DOI: 10.5061/dryad.8kprr4xtv
title: Data from: Mammal communities of primeval forests as sentinels of global change

description: Understanding the drivers and consequences of global environmental change
 is crucial to inform predictions of effects on ecosystems. We used the
 mammal community of Białowieża Forest, the last lowland near-primeval
 forest in temperate Europe, as a sentinel of global change. We analyzed
 changes in stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values of hair
 in 687 specimens from 50 mammal species across seven decades (1946–2011).
 We classified mammals into four taxonomic-dietary groups (herbivores,
 carnivores, insectivores, bats). We found a significant negative trend in
 hair δ15N for the mammal community, particularly strong for herbivores.
 This trend is consistent with temporal patterns in nitrogen deposition
 from (15N depleted) industrial fertilizers and fossil fuel emissions. It
 is also in line with global-scale declines in δ15N  reported in
 forests and other unfertilized, non-urban terrestrial ecosystems and with
 local decreases in N foliar concentrations. The global depletion of 13C
 content in atmospheric CO2 due to fossil fuel burning (Suess effect) was
 detected in all groups. After correcting for this effect, the hair δ13C
 trend became non-significant for both community and groups, except for
 bats, which showed a strong decline in δ13C. This could be related to an
 increase in the relative abundance of freshwater insects taken by bats or
 increased use of methane-derived carbon in food webs used by bats. This
 work is the first broad-scale and long-term mammal isotope ecology study
 in a near-primeval forest in temperate Europe. Mammal communities from
 natural forests represent a unique benchmark in global change research;
 investigating their isotopic temporal variation can help identify patterns
 and early detections of ecosystem changes and provide more comprehensive
 and integrative assessments than single-species approaches.
description: The dataset contains the δ<sup>13</sup>C and
 δ<sup>15</sup>N stable isotope values for 687 hair samples
 belonging to 50 mammal species and collected between 1946 and 2011 in
 Białowieża Forest (Poland). The δ<sup>13</sup>C values
 corrected for the Suess effect are also included (see the article for
 explanations on the formula applied). The dataset also includes the
 species name (both common and scientific) and the year of
 collection.
description: # Data from: Mammal communities of primeval forests as sentinels of global
 change
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8kprr4xtv](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8kprr4xtv) The dataset contains the stable isotope values for 687 hair samples belonging to 50 mammal species and collected between 1946 and 2011 in Białowieża Forest (Poland). ## Description of the data and file structure * Scientific name of the mammal species * Common name of the mammal species * Dietary-taxonomic group (herbivores, carnivores, insectivores, bats) * Year of sample collection * Stable isotope ratio for carbon (δ13C) in ‰ * Stable isotope ratio for carbon (δ13C) in ‰, corrected for the Suess effect applying the formula δ13Catm = -6.429–0.0060 exp [0.0217(t-1740)] from Feng (1998), [https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442005062](https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442005062), **according to the year (t) of collection of the sample, following Bocherens et al. (2015)**, [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115090](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115090) * Stable isotope ratio for nitrogen (δ15N) in ‰