Phylogenetic structure and β-diversity reveal assembly mechanisms of sub-alpine Abies forests in South Korea

Sub-alpine coniferous forest ecosystems are sensitive to climate change. However, the community formation mechanisms of sub-alpine coniferous forests in northeastern Asia remain poorly understood. In this study, we assessed the factors controlling the phylogenetic community structure in different strata (whole strata, upperstory, and understory) of Abies nephrolepis and Abies koreana forests in the sub-alpine zone in South Korea. Piecewise structural equation modeling (pSEM) was performed based on terrain, climate, taxonomic diversity, stand structure characteristics, and disturbance factors. The controlling factors presented different responses for each species depending on the stratum and phylogenetic community structure indices (net relatedness index and nearest taxon index). A. nephrolepis showed a unique community formation mechanism and formed climate refugia through high rock exposure, whereas A. koreana showed niche conservation at high elevations and a community overdispersion ..., , # Phylogenetic structure and β-diversity reveal assembly mechanisms of sub-alpine Abies forests in South Korea

Ecosphere_Dryad_occurence_species_file.zip contains the data we intend to share. The description of this file is as follows

Species occurrence by forest strata in *Abies nephrolepis* and *Abies koreana* forests and supplementary materials

**Brief summary**
This dataset accompanies the main paper and compiles species-occurrence data by whole strata for *Abies nephrolepis* and *Abies koreana* forests in Korea.

It includes stratum-level species lists and supplementary materials. We provide species, genus, and family information.

**Description of the data and file structure**

**Folder layout**
Species occurrence data by forest strata

* *Abies koreana*_Whole strata_occurrence species — Stratum-level species data for *A. koreana* plots
* *Abies nephrolepis*_Whole strata_occurrence species — Stratum-level species data for *A. nephrolepis* plots

**Sharing/Access information**

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