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18,658 results for “impacts”
Data from: Pythons, parasites and pests: anthropogenic impacts on Sarcocystis (Sarcocystidae) transmission in a multi-host system
Parasites are essential components of ecosystems and can be instrumental in maintaining host diversity and populations; however, their role in trophic interactions has often been overlooked. Three apicomplexan parasite species of Sarcocystis (S. singaporensis, S. zamani, and S. villivillosi) use the reticulated python as their definitive hosts and several species within the Rattus genus as intermediate hosts, and they form a system useful for studying interactions between host–parasite and predator–prey relationships, as well as anthropogenic impacts on parasite transmission. Based on predictions from a 1998 survey, which detected an inverse relationship between urban development and Sarcocystis infection in Rattus, we tested the hypothesis that Sarcocystis transmission in Singapore will decrease over time due to anthropogenic activities. Despite a large proportion of the reticulated python diet consisting of Rattus species at all sizes of pythons, Sarcocystis infection rates decreased from 1998 to 2010. Pythons found in industrial areas had lower Sarcocystis infection rates, particularly in the western industrial area of Singapore Island. Average python size also decreased, with implications that we predict may disrupt host–parasite relationships. Anthropogenic activities such as habitat modification, fragmentation, and systematic removal and translocation of pythons have negative impacts on Sarcocystis transmission in Singapore, which in turn may augment pest rat populations. Trends observed may ultimately have negative impacts on human health and biodiversity in the region.
Data from: Water availability as an agent of selection in introduced populations of Arabidopsis thaliana: impacts on flowering time evolution
Flowering is one of the most influential events in the life history of a plant and one of the main determinants of reproductive investment and lifetime fitness. It is also a highly complex trait controlled by dozens of genes. Understanding the selective pressures influencing time to flowering, and being able to reliably predict how it will evolve in novel environments, are unsolved challenges for plant evolutionary geneticists. Using the model plant species, Arabidopsis thaliana, we examined the impact of simulated high and low winter precipitation levels on the flowering time of naturalized lines from across the eastern portion of the introduced North American range, and the fitness consequences of early versus late flowering. Flowering time order was significantly correlated across two environments—in a previous common garden experiment and in environmental chambers set to mimic mid-range photoperiod and temperature conditions. Plants in low water flowered earlier, had fewer basal branches and produced fewer fruits. Selection in both treatments favored earlier flowering and more basal branches. Our analyses revealed an interaction between flowering time and water treatment for fitness, where flowering later was more deleterious for fitness in the low water treatment. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that differences in winter precipitation levels are one of the selective agents underlying a flowering time cline in introduced A. thaliana populations.
Data from: A social-ecological database to advance research on infrastructure development impacts in the Brazilian Amazon
Recognized as one of the world's most vital natural and cultural resources, the Amazon faces a wide variety of threats from natural resource and infrastructure development. Within this context, rigorous scientific study of the region's complex social-ecological system is critical to inform and direct decision-making toward more sustainable environmental and social outcomes. Given the Amazon's tightly linked social and ecological components and the scope of potential development impacts, effective study of this system requires an easily accessible resource that provides a broad and reliable data baseline. This paper brings together multiple datasets from diverse disciplines (including human health, socio-economics, environment, hydrology, and energy) to provide investigators with a variety of baseline data to explore the multiple long-term effects of infrastructure development in the Brazilian Amazon.
