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430 results for “meadow”
Niwot Ridge site, station Wet meadow plots at Saddle site, study of aboveground net primary productivity of Kobresia myosuroides in units of gramsPerMeterSquaredPerYear on a yearly timescale
The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from Niwot Ridge (NWT) contains aboveground net primary productivity of Kobresia myosuroides measurements in gramsPerMeterSquaredPerYear units and were aggregated to a yearly timescale.
Niwot Ridge site, station Wet meadow plots at Saddle site, study of aboveground net primary productivity in units of gramsPerMeterSquaredPerYear on a yearly timescale
The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from Niwot Ridge (NWT) contains aboveground net primary productivity measurements in gramsPerMeterSquaredPerYear units and were aggregated to a yearly timescale.
Streamflow data for outlet from Navajo meadow, 1994 - 2014
This is a summary of discharges from the stream draining Navajo meadow in the Green Lakes Valley. The samples were collected from the stream 5 m upstream of outlet from Navajo meadow. Data includes daily summaries of flows calculated for a 24 hour day starting at 12:00 MST on the date recorded.
High seasonal variability in sediment carbon stocks of cold-temperate seagrass meadows
<p>Dataset for "High seasonal variability in sediment carbon stocks of cold-temperate seagrass meadows" containing sedimentary carbon and nitrogen data used in the study. </p>
Herbivore assemblage as an important factor modulating grazing effects on ecosystem carbon fluxes in a meadow steppe in northeast China
<p>A better understanding of how grazing by large herbivores, as the major land use worldwide, affects grassland carbon fluxes is critical for predicting future uptake of CO<span>2</span> in terrestrial ecosystem. Previous studies have focused on individual herbivore species; it remains poorly understood as to if and how herbivore assemblage (single- vs. mixed-species) would alter the impact of grazers on grassland carbon fluxes. Here we examined the effects of moderate grazing by different herbivore assemblages on net ecosystem CO<span>2</span> exchange (NEE), gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) over the growing season in two types of grassland communities in a meadow steppe. We found that herbivore assemblages significantly affected NEE, and the effects varied in the two types of grassland communities. Compared to un-grazed grassland, mixed grazing of sheep and cattle increased NEE (i.e., increased CO<span>2</span> uptake) over the growing season regardless of community type, while sheep- or cattle-only grazing increased NEE in the low diversity community and decreased it in the high diversity community. Herbivore assemblages altered the NEE primarily via changing GEP. The different effects of herbivore assemblages on GEP may be attributed mainly to grazing-induced changes in soil water availability and canopy light availability. Our study indicates that mixed grazing of sheep and cattle might be an important grazing management practice to improve plant aboveground productivity and help mitigate CO<span>2</span> emissions during the growing season. It should be particularly used in diverse plant communities, where it might increase grassland carbon sequestration.</p>
Data for Mooring Impacts on Zostera marina Meadows and Associated Epifauna in Nantucket Harbor, Massachusetts, USA
<p>Submitted in fulfillment of a 2015 Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative grant.<br> <br> Excerpt from thesis abstract: "To explore the connections between mooring scarring, the surrounding seagrass meadow condition and epifaunal community, in the second part of this thesis I measured 30 mooring scars to determine average scar size. To explore any potential "halo" effect around mooring scars for seagrass or epifauna and to seek any difference in epifaunal community between mooring and reference sites I also sampled paired sites at eight locations in Nantucket Harbor, Massachusetts three times each in the summer of 2015. Each location consisted of a meadow site actively experiencing mooring scarring and a reference site without moorings. My conservative sampling methods of the 30 sampled mooring scars found scars to average 21.1m2. Across my paired sites, seagrass was found to have lower cover and lower canopy height in mooring versus reference sites. Seagrass cover and canopy height were lower in the first few meters (typically 2-3m) surrounding