Effects of mowing on body size patterns in spider assemblages of mesic meadows
Data files
Feb 07, 2024 version files 257.30 KB
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README.md
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SpiderBodySizeMowing.xlsx
Abstract
Habitat disturbance affects not only the abundance, species richness and species composition of the local fauna, but also the body size of specific individuals and body size patterns in animal assemblages. Particularly large disturbances occur in agroecosystems, where many agricultural treatments are carried out. One of them, which is most commonly applied to grasslands and which significantly damages the habitat structure, is mowing. We examined the effect of mowing on mean, skewness, and kurtosis of the body size in epigeic spider assemblages. The research was conducted on mesic meadows in eastern Poland, in an agricultural landscape typical for this region, consisting of a mosaic of meadows, fields and forests. Spiders were collected using pitfall traps in two sampling periods: the first before mowing and the second when part of the meadows had been mown. Mowing had no significant effect on mean body size, skewness and kurtosis of the body size in epigeic spider assemblages. However, after the cut, mown plots showed on average significantly smaller spider species than unmown plots. Both the value of skewness and kurtosis significantly increased after mowing, but to the same extent on both the control and mown plots. The decrease in mean body size and increase in skewness in spider assemblages were mainly due to an increase in the number of small species from the Linyphiidae family. It is likely that these species began to migrate (via ballooning) during the second sampling session, following the start of haying, and were thus caught in traps more frequently. Our study showed no clear, significant changes in the body size structure of epigeic spiders in mown meadows compared to unmown ones, which may suggest that the mowing, where extensive farming is practised, does not have a long-term significant negative impact on this group of invertebrates.
README: Effects of mowing on body size patterns in spider assemblages of mesic meadows
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.b8gtht7kx
Author information
Tomasz Stański - University of Siedlce, Faculty of Sciences, Siedlce, Poland
Marzena Stańska - University of Siedlce, Faculty of Sciences, Siedlce, Poland
Izabela Hajdamowicz - Flächenagentur Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Ostfildern, Germany
Łukasz Nicewicz - Institute of Biology, Biotechnology and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice , Poland
Andreas Hiller - Gartenstrasse 2, 73240 Wendlingen, Germany
General Information
The file contains data of spiders sampled using pitfall traps on mesic meadows.
Date of data collection: 2013-2015.
Geographic location of data collection: eastern Poland, the Lublin Province
Description of the data and file structure
Column “Species” – Latin name of spider species
Column “Body size” – maximum body length value (in mm) for each species regardless of sex, provided in the Spiders of Europe database
Column “Family” – the family to which the spider species belongs
Column “N Spiders” – number of collected spiders
Column “Sampling period” - First (before mowing), Second (after mowing)
Column “Collecting date” – The day the material was collected
Column “Year” - The year the material was collected
Column “No. of Trap” - Trap number - there were three traps in each plot
Column “Plot” – The symbol of study plot
Column “Control/Mown” - Unmown plots were treated as the Control plots, while those that were mown after the first sampling period were treated as the Mown plots.
Sharing/Access information
Please cite paper published from this data when available (publication in production)
Methods
Spiders were collected using pitfall traps in two 14-day sampling periods.