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Disturbance history alters the development of the HPA axis in altricial nestling birds

Glucocorticoid (GC) hormones regulate the vertebrate stress response and are secreted by the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Acute elevation of GCs is thought be adaptive because it promotes physiological and behavioural changes that allow animals to cope with disturbances. In contrast, chronic elevation of GCs is associated with reduced body condition, immune function, reproductive success, and survival. In adult birds, the effects of chronic stress have been well documented, including human-related disturbances. In contrast, the effects of chronic stress on nestlings have rarely been addressed. This is of interest, as many ecological or monitoring studies of wild birds require nestlings to be regularly handled. However, the consequences of repeated handling of nestlings on HPA axis function and body mass o remain poorly quantified. We examined whether daily exposure to handling stress increased corticosterone (the dominant avian glucocorticoid) secretion and reduced pre-fledging body mass relative to undisturbed control nestlings of the Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala), a native Australian passerine bird. Daily handling resulted in an elevated baseline and attenuated stress-induced corticosterone levels in disturbed 14-day nestlings, in comparison with control nestlings handled for the first time. Despite this, disturbed and control nestlings fledged at a similar body mass. Baseline and stress-induced corticosterone increased with nestling age but remained independent of nestling sex and hatching order. These findings suggest that chronic stress causes physiological alterations to the development of the HPA axis in nestling birds, in turn suggesting that researchers should minimise or account for handling stress in their experiments. These data also raise the possibility that other chronic stressors may have physiological consequences for the development of the HPA axis in nestling birds.

Chronic anthropogenic disturbance mediates the biodiversity-productivity relationship across stand ages in a large temperate forest region

<div>Temperate forests, especially those in the densely populated regions of the world, are experiencing increasing levels of habitat degradation and biological impoverishment due to subtle but pervasive chronic anthropogenic disturbances including frequent and continuous grazing and extraction of non-timber forest products. However, the effects of these subtle, chronic disturbances on the biodiversity-productivity relationship have rarely been examined especially in forests at different development stages. Accordingly, this study explores how chronic anthropogenic disturbance affects the relationship between tree species diversity and forest productivity at different stand development stages in a large temperate forest region.</div> <div> </div> <div>We used the human footprint index as a proxy for chronic human disturbance. Hierarchical Bayesian models were employed to assess the effects of chronic human disturbance on the relationship between tree diversity and forest productivity across different stand age. Several measures of diversity were employed, including taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity.</div> <div> </div> <div>Forest productivity consistently increased with taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic biodiversity; these biodiversity facets were the main drivers of forest productivity compared to stand age, chronic human disturbance, and climate. However, the magnitude at which productivity increases with the increments of taxonomic and functional diversity diminishes with the increasing chronic disturbance, especially in younger stands. The effects of phylogenetic diversity on productivity did not vary with chronic disturbance, regardless of stand age.</div> <div> </div> <div> Synthesis and applications: Chronic human disturbance in a large temperate forest region reduces the increase in community productivity due to different facets of biodiversity, especially in young forests. The evidence suggests that the mitigation of chronic human disturbance and the conservation of biodiversity will be effective in sustaining essential ecosystem functions.</div>

Recovery of European temperate forests after large and severe disturbances

As climate change progresses, there is increasing concern that large and severe disturbances may diminish the resilience of forest ecosystems and alter their recovery dynamics. We investigated recovery of temperate forests in Europe following large and severe disturbance events (more than 70 % canopy cover reduction in patches larger than 1 ha) that span a time since disturbance range of one to five decades. Across a ground-based plot network at 143 sites, featuring various forest types and management practices, subjected to 28 disturbance events, including windthrow, fire, and bark beetle, we studied post-disturbance tree density and composition, which are key indicators of forest resilience. We used this dataset to qualitatively assess forest recovery in structure and composition by comparing plot-level post-disturbance height-weighted densities with site-specific pre-disturbance densities. Additionally, we analyzed ecological drivers of post-windthrow tree density, including forest management, topography, and bioclimate, using a series of generalized additive models. The present dataset includes the plot-level data necessary to carry out the aforementioned analyses.