each scar in comparison to paired reference quadrats indicating a "halo" effect of each scar. I did not detect a difference in epifaunal community composition or density per blade between mooring and reference sites; however, the relatively constant per blade concentration of epifauna combined with the differences in seagrass biomass between the mooring versus reference sites indicate an overall increase in the total amount of epifauna in areas with less disturbance. Epifaunal community composition was different and between locations and sampling dates indicating these factors are more important than proximity to mooring scarring in determining epifaunal abundance and richness."</p>
Functional structure mediates the responses of productivity to addition of three nitrogen compounds in a meadow steppe
<p><span>Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition is altering grassland productivity and community structure worldwide. Deposited N comes in different forms, which can have different consequences for productivity due to differences in their fertilization and acidification effects. We hypothesize that these effects may be mediated by changes in plant functional traits. We investigated the responses of </span><span>aboveground primary productivity</span><span> and community functional composition to addition of three nitrogen compounds (NH4NO3, [NH4]2SO4, and CO[NH2]2) at the rates of 0, 5, 10, 20 g N m-2 yr-1. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate how functional structure influences the responses of productivity to the three N compounds. Nitrogen addition increased community-level leaf chlorophyll content but decreased leaf dry matter content and phosphorus concentration. These changes were mainly due to intra-specific variation. Functional dispersion of traits was reduced by N addition through changes in species composition. SEM revealed that fertilization effects were more important than soil acidification for the responses of productivity to CO(NH2)2 addition, which enhanced productivity by decreasing functional trait dispersion. In contrast, the effects of (NH4)2SO4 and NH4NO3 were primarily due to soil acidification, influencing productivity via community-weighted means of functional traits. Our results suggest that N forms with different fertilizing and acidifying effects influence productivity via different functional traits pathways. Our study also emphasizes the need for in situ experiments with the relevant N compounds to accurately understand and predict the ecological effects of atmospheric N deposition on ecosystems.</span></p>
Phenological changes offset the warming effects on biomass production in an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
<p>1. Phenology is an important indicator of plant response to environmental changes and is closely correlated with biomass production. However, how changes of phenological events affect plant biomass production when exposed to changing temperature and precipitation remains unclear.</p> <p>2. We conducted a four-year manipulative experiment of warming and precipitation addition to explore phenology-biomass interactions under climate change in a dry alpine meadow on the central Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau from 2015 to 2018.</p> <p>3. In dry and warm years, warming delayed phenology and precipitation addition advanced them. Warming decreased biomass of Kobresia pygmaea in 2018 and biomass of Poa pratensis in 2015, 2017 and 2018. However, precipitation addition significantly increased the biomass of Poa pratensis and Potentilla multifida in most of the experimental years. Phenological changes regulated the responses of biomass to treatments. Specifically, delay of green up of P. pratensis and delay of withering of K. pygmaea induced by warming can increase biomass production, but it can be offset by the direct negative effects of warming on biomass.</p> <p>4. Synthesis. Here we show how warming induced drought tend to decrease biomass production of graminoids and the negative effects of warming on biomass of P. pratensis and K. pygmaea were partially offset by green up postponement and withering postponement, respectively. Our results highlights phenology is a crucial regulator for biomass production under climate change. Hence, both direct and indirect effects of warming and precipitation addition on phenology and biomass cannot be ignored when predicting biomass responses to climate change.</p>
Data from: Montane meadows: A soil carbon sink or source?
