=========== HEADER =========== Readme.txt for Stable isotopes reveal larval diet Item Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/11243/38 Documentation written on 2021-03-09 By Christine Picard Updated 2021-03-15, by Heather Coates =========== SUGGESTED DATA CITATION =========== Please cite this data in the references for any publication which uses it. Picard, C., Owings, C., Gilhooly, W. (2021). Stable isotopes reveal larval diet [dataset]. IUPUI University Library. https://dx.doi.org/10.7912/D2/24 For more details, see https://www.datacite.org/services/cite-your-data.html or try the DOI Citation Formatter: http://crosscite.org/citeproc/ =========== PRIMARY STUDY INFORMATION =========== ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Project title: Blow fly stable isotopes reveal larval diet: a case study in community level anthropogenic effects Funding agency: Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research at IUPUI (Indiana University Collaborative Research Grant) Award Number: N/A Award Period: 2018-2019 Investigator Name: Christine Picard Investigator Institution: IUPUI School of Science Investigator Address: SL 204, 723 W Michigan St, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5132 Investigator Email: cpicard@iupui.edu Investigator Role (related to this dataset): Conceived project, collected insects, revision of manuscript Investigator ID (ORCID): none Investigator Name: Charity Owings Investigator Institution: IUPUI School of Science Investigator Address: 723 W Michigan St, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5132 Investigator Email: cowings@utk.edu Investigator Role (related to this dataset): Collected insects, collected data, analyzed data, wrote manuscript Investigator ID (ORCID): none Investigator Name: William Gilhooly III Investigator Institution: IUPUI School of Science Investigator Address: 723 W Michigan St, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5132 Investigator Email: wgilhool@iupui.edu Investigator Role (related to this dataset): Conceived project, analyzed data, revision of manuscript Investigator ID (ORCID): none DATASET Description Response to human impacts on the environment are typically initiated too late to remediate negative consequences. We present the novel use of stable isotope analysis (SIA) of blow flies to determine human influences on vertebrate communities in a range of human-inhabited environments, from a pristine national park to a dense metropolitan area. The refrain “you are what you eat” applies to the dietary isotope record of all living organisms, and for carrion-breeding blow flies, this translates to the type of carcasses present in an environment. Specifically, we show that carnivore carcasses make up a large proportion of the adult fly’s prior larval diet, which contrasts to what has been reportedly previously for the wild adult fly diet (which consists of mostly herbivore resources). Additionally, we reveal the potential impact of human food on carcasses that were fed on by blow flies, underscoring the human influences on wild animal populations. Our results demonstrate that using SIA in conjunction with other methods (e.g., DNA analysis of flies) can reveal a comprehensive snapshot of the vertebrate community in a terrestrial ecosystem. DATE(S) of DATA COLLECTION [2018] GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION(S) of DATA COLLECTION Indianapolis, IN U.S.A. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN, U.S.A. Yellowstone National Park, WY, U.S.A. FILE INFORMATION This dataset contains tabular data stored in csv format. There are 2 files: Owings et al 2021 Experimental SIA Data.csv Owings et al 2021 Wild Fly SIA Data.csv ACCESS & SHARING These data are made available under a CC-BY 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Links to thesis, dissertation, reports, or publications that cite or use the data (include DOI): Dowling, S. N., Skaggs, C. L., Owings, C. G., Moctar, K., Picard, C. J., & Manicke, N. E. (2022). Insects as Chemical Sensors: Detection of Chemical Warfare Agent Simulants and Hydrolysis Products in the Blow Fly Using LC-MS/MS. In Environmental Science & Technology (Vol. 56, Issue 6, pp. 3535–3543). American Chemical Society (ACS). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c07381 Butler-Valverde, M. J., DeVault, T. L., & Beasley, J. C. (2022). Trophic interactions at avian carcasses: Do scavengers feed on vulture carrion? In Food Webs (Vol. 31, p. e00230). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fooweb.2022.e00230 Owings, C. G., Iii, W. P. G., & Picard, C. J. (2021). Blow fly stable isotopes reveal larval diet: A case study in community level anthropogenic effects. PLOS ONE, 16(4), e0249422. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249422 , https://hdl.handle.net/1805/27919 Was data derived from another source? No Are there links/relationships to other data files/sets? No =========== OPTIONAL =========== If this information is described in your thesis or publication, you do not have to complete this section. RESEARCH AIMS METHODS General methodology (experimental, obervational, model, simulation, etc.): Experimental Instruments used for collecting data: EAIsoLink elemental analyzer coupled under continuous helium flow to a Thermo DeltaV Plus IRMS DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION (If this information is documented in other files archived with the data, please specify below) =========== CREDITS =========== Template provided by Indiana University UITS Research Storage, Indiana University Bloomington Libraries, IUPUI University Library