Data from: Effects of prey density, temperature and predator diversity on nonconsumptive predator-driven mortality in a freshwater food web

Nonconsumptive predator-driven mortality (NCM), defined as prey mortality
due to predation that does not result in prey consumption, is an
underestimated component of predator-prey interactions with possible
implications for population dynamics and ecosystem functioning. However,
the biotic and abiotic factors influencing this mortality component remain
largely unexplored, leaving a gap in our understanding of the impacts of
environmental change on ecological communities. We investigated the
effects of temperature, prey density, and predator diversity and density
on NCM in an aquatic food web module composed of dragonfly larvae (Aeshna
cyanea) and marbled crayfish (Procambarus fallax f. virginalis) preying on
common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fry. We found that NCM increased with prey
density and depended on the functional diversity and density of the
predator community. Warming significantly reduced NCM only in the
dragonfly larvae but the magnitude depended on dragonfly larvae density.
Our results indicate that energy transfer across trophic levels is more
efficient due to lower NCM in functionally diverse predator communities,
at lower resource densities and at higher temperatures. This suggests that
environmental changes such as climate warming and reduced resource
availability could increase the efficiency of energy transfer in food webs
only if functionally diverse predator communities are conserved.