DOI: 10.5061/dryad.zw3r2285k
title: Data from: Prey colonization in freshwater landscapes can be stimulated or inhibited by the proximity of remote predators

description: 1. Recent findings suggest that the colonization of habitat patches may be
 affected by the quality of surrounding patches. For instance, patches that
 lack predators may be avoided when located near others with predators, a
 pattern known as risk contagion. Alternatively, predator avoidance might
 also redirect dispersal towards nearby predator-free patches resulting in
 so-called habitat compression. However, it is largely unknown how
 predators continue to influence these habitat selection behaviors at
 increasing distances from outside of their own habitat patch. In addition,
 current information is derived from artificial mesocosm experiments, while
 support from natural ecosystems is lacking. 2. This study used bromeliad
 landscapes as a natural model system to study how oviposition habitat
 selection of Diptera responds to the cues of a distant predator, the
 carnivorous elephant mosquito larva. 3. We established landscapes
 containing predator-free bromeliad habitat patches placed at increasing
 distances from a predator-containing patch, along with replicate control
 landscapes. These patches were then left to be colonized by ovipositing
 bromeliad insects. 4. We found that distance to predators modulates
 habitat selection decisions. Moreover, different dipteran families had
 different responses suggesting different habitat selection strategies. In
 some families, predator-free patches at certain distances from the
 predator patch were avoided, confirming risk contagion. In other families,
 these patches received higher number of colonists providing evidence of
 predator induced habitat compression. 5. We confirm that effects of
 predators in a natural ecosystem can extend beyond the patch in which the
 predator is present and that the presence or absence of remote predator
 effects on habitat selection depends on the distance to predators. The
 notion that perceived habitat quality can depend on conditions in
 neighboring patches forces habitat selection studies to adopt a landscape
 perspective and account for the effects of both present and remote
 predators when explaining community assembly in metacommunities.
description: This dataset was collected during a field experiment. It is the
 raw dataset and has not been processed in any way. It contains abundances
 of dipteran larva found in bromeliads that were subjected to different
 treatments as well as morphological measurements of each
 bromeliad 
description: Each row represents an individual bromeliad. Bromeliads were
 arranged into clusters of four, each placed in one of 4 positions within
 the cluster, indicated by the POSITION column. Bromeliads in the same
 cluster therefore have the same CLUSTER id. In the TREATMENT column, for
 bromeliads in the center position, 'present' indicates that a
 predator was present in that bromeliad. For bromeliads in positions d1,
 d2, and d3, 'present' indicates that they were found in a
 cluster that had a predator in the center position (but they themselves
 were predator-free). Therefore clusters P1 to P5 all have predators in the
 center position. C1 to C3 were control clusters, 'absent'
 indicating that the bromeliad was found in a cluster that did not have a
 predator in the bromeliad in the center position. Also note, in the main
 text, the term 'landscape' is used instead of cluster to
 indicate a group of four bromeliads.