DOI: 10.5061/dryad.1vhhmgqzh
title: Native herbivore browsing alters plant physical and chemical traits in a eucalypt forest understory

description: Macropods exhibit selective herbivory on plant traits within and between
 species and hence can alter plant trait variation. In this study we asked,
 what are the effects of macropod herbivory on intraspecific variation in
 plant traits of forest understorey species? We tested the effects of
 herbivory by macropods on eight plant traits, in nine understorey species
 using a herbivore exclusion experiment. Generalised linear mixed models
 were used to test for differences between herbivory treatments in trait
 means as well as variation within species and at the community level.
 Macropod herbivory resulted in differences in either the mean trait value
 or trait variance within a species for seven of the eight tested plant
 traits. Macropod exclusion resulted in larger dimensions of size for most
 species, as well as changes in specific leaf area, moisture content, and
 carbon content of leaves. Further, community-weighted means of specific
 leaf area, moisture content, and leaf nitrogen were lower in the presence
 of macropods. Plant trait variance was altered for three of the seven
 community weighted traits. This study demonstrates a mechanism through
 which macropods can drive changes in the traits of understorey plant
 species. Plant traits have been linked to various larger scale ecological
 processes including ecosystem flammability, nutrient cycling, response to
 global change and habitat suitability for other organisms. Therefore,
 herbivore-induced changes in plant trait variation and community
 composition could have important flow on effects for other environmental
 processes and hence should be considered in management decisions regarding
 fire-prone ecosystems.
description: Please review the attached README document and the accompanying
 publication under the same title as the dataset.
description: Requires microsoft excel.
description: # Native herbivore browsing alters plant physical and chemical traits in a
 eucalypt forest understory Dataset contains six excel files containing raw
 data used for calculations of trait values for nine species in an open
 eucalypt understorey under two herbivory treatments. Data is also used to
 calculate community weighted means of those traits. All data required to
 generate manuscript tables and figures as well as those in supplementary
 documents are included and detailed below. Size: 83kb Format: .csv (5
 files) ## Description of the data and file structure Each csv file is
 described below along with a description of any column headers.
 **NutrientTraitData** --&gt; contains raw carbon and nitrogen nutrient
 data for all species at each site. Dimensions: 96 rows x 4 columns Column
 headings: Species = the species for which the data was measured. Treatment
 = which treatment the species was under, open (accessible to Macropods) or
 exclosure (fenced off to Macropods). C (%) = carbon as a percentage of
 dried plant material. N (%) = nitrogen as a percentage of dried plant
 material. **FieldMeasurements_TraitData** --&gt; the raw trait data
 recorded for each individual plant in the field. Dimensions: 459 rows x 14
 columns Column headings: Site = designated site name. Species = the
 species for which the data was measured. PlantNo = the plant number at
 each site (within a maximum of 5 individuals of a species at each site).
 Height = plant height in metres. Width = plant width in metres.
 CanopyDepth = canopy depth in metres. Thickness = for columns 7-12 leaf
 thickness is included for each plant. Five leaves were measured for each
 plant and each individual recording is included in the row.
 ThicknessAverage = the average leaf thickness for an individual plant in
 millimetres. Date collected = the date the data was collected. Treatment =
 which treatment the species was under, open (accessible to Macropods) or
 exclosure (fenced off to Macropods). **FreshWeightCalibrationModel**
 --&gt; raw fresh weight data recorded in the field and in the lab for
 analysis of time to measurement effects on fresh weight. Dimensions: 651
 rows x 4 columns Column headings: Site no. = designated site name. Species
 name = the species for which the data was measured. Fresh Weight = fresh
 weight of leaves Time = a classification of time periods as either T1 or
 T2 where T1 is field measurements and T2 is post-fieldwork measurements.
 **IndividualSpeciesCover** --&gt; percentage cover of each individual
 species found at each site. Dimensions: 13 rows x 41 columns Column
 headings: Site = designated site name. Treatment = which treatment the
 species was under, open (accessible to Macropods) or exclosure (fenced off
 to Macropods). Columns 3-41 = species names. Data: The data in this
 spreadsheet contains either numerical values indicating species cover or a
 n/a value indicating that species was not detected at that site.
 **SLA_MC_TraitData** --&gt; raw moisture content and specific leaf area
 measurements for each plant. Dimensions: 456 rows x 5 columns Column
 headings: Site = designated site name. Species = the species for which the
 data was measured. Treatment = which treatment the species was under, open
 (accessible to Macropods) or exclosure (fenced off to Macropods). SLA =
 specific leaf area of an individual. MC = moisture content of an
 individual. Manuscript figures and tables were generated using R version
 4.1.0. See published paper for further details. ## Sharing/Access
 Information Not applicable.