Morfospecies and zOTUs interacting with each host plant from the PERDIVER project

Data from the PERDIVER and INTERACTOMA projects. The goal of the projects was to characterize the communities of species that interact with seven rare or endangered plants in Aragón and if those communities changed between isolated and non-isolated plant populations. The aboveground was surveyed in 2016, 2017, and 2018 during the flowering season of the host plant. All individual animals, visiting any part of flowering and non-flowering plants over an area covered visually by the observer were either visually identified or sampled, if needed to confirm identification. All animals trapped by the sticky leaves of pinlon were also identified. Sampling area and length of surveys varied among plant species, depending on size of plants and frequency of interactions, but ≥ 20 surveys were performed at each site, resulting in a total of > 9,000 minutes and 638 surveys. Sampling investment varied among plant species, because they differed in interaction detectability. However, sampling effort was always similar among patches of the same plant species. Other methods like Berlese funnnel traps, fruit sampling or cafeteria experiments were used to unveil interactions that are not easily visible, like those by small or camouflaged animals. Below ground microbial communities were characterized for each plant population with three samples composed of root material from different individuals.