Long-term trends of epibionts reflect Mediterranean striped dolphin abundance shifts caused by morbillivirus epidemics

Data on the presence and intensity of the epibiotic crustaceans Xenobalanus globicipitis, Syncyamus aequus, and Pennella balaenoptera on 462 cetaceans (Delphinus delphis, Grampus griseus, Globicephala melas, Stenella coeruleoalba, and Tursiops truncatus) stranded along the coasts of Valencia (Spain, western Mediterranean) within 1980-2023. The data was collected by members of the Marine Zoology Unit (Universitat de Valencia, Spain). Permission and funding to collect stranded dolphins were given by the Wildlife Service of the Valencian Regional Government, Spain.
These data were used in the research article \"Long-term trends of epibionts reflect Mediterranean striped dolphin abundance shifts caused by morbillivirus epidemics\", published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. It was used for descriptive graphs, for calculating infection parameters (i.e., mean intensity, prevalence, and their Confidence Intervals), for Generalized Additive Models (GAMs), and for estimating some input parameters..., , # Data from: Long-term trends of epibionts reflect Mediterranean striped dolphin abundance shifts caused by morbillivirus epidemics

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.z8w9ghxtf](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.z8w9ghxtf)

## Description of the data and file structure

#### Files: Ten_et_al_Cetacean_epibionts_UniversityofValencia.csv

##### Description of variables: 

* Host_species: (Cetacean) host species
* Host_id: (Cetacean) host identification code, following the guidelines of the Marine Zoology Unit (University of Valencia, Spain); species scientific name initials and stranding date (yymmdd)
* Year: Stranding year
* Season: Stranding season (1, January-March; 2, April-June; 3, July-September; 4, October-December)
* Outbreak: Stranding during a morbillivirus outbreak? 1, yes; 0, no
* Host_sex: (Cetacean) host sex (female, male, or NA if undetermined)
* Host_length_cm: (Cetacean) host total body length (from snout to fluke notch) in centimeters
* Pennella_presence: Presence of the mesoparasi...,