Bacterial microbiota in nest samples - Experimental study
This study aim at testing the effect of aromatic plants on bacterial microbiota of nest samples in an experimental approach, and on bacterial microbiota of nest material and eggshell and on nestling traits and behavior in an observational approach in Corsican blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus ogliastrae).
The metadata and codes to analysis the data can be found in the following GitHub public repository: To add.
Experimental approach
We collected natural blue tit nests that have been predated or abandonned by the parents. We subdivised the nest material in nine subsamples that were placed in fake plastic nest boxes for 7 days. Every two days, we added fresh aromatic plant fragments on the top of the nest sample. The treatments corresponded to the addition of five single species (Lavandula stoechas, Mentha suaveolens insularis, Helichrysum italicum, Pulicaria odorata and Achillea ligustica), three combinations of plant duos frequently observed in blue tit nests (Lavandula stoechas and Mentha suaveolens insularis, Lavandula stoechas and Helichrysum italicum, and Mentha suaveolens insularis and Helichrysum italicum), and one control sample with no plant addition. At the end of the experiment, we collected the samples for the study of bacterial microbiota by extracting DNA and amplifing the 16S rARN sequences by PCR. We sequenced the samples with Illumina Mi-Seq.
The dataset contains the bacterial forward and reverse reads of:
- 169 nest samples (9 treatments X 19 collected nests - 2 discarded samples)
- 15 fresh plant samples (5 species X 3 samples)
- 2 DNA extraction controls
- 2 negative PCR controls
- 2 positive PCR controls
