Liana vs tree seedling responses to spatial and temporal variation in dry season severity

'Liana-vs-tree-seedlings_v2.zip' contains all the code and data necessary to reproduce the analyses in the manuscript. Please unzip the file and see README.md for instructions.<b>Abstract</b>Lianas are key components of tropical forests and reach higher diversity in areas with seasonal droughts. In comparison, trees are more abundant and speciose in wetter areas. The Seasonal Growth Advantage (SGA) hypothesis postulates that such contrasting distributions are produced by higher liana growth relative to trees during droughts. The SGA has been investigated in adults, ignoring seedlings, a critical bottleneck in the plant life cycle. Using eight annual censuses of &gt;12,000 seedlings of 483 tree and liana species, we evaluated whether liana seedlings had higher growth rates and/or lower mortality rates than tree seedlings at sites with stronger droughts, and whether an extreme drought would have a more negative effect on growth and survival for tree seedlings compared to liana seedlings. Even though we found that liana seedling relative density was higher at sites with stronger dry seasons compared to wetter sites, liana seedlings did not grow more or die less often than tree seedlings in dryer sites. During the extreme drought, mortality rates were higher for tree seedlings than liana seedlings, but tree seedlings grew more compared to liana seedlings. Other processes beyond the SGA hypothesis might explain why liana seedlings are have higher densities at dryer sites.