Variable	Variable definition	Datatype
id	Row number	numeric
refshort	"Unique identifier built following the pattern “Author_year”. When several study cases were extracted from a single article, a letter was added to the identifier."	categorical
reference	Full reference of the original study.	string
country	Country where the study was conducted.	categorical
climate	Climate type in the studied area. Can be either Tropical (absolute latitude < 23.5°) or Temperate.	binary
continent	"Continent where the study was conducted: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, or South America."	categorical
latitudeN	"Latitude North of the approximate study location (decimal degrees, WGS 84)."	numeric
longitudeE	"Longitude East of the approximate study location (decimal degrees, WGS 84)."	numeric
environment_type_fragment	Description of the fragment environment. Can be either terrestrial or aquatic. 	binary
environment_type_matrix	Description of the matrix surrounding the fragments. Can be either terrestrial or aquatic.	binary
biome	Biome of the study region.	categorical
taxa	"Name of the taxa investigated. Can be either Arthropoda (one study sampling all Arthropods present), Insecta, Arachnida, Mollusca, Amphibia & Squamata, Aves, Mammalia, or Plantae.."	categorical
time­_since_fragmentation	Time between fragmentation and investigation of the original study.	categorical
matrix_category	"Describes the matrix between fragments depending on its susceptibility to impair species dispersion. Can be light filter (e.g. light secondary forest, crops, etc), intermediate or harsh filter (intense agriculture, flooded area, etc)."	categorical
site_id	Original site name.	string
plot_id	Within site plot number.	integer
site_size	Site area in hectares. Can be either a numerical value or continuous.	numeric/categorical 
sampling_design	"Describes how community abundances are given depending on whether plots were the same size or not, or whether subsamples were pooled or not (see section Data harmonization for details). Can be either pooled, standardized_fragment or standardized_subsamples."	categorical
sampling_method	"Broad description of the sampling method used. Can be trap, net, bird survey, visual search, manual sampling or combined methods."	categorical
method_category	"Sub-categories describing sampling methods. Traps can be pitfall traps, scented traps, pan traps and nets can be sweep nets, entomological nets or mist nets, etc."	categorical
sampling_device_size	"Size of sampling devices: diameter of pitfall traps, mesh size of nets, diameter of sweep net etc."	numeric
device_size_unit	Unit of the measure of the sampling device and additional information on the sampling devices.	string
intensity	"If sampling is hierarchized in blocks (plots, transects, etc) intensity gives the number of traps, nets, listening points per transect. If sampling design is not hierarchized, intensity gives the size of sampled areas (transect length, plot area, etc)."	numeric/string
intensity_unit	"Unit of the measure of sampling intensity (if hierarchized, pitfalls per transect, traps per plot, etc.; if non-hierarchized, m2 quadrat, minutes walking, etc) and additional information."	string
block_type	"Type of block in a hierarchized design. Most common block types are transect, plot and grid. Transects are only considered a block when then are lined with traps or nets but not when they are a line along which an observer walks."	categorical
number_of_blocks_per_site	Number of blocks per site in hierarchized designs or left empty in non-hierarchized studies.	numeric
sampling_density	"If sampling is hierarchized in blocks, density gives the density of sampling unit inside blocks. If sampling design is not hierarchized, density gives the density of sampling units inside the fragment."	numeric/string
density_unit	Gives the unit as “per fragment” or “per transect” and additional information.	string
sampling_duration	"Duration of either each sampling events or survey (equivalent to a parent event), or number of surveys."	numeric
duration_unit	"Unit of time (night, month, year, etc) used for duration or additional information on the duration of each sampling event."	string
sampling_effort	"Sampling effort per site (usually a plot, also a whole site or mean values of several plots), measured as sampling hours per site, traps per site, or size of the site. Is 1 if the sampling effort is balanced among all plots in the dataset."	numeric
sampling_effort_unit	"Unit of the sampling effort corresponds to hours of walking, number of nets, area of the site, etc. If sampling effort is the same between all fragments, balanced is given."	string
sampling_note	Free text field summarizing details on sampling design and methods.	string