Data on small mammal community composition and pathogen screening used for statistical analysis

Understanding the ecological mechanisms driving biodiversity and disease associations is critical for biodiversity conservation and public health strategies. However, despite numerous studies describing the direction of biodiversity-disease relationships, field-based evidence identifying the underlying ecological mechanisms remains scarce. Here, we combine extensive field data on 1) small mammal communities and 2) flea-borne pathogens collected across a gradient of land use disturbance in The Netherlands. Data was used to test whether dilution effects arise through shifts in host community composition or through interspecific interactions between low- and high-quality hosts. Files included: Comm_comp.csv: Data on small mammal community composition used for CA and PERMANOVA analyses, and for Figure 3 of the associated manuscript. Model_manuscript.csv: Data used for all generalized linear mixed models and for Figures 4–6 of the associated manuscript. These datasets accompany a manuscript currently under peer review and are made available to ensure transparency and reproducibility of the analyses.