Alpine climate and soils heterogeneity data and simulation results

<p>We developed metrics of climatic and edaphic heterogeneity, using principal components analyses and the shoelace algorithm, and added elevation range. We applied commonality analysis to partition the unique and shared explanation of the observed vascular plant species richness  among selected metrics. A simulation was developed to separate the relative importance of area and heterogeneity at different extents and representations of spatial nestedness, and the heterogeneity – effective area tradeoff was evaluated by altering spatial discreteness.</p> <p>The simulations revealed that heterogeneity was consistently more important, but less so among smaller areas. This qualitative pattern was maintained regardless of whether and how nestedness was represented. The heterogeneity – effective area tradeoff occurred in a few simulations of more discrete habitats.</p>