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1,606 results for “Prairie”
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico: Landscape Plot Lizard Data (2001-2002)
Keystone species have large impacts on community and ecosystem properties, and create important ecological interactions with other species. Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and create a mosaic of unique habitats on the landscape. These habitats are known to attract a number of animal species, but little is known about how they affect lizard communities. Our research evaluated the keystone roles of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats on lizards at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. We evaluated the impacts of these rodents on lizard communities in areas where prairie dogs and kangaroo rats co-occurred compared to areas where each rodent species occurred alone. Our results demonstrate that prairie dogs and kangaroo rats have keystone-level impacts on these lizard communities. Their burrow systems provided important habitats for multiple lizard species, especially the lesser earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata). At the landscape-scale, the total number of lizards was two-times greater on the where both prairie dogs and banner-tailed kangaroo rats co-occurred than where only kangaroo rats occurred.
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study: Landscape-scale Vegetation Plot Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (1999-2002)
Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and co-occur in the arid grasslands of the southwestern United States and in Mexico. Their keystone status is attributed primarily to the effects of their burrowing and foraging behavior, but they differ ecologically in several important respects. We studied the comparative functional roles of these species where they co-occur at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, focusing on their impacts on grassland vegetation. We found that vegetation cover, structure, and species richness varied across a gradient extending out from the mound centers, and these patterns differed between prairie dog and kangaroo rat mounds. Certain species and functional groups of plants associated differentially with mounds and landscape patches occupied by prairie dogs and banner-tailed kangaroo rats. Where both species co-occurred locally there was greater soil disturbance, more organic material from their feces, and higher activity of other animals. The overall effect of these rodents was to create a mosaic of different patches across the landscape such that their combined activities increased andscape heterogeneity and plant species richness. Our results demonstrate complementary effects of two co-occurring keystone species on their associated biotic communities.
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study: Mound-scale Vegetation Plot Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2000-2002)
Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and co-occur in the arid grasslands of the southwestern United States and in Mexico. Their keystone status is attributed primarily to the effects of their burrowing and foraging behavior, but they differ ecologically in several important respects. We studied the comparative functional roles of these species where they co-occur at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, focusing on their impacts on grassland vegetation. We found that vegetation cover, structure, and species richness varied across a gradient extending out from the mound centers, and these patterns differed between prairie dog and kangaroo rat mounds. Certain species and functional groups of plants associated differentially with mounds and landscape patches occupied by prairie dogs and banner-tailed kangaroo rats. Where both species co-occurred locally there was greater soil disturbance, more organic material from their feces, and higher activity of other animals. The overall effect of these rodents was to create a mosaic of different patches across the landscape such that their combined activities increased landscape heterogeneity and plant species richness. Our results demonstrate complementary effects of two co-occurring keystone species on their associated biotic communities.
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study: Landscape-scale Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Plot Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2000-2001)
Keystone species have large impacts on community and ecosystem properties, and create important ecological interactions with other species. Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.), and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and create a mosaic of unique habitats on the landscape. These habitats are known to attract a number of animal species, but little is known about how they affect arthropod communities. Our research evaluated the keystone roles of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats on arthropods at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. We evaluated the impacts of these rodents on ground-dwelling arthropod and grasshopper communities in areas where prairie dogs and kangaroo rats co-occurred compared to areas where each rodent species occurred alone. Our results demonstrate that prairie dogs and kangaroo rats have keystone-level impacts on these arthropod communities. Their burrow systems provided important habitats for multiple trophic and taxonomic groups of arthropods, and increased overall arthropod abundance and species richness on the landscape. Many arthropods also were attracted to the aboveground habitats around the mounds and across the landscapes where the rodents occurred. Detritivores, predators, ants, grasshoppers, and rare rodent burrow inhabitants showed the strongest responses to prairie dog and kangaroo rat activity. The impacts of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats were unique, and the habitats they created supported different assemblages of arthropods. Where both rodent species occurred together on the landscape, there was great habitat heterogeneity and increased arthropod diversity.
