Plant canopy-recruit interactions in plant communities across the Andalusian Red Natura 2000 communitary interest habitats (Directive Habitats 92/43/CEE)

[Description of methods used for collection/generation of data] Woody plant communities included in the Directive Habitats 92/43/CEE were sampled across the Andalusian Red Natura 2000. We focused mainly on shrub and tree species with the capacity to act as nurse plants. Each plant community was sampled throughout plots (16, 25 x 25 m) or transects (20, 10 x 50 m); each transect was divided into 5 [10 x 10 m] squares (100 squares per plant community). In total the sampled area per plant community was 10000 m^2. Complete descriptions of the methodological procedures can be found in Alcántara et al. (2019) and Verdú et al. (2022). In each square, the list of canopy plant species, with the capacity to act as nurses, and the number of recruiting plant species within it was recorded. The squares were randomly distributed, trying to cover the largest possible area within each locality to avoid sampling bias. References: - Directiva 92/43/CEE del Consejo, de 21 de mayo de 1992, relativa a la conservación de los hábitats naturales y de la fauna y flora silvestres. - Alcántara, J. M., Garrido, J. L., Montesinos‐Navarro, A., Rey, P. J., Valiente‐Banuet, A., & Verdú, M. (2019). Unifying facilitation and recruitment networks. Journal of Vegetation Science, 30(6), 1239-1249. DOI: 10.1111/jvs.12795 - Verdú, M., Garrido, J. L., Alcántara, J. M., Montesinos‐Navarro, A., Aguilar, S., Aizen, M. A., et al. (2022). RecruitNet: A global database of plant recruitment networks. Ecology, e3923. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3923