Vegetation plot data from contiguous and fragmented rainforests in the Western Ghats, India

Plot size: 30m X 30m. Min DBH: 3cm

Appendix A. A description of the zero growth isoclines for the model system (Fig. 5) as well as the maximum levels of root competition grasses and trees can tolerate (Fig. 4).

A description of the zero growth isoclines for the model system (Fig. 5) as well as the maximum levels of root competition grasses and trees can tolerate (Fig. 4)

Box and whisker box plots of tree heights in the different study sites (a).

<p>The solid line is the median, and the boxes are defined by the upper and lower quartile (25^th and 75^th percentiles). The whiskers extend up to 1.5 times the inter-quartile range of the data. The figure indicates that distribution of tree heights was not uneven between study sites. Relationship between average canopy diameter (m) and tree height (m) across all sampled trees (<b>b</b>). Average canopy diameter is the mean of canopy diameters measured along two perpendicular axes. Regression results indicate a tight relationship between canopy diameter and tree height, with taller trees having proportionally larger canopies regardless of species identities (adjusted R² = 53.8%, p<0.0001. CI: 95% confidence interval, PI: 95% predicted interval).</p

ANOVA results of the most parsimonious linear fixed effects model.

<p>Grass biomass is the dependent variable while fixed effects are distance from the base of the tree, tree height, and rainfall. The model includes random effects of individual trees, nested in tree species identity, nested within strings nested in geology (see statistical analysis). Significant p-values are bolded. The three-way interaction between Rainfall∶Distance∶Height as well as the two-way interaction between Distance∶Height were included in the maximal model but were simplified as non significant. According to our results, tree height is not a significant contributor <i>per se</i>, but the interaction between Rainfall∶Site is marginally significant. Thus, height is a potentially significant contributor depending on rainfall. Given the fact that <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0057025#pone-0057025-t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a> shows 2 two-way interactions as significant, (Rainfall∶Distance and Rainfall∶Height) we need two figures to assess this. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0057025#pone-0057025-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a> shows the relationship between Rainfall∶Distance and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0057025#pone-0057025-g002" target="_blank">Figure 2</a> between Rainfall∶Height.</p

Supplementary_Files – Supplemental material for Multi-proxy evidence for an arid shift in the climate and vegetation of the Banni grasslands of western India during the mid- to late-Holocene

<p>Supplemental material, Supplementary_Files for Multi-proxy evidence for an arid shift in the climate and vegetation of the Banni grasslands of western India during the mid- to late-Holocene by Anusree AS Pillai, Ambili Anoop, Vandana Prasad, MC Manoj, Saju Varghese, Mahesh Sankaran and Jayashree Ratnam in The Holocene</p

Data Paper. Data Paper

<h2>File List</h2><blockquote> <p><a href="BEF_summary_v2_Aug2008.csv">BEF_summary_v2_Aug2008.csv</a> -- File is 545 records, not including header row, and is formatted as a comma separated values. No compression scheme was used. Cells noted with "." indicate that the information is not relevant, not reported, or not available from the study. Cells that are blank mean that the information has yet to be collected (i.e., the data may or may not exist).</p> </blockquote><h2>Description</h2><blockquote> <p>Over the past decade, accelerating rates of species extinction have prompted an increasing number of studies to reduce the number of species experimentally in a variety of ecosystems and examine how this aspect of diversity alters the efficiency by which communities capture biologically essential resources and convert them into new tissue. Here we summarize the results of 164 experiments (reported in 84 publications) that have manipulated the richness of primary producers, herbivores, detritivores, or predators in a variety of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and examined how this impacts (1) the standing stock abundance or biomass of the focal trophic group, (2) the abundance or biomass of that trophic group's primary resource(s), and/or (3) the extent to which that trophic group depletes its resource(s). Our summary includes studies that have focused on the top-down effects of diversity; whereby researchers have examined how the richness of trophic group <i>t</i> impacts the consumption of a shared resource, and also studies that have focused on the bottom-up effects of diversity, whereby researchers have examined how the richness of trophic group <i>t</i> impacts the consumption of <i>t</i> by the next highest trophic level. The first portion of the data set provides information about the source of data and relevant aspects of the experimental design, including the spatial and temporal scales at which the work was performed. The second portion gives the magnitude of each response variable, the standard deviation, and the level of replication at each level of species richness manipulated. The third portion of the data set summarizes the magnitude of diversity effects in two ways. First, log ratios are used to compare the response variable in the most diverse polyculture to either the mean of all monocultures or the species having the highest/lowest value in monoculture. Second, data from each level of species richness are fit to three nonlinear functions (log, power, and hyperbolic) to assess which best characterizes the shape of diversity effects. The final portion of the data set summarizes any information that helps parse diversity effects into that attributable to species richness vs. that attributable to changes in species composition across levels of richness.</p> <p><i>Key words:  biodiversity; ecosystem efficiency; ecosystem functioning; ecosystem services; productivity; species richness; trophic efficiency.</i></p> </blockquote

Model2.SEM.plot.data

Data file required to run model 2 at the plot level. Data included in the file are a row number, site ID, the treatment (2 x 2 NPK fertilizer by fencing), an indicator variable for fence (FENCE), an indicator variable for fertilization (NPK.ADDED), mean annual precipitation in mm yr-1 (MAP), average annual temperature in oC (MAT), solar insolation in KWh m-2 day-1 (SOLAR.INS), atmospheric nitrogen deposition in kg ha-1 yr-1(N.DEPOSITION), a grazing index, total soil %N (SOIL.PCT.N), total aboveground plant biomass in g m-2 (TOTAL.AG.BIOMASS), the percent of biomass that is grass (PERCENT.GRASS.BIOMASS) and the concentration of NPK (plant.NPK), nitrogen (plant.N), phosphorus (plant.P) and potassium (plant.K) in plant tissue

Model2.SEM.site.data

Data file required to run model 2 at the site level. Data included in the file are the site ID, average annual temperature in oC (MAT), mean annual precipitation in mm yr-1 (MAP), solar insolation in KWh m-2 day-1 (SOLAR.INS), atmospheric nitrogen deposition in kg ha-1 yr-1(N.DEPOSITION), a grazing index and the percent of biomass that is grass (PERCENT.GRASS.BIOMASS)

Model1.LRR.data

Data file required to run model 1. Data included in the file are the site ID, the treatment (fenced or unfenced), mean annual precipitation in mm yr-1 (MAP), average annual temperature in oC (MAT), solar insolation in KWh m-2 day-1 (SOLAR.INS), total soil %N (SOIL.PCT.N), and the log ratio of the total nutrient content in fertilized/total nutrient content in control for carbon (LRR.C), nitrogen (LRR.N), phosphorus (LRR.P) and potassium (LRR.K)