Global tiger density linked with forest carbon stock, top-down and bottom-up

Tiger (Panthera tigris) survival, as apex predators in forest ecosystems, largely depends on abundant prey in healthy, intact forests. Because large herbivore prey are drivers of plant biomass, we reasoned that tiger distribution and density are probably also closely linked with forest carbon (C) stock, the management of which is critical for mitigating climate change. However, whether tigers exert top-down control of forest C stocks or are passive surrogate C indicators bottom-up is a salient unanswered question in conservation and management, particularly in trophic rewilding. Here, we compiled estimates of global tiger presence and density to test the top-down effects of tigers on forest C stocks and tiger-carbon relationships along a gradient from “empty forests” without tigers to “target state” ecosystems with tigers living at different abundances. Our results showed that tiger presence was associated with higher forest vegetation C stocks, lower C emissions, and higher C inputs gl..., , # Global tiger density linked with forest carbon stock, top-down and bottom-up

Access this dataset on Dryad DOI: [10.5061/dryad.cjsxksnhj](10.5061/dryad.cjsxksnhj)

## Description of the data and file structure

Each script starts with loading the required packages, reading in the data, and converting categorical variables to factors, and describes the analysis workflow. The main scripts are noted from 1 to 4.

Data files contain extracted carbon, biodiversity, and environmental values within an area of interest (rows) derived from corresponding raster data in ArcGIS with either the Zonal Statistics as Table tool or Sample tool, with Python code, variable descriptions, and source information provided below.

### Data files and variables

#### File: anosim\_and\_adonis\_input\_data.txt

**Description:** For manuscript section, \"Testing for top-down effects of tiger density on forest carbon stocks\". These data are to be used together with file **anosim_and_adonis_code.R**. Data in all co...,