Shifting species and functional diversity due to abrupt changes in water availability in tropical dry forests

Recent insights show that tropical forests are shifting in species composition, possibly due to changing environmental conditions. However, we still poorly understand the forest response to different environmental change drivers, which limits our ability to predict the future of tropical forests. Although some studies have evaluated drought effects on tree communities, we know little about the influence of increased water availability.
Here, we evaluated how an increase in water availability caused by an artificial reservoir affected temporal changes in forest structure, species and functional diversity, and community‐weighted mean traits. Furthermore, we evaluated how demographical groups (recruits, survivors and trees that died) contributed to these temporal changes in tropical dry forests.
We present data for the dynamics of forest change over a 10‐year period for 120 permanent plots that were far from the water’s edge before reservoir construction and are now close to the water’s ...