<p>As the largest biogeochemically active terrestrial reserve of carbon (C), soils have the potential to either mitigate or amplify rates of climate change. Ecosystems with large C stocks and high rates of soil C sequestration, in particular, may have outsized impacts on regional and global C cycles. Montane meadows have large soil C stocks relative to surrounding ecosystems. However, anthropogenic disturbances in many meadows may have altered the balance of C inputs and outputs, potentially converting these soils from net C sinks to net sources of C to the atmosphere. Here, we quantified ecosystem-level C inputs and outputs to estimate the annual net soil C flux from 13 montane meadows spanning a range of conditions throughout the California Sierra Nevada. Our results suggest that meadow soils can be either large net C sinks (577.6 ± 250.5 g C m−2 y−1) or sources of C to the atmosphere (− 391.6 ± 154.2 g C m−2 y−1). Variation in the direction and magnitude of net soil C flux appears to be driven by belowground C inputs. Vegetation species and functional group composition were not associated with the direction of net C flux, but climate and watershed characteristics were. Our results demonstrate that, per unit area, montane meadows hold a greater potential for C sequestration than the surrounding forest. However, legacies of disturbance have converted some meadows to strong net C sources. Accurate quantification of ecosystem-level C fluxes is critical for the development of regional C budgets and achieving global emissions goals.</p>
Habitat selection of foraging male Great Snipes on floodplain meadows: importance of proximity to the lek, vegetation cover and bare ground
<p>Drainage of wetlands and agricultural intensification has resulted in serious biodiversity loss in Europe, not least in grasslands. Consequently, many meadow birds have drastically declined, and the habitats they select for breeding currently rely on land management. However, the selection of habitats maintained by agriculture may contribute to reduced fitness and thus remain maladaptive for individuals, which makes conservation challenging. An understanding of the relationships between species' habitat selection, food supply and land management in the context of species' behaviour is therefore crucial for conservation. Lowland populations of Great Snipe Gallinago media are currently declining at a moderate rate, causing a conservation concern. We examined the daytime site selection (assumed as foraging sites) and food supply of radiotracked Great Snipe males breeding on a floodplain in NE Poland. Foraging sites were classified at micro- and macro-scale levels using the logistic regression in a use–availability design. On the microscale level, males selected moderate sward height and density, and a large amount of bare ground patches, and the importance of these increased as the breeding season progressed. On the macro-scale level, these conditions were associated with (1) meadows mown twice per season and grazed thereafter (associated with the most abundant food resources – earthworms) and (2) extensively managed pastures, suggesting the importance of grazing. Abandoned or late-mown meadows under agri-environmental schemes (AES) were avoided by foraging males. However, parcels with delayed mowing offer safe breeding sites for females nesting close to leks, unlike land-use types preferred by foraging males, which may act as an ecological trap. Effective conservation of Great Snipes on floodplain meadows requires precisely targeted AES schemes that will provide a mosaic of intensive and extensive land-use patches in the vicinity of identified leks.</p>
Data from: Exploiting mycorrhizas in broad daylight: partial mycoheterotrophy is a common nutritional strategy in meadow orchids.
Partial mycoheterotrophy (PMH) is a nutritional mode in which plants utilize organic matter, i.e. carbon, both from photosynthesis and a fungal source. The latter reverses the direction of plant-to-fungus carbon flow as usually assumed in mycorrhizal mutualisms. Based on significant enrichment in the heavy isotope 13C, a growing number of PMH orchid species have been identified. These PMH orchids are mostly associated with fungi simultaneously forming ectomycorrhizas with forest trees. In contrast, the much more common orchids that associate with rhizoctonia fungi, which are decomposers, have stable isotope profiles most often characterized by high 15N enrichment and high nitrogen concentrations but either an insignificant 13C enrichment or depletion relative to autotrophic plants. Using hydrogen stable isotope abundances recent investigations showed PMH in rhizoctonia-associated orchids growing under light-limited conditions. Hydrogen isotope abundances can be used as substitute for carbon isotope abundances in cases where autotrophic and heterotrophic carbon sources are insufficiently distinctive to indicate PMH. To determine whether rhizoctonia-associated orchids growing in habitats with high irradiance feature PMH as a nutritional mode, we sampled 13 orchid species growing in montane meadows, four forest orchid species and 34 autotrophic reference species. We analysed δ2H, δ13C, δ15N and δ18O and determined nitrogen concentrations. Orchid mycorrhizal fungi were identified by DNA sequencing. As expected, we found high enrichments in 2H, 13C, 15N and nitrogen concentrations in the ectomycorrhiza-associated forest orchids, and the rhizoctonia-associated Neottia cordata from a forest site was identified as PMH. Most orchids inhabiting sunny meadows lacked 13C enrichment or were even significantly depleted in 13C relative to autotrophic references. However, we infer PMH for the majority of these meadow orchids due to both significant 2H and 15N enrichment and high nitrogen concentrations. Pseudorchis albida was the sole autotrophic orchid in this study as it exhibited neither enrichment in any isotope nor a distinctive leaf nitrogen concentration. Synthesis. Our findings demonstrate that partial mycoheterotrophy is a trophic continuum between the extreme endpoints of autotrophy and full mycoheterotrophy, ranging from marginal to pronounced. In rhizoctonia-associated orchids, partial mycoheterotrophy plays a far greater role than previously assumed, even in full light conditions.
