Uncovering biodiversity deficits: experimental evidence for dispersal limitation of woody species in Mediterranean forest patches

Deforestation and habitat disturbance are major drivers of local species extinctions within remnant forest patches. In plants, seed dispersal plays a key role in recolonising patches following disturbance; however, habitat fragmentation may hinder seed arrival to suitable but unoccupied patches, resulting in dispersal limitation and prolonged biodiversity deficits.
We assessed dispersal limitation in Mediterranean forest patches by experimentally introducing plant species from the regional pool. To do so, we sowed 61,000 seeds from ten woody species and compared their establishment between occupied and unoccupied patches, assessing whether absences were driven by habitat unsuitability or dispersal limitation. We included five dry- and five fleshy-fruited species to test whether dispersal mechanisms influenced dispersal limitation. Additionally, we evaluated major biotic (vertebrate granivores and herbivores) and abiotic (soil properties and moisture) factors that could act as ecological..., , # Data from: Uncovering biodiversity deficits: experimental evidence for dispersal limitation of woody species in Mediterranean forest patches

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.t1g1jwtg3](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.t1g1jwtg3)

## Description of the data and file structure

Datasets\
**1.** **\"sowing_experiment.csv\"**\
**2. \"planting_experiment.csv\"**\
**3. \"soil_physicochemical.csv\"**\
**4. \"soil_moisture_vwc_values.csv\"**\
**5. \"vegetation_cover.csv\"**

**Note:** In all datasets, values marked as \"NA\" indicate that the data is not available or applicable, or that a measurement was not taken, depending on the context of each variable.

### Files and variables

### File: sowing_experiment.csv

**Description:** Data on the sown seeds from the seed sowing experiment, used to evaluate the habitat suitability of occupied and unoccupied forest patches. Dataset contains 61,000 rows, each one containing the information of a sown seed (n = 61,000 sown seeds). The dataset also includes information...,