Data from: Testing macroecological abundance patterns: the relationship between local abundance and range size, range position and climatic suitability among European vascular plants

  1. Sporbert, Maria 1
  2. Keil, Petr 2
  3. Seidler, Gunnar 1
  4. Bruelheide, Helge 1
  5. Jandt, Ute 1
  6. Aćić, Svetlana 3
  7. Biurrun, Idoia 4
  8. Campos, Juan Antonio 4
  9. Čarni, Andraž 5
  10. Chytrý, Milan 6
  11. Custerevska, Renata 7
  12. Dengler, Jürgen 8
  13. Golub, Valentin 9
  14. Jansen, Florian 10
  15. Kuzemko, Anna 11
  16. Lenoir, Jonathan 12
  17. Marcenò, Corrado 4
  18. Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold 13
  19. Pérez-Haase, Aaron 14
  20. Rūsiņa, Solvita 15
  21. Šilc, Urban 16
  22. Tsiripidis, Ioannis 17
  23. Vandvik, Vigdis 18
  24. Vassilev, Kiril 19
  25. Virtanen, Risto 20
  26. Welk, Erik 1
  27. Show all authors +
  1. 1 Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
    info
    Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

    Halle, Alemania

    ROR https://ror.org/05gqaka33

    Geographic location of the organization Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
  2. 2 German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research
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    German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research

    Leipzig, Alemania

    ROR https://ror.org/01jty7g66

    Geographic location of the organization German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research
  3. 3 University of Belgrade
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    University of Belgrade

    Belgrado, Serbia

    ROR https://ror.org/02qsmb048

    Geographic location of the organization University of Belgrade
  4. 4 Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
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    Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

    Lejona, España

    ROR https://ror.org/000xsnr85

    Geographic location of the organization Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
  5. 5 University of Nova Gorica
    info
    University of Nova Gorica

    Nova Gorica, Eslovenia

    ROR https://ror.org/00mw0tw28

    Geographic location of the organization University of Nova Gorica
  6. 6 Masaryk University
    info
    Masaryk University

    Brno, República Checa

    ROR https://ror.org/02j46qs45

    Geographic location of the organization Masaryk University
  7. 7 UKIM, Skopje
  8. 8 ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences
  9. 9 Russian Academy of Sciences
    info
    Russian Academy of Sciences

    Moscú, Rusia

    ROR https://ror.org/05qrfxd25

    Geographic location of the organization Russian Academy of Sciences
  10. 10 University of Rostock
    info
    University of Rostock

    Rostock, Alemania

    ROR https://ror.org/03zdwsf69

    Geographic location of the organization University of Rostock
  11. 11 National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
    info
    National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

    Kiev, Ucrania

    ROR https://ror.org/00je4t102

    Geographic location of the organization National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
  12. 12 University of Picardie Jules Verne
    info
    University of Picardie Jules Verne

    Amiens, Francia

    ROR https://ror.org/01gyxrk03

    Geographic location of the organization University of Picardie Jules Verne
  13. 13 Biodiversity and Conservation, Rønde
  14. 14 Universitat de Barcelona
    info
    Universitat de Barcelona

    Barcelona, España

    ROR https://ror.org/021018s57

    Geographic location of the organization Universitat de Barcelona
  15. 15 University of Latvia
    info
    University of Latvia

    Riga, Letonia

    ROR https://ror.org/05g3mes96

    Geographic location of the organization University of Latvia
  16. 16 University of Ljubljana
    info
    University of Ljubljana

    Liubliana, Eslovenia

    ROR https://ror.org/05njb9z20

    Geographic location of the organization University of Ljubljana
  17. 17 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
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    Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

    Salónica, Grecia

    ROR https://ror.org/02j61yw88

    Geographic location of the organization Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  18. 18 University of Bergen
    info
    University of Bergen

    Bergen, Noruega

    ROR https://ror.org/03zga2b32

    Geographic location of the organization University of Bergen
  19. 19 Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
    info
    Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

    Sofía, Bulgaria

    ROR https://ror.org/01x8hew03

    Geographic location of the organization Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
  20. 20 University of Oulu
    info
    University of Oulu

    Oulu, Finlandia

    ROR https://ror.org/03yj89h83

    Geographic location of the organization University of Oulu

Editor: Dryad

Year of publication: 2021

Type: Dataset

Version: 2

CC0 1.0

Abstract

Aim: A fundamental question in macroecology centres around understanding the relationship between species’ local abundance and their distribution in geographic and climatic space (i.e. the multi-dimensional climatic space or climatic niche). Here, we tested three macroecological hypotheses that link local abundance to the following range properties: (1) the abundance-range size relationship, (2) the abundance-range centre relationship, and (3) the abundance-suitability relationship. Location: Europe Taxon: Vascular plants Methods: Distribution range maps were extracted from the Chorological Database to derive information on the range and niche sizes of 517 European vascular plant species. To estimate local abundance, we assessed samples from 744,513 vegetation plots in the European Vegetation Archive, where local species’ abundance is available as plant cover per plot. We then calculated the ‘centrality’, i.e. the distance between the location of the abundance observation and each species’ range centre in geographic and climatic space. The climatic suitability of plot locations was estimated using coarse-grain species distribution models (SDMs). The relationships between centrality or climatic suitability with abundance were tested using linear models and quantile regression. We summarized the overall trend across species’ regression slopes from linear models and quantile regression using a meta-analytical approach. Results: We did not detect any positive relationships between a species’ mean local abundance and the size of its geographic range or climatic niche. Contrasting yet significant correlations were detected between abundance and centrality or climatic suitability among species. Main conclusions: Our results do not provide unequivocal support for any of the relationships tested, demonstrating that determining properties of species’ distributions at large grains and extents might be of limited use for predicting local abundance, including current SDM approaches. We conclude that environmental factors influencing individual performance and local abundance are likely to differ from those factors driving plant species’ distribution at coarse resolution and broad geographic extents.