Data and scripts to assess mammals in plantations using occupancy, species richness and activity patterns analyses
Description
Conservation efforts includes plantations of non-native and some native timber species. Whether these plantations are suitable as habitat or corridors for wildlife remains unclear due to limited empirical evidence. Here, we archived data from ground-dwelling vertebrates' surveys, using camera trap during one-year of sampling in five types of plantations in Central Panama. We deployed camera traps in random points to estimate community composition and occupancy for each plantation type. Additionally, we assessed activity for species of interest. We found that the plantations harbored few mammals in comparison with surveys from protected lowland Panamanian forests, and mostly short-lived species. Teak (Tectona grandis) plantations, which covered the largest area in the study, had the lowest estimated richness and occupancy. Two diurnal frugivores, Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata) and White-nosed Coati (Nasua narica) were more nocturnal in the plantations than in natural forests. Our findings suggest that plantations – especially Teak plantations – have limited conservation value as habitat or corridors for ground-dwelling mammals. The archived data includes: A CSV file called "argos_observations_2019-03-11_22-26-52" for the occupancy and species richness analyses, a CSV file for the accumulation curves, and all text files needed for the activity pattern estimates. There is a R file for each analyses and within each script, there description on how the data was managed, as well as a step by step analyses processing. Also, there is a jags file which is required for the occupancy analysis and it's called from the R occupancy script.