Data and complete R workflow for: Distinct coastal and montane plant assemblages in Algerian juniper woodlands: high turnover and implications for conservation monitoring

This dataset and analytical package support the manuscript “Distinct coastal and montane plant assemblages in Algerian juniper woodlands: high turnover and implications for conservation monitoring”, prepared for resubmission to Plant Ecology and Evolution.

The study comprises 322 standardised 100-m2 vegetation plots nested evenly within 14 stations (23 plots per station), including 11 coastal and three montane stations in northwestern Algeria, and records 320 vascular plant taxa.

The package contains the analytical data, station metadata, 12 modular R scripts, 88 readable analytical outputs, diagnostics, session information and supplementary-figure provenance. The analyses retain the plot-within-station hierarchy through mixed models and hierarchical multivariate partitioning, while primary formation-level tests exhaustively reallocate labels among whole stations. Complementary analyses include ordination, clustering, beta-diversity partitioning, local contributions to beta diversity, sensitivity analyses and constrained null-model diagnostics.

The 14 stations, not the 322 plots, are the independent replication level for the coastal-montane contrast. Because the design includes only three montane stations and formation is geographically and environmentally structured, the data do not identify a causal effect of elevation, climate or any single environmental driver.