Data from: Salmonid species diversity predicts salmon consumption by terrestrial wildlife

1. Resource waves - spatial variation in resource phenology that extends
feeding opportunities for mobile consumers - can affect the behaviour and
productivity of recipient populations. Interspecific diversity among
Pacific salmon species (Oncorhynchus spp.) creates staggered spawning
events across space and time, thereby prolonging availability to
terrestrial wildlife. 2. We aim to understand how such variation might
influence consumption by terrestrial predators compared with resource
abundance and intra- and inter- specific competition. 3. Using stable
isotope analysis, we investigated how the proportion of salmon in the
annual diet of male black bears (Ursus americanus; n = 405) varies with
species diversity and density of spawning salmon biomass, while also
accounting for competition with conspecific black and grizzly bears (U.
arctos horribilis), in coastal British Columbia, Canada. 4. We found that
the proportion of salmon in the annual diet of black bears increased by
≈40% in the absence of grizzly bears, but detected little effect of
relative black bear density and salmon biomass density. Rather, salmon
diversity had the largest positive effect on consumption. On average,
increasing diversity from one salmon species to ~four (with equal biomass
contributions) approximately triples the proportion of salmon in diet. 5.
Given the importance of salmon to bear reproduction, this work provides
early empirical support for how resource waves may increase the
productivity of consumers at population and landscape scales. Accordingly,
terrestrial wildlife management might consider maintaining not only salmon
abundance but also diversity.