SAFE Project: Dung Beetle Community and Dung Removal Data

Dung beetle community and dung removal data were collected in 2011 and 2015 as part of the SAFE research project on the effects of habitat modification and fragmentation in tropical forests. The dataset includes species abundance counts from pitfall traps baited with human faeces, recorded at SAFE second-order points and rivers. It likely contains two related data tables per collection year, focusing on beetle community composition and associated ecosystem functioning metrics.

Use Cases

• Analyzing species abundance and community composition across different habitat types and years.
• Modeling the relationship between dung beetle biodiversity and dung removal ecosystem functioning.
• Assessing the impact of forest fragmentation on insect populations using spatial site data.
• Conducting temporal comparisons of beetle communities between 2011 and 2015 sampling events.

Strengths

• Includes detailed species-level abundance data for multiple dung beetle taxa, with column names specifying species like Caccobius_bawangensis.
• Data collection is part of a structured, funded long-term research project (SAFE) with explicit permits and funding sources documented.
• The dataset provides temporal depth with sampling events in at least two distinct years (2011 and 2015).

Limitations

• Input sources provide conflicting row counts for similar datasets (e.g., 197 vs. 177 rows for community data), indicating potential versioning or subset issues.
• Key metadata such as file size, exact column count beyond examples, and last update dates are consistently reported as unknown or 'None'.
• The dataset's structure is described as containing two tables per file, but the exact relationship and contents of the 'dung removal' table are not detailed in the provided descriptions.

Provenance

Source

SAFE (Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems) research project, led by Eleanor M. Slade.

Collection Method

Field collection via baited pitfall traps, with traps set for 48-hour periods.

Time Range

2011 to 2015

Geography

SAFE project area and LOMBOK rivers, likely in a tropical forest region (specific location not stated but inferred from project context).