DOI: 10.5061/dryad.qjq2bvqpb
title: Data for: Specialist carabids in mixed montane forests are positively associated with biodiversity-oriented forestry and abundance of roe deer

description: The ongoing transition within forest management towards more
 biodiversity-oriented practices, such as close-to-nature forestry and
 retention forestry, may benefit forest fauna such as forest-specialized
 ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). However, it remains unclear how
 forest carabids are jointly affected by these practices in Central
 European montane forests, which host particularly sensitive,
 range-restricted carabid species, and where biodiversity-oriented forestry
 is widely applied. Moreover, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), the most
 common large herbivore in these forests, is intensively managed to reduce
 browsing pressure, but it is yet unknown how this may affect carabids,
 alongside the effect of silviculture. On 66 1-ha plots in the Black Forest
 region of Germany, we sampled carabids with pitfall traps, measured roe
 deer abundances using camera trapping, and measured several structural
 variables directly related to close-to-nature and retention practices, as
 well as variables describing microclimate and landscape-level forest
 cover. We found that the carabid assemblage was dominated by forest
 specialists, with little influence from fragmentation of the surrounding
 forest. Higher broadleaf share (and canopy cover for montane specialists)
 was correlated with higher carabid activity-density. Increasing stand
 maturity (and lying deadwood volume for montane specialists), was
 correlated with higher species richness. Plots with higher roe deer
 abundances showed higher carabid richness and activity-density. Assemblage
 composition changed along the altitudinal gradient, and both richness and
 activity-density increased with elevation. Thus, carabid communities,
 including montane specialists and several species of conservation
 interest, stand to benefit from close-to-nature and retention practices,
 if applied throughout the altitude range of montane forests. Forest
 carabids may additionally profit from maintaining higher roe deer
 abundances, but further research is needed to understand this causal link,
 as well as to weigh the costs and benefits of deer culling for forest
 biodiversity.
description: Data on carabid activity-density and species richness was
 collected from pitfall traps placed in 135 1-ha plots (3 traps per plot),
 active from April to June of 2020. Relative abundance of roe deer was
 obtained through camera trapping in the same plots, from spring 2019 to
 spring 2021. Further details on how these and other variables were
 measured are provided in the associated article. Further details on the
 dataset structure and units used are provided in a README file.
description: # Data for: Specialist carabids in mixed montane forests are positively
 associated with biodiversity-oriented forestry and abundance of roe deer
 This README file describes
 which data files are available, which are necessary to run the analysis R
 script, and provides metadata about all variables contained in those data
 files. The data was collected on 135 1-ha forest plots in southwestern
 Germany, each of which contained three pitfall trapping locations. This
 data was collected within the framework of the Research Training Group
 [ConFoBi](https://confobi.uni-freiburg.de/en) (*Conservation of Forest
 Biodiversity in Multiple-Use Landscapes of Central Europe*, [Storch et
 al., 2020](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6003)). ## File structure * R
 script to reproduce analysis (carabidae_script.r) * two data files that
 the R script uses: one with all plot-level data (alldata_carabids_df.csv)
 and another with carabid traits and classifications (carabid_traits.csv) *
 an additional file: trap-level carabid counts (raw_trap_counts.csv) ###
 Variable description for alldata\_carabids\_df.csv **plot_id**: Unique
 plot ID (CFB followed by three digits) **X**: UTM easting coordinates of
 plot (CRS: EPSG:31467, DHDN 3-degree Gauss-Kruger zone 3) **Y**: UTM
 northing coordinates of plot (CRS: EPSG:31467, DHDN 3-degree Gauss-Kruger
 zone 3) **n_traps**: number of useable traps per plot (from which
 activity-densities were calculated) **date_set**: date of trap placement
 (format yyyy-mm-dd) **duration**: number of days traps were active
 **trapdays**: n_traps*duration, as a measure of sampling effort
 **carabidae_n**: total carabid activity-density (pooled across traps)
 **abax_ovalis** to **licinus_hoffmanseggii**: number of individuals
 captured for each species (pooled across traps) **avg_alt**: average plot
 altitude above sea level (m) **DBHMean**: plot-level mean of tree Diameter
 at Breast Height (DBH), for all trees &gt; 7 cm DBH (in mm)
 **lying_dw_volume**: volume of coarse woody debris (cubic meters)
 **pc_broadleaf**: fraction of plot basal area belonging to broadleaved
 tree species **roe_deer**: daily rate of roe deer detection events
 **canopycover**: fraction of plot area containing vegetation above 5 m
 height **for_cover_100ha**: percentage of 100-ha (1 square km) circular
 buffer around plot that is covered by forest **for_cover_2500ha**:
 percentage of 2500-ha (25 square km) circular buffer around plot that is
 covered by forest **sd_slope**: standard deviation of slope values (in
 degrees) across plot **northness**: northness index (-1 to 1), calculated
 from plot aspect, -1 being south-facing slopes and 1 north-facing slopes
 ### Variable description for carabid\_traits.csv **species**: species
 name, according to taxonomy in *[Ref 1]* **forest_specialist**:
 "yes" or "no", according to *[Ref 2]*
 **montane_specialist**: "yes" or "no", according to
 *[Ref 2]* **flight**: brachypterous or flight-able, according to *[Ref 1]*
 **body_length**: average body length (in mm), according to *[Ref 3]*
 **redlisted_bw**: Red list status of species in the state of
 Baden-Württemberg, as of 2005 *[Ref 4]* **redlisted_de**: Red list status
 of species in the Federal Republic of Germany, as of 2016 *[Ref 5]*
 **redlisted**: "R" when species is in any category other than *
 (ungefährdet) in any of the previous two columns, otherwise NA *[Ref 1]*
 Trautner, J. (Ed.), 2017. Die Laufkäfer Baden-Württembergs. Ulmer Eugen
 Verlag, Stuttgart (Germany). *[Ref 2]* Gesellschaft für Angewandte
 Carabidologie, e.V.G. Lebens- Raumpräferenzen Der Laufkäfer Deutschlands –
 Wissensbasierter Katalog, Pp. 1–45. Angewandte Carabidologie, Supplement
 V., 2009. *[Ref 3]* Müller-Motzfeld, Gerd. Die Käfer Mitteleuropas 2.
