Response of community structure to dryness_Data_Ding_Eldridge

This dataset is to support the paper published in Journal of Biogeography authored by Jingyi Ding and David Eldridge: "Ding, J., Eldridge, D. J. (2021). Community-level responses to increasing dryness vary with plant growth form across an extensive aridity gradient. Journal of Biogeography, 48, 1788-1796".
Methods: We measured the abundance and size distribution
(median, skewness, variance) of perennial plant communities from different
growth forms (trees, shrubs and grasses), the spatial arrangement of trees in
the overstorey, and both biotic (competition) and abiotic (climate, soil
properties) factors at 150 sites along an extensive aridity gradient from humid
to arid areas. We used regression analyses and linear models to explore
variation in community structure with increasing aridity, and key driving
factors for different perennial plant communities.

Results: Variation in community structure differed with
growth form. As aridity increased, trees had wider canopies and were spatially
aggregated, shrubs became miniaturised, but highly variable in size, and
grasses comprised more larger individuals. Biotic and abiotic factors exerted
different effects on different growth forms, with trees and shrubs consistently
affected by competition and aridity, respectively, while grasses were weakly
affected by aridity, summer rainfall and soil texture.