Data from: The biogeochemical boomerang: Site fidelity creates nutritional hotspots that may promote recurrent calving site reuse ...

• Main Author: Ferraro, Kristy
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2024
• Subjects: FOS Biological sciences; Biogeochemistry; Niche construction; Nutrient cycle; Plant-herbivore interactions; Animal migration; lichen; Rangifer; zoogeochemistry; caribou; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hhmgqnkqc; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.hhmgqnkqc

Animals interact with nutrient cycles by consuming and depositing nutrients, interactions that are studied in the separate fields of nutritional ecology and zoogeochemistry. Recent theoretical work has begun bridging these disciplines, highlighting that animal-driven nutrient recycling could be crucial in helping animals meet nutritional needs. When animals exhibit site fidelity, they consistently deposit nutrients, potentially improving vegetation quality. We investigated this potential feedback by analyzing changes in forage nitrogen stocks following simulated caribou calving. We found that forage nitrogen stocks increased after two weeks and remained elevated after one year, a change due to an increase in forage quality but not quantity. We thus highlight a positive zoogeochemical feedback whereby caribou deposit nutrients during calving that become bioavailable during lactation and provide evidence that site fidelity creates a biogeochemical boomerang in which animals deposit nutrients that can be reused ... : # Data from: The biogeochemical boomerang: Site fidelity creates nutritional hotspots that may promote recurrent calving site reuse [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hhmgqnkqc](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hhmgqnkqc) Data collected in May/June 2022-2023 to asses the role of caribou calving on nutrient cycles in Newfoundland. Data contains soil properties, environmental data, and %N, %C, and 15N data for plant and soil samples. ## Description of the data and file structure Data can be found in two files. Ferraro_BiogeochemicalBoomerang_Data_2024 contains the soil and plant data taken from the experimental calving plots. Ferraro_DistanceSamples_2024 contains the data from the plant samples taken in the transect outward from the calving plots in the second year of sampleing. Ferraro_BiogeochemicalBoomerang_MetaData_2024.xlsx contains descriptions of the columns found within both data set, with a tab for each one. Missing data code : NA ## Sharing/Access information Code for processing the data can be found at ...