Data from: Community functional trait composition at the continental scale: the effects of non-ecological processes

Ecological communities and their response to environmental gradients are
increasingly being described by measures of trait composition at the
community level – the trait-based approach. Whether ecological or
non-ecological processes influence trait composition between communities
has been debated. Understanding the processes that influence trait
composition is important for reconstructing paleoenvironmental conditions
from fossil deposits and for understanding changes in community
functionality through time. Here, we assess the influence of ecological
and non-ecological processes on the distribution of traits within North
American mammals. We found that non-ecological processes including
historical contingency, spatial autocorrelation, and evolutionary history
do not influence trait composition; however, the variance in trait
composition is highly explained by climate gradients. Our results suggest
that habitat breadth, terrestriality, diet breadth, and reproductive
traits are strong candidates as proxies for measuring functional aspects
of environments in the past and present.