This dataset summarizes demographic rates, abundances and basal area across a succession of ~800 (sub) tropical tree species to explore generalities in demographic trade-offs and successional shifts in demographic strategies across four Neotropical forests that cover a large rainfall gradient. We used repeated forest inventory data from chronosequences in two wet (Costa Rica, Panama) and two dry forests (Yucatán, Oaxaca, both Mexico) to quantify demographic rates of ~800 tree species. For each forest, we explored the main demographic trade-offs and assigned tree species to five demographic groups by performing a weighted Principal Component Analysis (PCA) that accounts for differences in sample size. We aggregated the basal area and abundance across demographic groups to identify successional shifts in demographic strategies over the entire successional gradient from very young (<5 years) to old-growth forests. This dataset provides raw and transformed demographic rates, their weights in the weighted PCA, assignments to demographic groups, and forest inventory data at the species level, as well as the code for performing the weighted PCA.

See Rüger et al. in revision. Successional shifts in tree demographic strategies in wet and dry Neotropical forests. Global Ecology and Biogeography The file 'weightedPCA.R' contains an implementation of the weighted principal component analysis described in Delchambre, L. 2014. Weighted principal component analysis: a weighted covariance eigendecomposition approach. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 446(2), 3545-3555.

Funding provided by: Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung Halle-Jena-LeipzigCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100020056Award Number: