DOI: 10.5061/dryad.55dh5
title: Data from: Context dependent colonization dynamics: regional reward contagion drives local compression in aquatic beetles

description: 1. Habitat selection by colonizing organisms is an important factor in
 determining species abundance and community dynamics at multiple spatial
 scales. Many organisms select habitat patches based on intrinsic patch
 quality, but patches exist in complex landscapes linked by dispersal and
 colonization, forming metapopulations and metacommunities. Perceived patch
 quality can be influenced by neighboring patches through spatial
 contagion, wherein perceived quality of one patch can extend beyond its
 borders and either increase or decrease the colonization of neighboring
 patches and localities. These spatially-explicit colonization dynamics can
 result in habitat compression, wherein more colonists occupy a patch or
 locality than in the absence of spatial context dependence. 2. Previous
 work on contagion/compression focused primarily on the role of predators
 in driving colonization patterns. Our goal was to determine whether
 resource abundance can drive multiscale colonization dynamics of aquatic
 beetles through the processes of contagion and compression in
 naturally-colonized experimental pools. 3. We established two levels
 (high/low quality) of within-patch resource abundances (leaf litter) using
 an experimental landscape of mesocosms, and assayed colonization by 35
 species of aquatic beetles. Patches were arranged in localities (sets of
 two patches), which consisted of a combination of two patch-level resource
 levels in a 2 × 2 factorial design, allowing us to assay colonization at
 both locality and patch levels. 4. We demonstrate that patterns of species
 abundance and richness of colonizing aquatic beetles are determined by
 patch quality and context-dependent processes at multiple spatial scales.
 Localities that consisted of at least one high quality patch were
 colonized at equivalent rates that were higher than localities containing
 only low quality patches, displaying regional reward contagion. In
 localities that consisted of one high and one low quality patch, reward
 contagion produced by higher leaf litter levels resulted in greater
 abundance of beetles in such localities, which then compressed into the
 highest quality patches. 5. Our results provide further support for the
 critical roles of habitat selection and spatial context, particularly the
 quality of neighboring habitat patches, in generating patterns of species
 abundances and community structure across landscapes.
description: Locality level data
 Pintar and Resetarits 2017 J Anim EcolLocality level (sets of
 two patches) data file from Pintar, Matthew R., and William J. Resetarits,
 Jr. 2017. Context dependent colonization dynamics: regional reward
 contagion drives local compression in aquatic beetles. Journal of Animal
 Ecology. See the README for patch level data, which covers the entire
 dataset.Patch level data Pintar
 and Resetarits 2017 J Anim EcolPatch level (individual
 patches) data from Pintar, Matthew R., and William J. Resetarits, Jr.
 2017. Context dependent colonization dynamics: regional reward contagion
 drives local compression in aquatic beetles. Journal of Animal Ecology.
 README file covers the entire dataset.