically clustered structure, with closely related
species occupying similar sites. The inclusion of functional traits into
models accounted for 42% of the variance explained by this clustering in
the 1950s and just 16% in the 2000s. This diminished explanatory value of
functional traits corresponds with overall shifts in functional diversity,
with the majority of sites being dissimilar from their 1950s trait
syndrome. Contemporary trait syndromes were defined by broad declines in
drought and fire tolerance, litter flammability, and an increase in leaf
traits associated with acquisitive resource strategies. Such shifts
identify the diminished capacity of traits to explain phylogenetic
clustering, provide broadscale, quantifiable support for the hypothesized
functional implications of mesophication, highlight key species that land
managers can deliberately target to meet land management goals, and
outline future directions of how interspecific trait variation influence
shifting patterns of composition in temperate forests.