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study: Mound-scale Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Plot Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2000-2001)
Keystone species have large impacts on community and ecosystem properties, and create important ecological interactions with other species. Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems,and create a mosaic of unique habitats on the landscape. These habitats are known to attract a number of animal species, but little is known about how they affect arthropod communities. Our research evaluated the keystone roles of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats on arthropods at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. We evaluated the impacts of these rodents on ground-dwelling arthropod and grasshopper communities in areas where prairie dogs and kangaroo rats co-occurred compared to areas where each rodent species occurred alone. Our results demonstrate that prairie dogs and kangaroo rats have keystone-level impacts on these arthropod communities. Their burrow systems provided important habitats for multiple trophic and taxonomic groups of arthropods, and increased overall arthropod abundance and species richness on the landscape. Many arthropods also were attracted to the aboveground habitats around the mounds and across the landscapes where the rodents occurred. Detritivores, predators, ants, grasshoppers, and rare rodent burrow inhabitants showed the strongest responses to prairie dog and kangaroo rat activity. The impacts of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats were unique, and the habitats they created supported different assemblages of arthropods. Where both rodent species occurred together on the landscape, there was greater habitat heterogeneity and increased arthropod diversity. there was great habitat heterogeneity and increased arthropod diversity.
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study: Landscape-scale Grasshopper Plot Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2000-2002)
Keystone species have large impacts on community and ecosystem properties, and create important ecological interactions with other species. Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and create a mosaic of unique habitats on the landscape. These habitats are known to attract a number of animal species, but little is known about how they affect arthropod communities. Our research evaluated the keystone roles of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats on arthropods at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. We evaluated the impacts of these rodents on ground-dwelling arthropod and grasshopper communities in areas where prairie dogs and kangaroo rats co-occurred compared to areas where each rodent species occurred alone. Our results demonstrate that prairie dogs and kangaroo rats have keystone-level impacts on these arthropod communities. Their burrow systems provided important habitats for multiple trophic and taxonomic groups of arthropods, and increased overall arthropod abundance and species richness on the landscape. any arthropods also were attracted to the aboveground habitats around the mounds and across the landscapes where the rodents occurred. Detritivores, predators, ants, grasshoppers, and rare rodent burrow inhabitants showed the strongest responses to prairie dog and kangaroo rat activity. The impacts of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats were unique, and the habitats they created supported different assemblages of arthropods. Where both rodent species occurred together on the landscape, there was greater habitat heterogeneity and increased arthropod diversity.
Pino Gate Prairie Dog Study: Mound-scale Grasshopper Plot Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2000-2001)
Keystone species have large impacts on community and ecosystem properties, and create important ecological interactions with other species. Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) and banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) are considered keystone species of grassland ecosystems, and create a mosaic of unique habitats on the landscape. These habitats are known to attract a number of animal species, but little is known about how they affect arthropod communities. Our research evaluated the keystone roles of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats on arthropods at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, USA. We evaluated the impacts of these rodents on ground-dwelling arthropod and grasshopper communities in areas where prairie dogs and kangaroo rats co-occurred compared to areas where each rodent species occurred alone. Our results demonstrate that prairie dogs and kangaroo rats have keystone-level impacts on these arthropod communities. Their burrow systems provided important habitats for multiple trophic and taxonomic groups of arthropods, and increased overall arthropod abundance and species richness on the landscape. Many arthropods also were attracted to the aboveground habitats around the mounds and across the landscapes where the rodents occurred. Detritivores, predators, ants, grasshoppers, and rare rodent burrow inhabitants showed the strongest responses to prairie dog and kangaroo rat activity. The impacts of prairie dogs and kangaroo rats were unique, and the habitats they created supported different assemblages of arthropods. Where both rodent species occurred together on the landscape, there was greater habitat heterogeneity and increased arthropod diversity.
Gunnison's Prairie Dog Relocation Project: Vegetation Standing Crop Data from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2005-2011)
Grasslands are among the most imperiled ecosystems in the world where the loss of native species is a consequence of agriculture and desertification. In North America, 90% of the grassland has been converted to cropland where vast areas are now desertified. North America's most iconic grassland herbivores, bison and prairie dogs, are now extinct throughout most of their historic range. This study measures the standing crop of plant vegetation (perennial and annual combined) for the year on areas occupied and not occupied by Gunnison's prairie dogs on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (NWR).