Fossilization processes have little impact on tip-calibrated divergence time analyses
<p>The importance of palaeontological data in divergence time estimation has increased with the introduction of Bayesian Total-Evidence Dating methods which utilise fossil taxa directly for calibration, facilitated by the joint analysis of morphological and molecular data. Fossil taxa are invariably incompletely known as a consequence of taphonomic processes, resulting in the decidedly non-random distribution of missing data. The impact of non-random missing data on the accuracy and precision of clade age estimation is unknown. In an attempt to constrain the impact of taphonomy on tip-calibrated dating analyses, we compared clade ages estimated from a very complete morphological matrix to ages estimated from the same matrix permuted to simulate the progressive loss of anatomical information resulting from taphonomic processes. We demonstrate that systematically distributed missing data negatively influence clade age estimates, but that successive stages within the taphonomic process introduce greater differences in age estimates, when compared to estimates obtained from untreated data. Despite these effects, the general influence of missing data is weak, presumably due to the compensatory effect of extensive morphological data from extant taxa. We suggest that, in the absence of models that can explicitly account for taphonomic processes, morphological datasets should be constructed to minimise the impact of taphonomy on divergence time estimation.</p>
Data from: Finding the right coverage: The impact of coverage and sequence quality on SNP genotyping error rates
Restriction-enzyme-based sequencing methods enable the genotyping of thousands of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci in non-model organisms. However, in contrast to traditional genetic markers, genotyping error rates in SNPs derived from restriction-enzyme-based methods remain largely unknown. Here, we estimated genotyping error rates in SNPs genotyped with double digest RAD sequencing from Mendelian incompatibilities in known mother-offspring dyads of Hoffman's two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) across a range of coverage and sequence quality criteria, for both reference-aligned and de novo-assembled datasets. Genotyping error rates were more sensitive to coverage than sequence quality and low coverage yielded high error rates, particularly in de novo-assembled datasets. For example, coverage ≥5 yielded median genotyping error rates of ≥0.03 and ≥0.11 in reference-aligned- and de novo-assembled datasets, respectively. Genotyping error rates declined to ≤0.01 in reference-aligned datasets with a coverage >30, but remained >0.04 in the de novo-assembled datasets. We observed approximately 10- and 13-fold declines in the number of loci sampled in the reference-aligned and de novo-assembled datasets when coverage was increased from >5 to >30 at quality score ≥30, respectively. Finally, we assessed the effects of genotyping coverage on a common population genetic application, parentage assignments, and showed that the proportion of incorrectly assigned maternities was relatively high at low coverage. Overall, our results suggest that the tradeoff between sample size and genotyping error rates be considered prior to building sequencing libraries, reporting genotyping error rates become standard practice, and that effects of genotyping errors on inference be evaluated in restriction-enzyme-based SNP studies.
Data from: Impacts of ocean acidification on sea urchin growth across the juvenile to mature adult life-stage transition is mitigated by warming
Understanding how growth trajectories of calcifying invertebrates are affected by changing climate requires acclimation experiments that follow development across life history transitions. In a long-term acclimation study, the effects of increased acidification and temperature on survival and growth of the tropical sea urchin Tripneustes gratilla from the early juvenile (5 mm test diameter- TD) through the developmental transition to the mature adult (60 mm TD) were investigated. Juveniles were reared in a combination of three temperature and three pH/pCO2 treatments, including treatments commensurate with global change projections. Elevated temperature and pCO2/pH both affected growth, but there was no interaction between these factors. The urchins grew more slowly at pH 7.6, but not at pH 7.8. Slow growth may be influenced by the inability to compensate coelomic fluid acid-base balance at pH 7.6. Growth was faster at +3 and +6 °C compared to that in ambient temperature. Acidification and warming had strong and interactive effects on reproductive potential. Warming increased the gonad index, but acidification decreased it. At pH 7.6 there were virtually no gonads in any urchins regardless of temperature. The T. gratilla were larger at maturity under combined near-future warming and acidification scenarios (+3 °C/pH 7.8). Although the juveniles grew and survived in near-future warming and acidification conditions, chronic exposure to these stressors from an early stage altered allocation to somatic and gonad growth. In the absence of phenotypic adjustment, the interactive effects of warming and acidification on the benthic life phases of sea urchins may compromise reproductive fitness and population maintenance as global climatic change unfolds.
Data from: Fitness dynamics within a poplar hybrid zone: II. Impact of exotic sex on native poplars in an urban jungle.
