Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.3r2280gtm

Description of the data and file structure

This repository contains the data necessary to replicate data analyses, figures and tables in the manuscript:

Species’ traits modulate rapid changes in flight time in high-Arctic muscid flies under climate change

Note on data provenance and licensing:

This dataset includes original data and materials created by the authors, which are released under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication. These original contributions are free to use without restriction.

File: Zackenberg_Muscidae_SL.csv

Description: Raw Muscidae abundance data.

Variables

• Site: Region of data collection (Zackenberg, Northeast Greenland)
• Plot: Vegetation type flies were caught in.
• Trap: Trap replicates within each plot (A or B).
• Day: Day of the month of sampling.
• Month: Month of sampling.
• Year: Year of sampling.
• DOY: Day of year of sampling
• Species_name: Name of species sampled.
• Sex: Male or female flies.

File: All_species_clean.csv

Description: Cleaned species abundance dataset used for phenology analysis. This version includes all capture dates, including zero-capture events, and applies filtering criteria described in the main manuscript.

Variables

• Year: Year of sampling.

• Plot: Vegetation type in which flies were sampled.
• DOY: Day of year (Julian day) the sampling occurred.
• Species_name: Scientific name of the species recorded.
• Abundance: Number of individuals of the species captured on that date.
• Event: Indicates whether the species was captured frequently enough in a given year to be used in phenological analysis.
  • 1 = sampled at least three times during the season
  • 0 = sampled fewer than three times
• TotalYear: Total number of years the species was captured in a given plot (range: 0–18; a value of 18 indicates annual capture across all study years).
• Include: Indicates whether the species-year combination meets inclusion criteria for phenology analysis (i.e., observed at least three times in a season and present in at least five years).
  • 1 = include in analysis
  • 0 = exclude from analysis

Files with climate data:

File: Snowmelt_Climatestation.xlsx

Description: Annual estimates of snowmelt timing.

Variables

• Year: Year of sampling.
• SnowmeltDOY: Day of year of annual snowmelt.

In the following datasets, temperature data has been merged with phenology estimates:

File: All_species_cleanup_onset.csv

File: All_species_cleanup_peak.csv

File: All_species_cleanup_end.csv

Variables

• Year: Year of sampling.
• SnowmeltDOY: Day of year of annual snowmelt.
• Plot: Vegetation type in which flies were sampled.
• DOY: Day of year (Julian day) the sampling occurred.
• Species_name: Scientific name of the species recorded.
• Abundance: Number of individuals of the species captured on that date.
• Event: Indicates whether the species was captured frequently enough in a given year to be used in phenological analysis.
  • 1 = sampled at least three times during the season
  • 0 = sampled fewer than three times
• TotalYear: Total number of years the species was captured in a given plot (range: 0–18; a value of 18 indicates annual capture across all study years).
• Include: Indicates whether the species-year combination meets inclusion criteria for phenology analysis (i.e., observed at least three times in a season and present in at least five years).
  • 1 = include in analysis
  • 0 = exclude from analysis
• Temperature: Average air temperature (°C) over the 30 days preceding the mean phenological event (onset, peak, or end of activity) for each species-year combination.

File with DNA sequence data:

File: dna_sequence_muscidae.csv

Description: DNA sequence data for analysis on phylogenetic signals in muscid flies at Zackenberg.

Variables

• id: ID for each muscid fly species.
• sequence: DNA sequence of the folmer region of the COI gene.

Files with phenology estimates:

File: onset_estimates_na_removed.csv

File: peak_estimates_na_removed.csv

File: end_estimates_na_removed.csv

Description: These files contain phenology estimates for the onset, peak, and end of flight activity for Muscidae species. Each file includes data used to analyze temporal trends in phenological responses across years. Records with missing values (NA) have been removed to ensure consistent time series analysis.

