Data from: Berry production drives bottom-up effects on body mass and reproductive success in an omnivore ...

Obligate herbivores dominate studies of the effects of climate change on mammals, however there is limited empirical evidence for how changes in the abundance or quality of plant food affect mammalian omnivores. Omnivores can exploit a range of different food resources over the course of a year, but they often rely on seasonally restricted highly nutritious fruiting bodies during critical life stages. Brown bears Ursus arctos in Sweden are dependent on berries for fattening before entering hibernation. We used a ten-year time series to evaluate the effect of temperature and snow on annual variation in berry abundance and how this variation affected bears. We found marked interannual variation in berry production of bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus and lingonberry V. vitis-idaea, that we could attribute in part to temperature during plant dormancy and flowering and precipitation during fruit ripening. Both, autumn weights of female bears and spring weights of yearling bears increased linearly with bilberry ... : Berry abundance time seriesRipe bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus) and lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) were counted in permanent sampling plots between 2006 - 2015. Weather covariates were extracted from an on-site weather station for each year.BerriesDryad.txtAutumn weight of female bearsBodyweight of female brown bears (Ursus arctos) shot in the annual bear hunting season in autumn 2006 - 2015.AutumnWeightDryad.txtSpringweight of yearling bearcubsSpring weight of yearling offspring of monitored females, 2007-2016. Bears were darted from a helicopter and weighed in a sling suspended beneath a spring scale.YearlingWeightDryad.txtReproductive success of female bearsReproductive success of female bears > 5 years of age was determined from helicopter surveys, inspection of the winter den, and activity data during denning in the years 2007 - 2016.ReproSuccessDryad.txt ...