Find research datasets worth reusing

Figure 6 in Assessing pollinator richness on urban-grown mountain mint (Pycnanthemum spp.) populations

Figure 6. Flower visitors on Pycnanthemum tenuifolium. (a) Apis mellifera. (b) Chauliognathus marginatus. (c) Pieris rapae. (d) Cerceris fumipennis.

Figure 8 in Assessing pollinator richness on urban-grown mountain mint (Pycnanthemum spp.) populations

Figure 8. Flower visitors on Pycnanthemum muticum. (a) Coelioxys octodentatus. (b) Sphex pensylvanicus. (c) Macrosiagon dimidiata. (d) Physocephala sp. (e) Eumenes fraternus. (f) Tachytes guatemalensis.

Figure 7 in Assessing pollinator richness on urban-grown mountain mint (Pycnanthemum spp.) populations

Figure 7. An evenness index of flower visitation on Pycnanthemum muticum across the 3-week monitoring period. Each taxon is plotted by the number of sites visited each week.

Figure 5 in Assessing pollinator richness on urban-grown mountain mint (Pycnanthemum spp.) populations

Figure 5. An evenness index of flower visitation on Pycnanthemum tenuifolium across the 3-week monitoring period. Each taxon is plotted by the number of sites visited each week.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2024View details →

Survey data of a first feasibility study to foster urban residents' resonances with nature through rituals

In this dataset, we provide raw and processed data, study material and documentation of our feasibility study aiming to foster urban residents’ resonances with nature through rituals in a five-week-long panel study. The case study was conducted in Dresden from August 30 till October 8 2023. In order to facilitate the realization of the study design by other institutions or private actors, the dataset includes first a postcard in pptx-format to promote the study and from which further promotion material can be created. We provide the audio manuals that were used for the implementation of the rituals for both the ritual and control group. Furthermore, we offer an evaluation framework for assessing socio-demographic data, changes throughout the different resonance dimensions (openness, value of Unverfügbarkeit, affect, response, transformation), effects on related aspects such as health or sense of social connectedness, the ecological footprint and possible open questions to assess and evaluate the feasibility study. To round it off, we provide raw survey data as well as preprocessed and analyzed data including results and data records of the intermediate steps of the analyzation conducted with IBM SPSS 28. <h2>List of data, material and content (*.zip):</h2> <ul> <li>Promoting postcard (*.pptx) (artwork: IOER media)</li> <li>Audio manual for ritual group (*.pdf)</li> <li>Audio manual for control group (*.pdf)</li> <li>Subsequent record of the introductory meeting (*.mp4)</li> <li>Survey results for the final sample (*.xlsx)</li> <li>Upload of qualitative data by participant (*.jpg)</li> <li>Results of the statistical analyses (U-tests) to detect group-specific differences (e. g. level of openness, nature relatedness, mindful self-compassion) for the index variables; the tests were conducted with IBM SPSS Statistics 28 (*.xls)</li> <li>Results of the statistical analyses (U-tests) to detect group-specific differences regarding the ecological carbon footprint; the tests were conducted with IBM SPSS Statistics 28 (*.xls)</li> </ul> For the revised version, we added:  <ul> <li>Informed consent declaration to participate and publish (*.pdf)</li> </ul>   Note: All documents are accessible with open source software. <h2>Data acquisition and processing</h2> The methods are described in the accompanying research paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43621-025-01399-z.   <h2>Acknowledgments</h2> The authors thank their student assistant Amanda Sydow for the support in editing the survey data as well as all participants for their intensive involvement in the feasibility study.   <h2>Notes</h2> This dataset belongs to the following research paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43621-025-01399-z.

