DOI: 10.5061/dryad.31ks8p5
title: Data from: How characteristic is the species characteristic selection scale?

description: The importance of framing investigations of organism-environment
 relationships to interpret patterns at relevant spatial scales is
 increasingly recognized. However, most research related to environmental
 relationships is single-scaled, implicitly or explicitly assuming that a
 ‘species characteristic selection scale’ exists. We tested the premise
 that a single characteristic scale exists to understand
 species-environment relationships within species by asking 1) what are the
 characteristic scales of species’ relationships with environmental
 predictors, and 2) is within-species, cross-predictor consistency in
 characteristic scales a general phenomenon. Nebraska, USA. 2016 Birds We
 used data from 86 species at &gt;500 locations to build hierarchical
 N-mixture models relating species abundance to landcover variables. By
 incorporating Bayesian latent indicator scale selection, we identified the
 spatial scales that best explain species-environment relationships with
 each landcover predictor. We quantify the extent of cross-predictor
 consistency in characteristic scales, and contrast this to the expectation
 given a single species’ characteristic scale. We found no evidence for a
 characteristic spatial scale explaining all abundance-environment
 relationships within species, rather we found substantial variation in
 scale-dependence across multiple environmental attributes. Furthermore,
 33% of species displayed evidence of multiple important scales within
 environmental attributes. Within species there is little evidence for a
 single characteristic scale of environmental relationships and
 considerable variation in species’ scale–dependencies. Because species may
 respond to multiple environmental attributes at different spatial scales,
 or single environmental attributes at multiple scales, we caution against
 any unoptimized single-scale studies. Our results demonstrate that until a
 framework is developed to predict the scales at which species respond to
 environmental characteristics, multi-scale investigations must be
 performed to identify and account for multiscale dependencies. Natural
 selection acting on species’ response to distinct environmental
 attributes, rather than natural selection acting on species’ perception of
 spatial scales per se, may have shaped patterns of scale-dependency and is
 an area ripe for investigation.
description: Stuber_and_Fontaine_GEB_2019_All_Records_PC.csv file containing point count records - see README.txt for description of variable namesStuber_and_Fontaine_GEB_2019_2016_point_count_abundance_predictors_dfR data file containing environmental covariates extracted to point count sampling locations. Values were derived from an updated version of: Bishop, A., A. Barenberg, N. Volpe & Grosse, R. (2011). Nebraska land cover development. Rainwater Basin Joint Venture Report. Grand Island, NE. See README.txt for variable descriptions.Stuber_And_Fontaine_GEB_2019_All_Spp_LoopR code to run Bayesian Latent Indicator Scale Selection on avian point count data as found in "How characteristic is the species characteristic selection scale?" Global Ecology and Biogeography. See README.txt for data descriptions.