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ecospace (version 1.0.0)

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

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 Paleobiololgy Database (paleobiodb.org/).

Usage

KWTraits

Arguments

Format

A data frame with 237 rows (taxa) and 40 columns (3 taxonomic identifiers and 37 functional traits):
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<="" li="">
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<="" li="">
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<="" li="">
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<="" li="">
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

Source

Novack-Gottshall, P.M. In review at Paleobiology, submitted Oct. 5, 2015. General models of ecological diversification. II. Simulations and empirical applications.

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 www.ben.edu/faculty/pnovack-gottshall/2007_Novack-Gottshall_Ecospace.pdf) for definition each functional trait, justifications, explanations, and examples. Novack-Gottshall (2007: Supplementary Appendix B; In press: 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).

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. In review at Paleobiology, submitted Oct. 5, 2015. General models of ecological diversification. II. Simulations and empirical applications.

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.