Black-tailed deer distance sampling on Blakely Island (WA), 2007 - 2021

Removal of predators and creation of early seral habitat has, in many systems, caused substantial population growth of herbivores. Hyperabundant herbivores, in turn, induce cascading ecosystem effects, but few studies have investigated long-term browser density trends in relation to succession and stochastic climate events. Here, for the first time, we use annual population estimates of a forest browser to relate forest succession to the long-term decline of an herbivore that prefers early seral habitat. From 2007 – 2021, concurrent with reduced timber harvest, we used line-transect distance sampling to document annual changes in Columbian black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) density on a mid-sized (17.3km2) predator-free island. We documented successional changes associated with forest aggradation and decreased forage quality for deer: early successional shrub/scrub habitat declined 3.8%/year; timber volume increased 4.5%/year; and canopy coverage increased 2.5%. In 2007..., , The distance sampling data are formatted to be used in Program DISTANCE., # Black-tailed deer distance sampling on Blakely Island (WA), 2007 - 2021

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rfj6q57f0](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rfj6q57f0)

The attached Excel file contains two sheets. The first worksheet contains used in population estimation of black-tailed on Blakely Island (WA).  Each row corresponds to an observation of a deer, identifying the transect name, length, cluster size (i.e., # of deer seen together), and perpendicular distance from the transect to the deer (or centerpoint of the group).  If a transect was surveyed and no deer were observed, the distance of the transect is included (so that sampling effort can be calculated), but cluster size and perpendicular distance are marked as \"n/a.\" The second sheet contains historical landcover data on Blakely Island, pulled from CCAP.

在诸多生态系统中，移除捕食者与营造早期演替生境已导致植食动物种群大幅增长。反之，种群超丰富的植食动物会引发级联生态效应，但目前鲜有研究探讨植食性啃食动物的长期种群密度趋势与群落演替及随机性气候事件的关联。本研究首次利用森林啃食动物的年度种群估算数据，将森林演替与偏好早期演替生境的植食动物的长期下降趋势相关联。2007至2021年间，伴随木材采伐量减少，我们在一座面积中等（17.3平方千米）的无捕食者岛屿上，采用样线距离抽样法记录了哥伦比亚黑尾鹿（Odocoileus hemionus columbianus）种群密度的年度变化。我们记录了与森林蓄积增长相关的演替变化以及鹿类可食用植被质量的下降：早期演替灌丛生境以每年3.8%的速率缩减；木材蓄积量以每年4.5%的速率增长；林冠覆盖率提升2.5%。2007年……，本研究的距离抽样数据格式适配DISTANCE程序（Program DISTANCE）使用。
# 2007-2021年布雷克利岛（华盛顿州）黑尾鹿距离抽样调查
所附Excel文件包含两个工作表：第一个工作表用于布雷克利岛（华盛顿州）黑尾鹿的种群估算，每一行对应一次鹿类观测记录，包含样线名称、样线长度、集群大小（即同时观测到的鹿群个体数）以及从样线至鹿只（或鹿群中心点）的垂直距离。若某次样线调查未观测到鹿只，则仍记录该样线的距离数据以便计算抽样努力量，但集群大小与垂直距离标注为"无有效数据（n/a）"。第二个工作表包含取自CCAP的布雷克利岛历史土地覆盖数据。
数据集DOI：https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rfj6q57f0