Fijian sea krait behavior relates to fine‐scale environmental heterogeneity in old‐growth coastal forest: The importance of integrated land–sea management for protecting amphibious animals

Here the data for \"Fijian sea krait behaviour relates to fine-scale environmental heterogeneity in old growth forest: the importance of integrated land-sea management for protecting amphibious animals\" by Lowe, C., Keppel, G., Waqa, K., Peters, S., Fisher, R.N., Scanlon, A., Osborne-Naikatini, T, and Thomas-Moko, N  is provided. This article investigates the habitat of Yellow Lipped Sea Kraits, Laticauda colubrina, in the terrestrial realm on Leluvia Island, a small, topographically flat atoll in Fiji with coastal forest. The investigation uses concurrent microclimate measurements and behaviour surveys, as well as vegetation surveys, and the data collected for these analyses are provided here. Microclimates were significantly related to canopy cover, leaf litter depth, and distance from the high-water mark (HWM). Sea kraits were almost exclusively observed in coastal forest within 30 m of the HWM. Sloughing of skins only occurred within crevices of mature or dying trees. Resting L. colu..., Study Design
Six transects were established in the forested part of Leleuvia Island. Five 55 m transects were positioned perpendicular to the coast, commencing at 2 m inland of the high-water mark (HWM) – see article for details. Another 65 m transect was established in the centre of the island. Each transect was equipped with 7 (55 m transects) or 8 (65 m transect) Hygrochron DS1923 microclimate sensors (Eclo Solutions) located at 2.5 m, 7.5 m, 12.5 m, 22.5 m, 32.5 m, 42.5 m, and 52.5 m (55 m transects), and 0 m, 10 m, 20 m, 25 m, 35 m, 40 m, 50 m, and 60 m (65 m transect) from the starting point of the transect. These 43 sensors were supplemented with 17 additional sensors placed close to resting L. colubrina. Of the 60 sensors, 20 were positioned in areas with kraits present and 40 in areas without. Ten of these sensors, five each in locations with and without snakes, malfunctioned or were lost.
Microclimate Sensors
Microclimate sensors were standardised at room temperature for 24 ho..., All data are presented in a single spreadsheet with the following sheets:

'Environmental Data' includes the site location (longitude and latitude), percentage canopy cover, leaf litter depth, distance to the high water mark, and snake presence or absence for the 50 locations with retrieved microclimate data
'Microclimate Summary - Day' includes the means and variances for temperature and absolute humidity data collected during the day
'Microclimate Summary - Night' includes the means and variances for temperature and absolute humidity data collected during the night
'Microclimate Raw' includes all humidity and temperature readings collected from the 50 sensors
'Snake Survey' includes all the information collected during the snake surveys
'Vegetation Data' includes the cover-abundance data for plant species collected for each of the 37 transect points