Data from: Three decades of annual growth, mortality, physical condition, and microsite for ten tropical rainforest tree species

In lowland tropical rainforest, hundreds of tree species typically occur within mesoscale landscapes (50-500 ha). There is no consensus ecological theory that accounts for the coexistence of so many species with similar morphologies and the same fundamental requirements of light, nutrients, water, and physical space. In part this is due to the limited understanding of post-establishment ecology for the vast majority of tropical tree species. Of even more concern is the lack of understanding of how these trees are responding to on-going atmospheric and climatic changes. Here we present long-term data on the post-establishment ecology of ten species of tropical rainforest trees that span a broad life-history spectrum. The study site was upland (non-swamp) old-growth tropical wet forest at the La Selva Biological Station (N.E. Costa Rica). Focal individuals from established seedlings to mature trees were assessed annually, with an emphasis on accuracy and long-term consistency of the observations. The annual time-step, rare for longterm studies in tropical rainforest, captures the typically abrupt changes in forest structure and light environments, the frequent instances of major physical damage, and the trees' responses to these events and to interannual and long-term climatic variation. With the completion of the study in 2016, the data for survivorship, growth, and microsite conditions span 4499 individuals and 34 years. The first ten years of these data were published as an Ecology/Ecological Archives data paper in 2000 (Clark and Clark 2000), with two subsequent update publications (Clark and Clark 2006, 2012). This final update adds the final six years of observations, digitized field comments, and histories of points of measurement on the trees. The metadata now include the scanned original field data-sheets for the entire study and a narrative detailing the annual qa/qc of the data. The data set is unique for its scope (years of continuous annual measurements, number of monitored individuals), the in-depth documentation, and the unrestricted data access. The data have been used to study life history patterns, tree ecology through ontogeny, and effects on tree performance from interannual and long-term climatic and atmospheric change. They have also contributed to numerous remote-sensing studies.在低地热带雨林中，中尺度景观（mesoscale landscape，50-500公顷）内通常分布着数百种树木。目前尚无公认的生态学理论能够解释，为何如此多形态相似且对光照、养分、水分与物理空间有着相同基本需求的物种能够共存。这在一定程度上源于我们对绝大多数热带树木物种的定植后生态学（post-establishment ecology）认知有限。更令人担忧的是，我们尚不清楚这些树木如何应对当前持续发生的大气与气候变化。 本研究提供了10种涵盖广泛生活史谱系的热带雨林树木的定植后生态学长期数据。研究样地位于哥斯达黎加东北部的拉塞尔瓦生物站（La Selva Biological Station）内的高地（非沼泽）原始热带湿润森林。研究对从定植幼苗到成熟个体的目标树木进行年度监测，且高度重视观测数据的准确性与长期一致性。这种年度观测频次在热带雨林长期研究中较为罕见，能够捕捉到森林结构与光照环境的典型突变、频繁发生的重大物理损伤事件，以及树木对这些事件、年际气候变化与长期气候变化的响应。 本研究于2016年完成，其存活、生长以及微生境条件相关的数据覆盖了4499株个体，观测时长长达34年。该数据集的前10年数据已于2000年以《Ecology》/《Ecological Archives》数据论文的形式发表（Clark与Clark，2000），后续又有两篇更新类出版物（Clark与Clark，2006、2012）。本次最终更新补充了最后6年的观测数据、数字化的野外记录注释，以及树木测量点位的历史信息。目前元数据已涵盖整个研究的扫描版原始野外数据记录表，以及一份详述该数据集年度质量控制（QA/QC）流程的说明文档。 该数据集以其观测范围（连续年度观测时长、监测个体数量）、详尽的文档记录以及无限制的数据获取权限，具备独特性。该数据集已被用于研究生活史模式、树木个体发育过程中的生态学特征，以及年际与长期气候和大气变化对树木生长表现的影响。此外，该数据集还为众多遥感研究提供了支持。