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INTRODUCTION
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“Are ecosystem engineering traits fixed or flexible: A study on clonal expansion strategies in co-occurring dune grasses”
Carlijn Lammers, Clea van de Ven, Tjisse van der Heide, Valérie Reijers

Version: 16-10-2020

 This readme file describes the data accompanying the above publication. For any further queries please contact: 
carlijn.lammers@nioz.nl

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CONTENT
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All files contain header descriptions to explain variables. 

Data files of a field survey conducted along the Northwestern European coast. The survey was conducted between June and October 2019:

- Folder’ Photos’: 66 .png images of the plants sampled during field survey. Files are named after the species (AMM=Ammophila arenaria and ELY=Elytrigia juncea), followed by the location (complete names except; MSM=Mt-st Michel (FR), KWH=Kwade Hoek (NL)) and the plant/replicate number. The red dots indicate shoot position (colours indicate different individuals). Including discarded individuals (marked as _discarded). Pictures are scaled to 24 pixels per cm. 

- Folder ‘Coordinates’: 63.csv files indicating the spatial position of shoots sampled during the field campaign. Coordinates are in cm. Files are named after the species (AMM=Ammophila arenaria and ELY=Elytrigia juncea), followed by the location (complete names except; MSM=Mt-st Michel (FR), KWH=Kwade Hoek (NL)) and the plant/replicate number.

- Folder ‘Distances’: 63 .csv files indicating the step size distribution in cm as calculated by applying a nearest neighbour algorithm on shoot coordinates. Files are named after the species (AMM=Ammophila arenaria and ELY=Elytrigia juncea), followed by the location (complete names except; MSM=Mt-st Michel (FR), KWH=Kwade Hoek (NL)) and the plant/replicate number.

- Datafile ‘plant_characteristics.csv’, file containing additional plant parameters including shoot length, shoot diameter, nitrogen content and carbon to nitrogen ratio.

- Datafile ‘environmental_characteristics.csv’, file containing environmental parameters including organic matter, grain size, plant available nitrogen, phosphate, distance to sea, beach width and wave height.

- Datafile ‘temp_prec_yearly.csv’, file containing temperature (average) and precipitation (sum) per year between 2016 and 2019, from which averages were used in the manuscript. Sources see supplementary materials.