Ecological drivers of carrion beetle (Staphylinidae: Silphinae) diversity on small to large mammals

Silphinae (Staphylinidae; carrion beetles) are important contributors to the efficient decomposition and recycling of carrion necromass. Their community composition is important for the provision of this ecosystem function and can be affected by abiotic and biotic factors. However, investigations are lacking on the effects of carrion characteristics on Silphinae diversity. Carrion body mass may affect Silphinae diversity following the More Individuals Hypothesis (MIH). The MIH predicts a higher number of species at larger carrion because higher numbers of individuals can be supported on the resource patch. Additionally, biotic factors like carrion species identity or decomposition stage, and the abiotic factors elevation, season, and temperature could affect Silphinae diversity. To test the hypotheses, we collected Silphinae throughout the decomposition of 100 carcasses representing ten mammal species ranging from 0.04 kg to 124 kg. Experimental carcasses were exposed in a mountain fore..., , , # Ecological drivers of carrion beetle (Staphylinidae: Silphinae) diversity on small to large mammals

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xd2547drq ](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xd2547drq)

The dataset contains the abundance data for all Silphinae species found during the experiment, as well as the species numbers. These were obtained by sampling the individual carcasses 4 times throughout the experiment (and therefore throughout carrion decomposition). For all of the 100 individual carcasses and the 4 sampling days, this results in a total of 400 data points (4 data points for each of 100 individual carcasses). These data points (as well as the individual carcasses) have a unique ID, which will be explained in the \"Description of the data and file structure\". Furthermore, the dataset contains the seasons, carrion species, carrion decomposition stages, carcass presence, carrion body mass, coordinates of the carrion placement in the field, the elevation above sea level, and the soil surfa...