Data from: Plantings accelerate restoration of tropical forest but assembly mechanisms appear insensitive to initial composition

1. Phylogenetic and trait-based approaches to community ecology are increasingly being used to test for nonrandom community assembly and are now being applied to assessments of habitat restoration. A critical question for the restoration of tropical forests is how plantings influence the recruitment of new species, and specifically the phylogenetic and functional diversity of restored habitats. 2. We examined 8 years (2006-2014) of tropical forest recruitment in two restoration planting compositions (12 animal-dispersed and 12 wind-dispersed tree species) and a control (no plantings) in 24 plots, Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Specifically, we assessed the influence of plantings on newly arriving individuals’ phylogenetic, functional, taxonomic diversity, abundance and the change of these measures during early succession. 3. The recruiting individuals’ phylogenetic, functional, taxonomic diversity and abundance increased through succession. Both animal-dispersed plantings and wind-dispersed plantings appeared to accelerate forest succession more than controls (natural succession), and the recruits’ diversities in the animal-dispersed plantings were marginally higher after 8 years. We did not find any difference in recruiting individuals’ phylogenetic and functional dispersion (measured as standardized effect sizes) in any given year or when measured as turnover between successive pairs of years between planting composition and the control plots. 4. Recruiting individuals were phylogenetically clustered during early forest restoration regardless of treatment. At the same time, the recruits transitioned from appearing to be constructed randomly to being clustered based on functional traits, which suggests the increase of recruits’ functional similarity during early succession. 5. Synthesis and applications. The plantings accelerated the increase of recruiting individuals’ phylogenetic, functional, taxonomic diversity and abundance during early succession, although planting treatment did not appear to alter community assembly mechanisms of recruiting individuals. Our findings support restoration plantings by showing that planting trees with animal dispersal syndromes could accelerate forest restoration more than unassisted forest regeneration. Further, communities appeared to be phylogenetically and functionally clustered during early succession regardless of initial planted composition. Thus, while overall diversity increased with plantings, if a restoration goal is to maximize phylogenetic or functional dispersion, the planting composition tested did not provide means to achieve this goal, at least during early succession.19-Jun-20171. 群落生态学领域的系统发育（phylogenetic）与基于功能性状（trait-based）的研究方法正愈发广泛地被用于检验非随机群落组装（nonrandom community assembly）过程，目前已被应用于生境修复（habitat restoration）评估。热带森林修复的关键问题之一在于，人工种植如何影响新物种的补充，具体涉及修复生境的系统发育多样性（phylogenetic diversity）与功能多样性（functional diversity）。 2. 我们于墨西哥洛斯图斯特拉斯（Los Tuxtlas）的24个样地中，针对两种修复种植组合（分别包含12种动物传播（animal-dispersed）树种与12种风传播（wind-dispersed）树种）以及1个无人工种植的对照组（control），开展了为期8年（2006-2014年）的热带森林群落更新（recruitment）监测。具体而言，我们评估了人工种植对新定植个体的系统发育多样性、功能多样性、分类多样性（taxonomic diversity）、多度（abundance），以及早期演替（succession）过程中这些指标的变化的影响。 3. 随着演替推进，更新个体的系统发育多样性、功能多样性、分类多样性与多度均有所提升。相较于对照组（自然演替），动物传播种植组与风传播种植组均似乎更能加速森林演替；且在8年监测期结束时，动物传播种植组的更新个体多样性略高于对照组。我们未发现，在任意监测年份，或通过相邻年份间的群落周转（turnover）量计算时，种植组合与对照样地的更新个体系统发育离散度与功能离散度（以标准效应量（standardized effect sizes）衡量）存在显著差异。 4. 无论采用何种处理方式，森林修复早期的更新个体均呈现系统发育聚集（phylogenetic clustered）特征。与此同时，更新群落从随机构建逐渐转向基于功能性状（functional traits）的聚集，这表明早期演替过程中更新个体的功能相似性有所提升。 5. 总结与应用（Synthesis and applications）。尽管种植处理并未改变更新个体的群落组装机制，但人工种植加速了早期演替过程中更新个体的系统发育、功能、分类多样性与多度的提升。我们的研究结果支持修复种植实践：相较于无人为辅助的森林自然更新（unassisted forest regeneration），种植具备动物传播性状组合（animal dispersal syndromes）的树木能够更有效地加速森林修复。此外，无论初始种植组合如何，早期演替阶段的群落均呈现系统发育与功能聚集特征。因此，尽管整体多样性随人工种植有所提升，但如果修复目标是最大化系统发育或功能离散度，本研究所测试的种植组合无法实现这一目标，至少在早期演替阶段如此。2017年6月19日