Data from: Adaptive responses and transgenerational plasticity of a submerged plant to benthivorous fish disturbance

Benthivorous fish dominance in some subtropical lakes may alter submerged plant growth, reproduction, and progeny germination by changing water-submerged plant-algae interactions. We conducted mesocosm experiments to examine the effects of three densities of benthivorous fish, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, on the water properties, the growth, asexual reproduction, and the germination of turions of Potamogeton crispus L. The dataset includes water environment characteristics, macrophyte traits, algae traits, and sediment nutrient characteristics. Macrophyte traits include morphological, stoichiometric, turion traits, and germination traits.

Anthropogenic disturbance driving population decline of a dominant tree in East Asia evergreen broadleaved forests over the last 11,000 years

Current biodiversity loss was generally considered to be caused by anthropogenic disturbance, but when anthropogenic activities began to impact biodiversity loss is still controversial. One hypothesis suggested it was from the industrial era, while others proposed that the anthropogenic disturbance had already resulted in biodiversity decline since the Early Holocene. To test these hypotheses, we focus on subtropical East Asia, which has witnessed a land use and anthropogenic history since the Early Holocene. We selected the unique vegetation of evergreen broadleaved forests (EBLFs), using a genomic approach to infer the demographic history of a dominant plant (Litsea elongata) of EBLFs, and to further detangle the impact of climate change and/or anthropogenic disturbance on effective population size fluctuation. Nine well-defined geographical clades were identified within extant populations of L. elongata. The estimated historical population sizes of these clades all contracted, indicating persistent population decline over the last 11,000 years. Significant correlation was detected between demographic history and three anthropogenic disturbance factors, rather than the climate change in the Holocene. Therefore, we provided the dataset used for phylogenomic analysis, demographic history inference, and correlation analysis in this study.

opencc-zeroFeb 2024View details →

A genome catalogue of mercury-methylating bacteria and archaea from sediments of a boreal river facing human disturbances

Methyl mercury is a toxic compound produced by anaerobic microbes that biomagnifies in aquatic food webs, impacting animal and human health. Genome-based explorations of Hg methylators remain limited, particularly in the context of river ecosystems. To fill this knowledge gap, we created a genome catalogue of putative Hg-methylating microorganisms (based on the presence of hgcAB) from the sediments of a river impacted by two run-of-river hydroelectric dams, logging, and a wildfire. By using genome-resolved metagenomics, we uncovered a unique and diverse assemblage of Hg methylators dominated by members of the metabolically versatile Bacteroidota and particularly enriched in butyrate fermentative microbes. By comparing diversity and abundance of Hg methylators between sites that were subjected to different disturbances, we found that ongoing disturbances, such as input of organic matter related to logging activities. were particularly favorable to the establishment of a Hg-methylating niche. Lastly, for a deeper understanding of the environmental factors shaping Hg methylator diversity, we juxtaposed the Hg-methylating genome catalogue with the wider microbial community. The results suggest that Hg methylators respond to environmental conditions similarly to overall microbial community, and therefore it is crucial to interpret the diversity and abundance of Hg methylators within their specific ecological context.

opencc-zeroFeb 2024View details →

Disturbance-related redistribution of Western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) away from woodland tracks

Wild vertebrates usually avoid ground disturbed by humans with uncertain effects on their distribution and density. We report on a natural experiment that confirms and extends previous conclusions about how the local distribution of capercaillie is affected by track-based disturbance. We surveyed the birds' droppings in two periods, before and after a predicted increase in disturbance adjacent to an expanding Scottish village, and model the probability of finding droppings in relation to period plus two disturbance gradients – distance to a much disturbed 'entry zone' with a high density of tracks lying adjacent to the village, plus distance to the nearest track. Throughout the study, no droppings were found within the entry zone and their density was depressed up to 400 m from it. Density of droppings was also depressed within 100–120 m of tracks but, compared to a notional scenario without tracks, was threefold greater on ground 120–250 m from tracks. Although the number of cocks counted at the lek in spring showed a small increase, there was an almost threefold decline in the probability of finding capercaillie droppings on and within about 40 m of tracks. We infer that, after the development, birds were less likely to use or cross tracks in pursuit of their daily living requirements, with unknown consequences for their population dynamics and vital rates. Our results have implications for refuge design. Birds on roughly half of a 50 ha refuge should be undisturbed by direct effects of track-based activities. However, birds shifting away from tracks may themselves cause local increases in density and associated, indirect disturbance such that a refuge would need to be over 300 ha to keep half of it undisturbed.

