Seedling Herbivory Across Subtropical Forests with Elevational Transects

11,811 seedling leaves from 415 woody species were surveyed using a standardized field protocol across five elevational transects in subtropical mountains. The dataset compares mean and variability of herbivory and examines influences from plant size, diversity, and abiotic conditions. Authored by Xiaoran Wang and last updated in May 2026, it provides evidence for how herbivory variability responds to environmental gradients.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between herbivory variability and elevation based on growth form (tree vs. shrub)
• Analyzing the effects of plant size metrics (leaf area, seedling height) on herbivory patterns
• Investigating how abiotic factors like canopy cover and soil temperature drive herbivory distribution
• Testing hypotheses about species coexistence mechanisms through herbivory variability rather than mean levels

Strengths

• Contains data from 11,811 seedling leaves, providing a substantial sample size for analysis
• Covers 415 woody species across five distinct elevational transects
• Uses a standardized field protocol for consistent data collection
• Explicitly compares mean herbivory and herbivory variability, a less common focus in the field

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the specific subtropical mountain transects studied

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Collected via a standardized field protocol across five elevational transects.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-13 03:40:16; freshness should be verified

Geography

Subtropical mountains (specific transects not named)