Data from: Broad and flexible stable isotope niches in invasive non-native Rattus spp. in anthropogenic and natural habitats of central eastern Madagascar ...

• Main Authors: Dammhahn, Melanie, Randriamoria, Toky M., Goodman, Steven M.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2017
• Subjects: stable carbone; coexistence; Rattus norvegicus; stable nitrogen; Invasion ecology; Rattus rattus; Holocene; Rodents
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j04ff; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.j04ff

Background: Rodents of the genus Rattus are among the most pervasive and successful invasive species, causing major vicissitudes in native ecological communities. A broad and flexible generalist diet has been suggested as key to the invasion success of Rattus spp. Here, we use an indirect approach to better understand foraging niche width, plasticity, and overlap within and between introduced Rattus spp. in anthropogenic habitats and natural humid forests of Madagascar. Results: Based on stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values measured in hair samples of 565 individual rodents, we found that R. rattus had an extremely wide foraging niche, encompassing the isotopic space covered by a complete endemic forest-dwelling Malagasy small mammal community. Comparisons of Bayesian standard ellipses, as well as (multivariate) mixed-modeling analyses, revealed that the stable isotope niche of R. rattus tended to change seasonally and differed between natural forests and anthropogenic habitats, indicating plasticity in ... : Raw stable carbon (d13C) and stable nitrogen (d15N) data in ‰ of Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicusDryad.xlsx ...