VinicioSantillanSenckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F)

VinicioSantillanassociatedPartyMartaQuitiánCo-ownerEike LenaNeuschulzCo-ownerMatthiasSchleuningCo-ownerKatrinBöhning-GaeseCo-owner2018-06-11This data set has been used in the paper “Spatio-temporal variation in bird assemblages is associated with fluctuations in temperature and precipitation along a tropical elevational gradient” (Santillán et al. 2018, PlosONE). It contains bird census data (bird richness, abundance, evenness) from 18 study plots located at three elevations (1000, 2000 and 3000 m a. s. l.) in and around Podocarpus National Park in the Ecuadorian Andes. Sampling has been repeated eight times over two years (2014, 2015), resulting in 144 replicates across all plots. The data set also contains data of resource availability (number of flowers and fruits, invertebrate biomass), temperature and precipitation data for each plot, observer distance to the recorded bird (only for 2015), and the abundance and richness of four feeding guilds (i.e., nectarivores, frugivores, insectivores, omnivores) across all plots. no restrictionsTropical Andes southern Ecuador, study sites located between Loja and Zamora, Estación Científica San Francisco, Podocarpus National Park-79.1831-78.95-3.8992-4.18312014-05-012015-12-01Eike LenaNeuschulzSenckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F)

Senckenberganlage 25Frankfurt am Main60325Germany

eike-lena.neuschulz@senckenberg.de

We conducted bird point counts in each of 18 study plots located at three elevations (1000, 2000, 3000 m a s l). Bird assemblages were sampled twice in the most humid season (May-July) and twice in the least humid season (September-November) in 2014 and 2015, resulting in eight temporal replicates per plot. At each plot, we placed nine point count locations, eight at the borders of the 1-ha plots and one in the centre. For 10 minutes, we recorded and identified all birds heard or seen to species level within a 20-m radius around the centre of each point count location. The 20- metre sampling radius was chosen because of the low visibility in the dense tropical forest beyond that radius. Sampling started at sunrise and ended before 09:00 h and was conducted by three observers. Plots were randomized among observers to minimize sampling bias. We quantified bird abundance, evenness and species richness by summing the records of all point counts per plot and temporal replicate (sampled area for each plot approx. 1.1 ha). We recorded the distance of each bird from the centre of the point count location in all counts conducted in 2015. We recorded the overall resource availability for each plot, comprising flower, fruit and invertebrate resources. To estimate flower and fruit availability, we recorded all plants with open flowers and ripe fruits within a 20-metre radius around each point count location. For each plant, we choose several randomly-picked branches, counted the number of flowers and fruits per branch and estimated the overall abundance of flowers and fruits per plant. Flower and fruit abundances of each of the nine point count locations were summed to obtain the overall abundance per plot (Mulwa et al. 2013). To obtain a relative comparison of invertebrate resources among all plots, we assessed understory invertebrate biomass by using a standardized sweep-netting design. We made a total of 100 sweeps along one of the 100-metre borders of each plot and subsequently weighted the cumulative invertebrate fresh biomass. Flowers, fruits and insect biomass were scaled to zero mean and unit variance and then summed to calculate the overall resource availability per plot. We obtained average monthly climate data for each study plot. Average monthly within-forest temperatures (i.e., monthly mean of daily maximum temperatures) were obtained through an air temperature regionalization tool developed for the study region (Fries et al. 2009). Monthly mean precipitation (i.e., average of the sum of monthly precipitation) was obtained through remote sensing techniques (local area weather radar and satellite imagery) and meteorological data (Rollenbeck & Bendix 2011).

Santillan et al. 2018 BirdCensusData.xlsxSantillan et al. 2018 BirdCensusData.xlsx35620XLSXhttps://dataportal.senckenberg.de/dataset/23718b61-f2a2-4603-93ca-2433f00e0530/resource/3e4d92fc-5500-48c2-9657-0410b1efbc53/download/santillan-et-al.-2018-birdcensusdata.xlsxOther timeseries other The sampling was repeated eight times over two years (216 sampling hours in total, 144 replicates across all plots).