DOI: 10.5061/dryad.18931zd78
title: Differences in mammal community response to highway construction across different levels of human land use

description: Worldwide, transportation agencies have been involved in road mitigation
 efforts to reduce road mortality and promote connectivity of endangered
 species. Baseline data on how mammals respond to highway construction,
 however, is rarely collected in road mitigation and monitoring studies,
 including in the United States. Our goal in this study was to assess
 differences in the response of the mammal community to highway
 construction along a gradient of human land use (HLU) from July 2019 to
 November 2020 in southern Texas, United States. We compared the species
 composition of the terrestrial mammal community at five sites along a
 highway before and during highway construction and assessed diel activity
 for seven species at different HLU levels between these two time periods.
 We found that mammal community composition was lower during the
 construction period at each HLU level. There were greater differences in
 the composition of the mammal community in the pre-construction and
 construction periods as HLU decreased. Community diversity was greatest in
 areas with a low level of HLU, followed by areas of medium and high
 levels, with more carnivores, large ungulates, and rodents at medium and
 low HLU sites. For many species, diel activity patterns across all sites
 during the construction period reflected activity patterns in areas of
 higher HLU during the pre-construction period. Our study shows that
 community composition and behavior (diel activity) are likely to change in
 response to highway construction regardless of the degree of HLU. These
 results may influence how scientists and transportation agencies consider
 potential impacts on wildlife species during road construction and affect
 their attempt to mitigate these impacts.
description: Camera trapping; R; Primer
description: # Differences in mammal community response to highway construction across
 different levels of human land use
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.18931zd78](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.18931zd78) ## Description of the data and file structure This README.txt file was generated on 2023-01-10 by Thomas J. Yamashita GENERAL INFORMATION 1\. Title of Dataset: Differences in mammal community response to highway construction across different levels of human land use ``` This data is associated with the manuscript, titled Differences in mammal community response to highway construction across different levels of human land use ``` 2\. Author Information ``` Thomas J. Yamashita Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University - Kingsville tjyamashta@gmail.com Shared first authorship Corresponding Author Jason V. Lombardi Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University - Kingsville Shared first authorship Zachary M. Wardle Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University - Kingsville Michael E. Tewes Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University - Kingsville John H. Young Jr. Environmental Affairs Division, Texas Department of Transportation ``` 3\. Date of Data Collection: ``` Camera Data: July 2019 - November 2020 ``` 4\. Geographic location of data collection: Eastern Cameron County, Texas, USA along Farm-to-Market 1847 5\. Funding Sources: Texas Department of Transportation ### Files and variables #### File: CTtable.xlsx **Description:** CT Table describing active and total camera trap nights for the pre-construction and construction periods ##### Variables * Camera: Camera Name * Site: Location and side of highway of camera * Station: Location of camera * timeperiod: Pre-construction (1) or construction (2) period * Setup_date: Date camera was set up * Retrieval_date: Date camera was retrieved * ProblemX_from: (multiple columns): Start date that a camera was inactive. X starts at 1 and increases by 1. Higher numbers indicate that a camera had more problems * ProblemX_to: (multiple columns): End date that a camera was inactive. Just like above, X starts at 1 and increases by 1 as a camera has more problems **Note:** Empty cells in the ProblemX_*from and ProblemX*_to columns indicate that there was no camera issues or no additional camera issues. These are left empty to function properly with camtrapR's cameraOperation function. #### File: EnvData.xlsx **Description:** File containing information about which crossings, the side of the highway and the level of urbanization for each camera ##### Variables * Camera: Camera name * Site: Location and side of highway of camera * Station: Location of camera * Urbanization: The urbanization level of the camera (urban, peri-urban, and rural). Details are described in the text #### File: DataOrganize\_ConEarly.txt **Description:** DataOrganize text file containing camera name, species name, year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and number of individuals in the photograph for the construction period (February 2020 - November 2020) ##### Variables * Column 1: Camera name - Column 2: Species in photograph * Column 3: Year photograph was taken - Column 4: Month photograph was taken - Column 5: Day photograph was taken - Column 6: Hour photograph was taken - Column 7: Minute photograph was taken - Column 8: Second photograph was taken - Column 9: Number of individuals of the given species in the photograph #### File: DataOrganize\_PreCon.txt **Description:** DataOrganize text file containing camera name, species name, year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and number of individuals in the photograph for the pre-construction period July 2019 - February 2020) ##### Variables * Column 1: Camera name - Column 2: Species in photograph * Column 3: Year photograph was taken - Column 4: Month photograph was taken - Column 5: Day photograph was taken - Column 6: Hour photograph was taken - Column 7: Minute photograph was taken - Column 8: Second photograph was taken - Column 9: Number of individuals of the given species in the photograph ## Code/software R ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * [https://github.com/tomyamashita/ConstructionUrbanRuralGradient](https://github.com/tomyamashita/ConstructionUrbanRuralGradient) Data was derived from the following sources: * N/A