Trees bearing novel or exotic gene components are poised to contribute to the bioeconomy for a variety of purposes such as bioenergy production, phytoremediation, and carbon sequestration within the forestry sector, but sustainable release of trees with novel traits in large-scale plantations requires the quantification of risks posed to native tree populations. Over the last century, exotic hybrid poplars produced through artificial crosses were planted throughout eastern Canada as ornamentals or windbreaks and these exotics provide a proxy by which to examine the fitness of exotic poplar traits within the natural environment to assess risk of exotic gene escape, establishment, and spread into native gene pools. We assessed postzygotic fitness traits of native and exotic poplars within a naturally regenerated stand in eastern Canada (Quebec City, QC). Pure natives (P. balsamifera and P. deltoides spp. deltoides), native hybrids (P. deltoides × P. balsamifera), and exotic hybrids (trees bearing Populus nigra and P. maximowiczii genetic components) were screened for reproductive biomass, yield, seed germination, and fungal disease susceptibility. Exotic hybrids expressed fitness traits intermediate to pure species and were not significantly different from native hybrids. They formed fully viable seed and backcrossed predominantly with P. balsamifera. These data show that exotic hybrids were not unfit and were capable of establishing and competing within the native stand. Future research will seek to examine the impact of exotic gene regions on associated biotic communities to fully quantify the risk exotic poplars pose to native poplar forests.
Data from: Recognizing cross-ecosystem responses to changing temperatures: soil warming impacts pelagic food webs
The energy and materials that move across ecosystem boundaries influence food web structure and key ecosystem functions. Despite the acknowledged importance of such ecological subsidies, surprisingly little information is available regarding the role of environmental temperature in influencing subsidy quality and the response of the recipient ecosystem. We evaluated the impacts of temperature-mediated changes in leaves from deciduous trees, an important subsidy from terrestrial to freshwater ecosystems, on both the producer-based and detritivore-based components of a pelagic pond food web in a field mesocosm experiment. We hypothesized that variation in leaf chemistry driven by increased soil temperature would alter both the quality of leaf subsidies and the pond response. We collected red maple Acer rubrum leaves from heated and ambient temperature plots from the long-term soil warming experiment at the Harvard Experimental Forest and added them to 167-l field mesocosms containing established plankton communities, creating 'no leaf', 'ambient leaf' and 'heated leaf' treatments during autumn 2012. We then monitored physical, chemical, and biological responses to treatments until the mesocosms froze six weeks later. Experimental soil warming altered the chemical composition of deciduous leaves, the physical and chemical environment of the aquatic ecosystems to which leaves were added, and the pelagic pond food webs as measured by community composition. Compared to leaves from ambient-temperature soils, leaves from warmed soils initially resulted in lower water column phosphorus and dissolved organic carbon, reducing bacterial densities. However, the diminished carbon and phosphorus resulting from soil warming also increased light availability that ultimately stimulated cladoceran zooplankton relative to ambient-temperature leaves. Our results suggest that changes in temperature can alter ecological subsidies in unanticipated ways, and suggest that accurately predicting the potential consequences of climate change will require conducting research across ecosystem boundaries.
Data from: Genetic stock composition of marine bycatch reveals disproportional impacts on depleted river herring genetic stocks
Bycatch of mid-trophic level anadromous fishes that connect marine and freshwater ecosystems is a growing conservation concern. Anadromous alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (A. aestivalis) are important components of coastal freshwater and marine food webs, but have experienced dramatic declines in the abundances of spawning adults. Freshwater-focused restoration efforts have yielded few consistent signs of recovery; raising concerns that bycatch in Northwest Atlantic commercial fisheries may be negating these conservation actions. Using data from 15 microsatellites genotyped for baseline populations and bycatch, we conducted genetic stock identification to understand how bycatch was partitioned among previously identified regional genetic stocks. We then combined this information with fishery observer data to estimate genetic stock-specific bycatch mortality for the southern New England Atlantic herring fishery (2012-2013). Bycatch overall, but especially in the Atlantic herring fishery, was disproportionately assigned to the most severely depleted genetic stocks (alewife Southern New England stock – 70% of assignments; blueback herring Mid-Atlantic stock – 78% of assignments). These genetic stocks overlap in the region surrounding Long Island Sound, suggesting that bycatch taken from this area in recent years may be negatively impacting recovery efforts in this region. Our study suggests that mitigating bycatch on the southern New England fishing grounds may benefit recovery efforts for alewife and blueback herring genetic stocks that have experienced the greatest declines in spawning adult abundances.
