KWTraits: Species-by-Trait Matrix for Late Ordovician Marine Fossils.

In ecospace: Simulating Community Assembly and Ecological Diversification Using Ecospace Frameworks

Description

Sample data set of life habit codings (functional traits) for fossil taxa from the Late Ordovician (Type Cincinnatian) Kope and Waynesville Formations from Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky (U.S.A.). The faunal list was compiled from the Paleobiology Database.

Usage

KWTraits

Format

A data frame with 237 rows (taxa) and 40 columns (3 taxonomic identifiers and 37 functional traits):

Class

Taxonomic class(character)

Genus

Taxonomic genus (character)

sp.

Taxonomic species (character)

SEXL

Sexual reproduction (binary)

ASEX

Asexual reproduction (binary)

BVOL

Skeletal body volume of typical adult (ordered numeric with 7 bins). Estimated using methods of Novack-Gottshall (2008).

• 1.000: >= 100 cm^3

• 0.833: 100-10 cm^3

• 0.667: 10-1 cm^3

• 0.500: 1-0.1 cm^3

• 0.333: 0.1-0.01 cm^3

• 0.167: 0.01-0.001 cm^3

• 0: < 0.001 cm^3

BIOT

Biotic substrate composition (binary)

LITH

Lithic substrate composition (binary)

FLUD

Fluidic medium (binary)

HARD

Hard substrate consistency (binary)

SOFT

Soft substrate consistency (binary)

INSB

Insubstantial medium consistency (binary)

SPRT

Supported on other object (binary)

SSUP

Self-supported (binary)

ATTD

Attached to substrate (binary)

FRLV

Free-living (binary)

MOBL

Mobility (ordered numeric with 5 bins):

• 1: habitually mobile

• 0.75: intermittently mobile

• 0.50: facultatively mobile

• 0.25: passively mobile (i.e., planktonic drifting)

• 0: sedentary (immobile)

ABST

Primary microhabitat stratification: absolute distance from seafloor (ordered numeric with 5 bins):

• 1: >= 100 cm

• 0.75: 100-10 cm:

• 0.50: 10-1 cm

• 0.25: 1-0.1 cm

• 0: <0.1 cm

AABS

Primary microhabitat is above seafloor (i.e., epifaunal)

IABS

Primary microhabitat is within seafloor (i.e., infaunal)

RLST

Immediately surrounding microhabitat stratification: relative distance from substrate (ordered numeric with 5 bins):

• 1: >= 100 cm

• 0.75: 100-10 cm:

• 0.50: 10-1 cm

• 0.25: 1-0.1 cm

• 0: <0.1 cm

AREL

Lives above immediate substrate

IREL

Lives within immediate substrate

FAAB

Food is above seafloor

FIAB

Food is within seafloor

FAST

Primary feeding microhabitat stratification: absolute distance of food from seafloor (ordered numeric with 5 bins):

• 1: >= 100 cm

• 0.75: 100-10 cm:

• 0.50: 10-1 cm

• 0.25: 1-0.1 cm

• 0: <0.1 cm

FARL

Food is above immediate substrate

FIRL

Food is within immediate substrate

FRST

Immediately surrounding feeding microhabitat stratification: relative distance of food from substrate (ordered numeric with 5 bins):

• 1: >= 100 cm

• 0.75: 100-10 cm:

• 0.50: 10-1 cm

• 0.25: 1-0.1 cm

• 0: <0.1 cm

AMBT

Ambient foraging habit

FILT

Filter-feeding foraging habit

ATTF

Attachment-feeding foraging habit

MASS

Mass-feeding foraging habit

RAPT

Raptorial foraging habit

AUTO

Autotrophic diet

MICR

Microbivorous (bacteria, protists, algae) diet

CARN

Carnivorous diet

INCP

Food has incorporeal physical condition

PART

Food consumed as particulate matter

BULK

Food consumed as bulk matter

Details

Binary traits are coded with 0 = absent and 1 = present. Five ordered numeric traits (body volume, mobility, distance from seafloor [stratification]) were rescaled to range from 0 to 1 with discrete bins at equally spaced intermediate values.

See Novack-Gottshall (2007: especially online Supplementary Appendix A at for reprint) for definition each functional trait, justifications, explanations, and examples. Novack-Gottshall (2007: Supplementary Appendix B; 2016: Supplementary Appendix A) provides examples of how traits were coded using inferences derived from functional morphology, body size, ichnology, in situ preservation, biotic associations recording direct interactions, and interpretation of geographic and depositional environment patterns.

Indeterminate taxa (e.g., trepostome bryozoan indet. or Platystrophia sp.) that occurred within individual samples within these formations were excluded from the aggregate species pool unless their occurrence was the sole member of that taxon. Such indeterminate taxa and genera lacking a species identification were coded for a particular state only when all other members of that taxon within the Kope-Waynesville species pool unanimously shared that common state; otherwise, the state was listed as NA (missing).

Source

Novack-Gottshall, P.M. 2016b. General models of ecological diversification. II. Simulations and empirical applications. Paleobiology 42: 209-239.

References

Novack-Gottshall, P.M. 2007. Using a theoretical ecospace to quantify the ecological diversity of Paleozoic and modern marine biotas. Paleobiology 33: 274-295.

Novack-Gottshall, P.M. 2008. Using simple body-size metrics to estimate fossil body volume: empirical validation using diverse Paleozoic invertebrates. PALAIOS 23(3):163-173.

Novack-Gottshall, P.M. 2016. General models of ecological diversification. II. Simulations and empirical applications. Paleobiology 42: 209-239.

Villeger, S., P. M. Novack-Gottshall, and D. Mouillot. 2011. The multidimensionality of the niche reveals functional diversity changes in benthic marine biotas across geological time. Ecology Letters 14(6):561-568.

ecospace documentation built on July 8, 2020, 5:54 p.m.