Physiological mortality rates of planktonic ciliates

Contrasting physiological mortality with predator-induced mortality is of tremendous importance for the population dynamics of many organisms but is difficult to assess. I performed a meta-analysis using planktonic ciliates as model organisms to estimate the maximum physiological mortality rates (δmax) across pelagic ecosystems in relation to environmental and biotic factors. Data were compiled from published numerical response (NR) experiments and experimentally determined rates of decline (ROD). Variables reported are ciliate species and order, ciliate specific growth rates (rmax), prey species, temperature, habitat (marine vs freshwater), the coefficients of the numerical response experiments, and reported or calculated ciliate mortality rates. The median δmax of planktonic ciliates was 0.62 d−1 and did not differ between marine and freshwater species. Maximum ciliate mortality rates were species-specific and affected by their rmax, cell volume, and ability to encyst. Cyst-forming sp..., I used ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar to search for experiments that measured growth and mortality rates of ciliates as a function of prey concentration (i.e. numerical responses). The search terms were “growth (rate)” or “numerical response” in combination with “ciliate*” to search for numerical response experiments and “starvation” or “starved” in combination with “ciliate*” to search for mortality experiments. In addition, I searched the literature cited in these publications for further datasets. I considered only planktonic ciliates. When studies did not report all parameters of the NR curve, the data were extracted from figures with DataThief III or WebPlotDigitizer (Version 4.6) and fitted with a modified Michaelis-Menten equation that included the threshold prey concentration (P’) as an additional parameter. Mortality rates obtained by ROD experiments used the δmax reported in the respective study or calculated δmax from the maximum rate of decline after digitizing the da..., Excel, R, # Physiological mortality rates of planktonic ciliates

## Description of the Data and file structure

I used ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar to search for experiments that measured growth and mortality rates of ciliates as a function of prey concentration (i.e. numerical responses). The main dataset containing available experimental studies reporting ciliate species, experimental temperature, prey species, ciliate maximum growth rates, ciliate cell volumes, habitat of ciliate isolation, method of study and reported or calculated ciliate mortality
rates are reported in the 'Dataset_v2.xlsx' file. This is the main document. Missing data codes: N.A. = not available; n/a = not applicable.
More details about each column of the main document can be found in the 'Units_table.xlsx' file.
Details on the references - i.e. authors, publication year, title, journal/book, volume and page/article numbers -
used to compile this dataset can be found in 'References.xlsx'.

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