Sequential thresholds shape drylands´ multitrophic response to aridification

Abstract<b>Title:</b><br>Sequential thresholds shape drylands’ multitrophic response to aridification<b>Dataset Overview:</b><br>This dataset provides spatially explicit, multitrophic biodiversity and environmental data for 290 dryland ecoregions worldwide, supporting the study "Sequential thresholds shape drylands’ multitrophic response to aridification." The dataset integrates taxonomic and trophic group species richness, aridity, and major anthropogenic and productivity covariates at the ecoregion level, enabling analyses of how sequential aridity thresholds influence biodiversity and ecosystem functioning across drylands.<b>Data Sources and Structure:</b><b>Ecoregion Delimitation:</b><br>Ecoregions are defined using the global dryland ecoregion map of Maestre et al. (2021), based on Dinerstein et al. (2017), providing detailed biogeographical characterization.<b>Aridity:</b><br>Mean aridity values per ecoregion are derived from Trabucco and Zomer (2019).<b>Biodiversity:</b><br>Species richness data are compiled for bacteria, fungi, parasites, plants, invertebrates (earthworms, ants, termites, bees, dragonflies), and vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds). Taxa are also grouped by trophic level: producers, consumers (primary, secondary, tertiary), parasites, detritivores, and decomposers.<b>Anthropogenic and Productivity Covariates:</b>Human disturbance (integrated index of accessibility, road density, artificial light, livestock, population density, urbanization)Temperature anomaly (1980–2022)Land-use change (cropland/pasture frequency, 1960–2019)NDVI-based productivity (1999–2019)<b>Variables:</b><br>Each ecoregion record includes:Ecoregion ID and coordinatesMean ariditySpecies richness for each taxonomic and trophic groupHuman disturbance indexTemperature anomalyLand-use change (cropland, pasture)NDVI productivity<b>File Formats:</b>Annotated .shp and xls files.<b>R Code</b>The R code contains all the scripts necessary to reproduce all the analysis and figures included in the manuscriptSubjectsBiological sciences, Ecology, Ecosystems, BiodiversityFundingGeneralitat Valenciana and European Fund grant, CIAPOS/199/2022Generalitat Valenciana grant, CIACIF/2023/176Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Biodiversa+ project Integradiv, PCI2022-135020-2