These data describe tree mortality and the factors associated with tree mortality for a variety of plots in Sequoia National Park. Most of the data were collected between 2014 and 2017 (during an extremely severe drought), along with some comparison data from 2004 to 2007.

Annual census data spanning seventy-five years document mortality and regeneration in a population of saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) in the Cactus Forest of the Rincon Mountain District of Saguaro National Park near Tucson, AZ. On 6 four-hectare plots, each saguaro was censused and a methodical search for new saguaros was conducted annually each year from 1942 through 2016, with the exception of 1955. Regeneration has been episodic with 828 plants established from 1959 through 1993 compared with 34 plants established between 1942 and 1958 and only three plants established after 1993. The years preceding 1959 and following 1993, include some of the driest decades in centuries in southern Arizona. While woodcutting and cattle grazing are believed to be among the causes of decades of failed regeneration prior to 1958, neither of these factors contributed to the failed regeneration following 1993. The height structure of the population from 1942 to 2016 shifted dramatically from a population dominated by large saguaros (> 5.4 m tall) in the first three decades of the study to a population dominated by small saguaros (< 1.8 m tall) in the most recent two decades. Mortality is shown to be strongly age dependent. In the year following the 2011 catastrophic freeze, 21 of 59 plants older than 80 years died compared with zero deaths in 270 plants between the ages of 29 and 80 years. Saguaros under 40 years old, growing under small shrubs or in the open, have a lower probability of survival than better protected saguaros. Long-term population monitoring is essential to understanding the complex impacts of human and environmental factors on the population dynamics of long-lived species.

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) are group-living carnivores that travel over large areas and are one of the most controversial species in North America. Gray wolf management over the last century has ranged from eradication by nearly any means to preservation under the Endangered Species Act to state-managed which often includes limited hunting and, in some areas, population reduction. Management decisions are complicated by transboundary movements of wildlife, especially when the bordering agencies have disparate goals or mandates. This data is specific to gray wolves and packs using five National Park Service (NPS) units (years of data): Denali National Park and Preserve (33 years), Grand Teton National Park (23 years), Voyageurs National Park (12 years), Yellowstone National Park (27 years), and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve (23 years). This dataset features two measures of gray wolf biological processes, pack persistence and reproduction, and was used to determine the impacts of ..., All data were collected by NPS staff and partners by deploying radio collars on each wolf pack using the National Park unit. Wolf packs were tracked aerially several times per month to determine persistence through time. Pack size was recorded during tracking. For each biological year a pack persisted, they were given a pack-year entry. Reproduction was determined through localization around a den or visual of at least one pup during the biological year. Human-caused mortalities were recorded and confirmed with necropsies and other wildlife official reports and then assigned to a specific pack-year.,

For detailed ecological metadata and source data see AEKOS (http://www.aekos.org.au/dataset/115022)

The Australian territory of Christmas Island lies in the Indian Ocean, 2,600 km northwest of Perth and 500 km south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Christmas Island National Park is 85 km2 in size and makes up almost two thirds of Christmas Island. The robber crab (Birgus latro) is categorised as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List, and Christmas Island is thought to have one of the largest remaining populations. Robber crab road mortality appears to vary with changes in traffic density. Since the opening of the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre in late 2009, thousands of robber crabs have been run over on the island's roads in line with the increased population and vehicular traffic, especially at night. Park staff began marking the location of road kills using pink marker paint to denote the sites and make them visible in January 2010. Basic data are collected at the site (sex, size, date, coordinates). To manage the impact of road mortality on the species, this monitoring project is designed to assess: spatial variation in road mortality across the island; temporal variation in road mortality; the relationship between traffic levels and mortality; and size and sex relationships.

These tables include data from 25 long-term forest plots located in either Sequoia or Yosemite national park. Trees in these plots (established between 1982 and 2001) are censused annually for mortality and measured for diameter every 4 to 6 years. Plots were mostly 1 hectare (ha) in size (range 0.9 – 2.5 ha) and contained at least two 25 by 25 meter seedling sub-plots to monitor natural seedling recruitment. The largest plot, at 2.5 ha, included four such seedling sub-plots. Each sub-plot was divided into 5 by 5 meter quadrats. In almost all the plots these seedling sub-plots were established in 1999, but four plots (those with names starting with FF) were added to the study in 2002 and seedling data was only available from this date. Seedlings taller than 10 centimeters (which were at least 3 years old) were given numbered tags so that their survival and height class could be recorded individually. If there were more than 20 seedlings per quadrat of a species entering the greater-than-10 centimeters category, a sample of 20 was tagged, but this was unusual. Individual-level mortality and growth could be tracked for these seedlings. In each annual seedling census, the presence of the tagged seedling (live or dead) was recorded and it was assigned to a height category (10-25 cm, 25-50 cm, 50-75 cm, 75-100 cm, and 100-137 cm). Those that grew to 137 centimeters (tall enough to record a diameter-at-breast height (DBH)) were re-tagged as trees. This release contains 2 CSV and 3 TXT files: TaggedSdl.txt, PlotInfogeneral.txt, quadrat_precise.csv, treedata.csv, and treeyears.txt.