Gunnison's Prairie Dog Restoration Experiment (GPDREx): Small Mammal Mark-Recapture Population Assessment within Grasslands at the Sevilleta National Widlife Refuge, New Mexico (2013-2014)
Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) are burrowing rodents considered to be ecosystem engineers and keystone species of the central grasslands of North America. Yet, prairie dog populations have declined by an estimated 98% throughout their historic range. This dramatic decline has resulted in the widespread loss of their important ecological role throughout this grassland system. The 92,060 ha Sevilleta NWR in central New Mexico includes more than 54,000 ha of native grassland. Gunnison’s prairie dogs (C. gunnisoni) were reported to occupy ~15,000 ha of what is now the SNWR during the 1960’s, prior to their systematic eradication. In 2010, we collaborated with local agencies and conservation organizations to restore the functional role of prairie dogs to the grassland system. Gunnison’s prairie dogs were reintroduced to a site that was occupied by prairie dogs 40 years ago.  This work is part of a larger, long-term study where we are studying the ecological effects of prairie dogs as they re-colonize the grassland ecosystem. With this project, we would like to further investigate the impact that Gunnison’s prairie dogs have on the landscape. Gunnison’s prairie dog monitoring data has been collected from the beginning of the reintroduction project, but little information has been collected on how grassland species respond to the sudden presence of prairie dogs on the refuge. This project will help determine if the prairie dog reintroduction has had positive impacts on the grassland ecosystem. Prairie dogs benefit grasslands in many ways, but their role as ecosystem engineers directly impacts other species by creating new habitat that would not be present without prairie dogs. We have documented physical landscape changes, but we have not specifically documented benefits to other grassland species. This work will help determine if the reintroduced prairie dog populations on Sevilleta NWR are now acting as a keystone species in a grassland ecosystem by monitor
Gunnison's Prairie Dog Relocation Project: Population Dynamics within Grasslands at the Sevilleta National Widlife Refuge, New Mexico (2005-2014)
The Sevilleta Gunnison’s Prairie Dog (Cynomys gunnisoni) Restoration project examines keystone consumer (herbivore) effects on grassland in concert with ecological restoration of a “species of greatest conservation need in New Mexico” (NMGandF Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2007). SevLTER partners directly with Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico Game and Fish, USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station and non-profit Prairie Dog Pals on this ambitious effort to re-establish Gunnison’s prairie dogs to blue grama dominated (Bouteloua gracilis) Great Plains grassland at the foothills of the Los Pinos Mountains on Sevilleta. While engaged in wildlife management aimed at translocation of approximately 3000 individual prairie dogs, ultimately establishing 5-6 colonies over a 500 ha area, SevLTER is focusing resources on monitoring population dynamics of reintroduced prairie dogs and their effects on vegetation production and diversity, soil disturbance and grasshopper community composition. In this experiment, prairie dogs act as the treatment on a grassland site where the species was extirpated 40 years ago. The long term nature of the project lies in the course of re-establishing prairie dogs combined with the ultimate research goal of describing the functional role of Gunnison’s prairie dogs in an arid grassland ecosystem: first we are challenged to develop and document an economical and efficient management strategy which maximizes reintroduction success and colony survival; second we are tasked with monitoring prairie dog dynamics and their effects on the grassland throughout re-establishment and into a future state, when presumably management intervention will have subsided and we characterize the ecosystem as ‘restored’ – both in the face of highly variable abiotic inputs such as precipitation and temperature and biotic impacts such as predation.
SGS-LTER Genetic Structure of Metapopulation of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs on the Central Plains Experimental Range and Pawnee National Grassland in Nunn, Colorado, USA 1997-1998
This data package was produced by researchers working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project, administered at Colorado State University. Long-term datasets and background information (proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive project collection within the Digital Collections of Colorado (http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/R/?func=collections&collection_id=3429). The data table and associated metadata document, which is generated in Ecological Metadata Language, may be available through other repositories serving the ecological research community and represent components of the larger SGS-LTER project collection. Additional information and referenced materials can be found: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/83465. Thirteen colonies of black-tailed prairie dogs were studied within a 264-km2 area of the Central Plains Experimental Range and the Pawnee National Grasslands in Weld County, Colorado. Tissue Collection, DNA Extraction, and microsatellite genotype scoring was performed.
