Long-term population dynamics of an insect in a simple food web under a changing environment

Weather conditions are important for the population dynamics of “cold-blooded” animals like insects, with both direct and indirect effects (via the food web). How weather, in combination with other factors, generates population change, and how such effects change over time, are important questions in times of climate change. We monitored an insect seed predator population during a 36-year period of changing weather patterns. The insect is part of a simple food web dominated by seed consumption and lacking natural enemies. Environmental conditions were relatively stable during the first half of the study, but patterns changed during the latter half. Areas of host plant patches increased, and seed production entered a strong bi-annual pattern. Insect abundance was measured twice during the yearly life cycle, before and after summer reproduction, and seed resources and competitor densities were measured at the end of the summer. We fit a population model to abundance data to investigate th..., , # Long-term population dynamics of an insect in a simple food web under a changing environment Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.3r2280gtb](10.5061/dryad.3r2280gtb) ## Description of the data and file structure Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.3r2280gtb](https://datadryad.org/submission/10.5061/dryad.3r2280gtb) Field censuses of the insect *Lygaeus equestris,* its competitor *Euphranta connexa,* and their food resource, the fruit of the herbaceous plant *Vincetoxicum hirundinaria.* ## **Description of the data and file structure:** Two files are provided: Patch_data.csv and Yearly_data.csv The patch file contains the mark-recapture data of *Lygaeus equestris* for each separate patch in every year. The yearly data file contains the estimates of *Lygaeus equestris* abundances as well as statistical parameters for these estimates. It also contains the weather data used in the analysis as well as counts of *Vincetoxicum hirundinaria* seed pods not attacked by *Euphranta connexa* and the total n...,