DOI: 10.5061/dryad.xd2547drq
title: Ecological drivers of carrion beetle (Staphylinidae: Silphinae) diversity on small to large mammals

description: Silphinae (Staphylinidae; carrion beetles) are important contributors to
 the efficient decomposition and recycling of carrion necromass. Their
 community composition is important for the provision of this ecosystem
 function and can be affected by abiotic and biotic factors. However,
 investigations are lacking on the effects of carrion characteristics on
 Silphinae diversity. Carrion body mass may affect Silphinae diversity
 following the More Individuals Hypothesis (MIH). The MIH predicts a higher
 number of species at larger carrion because higher numbers of individuals
 can be supported on the resource patch. Additionally, biotic factors like
 carrion species identity or decomposition stage, and the abiotic factors
 elevation, season, and temperature could affect Silphinae diversity. To
 test the hypotheses, we collected Silphinae throughout the decomposition
 of 100 carcasses representing ten mammal species ranging from 0.04 kg to
 124 kg. Experimental carcasses were exposed in a mountain forest landscape
 in Germany during the spring and summer of 2021. We analysed Silphinae
 diversity using recently developed transformation models that considered
 the difficult data distribution we obtained. We found no consistent effect
 of carrion body mass on Silphinae species richness and, therefore,
 rejected the MIH. The carrion decomposition stage, in contrast, strongly
 influenced Silphinae diversity. Abundance and species richness increased
 with the decomposition process. Silphinae abundance increased with
 temperature and decreased with elevation. Furthermore, Silphinae abundance
 was lower in summer compared to spring, likely due to increased
 co-occurrence and competition with dipteran larvae in summer. Neither
 carrion species identity nor any abiotic factor affected Silphinae species
 richness following a pattern consistent throughout the seasons. Our
 approach combining a broad study design with an improved method for data
 analysis, and transformation models, revealed new insights into mechanisms
 driving carrion beetle diversity during carrion decomposition. Overall,
 our study illustrates the complexity and multifactorial nature of biotic
 and abiotic factors affecting diversity.
description: # Ecological drivers of carrion beetle (Staphylinidae: Silphinae)
 diversity on small to large mammals
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xd2547drq
 ](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xd2547drq) The dataset contains the
 abundance data for all Silphinae species found during the experiment, as
 well as the species numbers. These were obtained by sampling the
 individual carcasses 4 times throughout the experiment (and therefore
 throughout carrion decomposition). For all of the 100 individual carcasses
 and the 4 sampling days, this results in a total of 400 data points (4
 data points for each of 100 individual carcasses). These data points (as
 well as the individual carcasses) have a unique ID, which will be
 explained in the "Description of the data and file structure".
 Furthermore, the dataset contains the seasons, carrion species, carrion
 decomposition stages, carcass presence, carrion body mass, coordinates of
 the carrion placement in the field, the elevation above sea level, and the
 soil surface and air temperature. All abbreviations and metrics will be
 explained in the "Description of the data and file structure".
 ## Description of the data and file structure For each sampling event and
 each carcass, there is one data point giving abundance data for all
 Silphinae species detected, as well as a species number. Furthermore, the
 values for all biotic and abiotic factors, that might influence Silphinae
 diversity (carrion body mass, carrion species identity, carrion
 decomposition stage, elevation, temperature, and season) are included.
 This dataset can be used to test for the drivers of Silphinae diversity on
 small to large mammals and throughout the carrion decomposition process.
 Each data point has a unique ID: e.g., F_01_HR_04 which states
 season_site-number_carrion-species_sampling-day Abbreviations mean: * F =
 Spring * S = Summer * site-number = site 1-5 (locations given in card
 included in the manuscript) * HR = *Mustela erminea/nivalis* * RT =
 *Rattus norvegicus* * MD = *Martes martes* * WB = *Procyon lotor* * DS =
 *Meles meles* * BB = *Castor fiber* * FX = *Vulpes vulpes* * RE =
 *Capreolus capreolus* * WS = *Sus scrofa* * RH = *Cervus elaphus* *
 sampling-day = gives the day of emptying the Barber pitfall trap (that was
 collected for 48 h), this was conducted on days 04, 08, 16, and 23 Same ID
 without sampling-day specification is given for the individual carcasses.
 Attribute explanation: * Block = site (location given in map in
 manuscript) * Carcass trophic level = division of carrion species into
 carnivore, omnivore, and herbivore * Carcass species = given with common
 names * Decay state = carrion decomposition stage divided into fresh,
 putrefaction, bloated, post-bloated, advanced decay, dry remains, and
 mummification * Elevation = given in meters above sea level *
 Elevation_kat = categorisation of elevation into low (&lt; 1000 m asl) and
 high (&gt; 1000 m asl) Temperatures given in °C ## Sharing/Access
 information NAs that appear in the data (in the Kadaver.csv file or the
 carrion.RDA file) indicate events where no data could have been collected.
 This is caused by: * Decay state: NA means the carcass has been removed
 (in the carrion present column it says: no, because the carrion is not
 present anymore) * Temperatures: NAs are in cells where no temperature
 data could be tracked due to problems with the TOMST data logger at this
 site/plot ## Code/Software There are two R-Script versions given. In one
 the elevation is included in the analysis, which is stated in the file
 name. In the other, it is not.