Data from: Ecological strategies in stable and disturbed environments depend on species specialisation

Ecological strategies are integral to understanding species survival in
different environments. However, how habitat specialisation is involved in
such strategies is not fully understood, particularly in heterogeneous and
disturbed environments. Here, we studied the trait associations between
specialisation, dispersal ability, competitiveness, reproductive
investment and survival rate in a spatially explicit metacommunity model
under various disturbance rates. Though no unique trait values were
associated with specialisation, relationships were uncovered depending on
environmental factors. We found strong trait associations mainly for
generalist species, while specialist species exhibited a larger range of
trait combinations. Trait associations were driven first by the
disturbance rate and second by species' dispersal ability and
generation overlap. With disturbance, low dispersal ability was strongly
selected against, for specialists as well as for generalists. Our results
demonstrate that habitat specialisation is critical for the emergence of
trait strategies in metacommunities and that disturbance in interaction
with dispersal ability limits not only the range of trait values but also
the type of possible trait associations.