opencc-zeroFeb 2024View details →

Data from: Lineage diversity within a widespread endemic Australian skink to better inform conservation in response to regional-scale disturbance

This dataset was used to examine the phylogeographic genetic structure of Eastern three lined skink Bassiana duperreyi. It comprises SNP data used for population genetics and phylogenetic reconstruction. The data were used to provide foundational work for the detailed taxonomic re-evaluation of this species complex and to reinforce the need for biodiversity assessment to include an examination of cryptic species and/or cryptic diversity below the level of species. Such information on lineage diversity within species and its distribution in the context of disturbance at a regional scale can be factored into conservation planning regardless of whether a decision is made to formally diagnose new species taxonomically and nomenclaturally.

opencc-by-4.0Feb 2024View details →

Ecosystem services at risk from disturbance in Europe's forests

This repository contains the risk map for each ecosystem service (timber supply, carbon storage, soil erosion control, outdoor recreation) and disturbance (windthrows, bark beetle, wildfires). It also includes the individual risk components: exposed values, hazard magnitude, susceptibility and lack of adaptive capacity. The exact details and methods are described in the following paper:   Lecina-Diaz J, Senf C, Grünig M, Seidl R (2024). Ecosystem services at risk from disturbance in Europe’s forests. Global Change Biology. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16172">https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17242</a> The spatial reference system is EPSG 3035 (ETRS89 / LAEA Europe).

opencc-zeroMar 2024View details →

Data from: Species contributions to ecosystem stability change with disturbance type

Simultaneous exposure to multiple stressors complicates the challenge of predicting ecological responses to global environmental change. Here, we show that the contributions of individual species and functional groups to the overall stability of ecosystems can be modified by the presence of different stressors, both individually and in combination. By disturbing natural rocky shore communities with nutrients and sediments and simulating extinction of predatory whelks and grazers, we also found that consumers can simultaneously stabilise and destabilise communities along different stability dimensions, irrespective of their trophic position. Our results suggest that our experimental disturbances influenced consumer contributions to stability indirectly by modifying the interactions between consumers and macroalgae in different ways. These findings merit further exploration in different systems exposed to a range of different stressors to better understand how perturbations of different kinds can modify the multifaceted contributions of species to the overall stability of ecosystems.

opencc-by-4.0Mar 2024View details →

Distribution, response to human disturbance, habitat preferences, and acoustic communication of tree hyraxes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