 Adephaga 1: Carabidae (Laufkäfer). Edited by H. Freude, K.W. Harde, and
 G.A. Lohse. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. 11 vols. Krefeld: Goecke u. Evers, 2004. *[Ref
 4]* Trautner, Jürgen, Michael Bräunicke, Josef Kiechle, Mathias Kramer,
 Jörg Rietze, Arno Schanowski, and Karin Wolf-Schwenninger. Rote Liste Und
 Artenverzeichnis Der Laufkäfer Baden-Württembergs (Coleoptera: Carabidae).
 3rd ed. Naturschutz-Praxis, Artenschutz 9, 2005. *[Ref 5]* Schmidt, J.,
 Jürgen Trautner, and Gerd Müller-Motzfeld. ‘Rote Liste Und
 Gesamtartenliste Der Laufkäfer (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Deutschlands’. In
 Rote Liste Der Gefährdeten Tiere, Pflanzen Und Pilze Deutschlands, edited
 by H. Gruttke, S. Balzer, M. Binot-Hafke, H. Haupt, N. Hofbauer, G.
 Ludwig, G. Matzke-Hajek, and M. Ries, Vol. Band 4: Wirbellose Tiere (Teil
 2). Naturschutz Und Biologische Vielfalt, 70 (4). Bonn: Bundesamt für
 Naturschutz, 2016. ### Variable description for raw\_trap\_counts.csv
 **plot_id**, **date_set**, **duration**: see above on
 all_data_carabids_df.csv **trap**: trap location - CE (plot center), NW
 (northwestern quadrant) or SE (southeastern quadrant) **carabidae_n**:
 total number of carabid individuals captured in each trap **abax_ovalis**
 to **licinus_hoffmanseggii**: number of individuals captured for each
 species, per trap **comments**: explanations of why several traps were not
 used in further analyses ### R session information R version 4.2.2
 (2022-10-31 ucrt) Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit) Running under:
 Windows 10 x64 (build 19045) Matrix products: default locale: \[1]
 LC_COLLATE=Portuguese_Portugal.utf8 LC_CTYPE=Portuguese_Portugal.utf8
 LC_MONETARY=Portuguese_Portugal.utf8 \[4] LC_NUMERIC=C
 LC_TIME=Portuguese_Portugal.utf8 attached base packages: \[1] grid stats
 graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base other attached packages:
 \[1] MuMIn_1.47.5 ggeffects_1.2.3 DHARMa_0.4.6 MASS_7.3-58.2 lme4_1.1-31
 Matrix_1.5-3 car_3.1-2\ \[8] carData_3.0-5 vegan_2.6-4 lattice_0.20-45
 permute_0.9-7 iNEXT_3.0.0 corrplot_0.92 gridExtra_2.3\ \[15] metR_0.14.0
 ggrepel_0.9.3 scales_1.2.1 cowplot_1.1.1 lubridate_1.9.2 forcats_1.0.0
 stringr_1.5.0\ \[22] dplyr_1.1.2 purrr_1.0.1 readr_2.1.4 tidyr_1.3.0
 tibble_3.2.1 ggplot2_3.4.2 tidyverse_2.0.0 \[29] plyr_1.8.8 loaded via a
 namespace (and not attached): \[1] Rcpp_1.0.10 utf8_1.2.3 R6_2.5.1
 backports_1.4.1 stats4_4.2.2 pillar_1.9.0 rlang_1.1.1\ \[8]
 rstudioapi_0.14 minqa_1.2.5 data.table_1.14.8 nloptr_2.0.3 checkmate_2.2.0
 splines_4.2.2 munsell_0.5.0 \[15] compiler_4.2.2 pkgconfig_2.0.3
 mgcv_1.8-41 tidyselect_1.2.0 fansi_1.0.4 tzdb_0.4.0 withr_2.5.0\ \[22]
 nlme_3.1-162 gtable_0.3.3 lifecycle_1.0.3 magrittr_2.0.3 cli_3.6.1
 stringi_1.7.12 cachem_1.0.8 \[29] reshape2_1.4.4 generics_0.1.3
 vctrs_0.6.3 boot_1.3-28.1 tools_4.2.2 glue_1.6.2 hms_1.1.3\ \[36]
 abind_1.4-5 parallel_4.2.2 fastmap_1.1.1 timechange_0.2.0 colorspace_2.1-0
 cluster_2.1.4 memoise_2.0.1