Burrowing crab effects on the properties and functions of coastal soft sediments

Burrowing ecosystem engineers, such as termites, crabs, marmots, and foxes, can profoundly affect the biological structure and ecosystem functions of their environments. However, the relative importance of burrowing engineers on sediments are challenging to predict and are expected to be influenced by engineer density, engineer functional traits (e.g., burrow morphology), and environmental conditions (e.g., geomorphology, vegetation presence). To develop robust hypotheses predicting the impacts of burrowing ecosystem engineers, we conducted a systematic meta-analysis evaluating the effects of burrowing crabs on sediment properties, nutrient stocks, and ecosystem functions in coastal soft-sediment habitats (e.g., salt marshes, mangrove forests, tidal flats). The data set includes 1422 effect size calculations for the effects of burrowing crabs on sediments collected from 59 total manuscripts. The data suggest that burrowing crabs rework and oxygenate sediments and accelerate rates of nut..., Search string development and literature survey.
To develop our search string, we consulted the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA; Moher et al. 2009, Page et al. 2021) and implemented a modified version of the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome (PICO) approach (Foster and Jewell 2017). We defined our populations as burrowing crab communities located within soft-sediment tidal ecosystems. Our variable was broadly defined and included all known pathways by which burrowing crab communities may influence sediments and their functions (e.g., bioturbation, excavation, burrowing, particle reworking, herbivory, facilitation). The outcome was any change in edaphic conditions or sediment functions. The final search string is as follows (the string is presented in sections to specify the intent of each group of search terms, underlined headings were not included in the Boolean string):
Crab Engineer Populations: ((burrowing NEAR/0 crab) OR crab O..., , # Data from: Burrowing crab effects on the properties and functions of coastal soft sediments

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3bk3j9kt3](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3bk3j9kt3)

Effect size calculations (including means, sample sizes, and standard deviation) of crab burrowing effects (i.e., high density vs low density) on the properties, nutrient stocks, and functions of coastal sediments. Data comes from studies conducted across Africa, Asia, Australia, North America, and South America.

## Description of the data and file structure

**File list:**

1. Rinehart_et_al.202X_Effectsizes

CSV file containing the Hedges d effect size calculations (including the raw means, sample sizes, and standard deviations) for each extracted comparison/study from all 59 manuscripts. Additional extracted data (e.g., crab taxa, experimental conditions, habitat, burrow density) are also included for each comparison/study.
2. Rinehart_et_al.202X_Publicationbias

CSV file containing the pooled sta...