1. Species are responding to global climate change in varied and nuanced ways. However, how species-specific responses to climate change affect interactions among species remains poorly understood. It is important to understand species interactions under potential climate change scenarios because those interactions can in turn alter community dynamics.

2. In this study, we conducted two complementary experiments to examine how simulated warming might alter larval intraguild predation (IGP) rates and resulting adult assemblage composition in three species of North American dragonflies: Pachydiplax longipennis, Plathemis lydia, and Libellula luctuosa.

3. First, using both P. longipennis and L. luctuosa, we isolated inter- and intraspecific pairs of larval dragonflies of different size differentials to determine how size and species identity might influence IGP rates.

4. In tandem, we conducted a year-long mesocosm experiment with all three species to assess how simulated warming and heat waves influenced the resulting adult dragonfly assemblages.

5. IGP trials revealed that P. longipennis individuals were much more likely to engage in IGP than L. luctuosa, regardless of size differential. In the mesocosm experiment, emerging adult assemblages were dominated by P. longipennis individuals, a pattern that was most pronounced in the control treatment.

6. Our results indicate that while P. longipennis may be the competitively dominant species under current ambient conditions, warming may alter this dynamic and lessen the dominance of this species on resulting assemblage composition.

README file for Data from "Species-specific responses to warming alter community composition" by Julia R. Tituskin, Shane M. Waddell, and Karen E. Mabry

There are 5 data files associated with this contribution.

The file “TankTreatments.csv” includes information about the temperature treatments applied to experimental tanks.

Column headings are defined as:

Block: denotes the experimental block

TankID: an identifier for individual experimental tanks

Treatment: the temperature treatment as categorized in the paper - control, warmed, and variable

Notes: includes information about which tanks/blocks were removed from statistical analysis due to heater malfunctions. To prevent confusion, data from these tanks were removed from all other uploaded data files.

 

The file “PlanktonCounts.csv” includes plankton abundance data from each experimental tank.

Column headings are defined as:

TankID: an identifier for individual experimental tanks

Treatment: the temperature treatment as categorized in the paper - control, warmed, and variable

Block: denotes the experimental block

Ostracoda: abundance of ostracods

Cladocera: abundance of cladocerans

Copepoda: abundance of copepods

Rotifera: abundance of rotifers

 

The file “DragonflyEmergence2020.csv” contains data on adult dragonflies emerging from experimental tanks.

Column headings are defined as:

Date: date of emergence in MM/DD/YYYY format

Block: denotes the experimental block

TankID: an identifier for individual experimental tanks

Treatment: the temperature treatment as categorized in the paper - control, warmed, and variable

Spp: species: “palo” = Pachydiplax longipennis, “plly” = Plathemis lydia, “Lilu” = Libellula luctuosa

Indiv: a unique identifier for each individual

Head width (mm): individual head width in mm

Thorax (mm): individual thorax length in mm

Forewing (cm): individual forewing length in cm

Hindwing length (cm): individual hindwing length in cm

Hindwing width (mm): individual hindwing width in mm

Sex: individual sex: m = male, f = female

Notes: any notes taken about the individual at the time of data collection

 

The file “survival_data2020.csv” contains data on the survival outcome of individuals in the mesocosm experiment.

Column headings are defined as:

Block: denotes the experimental block

TankID: an identifier for individual experimental tanks

Treatment: the temperature treatment as categorized in the paper - control, warmed, and variable

Spp: species: “palo” = Pachydiplax longipennis, “plly” = Plathemis lydia, “Lilu” = Libellula luctuosa

Surv: whether an individual survived: 1 = survived to emergence, 0 = did not survive to emergence

 

The file “IGPtrials2020.csv” contains data from the intraguild predation experiment.

Column headings are defined as:

PairID: unique identifier for a pair of larvae interacting within an experimental arena

Block: denotes which of two experimental blocks, A or B, during which a pairing took place

SppPair: species included in a pair-wise interaction: P = Pachydiplax longipennis, L = Libellula luctuosa

Category: experimental pairing treatment:

              PaloDiff = two Pachydiplax individuals, who differ in size

              PaloSame = two Pachydiplax individuals, who are the same size

              LiluDiff = two Libellula individuals, who differ in size

              LiluSame = two Libellula individuals, who are the same size

              PaloLgr = a Pachydiplax and a Libellula, Pachydiplax is larger

              LiluLgr = a Pachydiplax and a Libellula, Lilbellula is larger

              PLSame = a Pachydiplax and a Libellula, they are the same size

Ind1ID: individual identifier for first member of the pair

Ind2ID: individual identified for the second member of the pair

1HeadWidth(mm): head width of individual 1 in mm

2HeadWidth(mm): head width of individual 2 in mm

Difference(mm): head width differential between individuals 1 and 2

Consumed: which individual (if any) was killed/eaten, I1 = individual 1, I2 = individual 2, none = neither were consumed (there was no IGP)

Notes: any notes about the interaction recorded at the time of the experiment