ReadMe file for underground.samples


This file contains the data set of soil cores used for underground food availability analyzed in "Graminivory and fallback foods: Annual diet profile of geladas (Theropithcus gelada) living in the Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia", by Jarvey, J.C., Low, B.S., Pappano, D.J., Bergman, T.J., & Beehner, J.C. in the International Journal of Primatology. 
The data were collected by Jarvey, Julie C. and Hawley, Caitlin R. in the Simien Mountains National Park, Ethoipia.
Please contact Julie Jarvey with any questions.


Samples were collected using a metal soil core (diameter = 6.35 cm, depth = 20 cm) along random intervales at 30 transect locations (also used in transects.csv) in Apr and Nov, 2015. 2 samples were collected per transect.
Underground plant storage organs assumed to be potential diet items for gelada monkeys were sifted from each sample, dried, and weighed using a digital scale. 
Each row represents a soil core sample. 
Please see Methods section in the paper for more details on how soil cores were collected.


COLUMN HEADINGS
-The columns correspond with variables for soil core collected.


sample.number: unique sample number
transect.number: transect number soil core was collected from (1-30)
habitat.type: transect habitat type (grassland, shrubland, or forest)
month: sample collection month (April or November)
ground.cover: vegetation class above collection site of soil core
core.dry.wt.g: dry weight of diet items from soil core