opencc-zeroOct 2021View details →

Data from: Urbanization affects oak–pathogen interactions across spatial scales

The world is rapidly urbanizing, thereby transforming natural landscapes and changing the abundance and distribution of organisms. However, insights into the effects of urbanization on species interactions, and plant-pathogen interactions in particular, are lacking. We investigated the effects of urbanization on powdery mildew infection on Quercus robur at continental and within-city scales. At the continental scale, we compared infection levels between urban and rural areas of different-sized cities in Europe, and investigated whether plant traits, climatic variables and CO2 emissions mediated the effect of urbanization on infection levels. Within one large city (Stockholm, Sweden), we further explored whether local habitat features and spatial connectivity influenced infection levels during multiple years. At the continental scale, infection severity was consistently higher on trees in urban than rural areas, with some indication that temperature mediated this effect. Within Stockholm city, temperature had no effect, while local accumulation of leaf litter negatively affected powdery mildew incidence in one out of three years, and more connected trees had lower infection levels. This study is the first to describe the effects of urbanization on plant-pathogen interactions both within and among cities, and to uncover the potential mechanisms behind the observed patterns at each scale.

opencc-zeroOct 2021View details →

An experimental test of the impact of avian diversity on attentional benefits and enjoyment of people experiencing urban green-space

Biodiversity may play a key role in generating the well-being benefits of visiting green-spaces. The ability of people to accurately perceive variation in biodiversity is, however, unclear and evidence supporting links between biodiversity exposure and well-being outcomes remains equivocal. In part, this is due to the paucity of controlled experimental studies that deal adequately with confounding factors that covary with biodiversity. Attention restoration theory (ART) proposes that natural environments contain many softly fascinating stimuli that provide visitors with a sense of separation from their normal settings and routines, switching off direct attention and allowing recovery from attention fatigue. Increased biodiversity could increase these stimuli, and ART therefore potentially provides a mediating effect linking biodiversity to well-being. Here, we conduct a controlled experiment in which participants virtually experience urban green-space containing high and low levels of avian biodiversity (altered by manipulating bird song). Respondents accurately identified the contrast in biodiversity and reported greater enjoyment of the high biodiversity treatment than the low diversity control. Higher biodiversity did not, however, elicit greater self-reported stimulation or restoration, and did not increase perceived restorativeness scores or attentional capacity (quantified using the Digit Span Backwards attention test). Respondents that were more connected to nature, however, had greater attentional capacity following exposure to green-space. Our study provides rare experimental evidence that people can accurately detect variation in biodiversity, that high avian diversity boosts visitor perceptions of urban green-space quality, and that people with increased nature connectedness show enhanced attentional capacity.

opencc-by-4.0Jan 2022View details →

Combined Effects of Future Urban Growth and Climate Change on Irrigation Water Demand in Central Arizona

This dataset contains the simulation results of the combined effects of future urban growth and climate change on irrigation water use in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, central Arizona. The simulation is conducted with the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model at 1-km, hourly resolution from 1981-2100 and aggregated to 30-yr average in this dataset.  The 30-yr average results are compressed and organized into three files: Baseline, ICLUS2050, and ICLUS2100. The Baseline file contains results using the historical land cover map (year 2010). The ICLUS2050 and ICLUS2100 contain results using future land cover maps. The filename of modeling results contains the associated land cover and climate change scenario as follows: "fluxes.irri.ICLUS_$YEAR_$LCSCE.$CLSCE.$GCM.nc", where $YEAR is the year of land cover change projection (2050 or 2100), $LCSCE is the land cover change scenario (SSP2 or SSP5), $CLSCE is the climate change scenario (RCP45 or RCP85), and $GCM is the GCM used (eight in total)  More details can be found on the associated paper (this record will be updated when the paper is published): Wang, Z., and Vivoni, E.R. 2021. Combined Effects of Future Urban Growth and Climate Change on Irrigation Water Demand in Central Arizona. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (in revision).

Individual dietary specialization in a generalist predator: A stable isotope analysis of urban and rural red foxes

Some carnivores are known to survive well in urban habitats, yet the underlying behavioural tactics are poorly understood. One likely explanation for the success in urban habitats might be that carnivores are generalist consumers. However, urban populations of carnivores could as well consist of specialist feeders. Here, we compared the isotopic specialization of red foxes in urban and rural environments, using both a population and an individual level perspective. We measured stable isotope ratios in increments of red fox whiskers and potential food sources. Our results reveal that red foxes have a broad isotopic dietary niche and a large variation in resource use. Despite this large variation, we found significant differences between the variance of the urban and rural population for δ13C as well as δ15N values, suggesting a habitat-specific foraging behaviour. Although urban regions are more heterogeneous regarding land cover (based on the Shannon index) than rural regions, the dietary range of urban foxes was smaller compared to that of rural conspecifics. Moreover, the higher δ13C values and lower δ15N values of urban foxes suggest a relatively high input of anthropogenic food sources. The diet of most individuals remained largely constant over a longer period. The low intra-individual variability of urban and rural red foxes suggests a relatively constant proportion of food items consumed by individuals. Urban and rural foxes utilized a small proportion of the potentially available isotopic dietary niche as indicated by the low within-individual variation compared to the between-individual variation. We conclude that generalist fox populations consist of individual food specialists in urban and rural populations at least over those periods covered by our study.

