Biogeography of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal spore traits along an aridity gradient and responses to experimental rainfall manipulation

Spore traits measured on AM fungal communities collected at DRI-Grass (Richmond, NSW) in 2015, and at the arid sites in NSW and QLD (Broken Hill, Milparinka, Cobar, Nyngan, Charleville, Quilpie) in 2016 and 2017. Contains 4 tables: melanin and spore density at DRI-Grass (DG) and in arid sites (DRL), and spore size and colour metrics at DRI-Grass (DG) and arid sites (DRL).<br> <br> <b>DG_size_colour.csv</b><br> AM fungal spore size measurements and colour metrics obtained from microscopy and picture analyses for samples collected at Richmond (DRI-Grass) in 2015. Columns description: ‘site’ (sampling site), ‘plot’ (sampling plot), ‘treatment’ (watering treatments), ‘sample’ (sample ID), ‘Aridity’ (aridity index of the site), ‘latitude’ (coordinates of the site), ‘longitude’ (coordinates of the site), ‘length.um’ (spore longest axis – diameter in µm), ‘width’ (spore shortest axis – diameter in µm), ‘proj.area’ (spore projected surface area in µm2, calculated with the following formula: 4 * π * (length / 2)^2 ), ‘log.proj.area’ (spore projected area transformed using log10), ‘R.mean’ (averaged red obtained along the longest and shortest axis), ‘G.mean’ (averaged green obtained along the longest and shortest axis), ‘B.mean’ (averaged blue obtained along the longest and shortest axis), ‘col’ (hex colour code), ‘black’ (amount of black calculated: 1 – (max (R, G, B) / 255)), ‘luminance’ (scale of dark of the spore, where 0 is black and 1 is white), ‘hue’ (spore colour expressed in degrees), ‘saturation’ (intensity of the colour, where 0 is grey and 1 is colour), ‘volume’ (spore volume in µm3, calculated with the following formula: 4 / 3 * π * (length / 2)3), ‘log.volume’ (spore volume transformed using log10).<br> <br> <b>DRL_size_colour.csv</b><br> AM fungal spore size measurements and colour metrics obtained from microscopy and picture analyses for samples collected at the arid sites (Broken Hill, Milparinka, Cobar, Nyngan, Charleville, Quilpie) in 2017. Columns description: ‘site’ (sampling site), ‘plot’ (sampling plot), ‘treatment’ (sampling site), ‘sample’ (sample ID), ‘Aridity’ (aridity index of the site), ‘latitude’ (coordinates of the site), ‘longitude’ (coordinates of the site), ‘length.um’ (spore longest axis – diameter in µm), ‘width’ (spore shortest axis – diameter in µm), ‘proj.area’ (spore projected surface area in µm2, calculated with the following formula: 4 * π * (length / 2)^2), ‘log.proj.area’ (spore projected area transformed using log10), ‘R.mean’ (averaged red obtained along the longest and shortest axis), ‘G.mean’ (averaged green obtained along the longest and shortest axis), ‘B.mean’ (averaged blue obtained along the longest and shortest axis), ‘col’ (hex colour code), ‘black’ (amount of black calculated: 1 – (max (R, G, B) / 255)), ‘luminance’ (scale of dark of the spore, where 0 is black and 1 is white), ‘hue’ (spore colour expressed in degrees), ‘saturation’ (intensity of the colour, where 0 is grey and 1 is colour) , ‘volume’ (spore volume in µm3, calculated with the following formula: 4 / 3 * π * (length / 2)3), ‘log.volume’ (spore volume transformed using log10).<br> <br> <b>DGmelanin_density.csv</b><br> Spore density and community averaged melanin content for AM fungal spores collected in DRI-Grass (Richmond). Columns description: ‘plot’ (sampling plot), ‘treatment’ (watering treatments), ‘ug_mela_spore’ (average amount of melanin (µg) per spore), ‘spores_per_g_soil’ (spore density, average number of spore per gram of dry soil), ‘Aridity’ (aridity index of the site), ‘latitude’ (coordinates of the site), ‘longitude’ (coordinates of the site), ‘ug_mela’ (amount of melanin estimated for the sample)<br> <br> <b>DRLmelanin_density.csv</b><br> Spore density and community averaged melanin content for AM fungal spores collected at the arid sites. Columns description: ‘site’ (sampling site), ‘plot’ (sampling plot), ‘sample’ (sample ID), ‘Year’ (sampling date), ‘ug_mela_spore’ (average amount of melanin (µg) per spore), ‘spores_per_g_soil’ (spore density, average number of spore per gram of dry soil), ‘Aridity’ (aridity index of the site), ‘latitude’ (coordinates of the site), ‘longitude’ (coordinates of the site) , ‘ug_mela’ (amount of melanin estimated for the sample)<br>