Scavenger assemblages and scavenging rates in north Queensland and Victoria, Australia

Full description

This data was collected to test whether ecological function, measured as scavenging rates, is affected by differences in species pools across a continental scale. We placed fish carcasses at the beach-dune interface of 12 beaches in north Queensland, and 13 beaches in Victoria, which were monitored by motion-triggered cameras to record scavengers and quantify the detection and removal of carrion. The data includes:

1. Scavenger assemblages, calculated as the aggregated species incidence per beach.
2. Beach characteristics, including natural metrics such as dune width, as well as metrics related to human interference such as distance to nearest buildings.
3. Scavenging rates: for each deployment whether a carcass was detected and removed.
4. Scavenging efficiency: for each deployment, time in minutes until a carcass was detected and removed.
5. Bird occurrence, calculated from Birdlife data, in 5 blocks of 50 km coastline in each region.
The results of these data are published in "Functional replacement across species pools of vertebrate scavengers separated a a continental scale maintains an ecosystem function" in the journal Functional Ecology in 2015.

Investigators:

• Chantal M. Huijbers (University of the Sunshine Coast)
• Thomas A. Schlacher (University of the Sunshine Coast)
• Rosemary R. McVeigh (University of the Sunshine Coast)
• David S. Schoeman (University of the Sunshine Coast)
• Andrew D. Olds (University of the Sunshine Coast)
• Marion B. Brown (University of the Sunshine Coast)
• Kasun B. Ekanayake (Deakin University)
• Michael A. Weston (Deakin University)
• Rod M. Connolly (Griffith University)