Human-driven breakdown of predator-prey interactions in the northern Adriatic Sea

Long-term baseline data that allow tracking how predator-prey interactions have responded to intensifying human impacts are often lacking. Here, we assess temporal changes in benthic community composition and interactions between drilling predatory gastropods and their molluscan prey using the Holocene fossil record of the shallow northern Adriatic Sea, which is characterized by a long history of human transformation. Molluscan assemblages differ between the Isonzo and Po prodelta, but both show consistent temporal trends in the abundance of dominant species. Samples of mollusc prey collected at high stratigraphic resolution indicate that drilling frequencies have drastically declined in the Po prodelta since the mid-20th century, while a weaker trend in the more condensed sediments of the Isonzo prodelta is not statistically significant. The decrease in drilling predation intensity and the community turnover is related to the loss of predatory gastropods, increased relative abunda..., Sediment cores were collected at three stations in the NAS in 2013, with two stations located in the Po prodelta at 21 m water depth (Po 3, Po 4), and one station in the Isonzo prodelta  in the Gulf of Trieste at 12 m water depth (Panzano). These two deltaic systems are characterized by the highest sediment accumulation rates in the northern Adriatic Sea and thus provide high, decadal-scale resolution of stratigraphic archives. At all three stations the seafloor is muddy. Changes in community composition and DF were assessed in two 16-cm-diameter replicate cores at each station, which were taken a few meters from each other. These replicate cores are very similar in faunal composition and were pooled in this study to increase sample size per increment when analyzing DFs and community composition. The cores were sliced into 2-cm increments for the uppermost 20 cm, and 5-cm-increments below. The smaller increments at the top may allow a higher resolution for surface strata, which are ..., , # Data from: Human-driven breakdown of predator-prey interactions in the northern Adriatic Sea

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xwdbrv1nr](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xwdbrv1nr)

## Description of the data and file structure

The data are provided in 5 csv files (Age_model.csv, Drilled_rev.csv, Samples_rev.csv, Taxonomy_rev.csv, Total_abundance_rev.csv).

Three R-scripts (MCMC_drill_rev2, Predators_rev.R, Zuschin_et_al_2024_R_script_rev5) are provided for the analyses of the 5 data sets listed above.

The main R-script is \"Zuschin_et_al_2024_R_script_rev5\" and it will call the other two R-scripts to action.

In addition, we provide all supplementary figures and tables in one file (Zuschin_et_al._figures_tables_ESM) and a file with captions to supplementary figures and tables.

### Files and variables

#### File: Total\_abundance\_rev.csv

**Description:** 

This file is a spreadsheet displaying the number of shells per species per increment (i.e., a sample with unique 'Sample_id') fo...