Data from: Odour information enables patch choice by mammalian herbivores from afar, leading to predictable plant associational effects
Data files
Sep 12, 2024 version files 312.96 KB
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PFinnerty_etal_Trial1.csv
67.15 KB
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PFinnerty_etal_Trial2.csv
91.17 KB
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PFinnerty_etal_TrialSUPP1.csv
66.32 KB
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PFinnerty_etal_TrialSUPP2.csv
85.74 KB
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README.md
2.59 KB
Abstract
Neighbouring plants can alter the susceptibility of high-quality focal plants to herbivores by affecting herbivore patch choice. Herbivores can use plant odour to make patch-scale foraging decisions from afar, but the actual information they rely on within complex plant odours is rarely defined. Revealing the information enabling patch choice by herbivores will provide the mechanistic link underpinning associational effects of plant neighbours arising from these foraging decisions. Here, our first aim was to test whether odour cues alone enable a mammalian herbivore to make patch choice decisions leading to predictable associational effects of neighbours on high-quality focal plants. Our second aim was then to test whether artificial odour, designed to mimic the informative odour component within the whole odour profile of low-quality neighbours, is as effective as real plants in influencing patch choice and associational refuge. We tested patch choice by African elephants, Loxodonta africana using a giant Y-maze and real or artificial plant odours as the only cues for the neighbours of a high-quality focal plant. We quantified the probability of various odour treatments being chosen in comparison with the odour of a focal plant alone. Compared with focal plants alone, we found that elephants were more likely to choose patches with the focal plant plus high-quality neighbours of the same or different species, but less likely to choose patches with the focal plant plus low-quality neighbours. We also demonstrated that an artificial subset of odours, designed to be informative, were as effective as real low-quality neighbours in influencing patch choice and hence associational refuge to the focal plant. Our results demonstrate a key role of plant odour – and specifically informative components within complex odour profiles – in patch choice decisions by a mammalian herbivore, leading to plant associational effects on high-quality focal plants. Understanding what olfactory information herbivores use when deciding which patches to visit or avoid, and how it affects focal plant susceptibility is important ecologically. Non-random patch choice will not only affect individual fitness of herbivores, but also shape plant community dynamics through impacting plant survival and recruitment. Furthermore, artificially re-creating odour information could offer a new tool to influence herbivore foraging decisions, with implications for wildlife management and conservation, including plant protection.
README: Odour information enables patch choice by mammalian herbivores from afar, leading to predictable plant associational effects
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2jm63xszw
Description of the data and file structure
This data was collected though running a number of African elephant 'walk throughs' of a giant Y-maze where each elephant (n = 6) was offered a binary choice of one plant patch, or another. Complete methods and replication can be found in the paper.
Files and variables
ALL FILES:
Description:
Variables
- ORDER: To re-order the spreadsheet
- DATE: Date that the walk through occured
- DAY: How many days into the trial
- TIME: Whether the walk through was conducted in the morning (AM), or afternoon (PM)
- TREATMENT: Treatment ID - written out clearly
- SETNO: Seperating out each walk through 'set' where each of the 6 elephants were trialled (i.e., Day 1, AM = set 1, Day 1, PM = set 2, etc.)
- PERIOD: Period within a day (i.e., Day 1, AM = Period 1, Day 1, PM = Period 2, Day 2, AM = Period 1, Day 2, PM = Preiod 2, etc.)
- WTNUMBERWITHINPERIOD: 'Walk through number within period', the number of walk throughs within a given period per individual elephant
- TESTNO: The test number for each given treatment per individual elephant
- ELEPHANT: The name of the elephant
- AGE: The age of the elephant
- SEX: The sex of the elephant
- PATCH: What was in each patch (note, the spreadsheet is broken down into 2 row sections per walk through, showing what was presented to the elephant in one patch, and on the other to show what they selected, or not.
- FOCUS: A 'focus' line for filtering for statistical analysis
- POSITION: What side (left or right) the 'focus' patch was on
- CHOSEN: Whether the focus patch was selected for not (NA = neither option choosen, elephant did not walk through the Y-maze)
- FOCAL PLANT EATEN: Whether the focal plant within the focus patch was eaten (NA = patch not selected, as such, focal plant can not be eaten)
- % FOCAL PLANT EATEN: How much (%) of the focal plant was eaten (NA = patch not selected, as such, focal plant can not be eaten)
- NEIGHBOUR EATEN: Whether the neighbouring plant material within the focus patch was eaten (NA = patch not selected, as such, neighbour plant can not be eaten)
- % NEIGHBOUR EATEN: How much (%) of the neighbouring plant material within the focus patch was eaten (NA = patch not selected, as such, neighbour plant can not be eaten)
- COMMENT: Comments on the walk through
Code/software
Data can be viewed in excel.