Data from: Deer-mediated changes in environment compound the direct impacts of herbivory on understory plant communities
1. In forests of eastern North America, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) can directly affect, via herbivory, the presence, abundance, and reproductive success of many plant species. In addition, deer indirectly influence understory communities by altering environmental conditions. 2. To examine how deer indirectly influence understory plants via environmental modification, we sampled vegetation and environmental variables in- and outside deer exclosures (10-20 years old) located in temperate forests in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA. We assessed how excluding deer affected understory community composition and structure, the soil and light environment, and relationships between direct and indirect effects using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), mixed linear models and non-parametric multiplicative regression (NPMR). 3. Excluding deer altered sapling communities and several aspects of the understory environment. Excluding deer from plots with lower overstory basal area increased sapling abundance, decreasing the amount of light available to groundlayer plants. Exclusion also reduced soil compaction and the thickness of the soil E horizon. 4. The composition of understory communities and the frequencies of various species and groups covaried in apparent response to the environmental factors affected by exclusion. In several common species and groups, E horizon thickness, compaction, openness, and/or total (sapling and overstory) basal area were significant predictors of plant frequency. 5. Complementary analyses revealed that deer exclusion also altered the frequency distributions of several species and groups across environmental space. Synthesis: Deer alter many facets of the understory environment, such as light availability, soil compaction and depth of the soil E horizon, which, in turn, appear to mediate variation in plant communities. Those environmental modifications likely compound direct impacts of herbivory as drivers of understory community change, having important implications for forest composition. Thus, we suggest a reexamination of the common assumption that understory community shifts stem primarily from tissue removal.
Data from: Untangling interactions: do temperature and habitat fragmentation gradients simultaneously impact biotic relationships?
Gaining insight into the impact of anthropogenic change on ecosystems requires investigation into interdependencies between multiple drivers of ecological change and multiple biotic responses. Global environmental change drivers can act simultaneously to impact the abundance and diversity of biota, but few studies have also measured the impact across trophic levels. We firstly investigated whether climate (using temperature differences across a latitudinal gradient as a surrogate) interacts with habitat fragmentation (measured according to fragment area and distance to habitat edges) to impact a New Zealand tri-trophic food chain (plant, herbivore and natural enemy). Secondly, we examined how these interactions might differentially impact both the density and biotic processes of species at each of the three trophic levels. We found evidence to suggest that these drivers act non-additively across trophic levels. The nature of these interactions however varied: location synergistically interacted with fragmentation measures to exacerbate the detrimental effects on consumer density; and antagonistically interacted to ameliorate the impact on plant density and on the interactions between trophic levels (herbivory and parasitoid attack rate). Our findings indicate that the ecological consequences of multiple global change drivers are strongly interactive and vary according to the trophic level studied and whether density or ecological processes are investigated.
Data from: Flow restoration and the impacts of multiple stressors on fish communities in regulated rivers
River regulation for hydropower is undertaken worldwide, causing profound alterations to hydrological regimes and running water habitats. Regulated catchments are often subjected to additional stressors, arising inter alia from agriculture, forestry and industry, which are likely to interact with impacts of river regulation on fish and other biota. Such interactions are poorly understood, hindering planning of effective mitigation and restoration. We investigated fish responses to increased discharge (as a restoration measure) in regulated rivers in Sweden. We compiled electrofishing data from river channels downstream of hydropower dams, each of which either has or lacks a mandated minimum discharge corresponding to c. 5% of pre‐regulation discharge. We further analysed interactions between flow restoration and co‐occurring local and regional stressors. River channels without a mandated minimum discharge were characterised by a low diversity of fish species with traits favouring persistence under unpredictable environmental conditions, including omnivory, short life cycles and small size. Additional stressors further reduced diversity, and increased dominance by broad niched, opportunistic species. Both the presence and magnitude of a mandated minimum discharge were positively related to fish diversity and density, and the relative density of three economically and recreationally valuable species. However, the size of these relationships frequently varied with the presence of additional stressors. Increasing levels of hydrological degradation and reduced connectivity at the catchment scale reduced positive flow‐ecology relationships and hindered restoration of fish communities towards reference conditions. However, application of a mandated minimum discharge also assisted in mitigating impacts of some co‐occurring stressors, especially reduced riparian integrity. Synthesis and applications. Additional stressors can strongly influence the outcomes of flow restoration for fish community diversity and composition. Our approach combining fish species and trait data from multiple flow restoration projects with information on additional stressors yielded valuable insights into factors affecting flow restoration success, useful for (i) identifying the systems most likely to benefit from mandated minimum flows, (ii) modelling influences of multiple stressors on flow‐ecology relationships, (iii) prioritising additional measures to manage co‐occurring stressors and enhance outcomes from flow restoration.
