Data for analysis for the manuscript The unexpected influence of legacy conspecific density dependence

When plants die, neighbours escape competition. Living conspecifics could disproportionately benefit because they are freed from negative intraspecific processes; however, if negative effects of past conspecific neighbours persist, other species might be advantaged, and diversity maintained through legacy effects. We examined legacy effects in a mapped forest by modelling the survival of 37,212 trees of 23 species using four neighbourhood properties: living conspecific, living heterospecific, legacy conspecific (dead conspecifics), and legacy heterospecific densities. Legacy conspecific effects proved nearly four times stronger than living conspecific effects; changes in annual survival associated with legacy conspecific density were 1.5% greater than living conspecific effects. Over 90% of species were negatively impacted by legacy conspecific density compared to 47% by living conspecific density. Our results emphasize that legacies of trees alter community dynamics, revealing a significant oversight in prior research, which may have underestimated the strength of density dependence by not considering legacy effects.当植物死亡后，其周边邻体植株可摆脱竞争约束。存活的同种邻体可因此获得不成比例的收益，因为它们摆脱了种内负相互作用的影响；然而，若过往同种邻体遗留的负效应仍持续存在，则其他物种可能获得竞争优势，群落多样性可通过遗留效应得以维持。本研究依托一处已完成个体定位的森林样地，通过对23个物种共37212株树木的存活情况开展建模分析，选取四类邻体特征作为变量：存活同种个体密度、存活异种个体密度、遗留同种个体（即死亡的同种个体）密度，以及遗留异种个体密度。研究发现，遗留同种效应的强度近乎为存活同种效应的四倍；与遗留同种个体密度相关的年存活概率变化幅度较存活同种效应高出1.5%。相较于仅47%的物种受存活同种个体密度的负向影响，超过90%的物种会受到遗留同种个体密度的负向作用。本研究结果表明，树木的遗留效应会改变群落动态，揭示了过往研究存在的一处显著疏漏：未考虑遗留效应使得此前研究低估了密度制约作用的强度。