sThis dataset is part of the 2ndFOR network on secondary forests (www.2ndfor.com). It contains the list of tree species (dbh>=5cm) found in secondary forests younger than 21 years after abandonment, located in 75 landscapes across the Neotropics. All secondary forests were previously used as pasture and/or agriculture. This data supported the study Jakovac et al 2022. Strong floristic distinctiveness across Neotropical successional forests. Science Advances. More information on the data collection can be found in the publication.

File "dataset_sppList.csv" contains for each site (called "landscape" as in the publication) the list of tree species found in secondary forest plots. The number of plots and area of plots sampled in each site varies. Such information is available upon request. File "dataset_predictors" conatains for each site (called "landscape" as in the publication) the values for the environmental predictors used in the final analyses. All values are averages of predictor values extracted for each vegetation plot wihtin a site. The description of the variables headings is below: [1,] "landscape" = site [2,] "lat_mean" = latitude of the site [3,] "long_mean" = longitude of the site
[4,] "Age_mean" = average age of the secondary forests sampled in each site. Age is defined as the time since abandonment, and was derived from field intervirews or remote sensing.
[5,] "CWD_mean" = climatic water deficit (J. Chave, Long term climatic water deficit, p. ., (available at https://chave.ups-tlse.fr/pantropical_allometry.htm).
[6,] "HFP2009_mean" = human footprint for the year 2009 (O. Venter, E. W. Sanderson, A. Magrach, J. R. Allan, J. Beher, K. R. Jones, H. P. Possingham, W. F. Laurance, P. Wood, B. M. Fekete, M. A. Levy, J. E. M. Watson, Global terrestrial Human Footprint maps for 1993 and 2009. Sci. Data. 3, 1–10 (2016).) [7,] "MAP_mean" = mean annual precipitation from the Chelsea database
[8,] "TS_mean" = temperature seasonality from the Chelsea database
[9,] "bdod_mean" = soil bulk density from the SoilGrids database (kg/dm³) [10,] "cec_mean" = soil cation exchange capacity from the SoilGrids database (cmol(c)/kg)
[11,] "clay_mean" = soil clay content from the SoilGrids database (%)
[12,] "N_mean" = soil nitrogen content from the SoilGrids database (g/kg)
[13,] "phh2o_mean" = pH in water from the SoilGrids database (pH)
[14,] "sand_mean" = soil sand content from the SoilGrids database (%)
[15,] "silt_mean" = soil silt content from the SoilGrids database (%)
[16,] "elev_mean" = elevation from SRTM (J. J. Danielson, D. B. Gesch, “Global multi-resolution terrain elevation data 2010 (GMTED2010)” (2011), , doi:10.3133/ofr20111073.)
[17,] "human_mod_mean" = human modification index (C. M. Kennedy, J. R. Oakleaf, D. M. Theobald, S. Baruch‐Mordo, J. Kiesecker, Managing the middle: A shift in conservation priorities based on the global human modification gradient. Glob. Chang. Biol. 25, 811–826 (2019).) [18,] "for_cover_5000_mean" = percentage of forest cover within 500m. Forest cover maps from Copernicus Global Land Cover Layer collection 3. M. Buchhorn, M. Lesiv, N.-E. Tsendbazar, M. Herold, L. Bertels, B. Smets, Copernicus Global Land Cover Layers—Collection 2. Remote Sens. 12, 1044 (2020).