Data from: Functional diversity and redundancy of tropical forests shift with elevation and forest-use intensity

1. Change and intensification of forest use alter tropical ecosystems,
influencing biodiversity and, subsequently, ecosystem functioning. The
implications of eroding biodiversity may go beyond decreases in species
diversity, resulting in changes of functional diversity, i.e. the
diversity of ecological strategies present in the community, and
functional redundancy, i.e. how redundant these strategies are to
biodiversity loss. However, how environmental conditions and anthropogenic
influences shape functional diversity and redundancy in tropical forests
remains poorly understood. 2. Here, we examine how tropical forests
respond to forest-use intensity along an extensive elevational gradient in
Mexico from the tropical lowlands to high-elevational mountain forests (0
to 3500 m), in terms of functional diversity and functional redundancy,
and how these biodiversity facets are related to forest structure. In our
study, elevation was crossed with three levels of forest-use intensity:
old-growth, degraded, and secondary forests. At eight elevational sites,
five replicate plots were inventoried for each level of forest-use
intensity (total n = 120 plots). Functional diversity and redundancy were
calculated using leaf and wood traits of 144 tree species for Hill numbers
zero, one, and two. 3. Interactive effects between elevation and
forest-use intensity significantly affected biodiversity facets. However,
interactive effects resulted from forest-use intensity influencing
biodiversity facets at only a few elevations, and not from a consistent,
negative impact of forest-use intensity. Forest structure, specifically
stem density and the Gini coefficient, explained variation across
biodiversity facets when these facets gave equal weight to common and rare
species.  4. Synthesis and applications. High functional
diversity and functional redundancy from lowland to mid-elevation tropical
forests suggest that these ecosystems can be resilient to future
disturbances. Our results indicate that the ability of high-elevation
forests may be particularly susceptible to climate change and increasing
forest-use intensity. For these high-elevation forests, we recommend that
forest managers implement enrichment plantings with native species that
can tolerate future environmental conditions. Finally, our study shows
that efforts to conserve structurally heterogeneous forests and actively
managing forests to increase structural heterogeneity will enhance the
resilience of tropical forests while conserving their biodiversity.