Larval burden on trapped hosts

These data are part of a larger, long-term project to understand function in a complex forest network of linked and interacting taxa. The broad approach has been to quantify the strength of interactions between pairs of taxa and to embed those pairwise interactions in a more comprehensive interaction web, which itself might be affected by ongoing shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns. Specifically, this approach allows us to examine both top-down and bottom-up forces impacting small mammals, their tick parasites and associated pathogens. This particular dataset reflects numbers of larval ticks (<i>Ixodes scapularis</i>) observed on two species of small mammals during the peak larval question period (August - September) over 32 years at six sites on Cary Institute property.<b>File list:</b>Larvae_onHosts 91-23.csvLTREB_larval burden_README.pdf - contains full metadata including definitions for variables in the data file, Larvae_onHosts 91-23.csv<br>