Trait data
We assigned dispersal mode (abiotic versus animal-dispersed) based on
species- or genus-level data in the TRY database or, if such data were
missing, based on searching the literature. We defined tree species as
‘large vertebrate dispersed’ if the list of their dispersers did not
include any small-bodied rodents (families Muridae, Sciuridae,
Heteromyidae, Cricetidae, or Echimyidae) or non-corvid passerine birds.
Lists of dispersers were obtained from the TRY database if possible and
from the literature if not (information sources for all species
presented in Table S2).
Seed mass, wood density, specific leaf area, and adult plant height were
gleaned from the TRY Plant Trait Database (Kattge et al. 2011) if
available, or otherwise taken from the literature (Table S3). We chose
these traits because they are some of the most commonly measured
functional traits and ones that are often used in functional trait
studies (e.g. Adler et al. 2014; Kunstler et al. 2016).
When we could not find species-level data, we used median genus-level
values for wood density (10 species; 17% of total) and SLA (17 species;
29%). The TRY database did not include any wood density data for
cycads, but we found stem density volume and mass estimates in the
literature (Cousins et al. 2011).