Dataset for: Poulos & McCormick - Prior residency improves the performance of a resource specialist in a degrading environment

In this study, we investigated: how sequence and timing of arrival affects interactions between a habitat generalist and a specialist in healthy and degrading environments, and how prior residency interacts with habitat quality and resource specialisation to affect propensity to migrate. We conducted manipulative field studies using the damselfishes Pomacentrus amboinensis, a habitat generalist, and Pomacentrus moluccensis, a live coral specialist, on live or dead coral habitats, with timing of arrival differing between early and late arrivers (residents and intruders, respectively) by 1, 3 or 24 hours.