Chronic leaf harvesting reduces reproductive success of a tropical dry forest palm in northern Mexico

This data represents results from a defoliation experiment that began in the reproductive season 2010-2011. We used palms not been harvested in the two previous years. We mapped and measured all Brahea aculeata stems and harvesting treatments were randomly assigned. All palms used in the experiment were healthy and located in the same stand with similar forest cover and altitude (520-540 m asl). The straight distance among individuals was of no more than 400 m. The density of all size individuals at each plot was very similar with 180-220 individuals/625 m2. During the first three years (2011-2014) individuals were subjected to one of three annual harvest treatments. The treatments applied were as those traditionally used in the area and above outlined: 1) High harvest (H) and 2) Low harvest (L) and 3) Control (C), where no leaves were removed. In the first part of the experiment (2011-2014), all size palms (seedlings  5 cm height up to 8 m stems) were subjected to annual leaf harvesting to explore effects on functional and demographic patterns. In the second part of the study, we selected large reproductive individuals (2.5-3.0 m high) from the original dataset and subjected them to a more intensive management (semiannual frequency with ), which is also common at the study area. Thus, in this study we compared the leaf and reproductive traits over six year of study which include measurement before harvesting (2010-2011) and represents the baseline to compare the effects of leaf harvesting treatments, the annual harvest (2011-2014) and the semiannual harvest (2014-2016). We measured leaf traits and reproductive traits and explore possible trade-offs between the leaf and reproductive function.本数据集收录了2010-2011年生殖季启动的去叶实验的相关结果。实验所用棕榈均为前两年未经历采收的个体。研究人员对所有刺蒲葵（Brahea aculeata）的茎干开展测绘与测量工作，并对采收处理方案进行随机分配。本实验所用棕榈个体均长势健康，且分布于同一林分，森林覆盖度与海拔（520~540米）均保持一致，个体间直线距离均不超过400米。各样地内不同大小级别的个体密度均较为接近，为180~220株/625平方米。实验前三年（2011-2014年），供试个体接受三种年度采收处理之一，所有处理方案均为该区域传统采收方式，具体如下：1）高强度采收（H）、2）低强度采收（L），以及3）对照组（C，无叶片被移除）。实验第一阶段（2011-2014年），所有大小级别的棕榈（株高≥5厘米至茎干高度达8米的个体）均接受年度叶片采收处理，以探究其对功能性状与种群动态模式的影响。本研究第二阶段，我们从原始数据集内选取株高2.5~3.0米的大型生殖个体，对其实施更为集约的管理模式（半年采收频次），该管理方式在研究区域内同样常见。因此，本研究通过六年的观测周期对比叶片与生殖性状，观测时段涵盖采收前的基线数据（2010-2011年），以此作为对照基准，对比叶片采收处理的效应：包括年度采收阶段（2011-2014年）与半年采收阶段（2014-2016年）。本研究测定了叶片性状与生殖性状，并探究了叶片功能与生殖功能间可能存在的权衡关系。