Data from: Gene expression differs in codominant prairie grasses under drought
<p>Grasslands of the Central US are expected to experience severe droughts and other climate extremes in the future, yet we know little about how these grasses will respond in terms of gene expression. We compared gene expression in Andropogon gerardii and Sorghastrum nutans, two closely related co-dominant C4 grasses responsible for the majority of ecosystem function, using RNA-seq.</p> <p>We compared Trinity assemblies within each species to determine annotated functions of transcripts responding to drought. Subsequently, we compared homologous annotated gene-groups across the two species using cross-species meta-level analysis and functional clustering based on key terms. The majority of variation was found between species, as opposed to between drought and watered treatments. However, there is evidence for differential responses; Andropogon allocated gene expression differently compared to Sorghastrum, suggesting Andropogon focuses on stress alleviation (such as oxygen radical scavenging) rather than prevention.</p> <p>In contrast, Sorghastrum may employ a drought avoidance strategy by modulating osmotic response, especially with hormonal regulation. We found Sorghastrum tended to be more sensitive within 10 key gene-groups related to stress, abscisic acid, and trichomes, suggesting gene expression may mechanistically parallel sensitivity at the physiological level. Our findings corroborate phenotypic and physiological differences in the field, and may help explain the phenotypic mechanisms of these two species in the tallgrass prairie community under future drought scenarios.</p>
Data from: Management actions shape dung beetle community structure and functional traits in restored tallgrass prairie
<p>1. Ecosystem restoration often focuses on reestablishing species richness and diversity of native organisms, especially plants. However, effective restoration requires re-establishment of ecosystem functions and processes by all trophic levels. Functional trait descriptions of communities, including decomposer communities, may provide more comprehensive evaluations of restoration activities and management than taxonomic community metrics alone.</p> <p>2. We examined species and functional trait composition of dung beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Geotrupidae) communities across a 3-31 year chronosequence of restored prairies, in which sites varied in the presence of re-introduced bison and prescribed fire. We calculated functional diversity metrics and community-weighted mean trait values using behavioral and morphological measurements. We also performed a dung decomposition experiment to measure an ecosystem function driven by these insects.</p> <p>3. Bison presence doubled beetle abundance and increased richness by 50%. Shannon diversity increased with restoration age, nearly doubling from the youngest to oldest restorations. Functional diversity was unchanged, except functional richness, which was reduced by bison and fire presence. Beetles were, on average, smaller in older restorations, although this pattern was weaker when bison were present.</p> <p>4. Dung decomposition was unaffected by site characteristics but increased with community weighted mean beetle mass. Dung decomposition was better predicted by mean trait values, suggesting that supporting large-bodied species may be more important than species diversity in settings where maximizing decomposition function is a goal.</p> <p>5. Restoration managers should consider dung beetle communities and their functional characteristics when making management decisions, particularly where large grazers are a component of management strategies.</p> <p> </p>
Data from: Plant community response to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) population source in establishing prairies
Ecological restoration and revegetation efforts entail the translocation of native plant populations. Risks associated with these efforts include failure of translocated populations to establish or, conversely, such strong establishment that they excessively dominate the recipient community. The role that selective breeding plays in mediating these risks is unclear but of increasing importance as efforts to restore and establish multifunctional grasslands also increase. In a three-year, spatially replicated study, we seeded experimental prairie communities with either domesticated (cultivar) or undomesticated strains of Panicum virgatum (switchgrass), a North American C4 species under development as a biomass crop. We evaluated the composition, performance, and diversity of the recipient plant communities and compared the performance of cultivar and undomesticated switchgrass in those communities. We found little evidence that switchgrass population source affected community response. Switchgrass cultivars modestly exceeded undomesticated strains with respect to stand establishment, third-year stand density, and aboveground biomass; effect size and significance differed among sites. Our results suggest that including cultivars in ecological restorations and multifunctional grasslands may enhance success of switchgrass establishment with little risk of impairing the composition or diversity of plant communities for up to three years, as reflected in the measures used here. However, the incorporation of undomesticated switchgrass into multifunctional grasslands may enhance landscape-scale genetic variation and mitigate risks associated with gene flow between translocated and local wild switchgrass populations; more research on these dynamics is needed.
Data from: Drivers of nocturnal water flux in a tallgrass prairie
1. Nocturnal transpiration can impact water balance from the local community to earth-atmosphere fluxes. However, the dynamics and drivers of nocturnal transpiration among coexisting plant functional groups in herbaceous ecosystems are unknown. 2. Here, we addressed the following questions: (1) How do nocturnal (Enight) and diurnal (Eday) transpiration vary among coexisting grasses, forbs, and shrubs in a tallgrass prairie? (2) What environmental variables drive Enight and do these differ from the drivers of Eday? (3) Is Enight associated with daytime physiological processes? 3. We measured diurnal and nocturnal leaf gas exchange on perennial grass, forb, and woody species in a North American tallgrass prairie. Measurements were made periodically across two growing seasons (May-August 2014-2015) on three C4 grasses (Andropogon gerardii, Sorghastrum nutans, and Panicum virgatum), two C3 forbs (Vernonia baldwinii and Solidago canadensis), one C3 sub-shrub (Amorpha canescens) and two C3 shrubs (Cornus drummondii and Rhus glabra). 4. By extending our study to multiple functional groups we were able to make several key observations: (1) Enight was variable among co-occurring plant functional groups, with the highest rates occurring in C4 grasses, (2) Enight and Eday exhibited different responses to vapor pressure deficit and other environmental drivers, and (3) rates of Enight were strongly related to predawn leaf water potential for grasses and woody species, and likely modulated by small-scale changes in soil moisture availability. 5. Our results provide novel insight into an often-overlooked portion of ecosystem water balance. Considering the high rates of Enight observed in C4 grasses, as well as the widespread global occurrence of C4 grasses, nocturnal water loss might constitute a greater proportion of global evapotranspiration than previously estimated. Additionally, future predictions of nocturnal water loss may be complicated by stomatal behavior that differs between during the day and at night. Finally, these data suggest a water-use strategy by C4 grasses wherein the high rates of Enight occurring during wet periods may confer a competitive advantage to maximize resource consumption during periods of availability.