Data from: Earthworm activity and availability for meadow birds is restricted in intensively managed grasslands
1. Earthworms are an important prey for the endangered meadow birds of north-west Europe. Although intensive grassland management with high manure inputs generally promotes earthworm abundance, it may reduce the effective food availability for meadow birds through desiccation of the topsoil, which causes earthworms to remain deeper in the soil. 2. We studied the response of Red Worm Lumbricus rubellus, a detritivore, and Grey Worm Aporrectodea caliginosa, a geophage, to soil moisture profiles in the field and under experimental conditions. Surfacing earthworms were counted weekly in eight intensively managed grasslands (treated with high inputs of slurry by slit injection) with variable groundwater tables in the Netherlands. At each count, soil penetration resistance, soil moisture tension and groundwater level were measured, while air temperature and humidity were obtained from a nearby weather station. The response to variation in the vertical distribution of soil moisture was also experimentally studied in the two earthworm species. 3. In the field, earthworms' surfacing activity at night was negatively associated with soil moisture tension and positively by relative air humidity. Surprisingly, there was no effect of groundwater level; an important management variable in meadow bird conservation. Under experimental conditions, both L. rubellus and A. caliginosa moved to deeper soil layers (>20 cm) in drier soil moisture treatments, avoiding the upper layer when moisture levels dropped below 30%. 4. Synthesis and applications. We propose that in intensively managed grasslands with slurry application, topsoil desiccation reduces earthworm availability for meadow birds. This can be counteracted by keeping soil moisture tensions of the top soil above -15 kPa. We suggest that the late raising of groundwater tables in spring and the disturbance of the soil by slit injection of slurry increase topsoil desiccation. This decreases earthworm availability when it matters most for breeding meadow birds. Meadow bird conservation will benefit from revised manure application strategies that promote earthworm activity near or at the soil surface.
Data from: Climate and landscape drive the pace and pattern of conifer encroachment into subalpine meadows
Mountain meadows have high biodiversity and help regulate stream water release following the snowmelt pulse. However, many meadows are experiencing woody plant encroachment, threatening these ecosystem services. While there have been field surveys of individual meadows and remote sensing-based landscape-scale studies of encroachment, what is missing is a broad scale, ground-based study to understand common regional drivers, especially at high elevations, where land management has often played a less direct role. With this study we ask: what are the climate and landscape conditions conducive to woody plant encroachment at the landscape scale, and how has historical climate variation affected tree recruitment in subalpine meadows over time? We measured density of encroaching trees across 340 subalpine meadows in the central Sierra Nevada, California, USA, and used generalized additive models (GAMs) to determine the relationship between landscape-scale patterns of encroachment and meadow environmental properties. We determined ages of trees in 30 survey meadows, used observed climate and GAMs to model the relationship between timing of recruitment and climate since the early 1900s, and extrapolated recruitment patterns into the future using downscaled climate scenarios. Encroachment was high among meadows with lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon var. murrayana (Balf.) Engelm.) in the immediate vicinity, at lower elevations, with physical conditions favoring strong soil drying, and with maximum temperatures above or below average. Climatic conditions during the year of germination were unimportant, with tree recruitment instead depending on a 3-year seed production period prior to germination and a 6-year seedling establishment period following germination. Recruitment was high when the seed production period had high snowpack, and when the seedling establishment period had warm summer maximum temperatures, high summer precipitation, and high snowpack. Applying our temporal model to downscaled output from four global climate models indicated that the average meadow will shift to forest by the end of the 21st century. Sierra Nevada meadow encroachment by conifers is ubiquitous and associated with climate conditions increasingly favorable for tree recruitment, which will lead to substantial changes in subalpine meadows and the ecosystem services they provide.
