Untangling the contributions of species and site to beta diversity in a temperate forest region

The variation of species composition among communities, commonly known as beta diversity, is at the heart of ecology because of its role in explaining community assembly processes. However, traditional species-centered beta diversity predominantly focuses on the variation in species abundance while neglecting the resemblance in functional and phylogenetic characteristics. This study presents a new approach that integrates functional and phylogenetic characteristics into the traditional beta diversity framework.
We expanded the traditional beta diversity framework by introducing the concept of community-weighted mean pairwise distance (CWMPD) that incorporates species’ functional and phylogenetic information. Using observations from a large-scale forest network, we estimated beta diversity for three facets: species, functional, and phylogenetic diversity. Then, we partitioned the total beta diversity into species contributions to beta diversity (SCBD) and local contributions to beta dive..., , , # Untangling the contributions of species and site to beta diversity in a temperate forest region

The data package contains six files (csv format) that were used in the analyses of the study: Minhui Hao, Qingmin Yue, Chunyu Zhang, Xiuhai Zhao, Klaus von Gadow. Untangling the contributions of species and site to beta diversity in a temperate forest region.

## Description of the data and file structure

### File List:

1\. Bioclim.csv: Bioclimatic variables table

2\. comm.csv: Community composition table

3\. Geo.csv: Geographic coordinates table

4\. splist.csv: Species list

5\. Topo.csv: Topographic variables table

6\. traits.csv: Plant functional traits table

#### Specific information for: Bioclim.csv

1\. Number of variables/columns: 42

2\. Number of plots/rows: 412

3\. Variable list:

* MAT: Mean annual temperature (℃)
* MAP: Mean annual precipitation (mm)
* ISO: Isothermality (/)
* TS: Temperature seasonality (/)
* PS: Precipitation seasonality (/)
* MDR: Mea...