This data consists data from recordings done in Mt. Kilimanjaro. Hourly calls of tree hyraxes have been calculated between 19.00 until 06:00. Dataset also has variables collected by other research groups. We combined our data of cue count per hour with data to analyse tree hyrax density with explanatory variables to model occupancy of tree hyraxes in Kilimanjaro. Dataset was combined from several research projects conducted within the Kili-Project (Hemp et al. 2018) (Table 1). Variables included forest type, temperature (Appelhans et al. 2015) precipitation (Appelhans et al. 2016). diameter breast height (DBH), leaf density, max vegetation height, and leaf area index (LAI) (Rutten et al., 2015). We also included land use index (LUI) (Peters et al. 2019) to the dataset, which included four different variables (percentage plant biomass removal, agricultural inputs, modification of the vegetation and percentage of agricultural area in the surroundings). Abstract Limited knowledge exists of the distribution, habitat selection, behavior and response to human disturbance of many mammalian species from mountains of Africa. This is especially true for nocturnal mammals. We studied acoustically very active tree hyraxes (Dendrohyrax validus validus) from Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania mainly with bioacoustical methods. To gain understanding of the habitat preferences of tree hyraxes we combined bioacoustical data with botanical and meteorological data collected earlier by KiLi Project. According to GLMM analysis, disturbance caused by logging or forest fires significantly reduced tree hyrax calling activity. In Mt. Kilimanjaro, highest density of tree hyraxes was found from 2750 m a.s.l. It seems that extensive hunting in the past and selective logging below elevation 2500 m caused tree hyraxes to move up the mountain. Calls of tree hyraxes in Mt. Kilimanjaro resemble calls emitted by hyraxes in Taita Hills, Kenya; however, there are clear differences in their calling cultures. In Mt. Kilimanjaro tree hyraxes also sing songs, and their acoustic communication is very active and diverse. In most preferred habitats, groups of tree hyraxes may call 4500–5500 times during one night. Calling seem to have elements of turn taking and individual signatures. Future of tree hyraxes in large, 650 km2, Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park seems promising and perhaps in the future tree hyraxes will recolonize the whole park area again.

opencc-zeroMar 2024View details →

Data for: Roles of the cerebellar vermis in predictive postural controls against external disturbances

The central nervous system predictively controls posture against external disturbances; however, the detailed mechanisms remain unclear. We tested the hypothesis that the cerebellar vermis plays a substantial role in acquiring predictive postural control by using a standing task with floor disturbances in rats. The intact, lesioned, and sham groups of rats sequentially underwent 70 conditioned floor-tilting trials, and kinematics were recorded. Six days before these recordings, only the lesion group underwent focal suction surgery targeting vermal lobules Ⅳ-Ⅷ. In the naïve stage of the sequential trials, the upright postures and fluctuations due to the disturbance were mostly consistent among the groups. Although the pattern of decrease in postural fluctuation due to learning corresponded among the groups, the learning rate estimated from the lumbar displacement was significantly lower in the lesion group than in the intact and sham groups (approximately 35% of the sham group). These results suggest that the cerebellar vermis contributes to predictive postural control.

opencc-zeroMar 2024View details →

Data from: Long-term climate and hydrologic regimes shape stream invertebrate community responses to a hurricane disturbance

Disturbances can produce a spectrum of short- and long-term ecological consequences that depend on complex interactions of the characteristics of the event, antecedent environmental conditions, and the intrinsic properties of resistance and resilience of the affected biological system. We used Hurricane Harvey's impact on coastal rivers of Texas to examine the roles of storm-related changes in hydrology and long-term precipitation regime on the response of stream invertebrate communities to hurricane disturbance. We detected declines in richness, diversity, and total abundance following the storm, but responses were strongly tied to direct and indirect effects of long-term aridity and short-term changes in stream hydrology. The amount of rainfall a site received drove both flood duration and flood magnitude across sites, but lower annual rainfall amounts (i.e., aridity) increased flood magnitude and decreased flood duration. Across all sites, flood duration was positively related to the time it took for invertebrate communities to return to a long-term baseline and flood magnitude drove larger invertebrate community responses (i.e., changes in diversity and total abundance). However, invertebrate response per unit flood magnitude was lower in sub-humid sites, potentially because of differences in refuge availability or ecological-evolutionary interactions. Interestingly, sub-humid streams had temporary large peaks in invertebrate total abundance and diversity following recovery period that may be indicative of the larger organic matter pulses expected in these systems because of their comparatively well-developed riparian vegetation. Our findings show that hydrology and long-term precipitation regime predictably affected invertebrate community responses and, thus, our work underscores the important influence of local climate to ecosystem sensitivity to disturbances.

opencc-by-4.0Mar 2024View details →

Forest disturbance detection by using remote sensing and artificial intelligence in Africa