Data from: Influences of patch-burn grazing on headwater prairie streams and subsequent recovery
<p>1. Patch-burn grazing (PBG) can promote terrestrial heterogeneity and biodiversity, but can temporarily increase stream nutrients, ecosystem metabolism, and alter macroinvertebrate assemblages. The impacts of grazing on stream channel morphology and post-PBG recovery patterns are unclear. 2. We assessed the influence of grazing in PBG managed grassland streams in Missouri, USA, and subsequent recovery when grazing ceased for two years. We hypothesized that grazing would degrade water quality, stream biotic integrity, and channel morphology, but that riparian fencing would mitigate these effects. We predicted that biological and chemical variables in unfenced streams would return to pre-PBG levels within two years after grazing ceased, but channel morphology would not. 3. Six small headwater streams (two in ungrazed control watersheds, two in PBG watersheds with 10 m fenced riparian zones, and two in unfenced PBG) were sampled over seven years; 2 years before PBG, 3 years during PBG, and 2 years post-PBG. We sampled macroinvertebrates and water chemistry monthly when water was present and surveyed channel morphology at least once each study period. 4. During grazing, unfenced watersheds showed the greatest changes in channel width, depth, and area. During the post-PBG period, one of the two unfenced watersheds showed partial recovery of channel morphology. Although grazing increased concentrations of nutrients and chlorophyll a, concentrations returned to pre-PBG conditions after grazing ended, indicating recovery. Very fine organic sediments increased in the unfenced watersheds compared to the control during grazing but recovered afterwards. Contributions of Chironomidae to total invertebrate abundance increased in the unfenced watersheds during grazing, and then decreased during the post-PBG period. 5. Riparian fencing mostly mitigated effects of grazing on the streams. Unfenced streams were resilient to effects of grazing in a PBG managed grassland, with most metrics recovering within two years after grazing ceased, except for channel morphology. 6. Synthesis and applications: Grazing in a PBG managed grassland coupled with riparian fencing could be an effective conservation tool in prairies, with relatively modest influences on stream water quality and biotic integrity. Persistent changes in stream geomorphology and effects of longer periods of grazing deserve further research.</p>
Data from: Complex selection on a regulator of social cognition: evidence of balancing selection, regulatory interactions and population differentiation in the prairie vole Avpr1a locus
Adaptive variation in social behavior depends upon standing genetic variation, but we know little about how evolutionary forces shape genetic diversity relevant to brain and behavior. In prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), variants at the Avpr1a locus predict expression of the vasopressin 1a receptor in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC), a brain region that mediates spatial and contextual memory; cortical V1aR abundance in turn predicts diversity in space-use and sexual fidelity in the field. To examine the potential contributions of adaptive and neutral forces to variation at the Avpr1a locus, we explore sequence diversity at the Avpr1a locus and throughout the genome in two populations of wild prairie voles. First, we refine results demonstrating balancing selection at the locus by comparing the frequency spectrum of variants at the locus to a random sample of the genome. Next, we find that the four SNPs that predict high V1aR expression in the RSC are in stronger linkage disequilibrium than expected by chance despite high recombination among intervening variants, suggesting that epistatic selection maintains their association despite recombination. Analysis of population structure and a haplotype network for two populations revealed that this excessive LD was unlikely to be due to admixture alone. Furthermore, the two populations differed considerably in the region shown to be a regulator of V1aR expression despite the extremely low levels of genome-wide genetic differentiation. Together, our data suggest that complex selection on Avpr1a locus favors specific combinations of regulatory polymorphisms, maintains the resulting alleles at populations-specific frequencies, and may contribute to unique patterns of spatial cognition and sexual fidelity among populations.
