Data for: A general model of discretized rarity and its sub-models

We introduce a general model of discretized rarity (GDR) that incorporates geographic (G), functional (F), and phylogenetic (P) dimensions at regional (R) and local (L) scales to create 63 sub-models that define rarity based on research question, management goal, spatial scale, and data availability.
We test these sub-models’ ability to explain variation in flowering phenology and distribution changes in British flora over 32 years. The general model performs well in explaining these biological processes, but one sub-model, GRLFRLPL, consistently emerges as the most informative definition of rarity. However, its high dimensionality and data requirements limit practical use. Other novel sub-models also perform well and can be readily integrated into conservation and research, opening new avenues for linking rarity to community and ecosystem processes within a unified conceptual framework.
The following datasets accompany the manuscript “A general model of discretized rarity and its sub-models” and include:
GDR sub-model performance — Information on how sub-models explain distribution change and flowering duration in 1011 British plant species.Species attributes and abundance — Geographic and functional attributes of species and their abundance used to run analyses.All analyses were performed using our R package GDRarity (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17214385). Detailed information about the datasets and instructions for reproducing results are provided in the README.md file.