Density-dependence and territorial competitors can modulate parrotfish social foraging and herbivory on coral reefs

Social context can modify the behaviour of animals, influencing how they interact with their environment – potentially cascading to effects on ecosystem functions. However, typical proxies for functions, such as biomass or densities, may not completely capture this behavioural variation. We examined how grouping behaviour of an abundant parrotfish species, Chlorurus sordidus, influences the critical function of herbivory on coral reefs in the Lakshadweep Archipelago and evaluated the role of density-dependence and territorial aggression from competitors in driving group formation in the entire herbivorous fish assemblage. Bite rates increased with increasing group sizes and decreased with aggressive encounters, with parrotfish in larger groups consuming about 80% more algae per capita than solitary individuals.  Group foragers also benefitted marginally from reduced territorial aggression from competing herbivores. The propensities of herbivores to form groups, and their group size..., , # README file for \"Density dependence and territorial competitors can modulate parrotfish social foraging and herbivory on coral reefs\"

Access this dataset on Dryad (10.5061/dryad.msbcc2gbg)

# General outline

This file is a guide to the code, data, and metadata for the above mentioned paper. It contains instructions to replicate the analysis. The data contains **behavioural observations of** ***Chlorurus sordidus*** **and timed swims for the herbivore assemblage on the coral reefs of the Lakshdaweep Archipelago.**

* Extract the sub-folders from the file \"data.zip\".
* All raw unprocessed data is contained in the folder \"raw_data\".
* The cleaned dataset, ready for analysis is in the folder \"analysis_data\".
* The folder \"scripts\" (uploaded on Zenodo in the folder code, with also contains the R project) contains all the R code used in the analysis. We recommend running it through the R project \"grouping_herbivory.Rproj\".
* **Put the R project, the folder \"scripts\", and the two data fold...,