Functional plant traits and demographic rates of Protea species in the Fynbos, South Africa

We set up 27 study plots of 120x120m with a 40m buffer zone in the Fynbos, Western Cape and mapped all Protea shrubs taller than 30cm with a highly precise dGPS; in total 127,993 Protea individuals. On 6943 focal plants of 19 Protea species on all sites (Protea acuminata, P. burchellii, P. coronata, P. compacta, P. cynaroides, P. eximia, P. laurifolia, P. lepidocarpodendron, P. longifolia, P. lorifolia, P. magnifica, P. mundii, P. nana, P. neriifolia, P. nitida, P. obtusifolia, P. punctata, P. repens, P. susannae) we measured flowering phenologies. On a subset of 2580 focal individuals we measured plant traits (plant size inflorescence size, cone mass, specific leaf area (SLA), and trunk length from the ground to the first branch), on 1717 focal individuals we measured seed set on 1333 focal individuals we counted pollinator visitation rate and on 850 focal individuals we harvested inflorescences to measure sugar nectar. We created trait-based neighborhood models and investigated spatial and temporal effects of floral resources (nectar sugar) provided by the Protea plants in the study sites on the seed set and pollinator visitation rate. For more details see Nottebrock et al. 2016 Ecography.