DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4xgxd25cv
title: Data from: Plant richness, land use and temperature differently shape invertebrate leaf-chewing herbivory on plant functional groups

description: Nutrient demands of leaf-chewing invertebrate herbivores change with
 temperature, which causes shifts in herbivores’ diets. Temperature may act
 differently on herbivore species, so that factors shaping herbivore
 species richness may modulate temperature effects on invertebrate
 herbivory among plant functional groups with different nutrient
 composition (C:N ratio low to high: legumes, non-leguminous forbs,
 grasses). Global warming urges a deeper understanding of temperature
 effects on herbivory among plant functional groups in different habitats
 and landscapes. This study obtained measures on proportional leaf area
 loss to leaf-chewing invertebrate herbivores (‘herbivory’) on three plant
 functional groups on 80 plots of open herbaceous vegetation adjacent to
 different habitat types (forest, grassland, arable field, settlement)
 along climate and land-use gradients in Bavaria, Germany. Herbivory was
 analysed with regard to habitat characteristics (habitat type, plant
 richness at species and family level, local mean temperature), landscape
 characteristics (proportion of grassland, landscape diversity;
 0.2–3.0-km), climate (multi-annual mean temperature, ‘MAT’) and
 interactive effects of plant functional group, temperature and habitat or
 landscape characteristics. Herbivory on plant functional groups changed
 differently in response to plant richness (family level only) and habitat
 type, but not to differences in landscape characteristics and temperature
 – only on grassland plots, multi-annual mean temperature differentially
 affected herbivory among plant functional groups. Thus, abiotic and biotic
 factors can differently affect leaf-chewing herbivory on plant functional
 groups. Under current conditions, plant richness and habitat type more
 strongly affected herbivory among legumes, forbs and grasses than
 temperature and landscape-scale land use.
description: Leaves at apical, middle and bottom
 position on a plant were collected from three individuals of three
 “species” per plant functional group. Morphologically different plants
 within plant functional groups were assumed to be different “species” but
 species identity was not determined. Leaves were pressed and dried until
 digital assessment using gimp for image processing and the BioLeaf App for
 calculation of proportional leaf area loss by leaf-chewing invertebrate
 herbivores. Proportional leaf area loss was averaged in sequence per plant
 individual, per ‘plant species’ and plant functional group. Data points
 were excluded when data were obtained on less than 10 leaves per plant
 functional group and plot and when data were not available for all three
 plant functional groups on a plot (processed data). For details address
 the manuscript.
description: <strong>Fricke et al herbivory
 data processing (.R file)</strong> This R-script contains all code needed to
 process data in preparation for data analysis. Fricke_et_al_herbivory_data_processing.R <strong>Fricke et al herbivory data analysis (.R file)</strong> This R-script contains the code used to analyse proportional leaf area loss to leaf-chewing herbivores including generalized linear mixed effect models and multimodel averaging. Fricke_et_al_herbivory_data_analysis.R <strong>Fricke et al herbivory data processing</strong> Raw data on proportional leaf area loss to chewing invertebrates per individual leaf were processed and standardized using the accompanying R-script on data processing to achieve data on average leaf area loss to chewing invertebrates per plant functional group and plot. The resulting processed data were used in the R-script on data analysis. Fricke_et_al_herbivory_data_raw.csv Metadata_Fricke_et_al_herbivory_data_raw.txt Fricke_et_al_herbivory_data_processed.csv Metadata_Fricke_et_al_herbivory_data_processed.txt <strong>Fricke et al data on landscape parameters</strong> This dataframe contains the landscape variables ‘proportion of managed grassland area’ and ‘landscape diversity’ at multiple spatial scales as used in the accompanying R-script on data analysis. Fricke_et_al_landscape_data.csv Metadata_ Fricke_et_al_landscape_data.txt