The dataset arises from the "Forest Disturbance Detection Using Remote Sensing and Artificial Intelligence in Africa" (EO4Forest) project, a collaboration funded by the European Space Agency and conducted by Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences (Poland) and Lagos State University (Nigeria). Designed for forest monitoring in the Ogun and Lagos States, the dataset includes detailed land cover classification maps for the years 2015, 2019, 2022, and 2023, all at a 20-meter spatial resolution to ensure accurate representation of land cover. A legend file accompanies the maps, clarifying six defined land cover classes: water, urbanized areas, soil, cropland, grasslands, and forest. The dataset includes over 112,000 training and 11,900 validation samples, which are essential for the accurate development and evaluation of the Random Forest classification models used. Special emphasis was placed on the forest class, ensuring a diverse representation of forest types, including tropical humid forests, mangroves, and dry woodlands. In addition to land cover maps, the dataset also contains forest gain and loss maps, with a particular focus on recent updates for selected subareas in 2022 and 2023, available in the NTR_ForestUpdate folder. Based on optical satellite imagery from Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8, the dataset leverages spectral indices and the Random Forest algorithm to classify land cover types. It provides valuable insights for environmental research related to deforestation, reforestation, and afforestation. Forest change maps are included to highlight areas of forest loss and gain, capturing the dynamic shifts in Nigeria's forest cover and offering detailed geographic context. The methodology, including data acquisition, preprocessing, feature extraction (spectral index calculation), classification, and accuracy assessment, is fully documented in Python scripts available in the associated GitHub repository. This ensures transparency and reproducibility, offering users both the processed outputs and the tools necessary for custom analyses and advanced forest monitoring.

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

Roadside disturbance promotes plant communities with arbuscular mycorrhizal associations in mountain regions worldwide

Aim: We aimed to assess the impact of road disturbances on the dominant mycorrhizal types in ecosystems at the global level and how this mechanism can potentially lead to lasting plant community changes. Location: Globally distributed mountain regions Time Period: 2007-2018 Taxa studied: Plants (linked to their associated mycorrhizal fungi) Methods: We used a database of coordinated plant community surveys following mountain roads from 894 plots in 11 mountain regions across the globe in combination with an existing database of mycorrhizal-plant associations in order to approximate the relative abundance of mycorrhizal types in natural and disturbed environments. Results: Our findings show that roadside disturbance promotes the cover of plants associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. This effect is especially strong in colder mountain environments and in mountain regions where plant communities are dominated by ectomycorrhizal (EcM) or ericoid-mycorrhizal (ErM) associations. Furthermore, non-native plant species, which we confirmed to be mostly AM plants, are more successful in environments dominated by AM associations. Main Conclusions: These biogeographical patterns suggest that changes in mycorrhizal types could be a crucial factor in the worldwide impact of anthropogenic disturbances on mountain ecosystems. Indeed, roadsides foster AM-dominated systems, where AM-fungi might aid AM-associated plant species while potentially reducing the biotic resistance against invasive non-native species, often also associated with AM networks. Restoration efforts in mountain ecosystems will have to contend with changes in the fundamental make-up of EcM- and ErM plant communities induced by roadside disturbance.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2024View details →

Propagational Isotropy of Large Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Over Australia And New Zealand due to the 2022 Tonga Volcanic Eruption

This data repository contains global TEC processed data from 14 - 16 January 2022. The original data were obtained from the GNSS-TEC database available at https://stdb2.isee.nagoya-u.ac.jp/GPS/GPS-TEC/ provided by the Institute for Space-Earth Environment Research, Nagoya University. The data is in .mat format (binary Matlab file) with the following data matrices: <ol> <li>Coordinates (geographic coordinates - Latitude, Longitude)</li> <li>dTEC1 (detrended TEC)</li> <li>TimeTEC_combined (time series absolute TEC for each geographic coordinate)</li> </ol> Data has a time resolution of 5 min in each column.