Novel plant-microbe interactions: rapid evolution of a legume-rhizobium mutualism in restored prairies
1. When plants colonize new habitats, the novel interactions they form with new mutualists or enemies can immediately affect plant performance. These novel interactions also may provoke rapid evolutionary responses and can be ideal scenarios for investigating how species interactions influence plant evolution. 2. To explore how mutualists influence the evolution of colonizing plant populations, we capitalized on an experiment in which two former agricultural fields were seeded with identical prairie seed mixes in 2010. Six years later, we compared how populations of the legume Chamaecrista fasciculata from these sites and their original (shared) source population responded to nitrogen-fixing rhizobia from the restoration sites in a greenhouse reciprocal cross-inoculation experiment. 3. We found that the two populations differed both from their original source population and from each other in the benefits they derive from rhizobia, that one population has evolved reduced allocation to rhizobia (i.e., forms fewer rhizobium-housing nodules). 4. Synthesis. Our results suggest that these plant populations have evolved different ways of interacting with rhizobia, potentially in response to differences in rhizobium quality between sites. Our study illustrates how microbial mutualists may shape plant evolution in new environments and highlights how variation in microbial mutualists potentially may select for different evolutionary strategies in plant hosts.
Data from: Methylation of avpr1a in the cortex of wild prairie voles: effects of CpG position and polymorphism
DNA methylation can cause stable changes in neuronal gene expression, but we know little about its role in individual differences in the wild. In this study, we focus on the vasopressin 1a receptor (avpr1a), a gene extensively implicated in vertebrate social behaviour, and explore natural variation in DNA methylation, genetic polymorphism and neuronal gene expression among 30 wild prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Examination of CpG density across 8 kb of the locus revealed two distinct CpG islands overlapping promoter and first exon, characterized by few CpG polymorphisms. We used a targeted bisulfite sequencing approach to measure DNA methylation across approximately 3 kb of avpr1a in the retrosplenial cortex, a brain region implicated in male space use and sexual fidelity. We find dramatic variation in methylation across the avrp1a locus, with pronounced diversity near the exon–intron boundary and in a genetically variable putative enhancer within the intron. Among our wild voles, differences in cortical avpr1a expression correlate with DNA methylation in this putative enhancer, but not with the methylation status of the promoter. We also find an unusually high number of polymorphic CpG sites (polyCpGs) in this focal enhancer. One polyCpG within this enhancer (polyCpG 2170) may drive variation in expression either by disrupting transcription factor binding motifs or by changing local DNA methylation and chromatin silencing. Our results contradict some assumptions made within behavioural epigenetics, but are remarkably concordant with genome-wide studies of gene regulation.
Data from: Comparative water use by maize, perennial crops, restored prairie, and poplar trees in the US Midwest
Water use by plant communities across years of varying water availability indicates how terrestrial water balances will respond to climate change and variability as well as to land cover change. Perennial biofuel crops, likely grown mainly on marginal lands of limited water availability, provide an example of a potentially extensive future land cover conversion. We measured growing-season evapotranspiration (ET) based on daily changes in soil profile water contents in five perennial systems—switchgrass, miscanthus, native grasses, restored prairie, and hybrid poplar—and in annual maize (corn) in a temperate humid climate (Michigan, USA). Three study years (2010, 2011 and 2013) had normal growing-season rainfall (480–610 mm) whereas 2012 was a drought year (210 mm). Over all four years, mean (±SEM) growing-season ET for perennial systems did not greatly differ from corn (496 ± 21 mm), averaging 559 (±14), 458 (±31), 573 (±37), 519 (±30), and 492 (±58) mm for switchgrass, miscanthus, native grasses, prairie, and poplar, respectively. Differences in biomass production largely determined variation in water use efficiency (WUE). Miscanthus had the highest WUE in both normal and drought years (52–67 and 43 kg dry biomass ha−1 mm−1, respectively), followed by maize (40–59 and 29 kg ha−1 mm−1); the native grasses and prairie were lower and poplar was intermediate. That measured water use by perennial systems was similar to maize across normal and drought years contrasts with earlier modeling studies and suggests that rain-fed perennial biomass crops in this climate have little impact on landscape water balances, whether replacing rain-fed maize on arable lands or successional vegetation on marginal lands. Results also suggest that crop ET rates, and thus groundwater recharge, streamflow, and lake levels, may be less sensitive to climate change than has been assumed.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
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The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
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