Data from: Variation in the impact of non-native seaweeds along gradients of habitat degradation: a meta-analysis and an experimental test
Biological invasions are acknowledged among the main drivers of global changes in biodiversity. Despite compelling evidence of species interactions being strongly regulated by environmental conditions, there is a dearth of studies investigating how the effects of non-native species vary among areas exposed to different anthropogenic pressures. Focusing on marine macroalgae, we performed a meta-analysis to test whether and how the direction and magnitude of their effects on resident communities and species varies in relation to cumulative anthropogenic impact levels. The relationship between human impact levels and non-native species impact intensity emerged only for a reduced subset of the response variables examined. Yet, there was a trend for the effects of non-native species on community biomass and abundance and on species abundance to become less negative at heavily impacted sites. By contrast, the magnitude of negative effects of seaweed on community evenness tended to increase with human impact levels. The hypothesis of decreasing severity of invader' impacts along a gradient of habitat degradation was also tested experimentally at a regional scale by comparing the effects of the removal of non-native alga, Caulerpa cylindracea, on resident assemblages among rocky reefs exposed to different anthropogenic pressures. Assemblages at urban and pristine site did not differ when invaded, but did so when C. cylindracea was removed. Our results suggest that, despite the generally weak relationship between human impacts levels and non-native species impacts, more negative impacts can be expected in less stressful environments (i.e. less degraded or pristine sites), where competitive interactions are presumably the driving force structuring resident communities. Implementing strategies for controlling the establishment of non-native seaweeds should be, thus, considered a priority for preserving biodiversity in relatively pristine areas. On the other hand, control of invaders at degraded sites could be warranted to lessen their role as propagule sources.
Modelling the impact of antibody-dependent enhancement on disease severity of ZIKV and DENV sequential and co-infection
<p>Human infections with viruses of the genus <em>Flavivirus</em>, including dengue virus (DENV) and Zika virus (ZIKV), are of increasing global importance. Due to antibody dependent enhancement, secondary infection with one <em>Flavivirus</em> following primary infection with another {\it Flavivirus} can result in a significantly larger peak viral load with a much higher risk of severe disease. Although several mathematical models have been developed to quantify the virus dynamics in the primary and secondary infections of DENV, little progress has been made regarding secondary infection of DENV after a primary infection of ZIKV, or DENV-ZIKV co-infection. Here, we address this critical gap by developing compartmental models of virus dynamics. We first fitted the models to published data on dengue viral loads of the primary and secondary infections with the observation that the primary infection reaches its peak much more gradually than the secondary infection. We then quantitatively show that antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) is the key factor determining a sharp increase/decrease of viral load near the peak time in the secondary infection. In comparison, our simulations of DENV and ZIKV co-infection (simultaneous rather than sequential) show that ADE has very limited influence on the peak DENV viral load. This indicates pre-existing immunity to ZIKV is the determinant of a high level of ADE effect. Our numerical simulations show that 1) in the absence of ADE effect, a subsequent co-infection is beneficial to the second virus; 2) if ADE is feasible, then a subsequent co-infection can induce greater damage to the host with a higher peak viral load and a much earlier peak time for the second virus, and for the second peak for the first virus.</p>
Data from: Laboratory rearing of Anopheles arabiensis: impact on genetic variability and implications for Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) based mosquito control in northern Sudan
