Data from: Seasonal diet partition among top predators of a small island, Iriomotejima island in the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan
Data files
Feb 20, 2024 version files 86.12 KB
Abstract
In general, small islands lack predators because species at higher trophic levels often cannot survive. However, two predators—the Iriomote cat Prionailurus bengalensis iriomotensis, and the Crested Serpent Eagle Spilornis cheela perplexus—live on Iriomotejima Island in the Ryukyu Archipelago, which covers an area of approximately 284 square kilometers. To understand how these two top predators coexist on such a small island with limited resources, we focused on their seasonal feeding habits which are considered crucial for survival in such an island ecosystem. To compare the diets of the Iriomote cat and Crested Serpent Eagle, we used DNA metabarcoding analysis of their fecal samples. In the summer, we identified 16 prey items from Iriomote cat fecal samples, and 15 Crested Serpent Eagle fecal samples. In the winter, we identified 37 and 14 prey items, respectively. Using a non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and a permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA), our study reveals significant differences in the diet composition at the order level between the predators during both seasons. Furthermore, although some prey items at the species-to-order level overlapped between the two predators, the frequency of occurrence of most prey items differed between them in both seasons. These results suggest that this difference in diets was one of the reasons why the Iriomote cat and the Crested Serpent Eagle coexisted on such a small island.
README: Data from: Seasonal diet partition among top predators of a small island, Iriomotejima island in the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.x69p8czrf
This folder contains the data, computer code, and document files for the article. Please address any comments or requests to Alisa Tobe at t.alisa210@gmail.com. All materials are free to use, but I would appreciate being notified and the dataset and matching paper cited if appropriate.
Description of the data and file structure
"no_sequencing_reads_primer name.csv" contains the number of sequencing reads for each prey taxon in each fecal sample from each primer set after taxonomic profiling. These data were used to calculate the values described in Figure 3.
"presence_absence_taxonomic level.csv" includes the presence/absence data of each prey taxon integrated with all primer information at each taxonomic level. "metrix.pdf" shows how to calculate FOO and wPOO using above csv files. "presence_absence_class.csv" level was used to calculate the values descripted in Figure 4, 5, 7, 8, and Table S2.
"rf_rarefaction_species_season.csv" contains data on the presence/absence of each prey order for each species during each season. "R-script#1.txt" demonstrates how to plot the accumulation and extrapolation curve described in Figure S1 using "rf_rarefaction_species_season.csv".
"rf_nmds_season.csv" includes data of the presence/absence of each prey order for each species during each season. "R-script#2.txt" demonstrates how to analyze the NMDS and PERMANOVA descripted in Figure 6 using "rf_nmds_season.csv".
Sharing/Access information
The MiSeq-generated raw sequence reads from this study can be found in the DDBJ Sequence Read Archive (DRA) under the accession numbers DRA017514. The link is below:
Software
All statistical analyses were performed using R version 4.3.0 (R Core Team 2023).