Variables

• species: Scientific name of the species recorded.
• plot: Vegetation type in which flies were sampled.
• year: Year of sampling.
• .onset: Estimated onset of flight activity for each species (Julian day).
• .peak: Estimated peak of flight activity for each species (Julian day).
• .end: Estimated end of flight activity for each species (Julian day).
• .lower_ci: Lower bound of the confidence interval for the estimated phenological event.
• .upper_ci: Upper bound of the confidence interval for the estimated phenological event.
• .se: Standard error of the estimated phenological event.
• .inv_std_err: Inverse of the standard error; used as a weighting factor in statistical models.

Files with model summaries:

File: df_summary_onset.csv

File: df_summary_peak.csv

File: df_summary_end.csv

Description: These files contain summary statistics from linear models assessing phenological trends (onset, peak, and end of activity) for each Muscidae species within each plot. Each summary includes model outputs alongside associated species traits used in further analysis.

Variables

• species: Scientific name of the species recorded.
• plot: Vegetation type in which flies were sampled.
• pheno_event: Phenological event analyzed (onest, peak or end of activity).
• slope: Estimated rate of change in the phenological event (onset, peak, or end) over time (days per year).
• SE: Standard error of the slope estimate.
• Tvalue: t-statistic from the linear model, used to assess the significance of the slope.
• Pvalue: p-value associated with the t-statistic, indicating whether the slope differs significantly from zero.
• Rsquare: Coefficient of determination (R²), representing the proportion of variance in the phenological event explained by the model.
• AdjRSquare: Adjusted R², which accounts for the number of predictors in the model and sample size.
• n: Number of years (observations) included in the model for that species-plot combination.
• Residual: Sum of squared residuals from the linear model (measure of model error).
• body_size: Average body size of the species (mm); used as a trait variable in comparative analyses.
• pheno_niche: Phenological niche classification, reflecting the typical seasonal activity period of the species (early or late season).
• flower_visiting: Binary variable indicating whether the species is known to visit flowers.
  • Frequent = flower-visiting
  • Irregular = not flower-visiting

Code/software

Software used: R Statistical Software (v4.4.1; R Core Team 2024)

Packages: “tibble” v. 3.2.1, “dplyr” v. 1.1.4, “tidyr” v. 1.3.1, “ggplot2” v. 3.5.1, “mgcv” v. 1.9-1,

      "gratia" v. 0.10.0, "purrr" v. 1.0.2, "furrr" v. 0.3.1, "janitor" v. 2.2.1

Access information

Other publicly accessible locations of the data:

This dataset was originally informed by environmental and phenological observations published by the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring Programme under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-SA-4.0) license. However, no raw data or materials under that license are included in this Dryad submission. Only derived summaries or references to those external sources remain, and all third-party content has been clearly cited below for attribution and reproducibility.

Appropriate ways to cite third-party sources:

Phenological observations:
Observations at Zackenberg were provided by the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring Programme. Family data for Muscidae is available at: https://data.g-e-m.dk/.
Cite as:
Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (2025). BioBasis Zackenberg - Arthropods - Arthropod emergence (Version 1.0). [Data set] [CC-BY-SA-4.0]. Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring. https://doi.org/10.17897/V285-Z265

Environmental predictors:
Temperature and snowmelt observations for Zackenberg were also provided by the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring Programme. Data are available at: https://data.g-e-m.dk/. A formatted version, including all estimated temperature and snowmelt timing values, is included in this repository. If using the original data downloaded directly from the database, please cite as:

• Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (2025). ClimateBasis Zackenberg – Air temperature – Air temperature, 200 cm @ 60 min sample (°C) (Version 1.0). [Data set] [CC-BY-SA-4.0]. Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring. https://doi.org/10.17897/XV96-HC57
• Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (2025). ClimateBasis Zackenberg – Precipitation – Snow depth – 180 min sample (m) (Version 1.0). [Data set] [CC-BY-SA-4.0]. Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring. https://doi.org/10.17897/7RVV-Z412