Data from: Effects of spatial scale of sampling on food web structure ...

• Main Authors: Wood, Spencer A., Russell, Roly, Hanson, Dieta, Williams, Richard J., Dunne, Jennifer A.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2016
• Subjects: complexity; Trophic interactions; Scale-dependence; sampling area; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.g1qr6; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.g1qr6

This study asks whether the spatial scale of sampling alters structural properties of food webs and whether any differences are attributable to changes in species richness and connectance with scale. Understanding how different aspects of sampling effort affect ecological network structure is important for both fundamental ecological knowledge and the application of network analysis in conservation and management. Using a highly resolved food web for the marine intertidal ecosystem of the Sanak Archipelago in the Eastern Aleutian Islands, Alaska, we assess how commonly studied properties of network structure differ for 281 versions of the food web sampled at five levels of spatial scale representing six orders of magnitude in area spread across the archipelago. Species (S) and link (L) richness both increased by approximately one order of magnitude across the five spatial scales. Links per species (L/S) more than doubled, while connectance (C) decreased by approximately two-thirds. Fourteen commonly studied ... : Food web data for the Sanak Islands, AlaskaThe food web data compiled for this study, consisting of 339 quadrats, 39 transects, five sites, four locales, and one archipelago-wide network. The table provides a unique numeric identifier per food web (WebID), the spatial scale (WebScale; distinguishing quadrats [Q], transects [T], sites [S], locales [L], and the archipelago-scale [A]), a sample number (WebUnit; to identify individual transects [quadrat- and transect-scale samples], sites, or locales), and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System's (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN) and name of each predator and prey (PredTSN, PreyTSN, PredName, and PreyName, respectively). Taxa lacking entries in ITIS have a unique custom TSN prepended with “san”.WoodEtal_Append1_v2.csv ...