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Rare but not lost: Endemic mountain lizard occupancy following mega-fire and grazing disturbances

Wildfires and grazing by invasive herbivores can influence habitat suitability for ground‐dwelling fauna, such as reptiles. Australia has a large and diverse reptile fauna, with the Australian Alps bioregion in the southeast of the continent supporting a disproportionately high number of threatened species. In this bioregion, many species are threatened by fire, habitat loss or modification, and invasive species. The range of one such threatened endemic lizard, Cyclodomorphus praealtus (family Scincidae), was impacted by the 2019–20 mega-fires and is also subject to widespread grazing by invasive species. We investigated the relationship between C. praealtus site occupancy and fire and grazing. We completed 2045 surveys across 120 sites over 4 years, detecting the species at 43% of sites and increasing the species' known geographic range. Using single-season detection occupancy models, we found C. praealtus occupancy was not associated with elevation, vegetation height, or whether the site was burnt, but was positively associated with grazing activity. Our results indicate that C. praealtus can persist following a single fire in some cases and that habitats with high occupancy probabilities are subject to high grazing pressure. However, our results do not rule out more nuanced impacts associated with these disturbances, which affect a large proportion of C. praealtus' habitat. Our cumulative detection probability calculations revealed that considerable survey effort is often required to determine C. praealtus site occupancy. We therefore recommend that impact assessments assume species presence within areas of suitable habitat within the species' range. Our study improves our understanding of disturbance impacts on C. praealtus' occupancy while demonstrating the need for sufficiently resourced impact assessments for cryptic and threatened species.

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Data from: Decadal-scale time series highlight the role of chronic disturbances in driving ecosystem collapse in the Anthropocene

These data support a publication in the Journal Ecology that describes 37 years of change on the coral reefs of St. John, US Virgin Islands. In this paper, four decades of surveys from two coral reefs (9 and 14 m depth) off St. John, US Virgin Islands, are used to quantify the associations of acute and chronic events with the changes in benthic community structure. These reefs profoundly changed over 36 years, with coral death altering species assemblages to depress abundances of the ecologically important coral Orbicella spp. and elevating the coverage of macroalgae and crustose coralline algae/turf/bare space (CTB). Linear mixed models revealed the prominent role of chronic variation in temperature in accounting for changes in coverage of corals, macroalgae, and CTB, with rising temperature associated with increases in coral cover on the deep reef, and declines on the shallow reef. Hurricanes were also associated with declines in coral cover on the shallow reef, and increases on the deep reef. Multivariate analyses revealed strong associations between community structure and temperature, but weaker associations with hurricanes, bleaching, and diseases. These results highlight the overwhelming importance of chronically increasing temperature in altering the benthic community structure of Caribbean reefs.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2024View details →

Wildlife Diversity and the Impact of Human Disturbance on Activity Patterns: A Case Study of the Labagoumen Nature Reserve, Beijing, China

This version updates the dataset to reflect revised analyses in the resubmitted manuscript to Ecology and Evolution. Title: Data and Code for "Wildlife Diversity and the Impact of Human Disturbance on Activity Patterns: A Case Study of the Labagoumen Nature Reserve, Beijing, China" Description: This dataset contains the raw data and R scripts used to generate specific figures in the manuscript "Wildlife Diversity and the Impact of Human Disturbance on Activity Patterns: A Case Study of the Labagoumen Nature Reserve, Beijing, China," submitted to Ecology and Evolution. The data were collected from infrared camera traps deployed in the Labagoumen Nature Reserve, Beijing, China, between 2019 and 2022. The dataset includes species detection records, timestamps, and information relevant to assessing the effects of human disturbance on wildlife activity patterns. The accompanying R scripts facilitate data processing, statistical analyses, and figure generation, enabling reproduction of the key results. This dataset may be useful for researchers interested in spatiotemporal wildlife monitoring, human-wildlife interactions, and disturbance ecology. Contents: <ul> <li>raw data (Excel format, <code>.xlsx</code>)</li> <li>R scripts for data analysis and figure generation of Figures 3-5 (from the raw data file "raw data.xlsx") (Text format, .doc).</li> <li> Figure 1: Created using ArcMap 10.8 software and Photoshop software. ArcMap 10.8 software was used for processing spatial data and map creation, while Photoshop was used for post-processing and image enhancement. </li> <li> Figure 2 and Appendix Figure. A1: Designed and modified using Photoshop software. </li> </ul>