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 (jcjarvey@umich.edu) 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). We were unable to reach 20 cm at some of the transect locations in the dry season due to the hardness of the soil (N = 6).
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