Data from: Individual-level trait variation and negative density dependence affects growth in tropical tree seedlings

1. Individual-level interactions with neighbours and their surrounding
environments are key factors influencing performance that ultimately shape
and maintain diversity in tropical plant communities. Theory predicts that
the strength of these interactions depends on the similarity among
neighbours, the turnover in composition caused by individuals that enter
as new recruits and individuals that die, and fitting to local conditions.
Despite considerable phenotypic variation among individuals and high
community dynamics, these three factors have rarely been considered
together for understanding growth variation, especially for seedling
communities in the tropics. 2. We address this outstanding challenge by
quantifying the influence of trait dissimilarity among neighbours,
temporal turnover in neighbours, and individual trait variation on
seedling growth, based on an unprecedented dataset containing
individual-level demographic and functional trait data for tropical tree
seedlings. 3. The results showed that trait dissimilarity associated with
resource acquisition does not influence growth. However, conspecific
negative density dependent effects on growth were evident through the
initial density of conspecifics and increased in conspecifics during the
study period. Also, individuals with relatively larger investments in leaf
biomass allocation attained higher growth rates. 4. Synthesis: Together,
these findings indicate that tropical seedling communities are structured
by local abiotic factors that ultimately result in individual variation in
resource acquisition traits and by biotic interactions driven by negative
density dependence. These biotic interactions are highly dynamic and
depend on conspecifics turnover, even at short temporal scales. Thus, to
gain further insights into the forces structuring seedling communities,
future studies should account for temporal variability in immediate
neighbours and individual-level phenotypic variation that influence
individual interactions.