Data from: Resource partitioning confirmed by isotopic signatures allows small mammals to share seasonally flooded meadows
Meadows in river deltas are characterized by a high diversity and abundance of small mammals. However, neither their spatial arrangement nor differences in their use of microhabitat can necessarily explain the dense co‐occurrence of sympatric species. We investigated how several small mammal species share a seasonally flooded meadow of limited size, testing predictions (P1) that herbivore, granivore, insectivore, and omnivore species are separated in time (dominant in different years), (P2) that sympatric species undergo isotopic partitioning, and (P3) that there are intraspecific differences in diet. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures in the hair of seven synantropic shrew, vole, and mice species were used as a proxy for their diet. We found that the three most abundant species in eight of the nine years were from different diet groups. However, based on the number of species in the functional groups, the state of small mammal community was considered unfavored in five out of the nine investigation years. In years with the greatest dominance of Apodemus agrarius, the small mammal community was characterized by decreased diversity and Micromys minutus was either in low abundance or absent. In 2014 and 2016, years of low abundance or absence of M. oeconomus, M. agrestis, and M. glareolus were both recorded in high numbers. Differences in the isotopic signatures of the three most abundant small mammal species in the community were clearly expressed and core areas in the isotopic space were separated, showing their dependence on different dietary resources. Intraspecific dietary separation between young and adult animals was observed only in M. oeconomus. Thus, the high species diversity of small mammals and the formation of their community in this investigated flooded meadow are maintained by isotopic partitioning (segregation in dietary space) and by changes in their number over time (shifting dominance).
Data from: The role of flow velocity combined with habitat complexity as a top–down regulator in seagrass meadows
Large‐scale losses of seagrass areas have been associated with eutrophication events, which have led to an overproduction of photosynthetic organisms including epiphytes. Grazers that feed on epiphytes can exert a significant top–down control in the system, but the effects of physical factors on grazing activity and feeding behaviour have been rarely examined. We addressed the combination of hydrodynamic regime and seagrass shoot density can alter the feeding and foraging behaviours of mesograzers. A full factorial experiment, with flow velocity (high, medium and low) and shoot density (high versus low) as main factors, was conducted in a racetrack flume using artificial seagrass plots. The results showed that when high flow velocity conditions were combined with low shoot density, consumption of epiphytes by mesograzers was strongly reduced. In contrast, when flow velocity was low or shoot density was high, mesograzers exhibited high feeding rates and vigorous swimming behaviour. These results clearly indicate that hydrodynamic stress reduces the time that mesograzers can spend feeding, since it inhibits their swimming behaviour, and thus indirectly affecting to the density of epiphytes. Therefore, the triggering of trophic cascade effects in seagrass communities under these experimental conditions depended on the interrelationship and feedbacks among shoot density, abiotic (flow velocity) and biotic (epiphytes and mesograzers) compartments, with flow velocity exerting a top–down control on seagrass ecosystems.