This dataset was collected to build on past and ongoing monitoring and research efforts within Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Specifically, the data were collected to test the hypothesis that reductions in canopy cover due to natural disturbances (i.e. wildfire and beetle kill) result in increases in water temperature, or the longitudinal thermal gradient of a stream. Data values include stream temperature paired with light intensity data, and air temperature data to determine the influence of riparian canopy condition and longitudinal warming across a 1 km reach. Two control streams were selected: Ouzel Creek, which has virtually no riparian canopy due to a previous wildfire; and Hunters Creek, which has a dense and healthy riparian canopy. In search of similar size streams with variable riparian conditions, the authors discovered that the beetle caused tree mortality remained mostly upland within RMNP, whereas the riparian canopy appeared healthy and much less impacted along stream corridors. Instruments were deployed in the stream with the most potential for variability, Coney Creek, in 2014. Eventually two additional streams were investigated on the western side of RMNP: Columbine Creek, which has minor beetle caused mortality within the riparian canopy; and Bowen Gulch (outside of RMNP), which displays a breif 1 kilometer (km) reach of beetle impacted canopy located between dense riparian canopy and a wetland grass meadow. The downstream reach terminus is rendered as 0 meters (m) and each monitoring station is located upstream at 250 meter intervals over a 1km reach.

In this work 29 Iberian lynx deaths are reported, 21% of which were caused by vehicles in a road bordering the western side of the Doñana National Park. This high mortality rate justified the construction of underpasses at places where lynx used to crossed that road (see Parque Nacional de Doñana 1998). Palabras clave: Collision, Conflict point, Fauna casualty, Fauna passage, Fragmentation, Highway, Lynx, Marshland, Mitigation, Mortality, Population, Underpass, Wetland, Wildlife passage

We used high-fidelity imaging spectroscopy (HiFIS) and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) from the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) to estimate the effect of forest dieback on species composition in response to drought stress in Sequoia National Park. Our aims were: (1) to quantify site-specific conditions that mediate tree mortality along an elevation gradient in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains; (2) to assess where mortality events have a greater probability of occurring; and (3) to estimate which tree species have a greater likelihood of mortality along the elevation gradient. The data-set include dead trees and highly stressed trees that were identified in 2015 in the forests of Sequoia National Park (SNP), along an elevation gradient in California’s southern Sierra.

This is a dataset on mortality costs and reproductive success from intergroup conflict in banded mongooses, collected from a wild population of banded mongooses on the Mweya Peninsula, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda between 2000-2019. We observed naturally occurring, aggressive interactions between social groups and recorded data on individual mortality occurring during and as a result of fighting. We used long term observations of reproductive events to determine individual reproductive success, measured as the total number of offspring assigned to each individual over the lifetime, and the number of offspring born to each individual from extra-group mating. We recorded data on oestrus events in social groups to determine when focal and rival groups were in oestrus simultaneously, and whether they were involved in an intergroup interaction with each other. These data were collected to examine the fitness costs and benefits of intergroup conflict.

The decline of white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus, hereafter termed vultures) across Africa highlights the need to understand their habitat and nesting requirements, especially in protected areas where African elephants (Loxodonta africana) can impact the trees in which vultures build their nests. Our study aimed to assess the impact that elephants have on trees containing vulture nests in the Associated Private Nature Reserves (APNR) of South Africa’s savanna system through three separate but interlinked assessments. We first assessed the tree species used by vultures for nesting and compared their size and elephant impact scores between riparian and woodland habitats. We assessed how elephant presence or absence affects the size of Senegalia nigrescens, a key tree species, and compared vulture nests in an adjacent elephant-free area. Lastly, we modeled environmental factors influencing vulture nest and tree persistence using data from 2008-2020. Vultures utilised 10 tree species, with riparian trees supporting nests being significantly taller, with larger DBHs, and experienced lower elephant impact compared to woodland trees, which were more heavily impacted by elephants. Less robust species like S. nigrescens were more vulnerable to elephant damage, primarily bark-stripping, and less likely to host vulture nests. Our results show that vultures prefer the largest, least impacted trees for nesting, favouring those with greater stability and longevity. We suggest that although elephants influence the overall height range of trees to vultures, strong gusts of wind have a strong negative contribution on vulture nest persistence and that only a relatively small number of trees died during the 12-year study in comparison to fallen nests. We recommend further research into elephant impact thresholds on trees and vulture nest selection. Monitoring treefall and regeneration rates will help predict when vultures may face a shortage of suitable nesting trees. Methods Dataset Collection: The dataset was collected through detailed field surveys conducted between 2008 and 2020 in the Associated Private Nature Reserves (APNR) and the adjacent Air Force Base Hoedspruit (AFB), located in South Africa’s savanna system. The surveys were designed to assess the impact of African elephants on trees utilized by white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) for nesting. The surveys focused on three objectives:

