Long-term small mammal community dynamics in Northern Chihuahuan Desert grassland and shrubland ecotones

Sevilleta LTER data-sets 129 and 008 (http://sev.lternet.edu/data/sev-129, -008), sevilleta_species_list.csv from dp2 and Met_all.csv from dp1 were utilized in "Final Figure One Code.R" to calculate precipitation (A), percent cover (B) and rodent abundances (C) for the Creosote and Black Grama core sites. To generate a multi-panel figure (Figure 1). Sevilleta LTER data-set 008 was utilized in "Final Figure Two Code.R" to show non-metric multidimensional scaling between rodent foraging guilds in grassland versus shrubland to generate a two panel figure (Figure 2). Sevilleta LTER data-set 008 was utilized in "Final Figure Three Code Table 1 and 2.R" to assess comunity dynamic metrics (Package CoDyn in R) illustrating species richness, turnover, mean rand shift, and temporal changes in community composition of small mammals in each of the core sites. SIMPER analysis to calculate contributions of species to dissimilarities between the two habitats were run, and values were inserted into the final paper. Community Stability Metrics (CoDyn) such as stability, synchrony, and variance were run, and values inserted into a table in the final paper. "Final Analysis Code.R" utilizes Sevilleta LTER data-sets 129 and OO8, sevilleta_species_list.csv, and Met_all.csv to conduct linear regressions, ANOVA, and significance testing to describe differences between the Heteromyid and Cricetid communities in both the grassland and shrubland. Three tables are generated for possible further analysis, but they are not utilized in this paper. All significant values were utilized, but not output as an additional table.