Data from: Functional dissimilarity, not phylogenetic relatedness, determines interspecific interactions among plants in the Tibetan alpine meadows
The hypotheses suggesting that the nature and strength of species interactions should be determined by phylogenetic relatedness have important implications for the understanding of community structure. However, to date, there is limited empirical evidence to support them. At least two basic conditions need to be met in order to expect species interactions to be determined by evolutionary relatedness: a phylogenetic signal in the traits involved in the interactions and changes in the interactions as species are more ecologically similar. Here, we report results of a removal experiment in the Chinese Tibetan plateau in which we directly assessed if the nature and/or strength of interactions among twelve alpine meadow plant species were influenced by their phylogenetic relatedness and/or their functional dissimilarity. For each plant species, we compared its biomass production when grown alone to its biomass in presence of another species and used it as a measure of species interactions. Competition between pairs of species was more frequent than facilitation, with 60% of interactions resulting in plants producing less biomass when a second species was present. We found no effect of phylogenetic relatedness on the prevalence or intensity of competition or facilitation, presumably as none of the studied traits showed phylogenetic signal. Functional dissimilarity based on maximum plant height alone was the best predictor of both the prevalence and strength of competition and facilitation, followed by functional dissimilarity using all five functional traits. Our results pinpoint the limited capacity of phylogenetic relatedness as predictor of species interactions; underlining the limitations of using phylogenetic dispersion patterns to infer mechanisms of community assembly. On the contrary, when the right functional traits are used, functional dissimilarity among species can predict both the nature and strength of their interactions; accentuating the relevance of trait-based approaches in community ecology research.
Data from: Multi-year stigmatic pollen-load sampling reveals temporal stability in interspecific pollination of flowers in a subalpine meadow
Co-flowering plants may commonly experience interspecific pollination. It remains unknown, however, whether interspecific pollination is a largely stochastic process or consistent enough over years to exert selection for traits that can reduce interspecific pollination or ameliorate its deleterious effects on reproduction. To assess the likelihood of this precondition being met, stigmatic pollen loads on 17 to 34 insect-pollinated plant species over 3 consecutive years were scored in a subalpine meadow in southwestern China. Plant species varied significantly in the amount and proportion of heterospecific pollen (HP) on stigmas. Both the number of HP species and the proportion of the pollen load that was HP for each recipient species correlated positively between years (reflected in pairwise correlations for all year-by-year combinations). Although inter-annual variation was smaller for conspecific pollen (CP) than for HP loads, species tended to experience either consistently high or consistently low HP proportions across years. We found that species with higher stigmatic HP proportions generally experienced lower proportional variation in stigmatic HP, an unexpected result if high HP loads are the result of rare stochastic events. The novel finding of between-year consistency in stigmatic loads of heterospecific pollen suggests that adaption to stigmatic loads of HP is possible, and two divergent strategies may have evolved: HP avoidance and HP tolerance. The observation of temporally consistent differences among species in levels of HP supports the idea that natural selection may be operating either to increase tolerance or to minimize arrival of heterospecific pollen on stigmas in co-flowering plants. Such adaptations may be important for the maintenance of high levels of local plant diversity in biodiversity hotspots such as our study area.