Background: Mosquito colony populations often show significant changes in their population genetic make-up compared to the field populations that were used as founding source. Most of the changes that have been reported are indicators of depletion in the overall genetic diversity of the colony populations. The Sterile Insect Techniques programme of mosquito control that is underway in Northern Sudan uses sterilized males produced from a laboratory-maintained colony population. The genetic diversity of an advanced generation of this colony population was quantitatively assessed and compared to the field population from which the colony was derived. Methods: Anopheles arabiensis mosquito samples from the 13th generation of the colony, and from the locality that was the source of the first generation of the colony, were genotyped at 11 microsatellite loci distributed throughout the species' genome. Standard population genetic analyses were carried out to quantify and compare their population genetic make-up and diversities. Results: The colony samples showed significant reduction in the total number of alleles, the numbers of rare and private alleles, and the fractions of heterozygote individuals at all the loci. The pattern of change is consistent with the expected effect of the use of a small number of mosquitoes when the colony was established. Departure from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in the direction of homozygote excess was observed at some loci and attributed to the presence of null-alleles. Conclusions: This study highlights the need for broad sampling when initiating colony populations and for ongoing assessment of the population genetic make-up of colony populations. Previous assessments of survivorship, dispersive behaviour and swarm formation indicate that the inbreeding and reduced genetic variability reported in this study may not have had direct fitness consequences yet. However, noting the lessons learned in other SIT programmes about the impact of colonization on male sexual behaviour and longevity, as well as other inbreeding related adverse effects, a systematic investigation of these potential effects is recommended because they have direct impact on the ultimate success of the programme.
Data from: Impacts of growing-season climate on tree growth and post-fire regeneration in ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests
We studied the impacts of climate variability on low-elevation forests in the U.S. northern Rocky Mountains by quantifying how post-fire tree regeneration and radial growth varied with growing-season climate. We reconstructed post-fire regeneration and radial growth rates of Pinus ponderosa and Pseudotsuga menziesii at 33 sites that burned between 1992 and 2007, by aging seedlings at the root-shoot boundary. We also measured radial growth in adult trees from 12 additional sites that burned between 1900 and 1990. To quantify the relationship between climate and regeneration, we characterized seasonal climate before, during, and after recruitment pulses using superposed epoch analysis. To quantify growth sensitivity to climate, we performed moving regression analysis for each species and for juvenile and adult life stages. Climatic conditions favoring regeneration and tree growth differed between species. Water deficit and temperature were significantly lower than average during recruitment pulses of ponderosa pine, suggesting that germination-year climate limits regeneration. Growing degree days were significantly higher than average during years with Douglas-fir recruitment pulses, but water deficit was significantly lower one year following pulses, suggesting moisture sensitivity in two-year-old seedlings. Growth was also sensitive to water deficit, but effects varied between life stages, species, and through time, with juvenile ponderosa pine growth more sensitive to climate than adult growth and juvenile Douglas-fir growth. Increasing water deficit corresponded with reduced adult growth of both species. Increases in maximum temperature and water deficit corresponded with increases in juvenile growth of both species in the early 20th century but strong reductions in growth for juvenile ponderosa pine in recent decades. Changing sensitivity of growth to climate suggests that increased temperature and water deficit may be pushing these species towards the edge of their climatic tolerances. Our study demonstrates increased vulnerability of dry mixed-conifer forests to post-fire regeneration failures and decreased growth as temperatures and drought increase. Shifts towards unfavorable conditions for regeneration and juvenile growth may alter the composition and resilience of low-elevation forests to future climate and fire activity.
