DOI: 10.5061/dryad.bcc2fqznf
title: Impacts of an omnivorous ungulate on plant communities and soil organic carbon

description: Ungulates have been shown to affect multiple aspects of ecosystem
 composition and functions, including species diversity and carbon storage.
 Specifically, they can impact belowground carbon via both direct and
 indirect routes – the latter often occurring when ungulates alter plant
 diversity and/or plant functional traits. To date, the role of indirect
 routes has been poorly researched, particularly for omnivorous ungulates.
 In this study, we investigated both direct and indirect links between an
 omnivorous ungulate, the wild boar, and soil organic carbon. We estimated
 wild boar visit frequencies to different survey plots using camera traps,
 from which we recorded plant species and soil organic carbon. Weighted
 average structural equation models suggested wild boar presence was
 associated with plant communities with more resource-acquisitive traits,
 which in-turn corresponded to lower soil organic carbon. However, no
 direct relationships between wild boar and soil organic carbon or plant
 species diversity were detected. This work provides, for the first time,
 empirical evidence on how boar benefit resource-acquisitive plants that
 can exploit disturbance and rapidly obtain resources to grow quickly,
 subsequently leading to decreases in soil organic carbon. Practical
 implication As a single keystone ungulate species failed to improve both
 soil carbon storage and plant diversity, our results point towards the
 importance of securing functionally diverse ungulate communities for
 improving the contribution of trophic rewilding towards climate change
 mitigation efforts.
description: These data are the results of camera trap, plant species, and
 soil organic carbon surveys, and the results of online database searches
 for plant functional trait values. More details can be found in the
 manuscript Lovell <em>et al</em>. 2025 titled 'Impacts of
 an omnivorous ungulate on plant communities and soil organic
 carbon'.
description: # Impacts of an omnivorous ungulate on plant communities and soil organic
 carbon
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bcc2fqznf](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bcc2fqznf) ## Description of the data and file structure data_for_publication: contains all the data collected over the course of the study - both from the field and online sources. Variables include: * plot_ID: the unique ID of the individual plot the data relates to (unique ID number) * habitat: the landcover class associated with the plot (woodland/grassland/plantation) * species names (columns from Calluna.vulgaris to Rubus.fruticosus): the estimated percentage cover of each species in each plot (% cover) * richness: the species richness of the plot (total number of different species) * shannon: the Shannon–Wiener diversity index for each plot * percentage_belowground_carbon: the percentage belowground carbon (% carbon mass/total mass w/w) * long/lat: the longitude and latitude of each plot, respectively * LDMC: the community weighted mean for leaf dry matter content (g/g) * SLA: the community weighted mean for specific leaf area (mm^2/mg) * CN: the community weighted mean for the leaf C:N ratio (no units) * habitat_plantation: whether the habitat is plantation, used for SEM construction (1 = yes, 0 = no) * habitat_woodland: whether the habitat is woodland, used for SEM construction (1 = yes, 0 = no) * rate_Ss: the rate of wild boar contacts in the sector this plot belongs to across both years (number of contacts / day) ## Code/Software (uploaded to Zenodo) * main_analysis_functional_traits: the script used for creating structural equation models from the dataset using plant functional traits as the mediator variable * main_analysis_species_richness: the script used for creating structural equation models from the dataset using plant species richness as the mediator variable * main_analysis_shannons_diversity_index: the script used for creating structural equation models from the dataset using shannon's diversity index as the mediator variable