Dataset: Accession numbers

These data are described in detail in Demko, A. M., C. D. Amsler, M. E. Hay, J. D. Long, J. B. McClintock, V. J. Paul, and E. E. Sotka. 2017. Declines in plant palatability from polar to tropical latitudes depend on herbivore and plant identity. Ecology 98:2312–2321. We quantified the relative palatability of 50 seaweeds by offering each generalist herbivore a pairwise choice between each test seaweed and a control in artificial feeding assays with finely ground lyophilized tissue. For each assay, 8 g of freeze-dried and ground powder (ground via Wiley Mill) of one experimental seaweed and the Ulva control were rehydrated with 28 mL distilled water and mixed with 72 mL molten agar (2% by mass). Seaweed mixes were then poured into side-by-side lanes in a mold on window screen (1 9 2 mm squares) in a thickness of approximately 2 mm. After cooling, the screen was then cut into strips with approximately 80 squares of each food type separated by 2 cm. Individual strips were then isolated with approximately 30 separate crabs and 50 separate urchins, and removed before the entirety of either food was consumed or until 24–30 h had elapsed. Replicates in which <10% or >95% of all food offered was consumed were removed before statistical analysis because of their low power to infer feeding choice. Our sample size for each seaweed–herbivore combination ranged from n = 10 to 46. Palatability of each seaweed to each herbivore was quantified as the proportion of the experimental seaweed consumed divided by the total consumption of experimental and control seaweed within a replicate (%T).