DOI: 10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frfk
title: Data from: Quality versus quantity: Response of riparian bird communities to aquatic insect emergence in agro-ecosystems

description: In many agricultural landscapes where field drainage is required to
 enhance crop production, agricultural drainage ditches, and their
 associated banks and hedgerows can support riparian biodiversity,
 including bird communities. Against a global background of farmland bird
 and terrestrial insect decline due to agricultural intensification and
 extensification, emerging aquatic insects in these aquatic corridors can
 provide a pulse of energy-rich, nutritionally-critical food for birds and
 other wildlife. In this paper, we quantify the value of drainage ditch
 habitats in terms of aquatic insect production as a potential food source
 for riparian foraging birds in a river basin in eastern Canada. We found
 that although extremely productive in terms of total biomass, agricultural
 drainage ditches may not be able to fully support resource use for
 foraging predators that rely on emerging aquatic insects. DNA
 metabarcoding revealed a gradient of “quality” (large-bodied, nutrient
 rich insects) to “quantity” (small-bodied, mass emerging insects) between
 forested streams, agricultural streams and drainage ditches. The
 proportion of insectivorous birds was lowest along straight ditches
 running through agricultural fields and highest among meandering (sinuous)
 streams in more forested areas, likely reflecting the availability of high
 quality aquatic emergent insects. Agricultural producers can improve
 habitat provisioning for birds on their farms by supporting mosaicked
 farmscapes through careful conservation and management of ditches and
 ditch bank vegetation. Establishing larger forest blocks with natural or
 unmanaged streams between areas of more intense land use can ensure the
 provisioning of more high quality prey to riparian insectivorous birds,
 helping to find the balance between agricultural productivity and
 protection of declining bird populations.
description: # Data from: Quality versus quantity: Response of riparian bird
 communities to aquatic insect emergence in agro-ecosystems
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frfk](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sbcc2frfk) *Study Area:* South Nation River Watershed, Ontario, Canada *Objective:* Examine the secondary productivity of emerging aquatic insects as an ecosystem service and determine the linkage between aquatic insect emergence and riparian avian communities in an agro-ecosystem in eastern Ontario, Canada. ## Description of the data and file structure **Data files included:** * "sites_full.csv"-- GPS coordinates in NAD 83 for full list of study sites (n=29) and categorical classifications (variable descriptions in table below). * "environment.csv" -- Descriptive environmental data for study sites, including geospatial variables and water chemistry (variable descriptions in table below). - "emergence.csv" -- Aquatic insect emergence biomass over the sampling season, averaged for each site (variable descriptions in table below). * "emergence_seasonality.csv" -- Coefficient of variation of aquatic insect emergence for each site (variable descriptions in table below). * "sites_bird.csv" -- Summary statistics for bird community at reduced sites (n=24) (variable descriptions in table below). * "benthic.csv" -- Benthic macroinvertebrate presence/absence matrix at the genus level. * "bird.csv" -- Riparian avian community abundance matrix, coded by their 4-letter Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) alpha code, English name and scientific name. * "benthic_classifications.csv" -- Taxonomic classifications for benthic data. **Dataset Variable Description** **sites_full.csv** Site : Site identification number used throughout study and datafiles  lat: Latitude in NAD 84 long: Longitude in NAD 84 Sinuosity: Categorical variable binning sites into "straight", "low" or "sinuous" **environment.csv** Forest_1000 Percent forest calculated at 1000 m buffer for each site LandCoverDiversity_200: Shannon-Wiener diversity of land cover classes calculated at 200 m buffer LandCoverDiversity_1500: Shannon-Wiener diversity of land cover classes calculated at 1500 m buffer CropDiversity_200: Shannon-Wiener diversity of crops calculated at 200 m buffer CropDiversity_2000: Shannon-Wiener diversity of crops calculated at 2000 m buffer MeanFieldSize_500: Mean field size (metres) calculated at 500 m buffer MeanFieldSize_1500: Mean field size (metres) calculated at 1500 m buffer DistanceToForest: Distance to nearest forest (metres) HedgeHeight: Height of riparian vegetation (hedge) (metres) HedgeWidth: Width of riparian vegetation (hedge) (metres) Water_Nitrogen: Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen in mg/L from surface water Water_Phosphorus: Total Phosphorus in mg/L in surface water Water_Alkalinity: Alkalinity in mgCaCO3/L in surface water Water_Sodium: Sodium, extractable in mg/L in surface water Water_Strontium: Strontium, extractable in mg/L in surface water Water_Silicon: Silicon, extractable in mg/L in surface water Water_DOC: Dissolved organic carbon in mg/L in surface water **emergence.csv** collection: Collection number, ordered sequentially from 1-5 (collected every 2 weeks) year: Sampling/ collection year  MonthSa: mpling/collection month day: Sampling/ collection day avg_biomass: Dry weight of emerged biomass, emergence traps averaged for each site's collection cv_emerg: Coefficient of variation of avg_biomass, calculated for each site **sites_bird.csv** prop_insectivores: Proportion of insectivorous birds in riparian avian community birds_richness: Species richness of riparian avian community birds_shannon: Shannon-Wiener diversity index of the avian community ## Code/Software "SouthNationSecondaryProductivity.R" -- R script detailing data curation and analyses. ## Accession numbers for DNA metabarcoding samples: | [SAMN45041919](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041919?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [SAMN45041918](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041918?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041917](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041917?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041916](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041916?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041915](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041915?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | SAMN45041915 | | [SAMN45041913](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041913?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041912](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041912?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041911](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041911?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041910](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041910?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041909](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041909?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041908](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041908?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041907](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041907?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041906](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041906?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041905](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041905?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041904](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041904?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041903](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041903?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041902](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041902?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041901](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041901?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041900](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041900?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041899](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041899?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041898](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041898?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041897](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041897?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041896](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041896?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041895](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041895?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041894](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041894?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041893](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041893?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041892](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041892?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) | | [SAMN45041891](https://dataview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/object/SAMN45041891?reviewer=fejotlab230vptuiji4pp1f9tk) |