10.5061/DRYAD.41M3S
Steen, Ronny
Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Data from: Diel activity, frequency and visit duration of pollinators in
focal plants: in situ automatic camera monitoring and data processing
Dryad
dataset
2017
2017-08-29T00:00:00Z
2017-08-29T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.12654
147625 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Data collection on interactions between organisms and their environment
has traditionally been conducted by on-site human observations, a
time-consuming enterprise that could explain the shortage of
around-the-clock observations of free-ranging wild animals. In this paper,
I outline a time-efficient procedure to collect data on flower-visiting
animals. The objectives were, first, to model diel activity rhythms by
using cosine-based mixed-effects regression models (cosinor method) on
data from an established automatic video monitoring system and, secondly,
to test the use of a cheap off-the-shelf digital camera modified for
automated monitoring of flower visitors. Two different model systems were
studied: foraging bumblebees visiting focal white clovers, monitored
around-the-clock (193 h) to model diel activity; and honeybees visiting
thistles, monitored over a shorter period (5 h) to test the applicability
and reliability of a new method for monitoring pollinators. The data were
automatically entered and processed using R-scripts after manual filtering
of the images, obviating the need for manual data entry prior to analysis.
For diel activity in bumblebees, the model that gave the best fit included
the 24-h fundamental period and one harmonic, a 12-h period to modulate
the signal, together with temperature. The bumblebees were exclusive
diurnal, with activity starting about 5 h after sunrise, peaking sharply
in the afternoon and ending about 1 h before sunset. In addition to time
of day, activity also increased with temperature. The off-the-shelf
digital camera, Canon PowerShot®, with motion detection script, was
triggered by every flower-visiting honeybee. In addition to recorded
visitor frequency and visitor duration, it enabled high-resolution images,
which could be important for species identification. Automatic camera
recording is advantageous for close-up monitoring, compared with
continuous video recording, because the latter demands more time and
effort in reviewing the material. It could be used to study a range of
different species such as pollinators, on-plant behaviour of herbivorous
animals, cavity dwellers or cavity breeders. Moreover, the procedures for
automatic data entry, data processing and statistical analysis for
modelling diel activity rhythms could have great relevance for researchers
using other types of camera monitoring systems operating 24 h per day.
Monitoring periodData frame with start and stop for each monitoring
sessionmonitoring.log.csvTemperature dataTemperature log during the
monitoring periodtemp.txtBumblebee visitsData frame with number of
bumblebee visits per monitored hour-blocktotal.csvBumblebee visits with
temperature dataData frame with no. bumblebee visits & temperature
(cosinor analysis)visits.csvHoneybee images (EXIF data)Data frame with
metadata from images with honeybees (EXIF data)time_data.csvReadMe
filePlease review this file for important information of the data package
as a whole, with explanation of each individual data file.