Spatiotemporal interactions of a novel mesocarnivore community in an urban environment before and during SARS‐CoV‐2 lockdown

1. Studying species interactions and niche segregation under human pressure provides important insights into species adaptation, community functioning and ecosystem stability. Due to their high plasticity in behaviour and diet, urban mesocarnivores are ideal species for studying community assembly in novel communities. 2. We analysed the spatial and temporal species interactions of an urban mesocarnivore community composed of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and the marten (Martes sp.) as native species, the raccoon (Procyon lotor) as invasive species, and the cat (Felis catus) as a domestic species in combination with human disturbance modulated by the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown effect that happened while the study was conducted. 3. We analysed camera-trap data and applied a joint species distribution model to understand not only the environmental variables influencing the detection of mesocarnivores and their use intensity of environmental features but also the species' co-occurrences while accounting for environmental variables. We then assessed whether they displayed temporal niche partitioning based on activity analyses, and finally analysed at a smaller temporal scale the time of delay after the detection of another focal species. 4. We found that species were more often detected and displayed a higher use intensity in gardens during the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown period, while showing a shorter temporal delay during the same period, meaning a high human-induced spatio-temporal overlap. All three wild species spatially co-occurred within the urban area, with a positive response of raccoons to cats in detection and use intensity, whereas foxes showed a negative trend towards cats. When assessing the temporal partitioning, we found that all wild species showed overlapping nocturnal activities. All species displayed temporal segregation based on temporal delay. According to the temporal delay analyses, cats were the species avoided the most by all wild species. To conclude, we found that although the wild species were positively associated in space, the avoidance occurred at a smaller temporal scale, and human pressure in addition led to high spatio-temporal overlap. 5. Our study sheds light to the complex patterns underlying the interactions in a mesocarnivore community both spatially and temporally, and the exacerbated effect of human pressure on community dynamics.

Wildland-urban interface fire dynamics simulator input files for pyric tree spatial patterning interactions in historical and contemporary mixed conifer forests, California, USA

Tree spatial patterns in dry coniferous forests of the western US, and analogous ecosystems globally, were historically aggregated, comprising a mixture of single trees and groups of trees. Modern forests, in contrast, are generally more homogeneous and overstocked than their historical counterparts. As these modern forests lack regular fire, pattern formation and maintenance is generally attributed to fire. Accordingly, fires in modern forests may not yield historically analogous patterns. However, direct observations on how selective tree mortality among pre-existing forest structure shapes tree spatial patterns is limited. In this study, we (1) simulated fires in historical and contemporary counterpart plots in a Sierra Nevadan mixed-conifer forest, (2) estimated tree mortality, and (3) examined tree spatial patterns of live trees before and after fire, and of fire-killed trees. Tree mortality in the historical period was clustered and density-dependent, because trees were aggregated and segregated by tree size before fire. Thus, fires maintained an aggregated distribution of tree groups. Tree mortality in the contemporary period was widespread, except for dispersed large trees, because most trees were a part of large, interconnected tree groups. Thus, post-fire tree patterns were more uniform and devoid of moderately sized tree groups. Post-fire tree patterns in the historical period, unlike the contemporary period, were within the historical range of variability identified for the western US. This divergence suggests that decades of forest dynamics without significant disturbances has altered the historical means of pyric pattern formation. Our results suggest that ecological silvicultural treatments, such as forest restoration thinnings, which emulate qualities of historical forests may facilitate the reintroduction of fire as a means to reinforce forest structural heterogeneity.

