DOI: 10.5061/dryad.gtht76hqc
title: Data from: Access to resources buffers against effects of current reproduction on future ability to provide care in a burying beetle

description: Studies investigating the trade-off between current and future
 reproduction often find that increased allocation to current reproduction
 is associated with a reduction in the number or quality of future
 offspring. In species that provide parental care, this effect on future
 offspring may be mediated through a reduced future ability to provide
 care. Here, we test this idea in the burying beetle Nicrophorus
 vespilloides, a species in which parents shift the cost of reproduction
 towards future offspring and provide elaborate parental care. We
 manipulated brood size to alter the costs females experienced in
 association with current reproduction and measured the level of parental
 care during a subsequent breeding attempt. Given that these beetles breed
 on carcasses of small vertebrates, it is important to consider confounding
 effects due to benefits associated with resource access during breeding.
 We therefore manipulated access to carrion and measured the level of
 parental care during a subsequent breeding attempt. We found that females
 provided the same level of care regardless of previous brood size and
 resource access, suggesting that neither affected future ability to
 provide care. This may reflect that parents feed on carrion during
 breeding, which may buffer against any costs of previous breeding
 attempts. Our results show that increased allocation to current
 reproduction is not necessarily associated with a reduction in future
 ability to provide care. Nevertheless, this may reflect unique aspects of
 our study system, and we encourage future work on systems where parents do
 not have access to a rich resource during breeding.
description: This data file consists of a comma separated values spreadsheet
 (.csv), which provides data on the effects of reproductive allocation and
 carcass access during a current breeding attempt on the level of
 post-hatching care provided during a subsequent breeding attempt. Each
 line in the spreadsheet represents an individual female.
 female_id – individual ID of the female.
 eclosion – date of eclosion. death – date of
 death. lifespan – number of days lived from eclosion to
 death. treatment – experimental treatment (nb =
 non-breeding females without access to a carcass,  nbc = non-breeding
 females with access to a carcass, large = breeding female allocated a
 brood of 40 larvae, small = breeding female allocated a brood of 10
 larvae) mouse_stage_one – mass of the mouse provided
 during stage one (g). female_mass_pre_stage_one -
 female mass prior to stage one (g).
 female_mass_post_stage_one - female mass after to stage one
 (g). female_mass_change_stage_one - female mass change
 during stage one (g). brood_mass_stage_one - mass of
 the brood of larvae at dispersal from the carcass during stage one
 (g). brood_size_stage_one – number of larvae in the
 brood at dispersal from the carcass during stage one (g).
 mouse_stage_two – mass of the mouse provided during stage two
 (g). female_mass_pre_stage_two - female mass prior to
 stage two (g). female_mass_post_stage_two - female mass
 after to stage two (g). female_mass_change_stage_two -
 female mass change during stage two (g). eggs – the
 number of eggs laid during stage two.
 brood_mass_stage_two - mass of the brood of larvae at dispersal
 from the carcass during stage two (g).
 brood_size_stage_one – number of larvae in the brood at dispersal
 from the carcass during stage two (g). freq_maintain –
 the number of scans out of 30 that the females was seen maintaining the
 carcass. freq_feed – the number of scans out of 30 that
 the females was seen food provisioning larvae.
 freq_other - the number of scans out of 30 that the females was
 seen doing any other behaviour.