DOI: 10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvv5
title: Data from: The influence of lightning on insect and fungal dynamics in a lowland tropical forest

description: Lightning strikes are a common source of disturbance in tropical forests,
 and a typical strike generates large quantities of dead wood. 
 Lightning-damaged trees are a consistent resource for tropical saproxylic
 organisms (i.e., dead wood dependent), but patterns of consumer
 colonization and succession following lightning strikes are not
 known.  Here, we explored temporal variation in the occurrence of
 four common consumer taxa that span multiple trophic levels—beetles,
 Azteca ants, termites, and fungi—in lightning strike sites and nearby
 undamaged control sites in a lowland forest of Panama.  Beetle
 abundance was 10 times higher in lightning strike sites than in paired
 control sites, and beetle assemblages were compositionally
 distinct.  Beetle assemblages were initially dominated by bark
 and ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Platypodinae, Scolytinae), and
 predators (including bark and ambrosia beetle specialist predators)
 increased in abundance relatively synchronously.  At the
 tree-level, beetle activity and fungal fruiting bodies respectively were
 3.8 and 12.2 times more likely to be observed in lightning-damaged trees
 in lightning strike sites vs. undamaged trees in paired control sites,
 whereas the occurrence probabilities of Azteca ants and termites were
 similar between lightning-damaged trees in lightning strike sites and
 undamaged trees in control sites.  Tree size also was important;
 larger dead trees in strike sites were more likely to support beetles,
 termites, and fungal fruiting bodies, and larger trees—regardless of
 mortality status—were more likely to host Azteca.  Beetle
 presence was associated with higher rates of subsequent fungal presence,
 providing some evidence of beetle-associated priority effects on
 colonization patterns.  These results indicate that lightning
 plays a key role in supporting tropical insect and fungal consumers by
 providing localized patches of suitable habitat.  Any
 climate-driven changes in lightning frequency in tropical forests will
 likely affect a broad suite of consumer organisms, potentially altering
 community and ecosystem-level processes.
description: # Data from: The influence of lightning on insect and fungal dynamics in a
 lowland tropical forest
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvv5](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvv5) ## Description of the data and file structure The influence of lightning on insect and fungal dynamics in a lowland tropical forest. Note: 'NA' in any cell = missing data or no data ### Files and variables #### File: Beetle\_Data.csv **Description:** Raw data for beetle collections at lightning strike sites and control sites ##### Variables * collection_date: Date at which trap contents were collected (mm/dd/yy) * tree_number: Unique identifier for each lightning strike where traps were placed * status: Binary classification indicating whether a site is a "Strike" or "Control" site * Tree: Unique identifier for each lightning strike where traps were placed; preceded by "180" for sites sampled in 2018 and "190" for sites sampled in 2019 * strike_date: Date of lightning strike for each strike site * days_post_strike: Number of days since the lightning strike occurred * family: Taxonomic family of the sampled beetle species * morphospecies: Unique identifying number assigned to each beetle morphospecies * feeding_guild: feeding guild classification for each sampled beetle species * abundance: Number of collected beetle individuals for each morphospecies #### File: beetle\_necromass.csv **Description:** Raw data used to evaluate beetle associations with necromass ##### Variables * collection_date: Date at which trap contents were collected (mm/dd/yy) * strike_date: Date of lightning strike for each strike site * dbh_mm: Tree size measured as diameter at breast height (millimeters) * mortality: Binary classification for tree mortality: Dead (0) or alive (1) * dieback: Proportion of crown dieback ranging from 0 (0% dieback) to 1 (100% dieback) * status: Binary classification indicating whether a site is a "Strike" or "Control" site * Tree_ID: "Site_Pair" label concatenated with "Status" label * Site_Pair: Control and Strike site pair used for comparison * days_post_strike: Number of days since the lightning strike occurred * Abundance: Number of collected beetle individuals * Richness: Number of collected beetle species * days_sampled: Number of days between successive trap collections * beetles_per_day: Number of beetles collected for each trap per day * species_per_day: Number of beetle species collected for each trap per day * site_necromass: Total site tree necromass (kg) for each strike site #### File: Consumer\_Occupancy.csv **Description:** Raw data for the presence or absence of each focal group in lightning strike sites and control sites ##### Variables * strike: Unique identifier for each lightning strike * tree_strike: "Strike" label concatenated with "treetag" label * treetag: Unique tree identification label * census: Unique integer census label for when a tree was censused ranging from 1 to 4 * census.date: Date at which a tree was censused (mm/dd/yy) * distance.from.center: Distance of a tree from the centrally struck tree within the same strike site (meters) * DBH.mm: Tree size measured as diameter at breast height (millimeters) * Dieback: Percent of crown dieback ranging from 0 (0% dieback) to 100 (100% dieback) * Dead: Binary classification for tree mortality: Dead (0) or alive (1) * days.post.strike: Number of days since the lightning strike occurred * Obs: Observer that conducted a census (EMG: Evan M. Gora; CG: Cesar Gutierrez; JCB: Jeffrey Burchfield; SY: Stephen P. Yanoviak) * Termites: Presence (1) or absence (0) of termites in a tree * Azteca: Presence (1) or absence (0) of Azteca in a tree * Beetles: Presence (1) or absence (0) of beetles in a tree * Fungi: Presence (1) or absence (0) of fungi in a tree * Strike.date: Date of lightning strike for each strike site * Lat.N: North latitude coordinate * Lon.W: West longitude coordinate * central_tree: Treetag of the centrally struck tree in each strike site * control_strike: Binary classification indicating whether a site is a "Strike" or "Control" site ## Code/software All data files are in CSV format and can be opened with R or any text editor. ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * NA Data was derived from the following sources: * NA