Dataset for: Poulos & McCormick - Prior residency improves the performance of a resource specialist in a degrading environment

In this study, we investigated: how sequence and timing of arrival affects interactions between a habitat generalist and a specialist in healthy and degrading environments, and how prior residency interacts with habitat quality and resource specialisation to affect propensity to migrate. We conducted manipulative field studies using the damselfishes Pomacentrus amboinensis, a habitat generalist, and Pomacentrus moluccensis, a live coral specialist, on live or dead coral habitats, with timing of arrival differing between early and late arrivers (residents and intruders, respectively) by 1, 3 or 24 hours.本研究围绕两项核心科学问题展开探究：其一，在健康与退化生境中，物种抵达的先后顺序与时间节律如何影响广栖性物种（habitat generalist）与专栖性物种（habitat specialist）之间的种间互作关系；其二，先占居留权如何与生境质量、资源特化程度共同作用，进而影响物种的迁徙倾向。本研究以雀鲷属（Pomacentrus）的安汶雀鲷（Pomacentrus amboinensis，广栖性物种）与摩鹿加雀鲷（Pomacentrus moluccensis，活珊瑚专性物种）为实验对象，在活珊瑚与死珊瑚生境中开展控制性野外实验。实验设置了差异化的抵达时间差：早到个体（定居者）与晚到个体（入侵者）的抵达间隔分别为1小时、3小时或24小时。