Fecal samples collected in May, August, and October 2014 from Little Book Cliffs Herd Management Area, Colorado, for determination of diet, persistence of DNA in the environment, individual identity, and seed germination
Description
These data were collected in May, August, and October in west central Colorado from a Bureau of Land Management wild horse herd management area (HMA). Samples were already on the ground, not fresh from the horse. The Diet dataset includes proportion of plant species found in fecal samples using two different lab techniques -- plant DNA bar-coding,and microhistology. Results of both methods to determine diet are in the same spreadsheet. The dung aging dataset consists of samples of different known ages of feces and their amplification results; 8 markers were amplified and data shown in each column indicate whether that marker loci amplified or not. Germination data showed which plant species germinated from fecal samples that were tended in a lab, along with number of plants and dry weight of germinated plants. Repeated sampling dataset includes all samples that were collected, amplification results by loci, and provides the individual genotype for each sample.