Data from: Temperature-dependent shifts in multiple tri-trophic defense interactions on black cherry
Data files
Oct 06, 2025 version files 56.98 KB
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Dawson-Glass_warming_cherries_analyses_070125.R
20.16 KB
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leafleveldata070225.csv
9.50 KB
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Prunusweelkydatafull070225.csv
23.67 KB
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README.md
3.65 KB
Abstract
Many plants engage in tri-trophic interactions whereby plants provide resources such as food or shelter to mutualists in exchange for protection against herbivores and pathogens. Despite their ecological importance, tri-trophic interactions are often context dependent, in which the magnitude and outcome of the interaction can shift under different abiotic and biotic conditions. Disentangling the effects of environmental factors, such as temperature, on tri-trophic interactions is especially important as temperature regimes shift under climate change, but few studies have explored how abiotic shifts affect tri-trophic interactions across multiple trophic groups in the same plant system. Here, we monitored 96 black cherry (Prunus serotina) seedlings for 10 weeks under ambient and increased temperatures to explore the effects of temperature on interactions across multiple trophic levels. Specifically, we explored the effects of temperature on two different tri-trophic interactions between black cherry and: (1) mutualistic leaf domatia-dwelling mites and leaf fungi; and (2) arthropod predators and herbivores. We present two datasets: one contains data on mites (count), leaf fungi (count of hyphae along a transect), leaf domatia (domatia size in milimeters), and extrafloral nectaries (count), collected at the end of the experiment from a subset of 3 leaves per plant. The next contains data on herbivory (proportion of leaves with evidence of herbivory on each plant), predator abundance (count of predators seen each week), and plant size (height), collected weekly over the 10 week experiment. We also present the code used to process and analyze these datasets, with the results presented in our main manuscript "Temperature-dependent shifts in multiple tri-trophic defense interactions on black cherry."
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.18931zd8v
Description of the data and file structure
In June-August 2018, we grew 96 Prunus serotina seedlings under either elevated temperature or ambient temperature conditions. Over the course of 10 weeks, we weekly measured the abundance of arthopod predators (spiders and ants), the amount of herbivory plants experienced, and plant height. At the conclusion of the experiment, we collected a subset of 3 leaves per plant and assessed mite abundance, the abundance of fungal hyphae, the presence and size of leaf domatia, and extrafloral nectary abundance on each leaf. We combine these datasets to assess the effect of warming on the abundances and interactions between these groups.
Files and variables
File: Dawson-Glass_warming_cherries_analyses_070125.R
Description: Script with data preparation and statistical analyses performed on the collected data.
File: leafleveldata070225.csv
Description: Data that was collected from a subset of 3 leaves per plant. Missing values are indicated by NA.
Variables
- ring: ID value of the heating ring plot at the Kellogg Biological Station that the seedling was planted into.
- plant: Plant ID number.
- domatia.presence: Binary value of if a leaf domatia was present on the collected leaf. A value of 1 indicates domatia is present, and 0 indicates domatia is absent.
- fungal.count: The number of fungal hyphae strands on the leaf, assessed using a tape peel that removed hyphae from the leaf surface, that crossed a transect of the tape along the 19 mm width of the tape.
- mite.count: The number of mites found on the leaf.
- notes: Any notes about the replicate that might be relevant. Notes include "not present" which indicates that this leaf replicate was not available for sampling (because of an insufficient number of leaves on the plant) and "no stem" which means the petiole of the leaf was absent or damaged, preventing us from counting the number of extrafloral nectaries on the leaf.
- rep: Leaf replicate (either 1, 2, or 3).
- treatment: Warmed or control treatment.
- dom.length.mm: The size of leaf domatia, in milimeters.
- leaf.length.cm: Leaf replicate size, in centimeters.
- EFN: Extrafloral nectary count.
File: Prunusweelkydatafull070225.csv
Description: Data that was collected weekly from the Prunus serotina seedlings. Missing values are indicated by NA.
Variables
- Ring.Plant: Plant ID, which is a concatenation of the plant replicate ID number and the heating ring ID number.
- Treatment: Warmed or control treatment.
- week: Survey week.
- plot: ID value of the heating ring plot at the Kellogg Biological Station that the seedling was planted into.
- Height: Plant height in centimeters.
- Number.of.Leaves: The number of leaves on the plant.
- Number.of.Ants: The number of ants seen on the plant.
- Number.of.Spiders: The number of spiders seen on the plant.
- Number.of.Herbivory: The number of leaves showing signs of herbivory.
- Notes: Any notes about the seedling at the time of data collection.
Code/software
File: Dawson-Glass_warming_cherries_analyses_070125.R
Description: Script with data preparation and statistical analyses performed on the collected data. Working directory must be assigned before reading in the previously described data files and running the script.
Software: R version 4.3.1
Packages used:
dplyr
ggplot2
lme4
emmeans
ggpubr
piecewiseSEM
nlme
tidyr
arm