Data from: Variation in plant functional traits is best explained by the species identity: stability of trait based species ranking across meadow management regimes
1. It is commonly assumed in trait-based studies that plant functional traits are species-specific, being more variable among species than among different environmental conditions. If the environment affects traits it is assumed that species react in a similar direction and conserve the functional distances. The rank of species based on the trait values is then unchanged, which justifies the use of species trait averages from database values. Such assumptions of species specificity are, however, increasingly disputed by studies showing overall high intraspecific trait variability. 2. To test the species specificity and ranking stability of functional traits we sampled plant individuals of almost all species (66 in total) within each plot of a long term (19 years) land use management experiment, which comprised a factorial combination of fertilization, mowing and removal of the dominant species Molinia caerulea in an oligotrophic wet meadow in the Czech Republic. Plant individuals were measured for eight commonly used traits: height, leaf dry matter content (LDMC), specific leaf area (SLA), leaf δ13C content, leaf carbon content, leaf δ15N content, and leaf nitrogen content. Height, LDMC, and SLA were also extracted from the LEDA trait database for comparison. 3. Species identity consistently explained the largest portion of trait variability (40%-68%). Land use managements had a considerably lower effect (0.4%-9% of explained trait variability for individual traits). The species trait averages computed for each land use management regime separately were mutually correlated, showing the stable trait-based species ranking. Ranking stability of species trait averages was observed despite land use management changing absolute trait values and despite the tremendous intraspecific trait variability (causing substantial overlap of trait values for different species). For all treatments our measured species averages for LDMC and SLA were also stably ranked with species averages from the LEDA database. 4. Synthesis. Our results showed that species conserve the functional distances in different environmental conditions from where they were measured. Species trait averages can describe general trends in functional composition, although averaging reduces the ecologically interesting information of the intraspecific trait variability.
Data from: Asymmetric winter warming advanced plant phenology to a greater extent than symmetric warming in an alpine meadow
The warming of terrestrial high-latitude ecosystems, while increasing, will likely be asymmetric across seasons – where winter non-growing seasons will warm more than summer growing seasons. Asymmetric winter warming in temperature-sensitive ecosystems may delay spring phenological events by reducing the opportunity that a plants' chilling requirement is met. Similarly, symmetric warming can advance spring phenology. To explore the impact of asymmetric warming on plant phenology, we applied a year-round warming and a winter warming treatment to our experimental plots. Over a two-year period, we monitored leaf-out and flowering phenology for 11 plant species. There was variation among species, however, both winter and year-round warming, advanced the leaf-out day and the first flowering day relative to the control treatment. Winter warming advanced leaf-out and flowering phenology by 11.1 (± 2.4) and 12.6 (± 2.9) days, respectively. However, year-round warming had less of an impact advancing leaf-out and flowering phenology by 5.1 (± 2.1) and 10.0 (± 3.0) days, respectively. Our study provides direct evidence that asymmetric winter warming has a larger impact on plant phenology than symmetric year-round warming. Increasing soil temperature in the winter from below to above freezing temperatures advanced the spring phenology of alpine plants. Winter warming increased soil temperature more than year-round warming, which explains why phenology advanced under winter warming more than under year-round warming. In addition, early or mid-season flowering plant species displayed different phenology strategies in warmer winters. Synthesis: Relative to other ecosystems, alpine ecosystems such as the Tibetan Plateau will likely respond to asymmetric warming given the higher amplitude of winter temperature increases due to climatic warming thus seasonal variation in warming should be considered when predicting and modelling the response of alpine ecosystems to climatic change.
Data from: EB Ford revisited: assessing the long-term stability of wing-spot patterns and population genetic structure of the meadow brown butterfly on the Isles of Scilly
Understanding selection in the wild remains a major aim of evolutionary ecology and work by Ford and colleagues on the meadow brown butterfly Maniola jurtina did much to ignite this agenda. A great deal of their work was conducted during the 1950s on the Isles of Scilly. They documented island-specific wing-spot patterns that remained consistent over about a decade, but patterns on some islands changed after environmental perturbation. It was suggested that these wing-spot patterns reflected island-specific selection and that there was little migration between islands. However, genetic studies to test the underlying assumption of restricted migration are lacking and it is also unknown whether the originally described wing-spot patterns have persisted over time. We therefore collected female butterflies from five of Ford's original study locations, including three large islands (St Mary's, St Martin's and Tresco) and two small islands (Tean and St Helen's). Wing-spot patterns had not changed appreciably over time on three of the islands (two large and one small), but were significantly different on the other two. Furthermore, analysis of 176 amplified fragment length polymorphisms revealed significant genome-wide differentiation among the five islands. Our findings are consistent with Ford's conclusions that despite the close proximity of these islands, there is restricted gene flow among them.
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