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Abstract Habitat‐forming organisms provide three‐dimensional structure that supports abundant and diverse communities. Variation in the morphological traits of habitat formers will therefore likely influence how they facilitate associated communities, either via food and habitat provisioning, or by altering predator–prey interactions. These mechanisms, however, are typically studied in isolation, and thus, we know little of how they interact to affect associated communities. In response to this, we used naturally occurring morphological variability in the algaSargassum vestitumto create habitat units of distinct morphotypes to test whether variation in the morphological traits (frond size and thallus size) ofS. vestitumor the interaction between these traits affects their value as habitat for associated communities in the presence and absence of predation. We found morphological traits did not interact, instead having independent effects on epifauna that were negligible in the absence of predation. However, when predators were present, habitat units with large fronds were found to host significantly lower epifaunal abundances than other morphotypes, suggesting that large frond alga provided low‐value refuge from predators. The presence of predators also influenced the size structure of epifaunal communities from habitat units of differing frond size, suggesting that the refuge value ofS. vestitumwas also related to epifauna body size. This suggests that habitat formers may chiefly structure associated communities by mediating size‐selective predation, and not through habitat provisioning. Furthermore, these results also highlight that habitat traits cannot be considered in isolation, for their interaction with biotic processes can have significant implications for associated communities. 

For each assessment cycle of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), researchers in the life sciences are called upon to provide evidence to policymakers planning for a changing future. This research increasingly relies on highly technical and complex outputs from climate models. The strengths and weaknesses of these data may not be fully appreciated beyond the climate modelling community; therefore, uninformed use of raw or preprocessed climate data could lead to overconfident or spurious conclusions. We provide an accessible introduction to climate model outputs that is intended to empower the life science community to robustly address questions about human and natural systems in a changing world. 

ABSTRACT MotivationHere, we make available a second version of the BioTIME database, which compiles records of abundance estimates for species in sample events of ecological assemblages through time. The updated version expands version 1.0 of the database by doubling the number of studies and includes substantial additional curation to the taxonomic accuracy of the records, as well as the metadata. Moreover, we now provide an R package (BioTIMEr) to facilitate use of the database. Main Types of Variables IncludedThe database is composed of one main data table containing the abundance records and 11 metadata tables. The data are organised in a hierarchy of scales where 11,989,233 records are nested in 1,603,067 sample events, from 553,253 sampling locations, which are nested in 708 studies. A study is defined as a sampling methodology applied to an assemblage for a minimum of 2 years. Spatial Location and GrainSampling locations in BioTIME are distributed across the planet, including marine, terrestrial and freshwater realms. Spatial grain size and extent vary across studies depending on sampling methodology. We recommend gridding of sampling locations into areas of consistent size. Time Period and GrainThe earliest time series in BioTIME start in 1874, and the most recent records are from 2023. Temporal grain and duration vary across studies. We recommend doing sample‐level rarefaction to ensure consistent sampling effort through time before calculating any diversity metric. Major Taxa and Level of MeasurementThe database includes any eukaryotic taxa, with a combined total of 56,400 taxa. Software Formatcsv and. SQL.