Environmental variables influence patterns of mammal co-occurrence following introduced predator control

Co-occurring species often overlap in resource use and can interact in complex ways. However, shifts in environmental conditions or resource availability can lead to changes in patterns of species co-occurrence, which may be exacerbated by global escalation of human disturbances to ecosystems, including conservation directed alterations. We investigated the relative abundance and co-occurrence of two naturally sympatric mammal species following two forms of environmental disturbance: wildfire and introduced predator control. Using 14 years of abundance data from repeat surveys at long-term monitoring sites in south-eastern Australia, we examined the association between a marsupial, the common brushtail possum Trichosurus vulpecula, and a co-occurring native rodent, the bush rat Rattus fuscipes. We asked: Is the increase in abundance of common brushtail possums following control of an introduced predator associated with a decline in abundance of the bush rats?
Using Bayesian regression m..., Study location
We used data from long-term annual monitoring that commenced in 2003 in Booderee National Park (BNP), Jervis Bay Territory, south-eastern Australia. BNP is on Indigenous land and is jointly managed by the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community and Parks Australia. The 6600 ha park has a temperate climate, with an average annual rainfall of 1213 mm, spread evenly across the year (Bureau of Meteorology, 2021). Average temperatures range from 18.6-25.1°C in summer (January) to 9.9-16.1°C in winter (July) (Bureau of Meteorology, 2021). BNP supports a range of vegetation types such as heathlands, wetlands, forests, and woodlands. Two major fires have occurred in BNP over the past 20 years (in 2003 and 2017), with each burning approximately half of the park. A fox baiting program has been in place in BNP since 1999 and was intensified in 2003 to reduce the deleterious impact of this introduced predator on native prey species (Dexter et al., 2013).
Data collection
We surveyed small and ..., , # Title of Dataset: Trapping data for co-occurrence analysis

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The trapping information per site per year, including the number of common brushtail possums and bush rats captured at that site for that year, and the site information for that year.

## Description of the data and file structure

The information is organised by site, with each line representing the year that information was collected.
The column named 'T.vulpecula' represents the number of common brushtail possums captured, and the column named 'R.fuscipes' represents the number of bush rats captured.
These are occumpanied by the columns 'T.vulpeculaPA' and 'R.fuscipesPA' which are the presence/absence columns.

The columns 'Elliotts.Open' and 'Cages.Open' were the total number of each trap type used for each site that year. 'Elliott' is the logged number of Elliott traps used (Cage was an unused variable).
The 'Start.Date', 'Month' and 'Survey.Season' columns include information about when the trapping took place each...