Measuring the morphometric traits (height, diameter at breast height [DBH]) and elephant impact scores of various tree species used for nesting by vultures, across both riparian and woodland habitats. Comparing the characteristics and impact levels of nesting and control trees (non-nesting) of the key species Senegalia nigrescens in areas with and without elephants. Investigating the long-term persistence of S. nigrescens trees with vulture nests under varying ecological and environmental pressures.

Data collection involved marking tree locations using GPS, measuring tree height with VolCalc software, and recording DBH using a standardized approach. Elephant impact was scored on a scale of 0-5 using an established framework (Walker, 1976; Helm & Witkowski, 2013) to classify damage ranging from minor bark-stripping to complete tree mortality. Additional covariates were recorded, including the presence of ants, termites, and shelf-bracket fungus, fire scars, distance to the nearest road and water source, and annual rainfall and wind gust data obtained from local weather stations. Historical data from the Elephants Alive NGO and aerial census records provided complementary information for long-term analysis. Dataset Processing: The collected data were processed and analyzed using R software (version 4.3.0). A suite of statistical tests and models was employed to address specific research objectives. These included:

Descriptive Statistics: Summarizing morphometric and environmental variables for trees in riparian versus woodland habitats.

Comparative Analyses: Mann-Whitney U-tests and Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA were used to identify significant differences in tree characteristics, elephant impact scores, and habitat effects.

Persistence Analyses: Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were conducted to compare tree and nest survival rates over the 12-year study period. Mortality rates for trees and nests were calculated to identify key periods of decline.

Hazard Modeling: Cox proportional-hazards models were applied to explore the effects of environmental covariates (e.g., wind gusts, tree height, DBH) on tree and nest persistence. Continuous variables were scaled and centered to improve interpretability and model convergence. Stepwise backward selection, followed by forward validation, was used to refine models for robustness.

The resulting dataset provides a comprehensive view of the relationships between elephants, trees, and white-backed vulture nesting ecology, facilitating insights into tree persistence and nest-site suitability under environmental pressures. The data were cleaned and verified for consistency and accuracy before final analysis. References Helm, C.V. and Witkowski, E.T.F. 2013. Continuing decline of a keystone tree species in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. African Journal of Ecology 51(2), pp. 270–279. doi:10.1111/aje.12032. Walker, S.H. 1976. An approach to the monitoring of changes in the composition and utilization of woodland and savanna vegetation. South African Journal of Wildlife Research 6(1), pp. 1–32.

In 2006–2007 we observed an unusual mortality event among apes in northern Republic of Congo that, although not diagnostically confirmed, we believe to have been a disease outbreak. In 2007–2011 we conducted ape nest surveys in the region, recording 11,835 G. g. gorilla nests (2,262 groups) and 5,548 P. t. troglodytes nests (2,139 groups). We developed a statistical model to determine likely points of origin of the outbreak to help identify variables associated with disease emergence and spread. We modeled disease spread across the study area, using suitable habitat conditions for apes as proxy for local ape densities. Infectious status outputs from that spread model were then used alongside vegetation, temperature, precipitation and human impact factors as explanatory variables in a Generalized Linear Model framework to explain observed 2007–2011 ape nest trends in the region. The best models predicted emergence in the western region of Odzala-Kokoua National Park and north of the last confirmed Ebola virus disease epizootics. Roads were consistently associated with attenuation of modeled virus spread. As disease is amongst the leading threats to great apes, gaining a better understanding of disease transmission dynamics in these species is imperative. Identifying ecological drivers underpinning a disease emergence event and transmission dynamics in apes is critical to creating better predictive models to guide wildlife management, develop potential protective measures for wildlife and to reduce potential zoonotic transmission to humans. The results of our model represent an important step in understanding variables related to great ape disease ecology in Central Africa.