Urban runoff and stream channel incision interact to influence riparian soils and understory vegetation

Riparian soil processes and vegetation are sensitive to water availability. Urbanization can alter riparian water availability by modifying stream flows and stream channel morphology. In cities, runoff from impervious surfaces tends to increase stormflow magnitudes, causing stream channels to incise, or downcut. This change in channel morphology has been linked to lowered water tables and drier conditions in temperate urban riparian zones, leading to shifts in riparian nitrogen (N) cycling and vegetation communities. In Mediterranean climates with distinct wet and dry periods, there is an additional dynamic to consider: runoff from urban water use can cause streams to flow when they would otherwise be dry. This dry-season stream flow could create increased, rather than decreased, water availability in urban riparian zones. However, channel incision may counteract this effect. We asked whether dry-season stream flow interacted with channel incision to influence riparian soil characteristics and understory vegetation along streams in Sacramento, California, which has a Mediterranean climate with an intense summer dry season. At 40 stream reaches that varied by severity of downcutting and presence of dry-season flow, we sampled soils and vegetation on top of stream banks and at the margin of the low-flow channel, an important location for nutrient cycling in dry climates. We measured soil moisture, organic matter, and ∂15N, as well as total and perennial understory vegetation cover. We found that channel characteristics associated with incision limited the influence of dry-season stream flow on soil moisture, and this interaction appears to have lasting effects on soil organic matter and perennial vegetation on bank tops. At the stream margin, channel downcutting was associated with reduced soil organic matter and vegetation cover, while dry-season flow was associated with increased vegetation cover. Values of soil ∂15N pointed to limited hydrologic linkage between stream flows and riparian bank soils along incised streams. Our findings suggest that channel incision could limit the ability of urban riparian ecosystems to mitigate low-flow water quality. However, where streams are not incised in Mediterranean climates, dry-season flows from urban runoff may actually increase riparian productivity and N cycling above historical levels.

Quantification of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites as a measure of stress in the rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) living in an urban green space

Despite the abundance of rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) within South Africa's urban areas, there is not much information available about the effect of anthropogenic activities on rock hyrax wellbeing. To determine the potential impact of anthropogenic disturbance on adrenocortical activity, we conducted an ACTH challenge to identify a suitable enzyme-immunoassay (EIA) for measuring faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations in the rock hyrax. This study identified an 11β-hydroxyaetiocholanolone EIA as the most suitable assay in this regard. The fGCM levels measured, indicate the physiological stress response in different rock hyrax populations, living in an area with varying degrees of anthropogenic activity (low, medium, high) within the National Botanical Garden of Pretoria, South Africa. The species' habituation to human numbers (weekly mean number of people) was examined by determining individual flight initiation distance (FID). Seasonally, there were overall higher fGCM concentrations in late spring compared to winter. The fGCM concentrations, although not significantly different but possibly biologically relevant, in the section with the lowest anthropogenic disturbance were ~10% higher compared to those in the section with medium disturbance, and ~20% higher compared to those in the section with the highest disturbance. Animal FID did not differ significantly between seasons but they did differ significantly between sections, and decreased in accordance with fGCM concentrations. The non-invasive approach established in this study provides a foundation for assessing rock hyrax wellbeing, and can help better understand how anthropogenic presence is perceived as a stressor in this species.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2021View details →

SARS CoV2 Seroprevalence in Rural and Urban Populations In Ghana

Results of population-based age stratified seroepidemiological investigation in Ghana

