Predator-prey interactions in the Arctic: DNA-metabarcoding reveals that nestling diet of snow buntings reflects arthropod seasonality

Tundra arthropods are of considerable ecological importance as a seasonal food source for many arctic-breeding birds. Dietary composition and food preferences are rarely known, complicating assessments of ecological interactions in a changing environment. In our field study, we investigated nestling diet of snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis (L., 1758)) breeding in Svalbard. We collected  faecal samples from 8-day-old nestlings and assessed dietary composition by DNA-metabarcoding. Simultaneously, the availability of potential prey arthropods was measured by pitfall-trapping. Molecular analyses of nestling faeces identified 31 arthropod taxa in the diet, whose proportions changed throughout the brood-rearing period. Changes in nestling diet matched varying abundances and emergence patterns of the tundra arthropod community. Snow buntings provisioned their offspring mainly with Diptera (true flies) based on both presence/absence and relative read abundance of diet items. At the beginni..., Please refer to the published paper associated with this dataset, which provides a detailed description of the data collection methods., , # Title of Dataset

Data from: Predator-prey interactions in the Arctic: DNA-metabarcoding reveals that nestling diet of snow buntings reflects arthropod seasonality

The dataset consists of

1. Raw count-data from pitfall trapping (pitfall.csv)
2. Raw sequencing-data (raw_fastq.zip with fastq-files of all samples and metadata information)
3. Metadata information for the faecal samples (metadata_feacal_samples.csv )
4. Raw output from mBRAVE-analysis (mBRAVE_data.tsv)
5. List of species with assigned linnean names (species_names.csv)
Please refer to the published paper associated with this dataset, which provides a detailed description of the data collection methods.

## Description of the data and file structure

pitfall.csv includes all pitfall trap samples in rows, with Date (date when pitfall trap samples were collected), Habitat (wet/dry) and taxa (counts per sample) as columns. Please refer to appendix A of the published papers associated with this dataset for more inform...