Diverging conditions of current and potential future urban forest patches

Forested natural areas in cities provide a range of social, ecological, economic, and health benefits. Ensuring the delivery of these benefits requires an understanding of current and potential future forest conditions yet urban forest dynamics are not well understood. Here, we address this knowledge gap by examining forest structure and composition in 126 plots distributed across three forest patch sizes (large (95-126 ha), medium (1-19 ha), and small (0.05-0.65 ha) patches) in the city of New Haven, CT, USA. We detected significant shifts in forest structure and composition suggesting a suite of distinct successional trajectories within each patch size. Large patches comprised 95% native tree species in the canopy ( > 5 cm DBH), sapling (1-5 cm DBH), and seedling (< 1 cm DBH) layers, suggesting that these large patches will continue to be native-dominated in the future— a primary objective for urban forest management. Moreover, in these large patches, shifts in the dominant species in each strata suggest that as large patches move through succession they will transition from moderately-shade tolerant forest types (i.e., oaks) to shade-tolerant types (i.e., American beech)— a similar successional trajectory to surrounding second growth forests in the region. Medium patches were the most heterogenous patch size sampled. Despite this heterogeneity, they generally resembled large patches in the canopy and sapling layers but diverged in the seedling layer. In medium patches, the invasive Norway maple replaced American beech as primary seedling species suggesting a future shift towards non-native dominated forest in the future. Small patches were the most compositionally and structurally distinct patch size sampled. Only 36% of the canopy trees and saplings in small patches were native species, however, this increased to 71% native in the seedling layer. Additionally, the most important seedling species included those that are bird-dispersed highlighting the potentially valuable role that these small, non-native, forest fragments play as wildlife corridors. Collectively, our study demonstrates that multiple forest types, dynamics, and conditions can be found within a single city and that forest patch size offers a helpful framework to begin to parse out these differences.

Supplementary material 3 from: Schmidt K, Walz A (2021) Ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change through residential urban green structures: co-benefits to thermal comfort, biodiversity, carbon storage and social interaction. One Ecosystem 6: e65706. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.6.e65706

Mean values of microclimatic parameters between 9am and 9pm, based on measurements in the four courtyards (CY): CY 1: light green, CY 2: dark green, CY 3: orange, CY 4: red

Supplementary material 6 from: Schmidt K, Walz A (2021) Ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change through residential urban green structures: co-benefits to thermal comfort, biodiversity, carbon storage and social interaction. One Ecosystem 6: e65706. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.6.e65706

Results from tree mapping and allometric equations, indicating above-ground biomass and carbon stocks

Supplementary material 5 from: Schmidt K, Walz A (2021) Ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change through residential urban green structures: co-benefits to thermal comfort, biodiversity, carbon storage and social interaction. One Ecosystem 6: e65706. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.6.e65706

Results from habitat mapping and biodiversity scores. Domin values = 1: < 4% cover with few individuals; 2: < 4% with several individuals; 3: < 4% with many individuals; 4: 4–10%; 5: 11–25%; 6: 26–33%; 7: 34–50%; 8: 51–75%; 9: 76–90%; 10: 91–100% cover

opencc-zeroJan 2022View details →

Prioritizing terrestrial invasive alien plant species for management in urban ecosystems

1. Invasive alien plant species (IAPs) in urban areas can have detrimental effects on biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being. Urban areas are complex social management mosaics with high land-use diversity, complex land tenure patterns, and many different stakeholder groups, some of which derive benefits from invading species. Urban conservation practitioners face complex decisions about which IAPs require management. Yet most IAPs prioritization frameworks have been designed for and implemented in natural or rural areas and are generally inadequate for guiding effective and sustainable interventions in urbanized areas. 2. We modified an existing prioritization scheme to develop a framework for prioritizing terrestrial IAPs in urban areas which applies evidence-based (data-driven) and stakeholder-based (local knowledge) assessments to score and rank alien plant species in terms of their priority for management using an objective set of criteria. 3. The framework consists of forty-six criteria, grouped into eight modules which assess invasion status, habitat requirements, biological characteristics, dispersal ability, distribution, impact (positive and negative), and potential for control for each alien plant species under consideration. 4. We use the city of Toronto, Canada as a case study to test our framework – a list of 50 IAPs were effectively scored and ranked in order of high to low priority for control. Species with the highest total prioritization scores were Vincetoxicum rossicum (Dog Strangling Vine), Convolvulus arvensis (Field Bindweed) and Taraxacum officinale (Common Dandelion) (ranked 1, 2 and 3, respectively). 5. Many of the identified high priority species align with the those previously flagged as of management concern by conservation practitioners, but also include those that are not actively managed due to their perceived lower ecological impacts. These species still require high resource investment for other objectives such as aesthetics. This highlights the complexity of alien plant species management in urban areas. 6. Synthesis and applications. Prioritizing invasive alien plants for management in urban areas is particularly challenging due to often conflicting ecological, economic, and social objectives. We use available evidence and local stakeholder knowledge to develop an objective and systematic prioritization tool which can assist conservation practitioners in selecting priority species for management action in complex urban landscapes.