Data from: Impacts of mussel invasions on the prey preference of two native predators
Biotic invasions can result in the displacement of native species. This can alter the availability of native prey and the choices made by native predators. We investigated prey selection by two native South African predators, the west coast rock lobster Jasus lalandii and the starfish Marthasterias africana in response to the invasive mussels, Mytilus galloprovincialis and Semimytilus algosus, and native mussels Aulacomya atra and Choromytilus meridionalis. As the diets of lobsters and starfish are broad and have been suggested to reflect prey availability, we hypothesized that they would consume the most abundant prey, regardless of its native or alien status. Laboratory studies presented predators with varying proportions of native and invasive mussels that represented pre- and post-invasion scenarios. Mussel parameters (shell strength, adductor muscle size and energy content) that may be of importance in selection by predators were compared among species. Both predators exhibited preference towards the native mussel C. meridionalis, even when it was the least abundant prey. The selection of native species occurred despite mussel parameters suggesting invasive species would be easier to consume. These findings highlight the potential for facilitation of prey invasions, especially when predators avoid alien prey and select for native comparators that may offer resistance to the invasion through inter-specific competition. It is presently unclear how often such lack of predator-driven biotic resistance acts in combination with indirect facilitation, but interrogating the behaviors that drive such outcomes will advance our understanding of successful invasions.
Data from: Species but not genotype diversity strongly impacts the establishment of rare colonisers
1. Understanding species coexistence and regulation of biodiversity are major research challenges, yet there is no consensus on the effects of diversity on diversity, including their mediation through plant–plant interactions. 2. We examined how the diversity of recipient communities impacted on the establishment of colonising species. We ran a greenhouse-based community experiment, creating artificial arable crop communities with varying levels of barley genotype and weed species diversity, analysed with structural equation modelling of responses across trophic levels. 3. Colonising arable weed species establishment was significantly reduced when the recipient communities' weed species richness, but not barley genotype richness, increased. Recipient plant communities with higher species richness occupied more total niche space and showed stronger competition with colonising species. In contrast, recipient plant communities with higher genotype richness, even though they had slightly greater niche space occupancy, had no significant effects on the colonisation of additional species. 4. Responses were species-specific: colonising common weed species establishment was less affected by the recipient plant communities than that of colonising rare weed species. Strong responses of colonising rare species were related to the abiotic rather than the biotic environment created by the recipient communities. The stronger response of colonising rare species suggests greater niche overlap with and competitive inferiority to the recipient plant community, whereas the relative independence of colonising common species indicates less niche overlap and/or competitive equality or superiority. 5. We observed a negative species diversity effect on colonising species, with the effect size increasing with increasing rarity of the colonising species. This differential responsiveness of colonising rare and common arable weed species to the presence of and diversity in the recipient arable plant communities may be crucial in understanding rarity and may result from differential evolutionary pathways in response to interactions.
Data from: Impact of sexually antagonistic genital morphologies on female reproduction and wild population demography
Sexual conflict is a strong driver of evolution. The evolutionary outcomes of sexual conflict can, in turn, influence ecological processes within populations, e.g., demography. However, evidence for the latter hypothesis is scarce, especially in the wild. Here, we show that sexual conflict is associated with demographic processes determining population size in the ground beetle Carabus insulicola with elaborate male and female genitalia, based on individual- and population-level analyses. We found that sexually antagonistic selection can operate on the genitalia: longer male genitalia can be beneficial in sperm competition but decrease female reproductive success with increased egg dumping, while longer female genitalia are resistant to this male harassment via decreased egg dumping and increased fertilization rate. As expected from sexually antagonistic coevolution due to sexual conflict, we detected coevolutionary divergence between male and female genital sizes among populations. In parallel with decrease in female reproductive success, more harmful males with longer genitalia and less resistant females with shorter genitalia were related to small effective population sizes. Thus, sexual conflict may promote coevolutionary diversification between sexual traits, and this was associated with a demographic process. Our findings provide an insight into sex-driven eco-evolutionary dynamics in the wild.
Data from: Deepwater Horizon oil spill impacts on sea turtles could span the Atlantic
We investigated the extent that the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill potentially affected oceanic-stage sea turtles from populations across the Atlantic. Within an ocean-circulation model, particles were backtracked from the Gulf of Mexico spill site to determine the probability of young turtles arriving in this area from major nesting beaches. The abundance of turtles in the vicinity of the oil spill was derived by forward-tracking particles from focal beaches and integrating population size, oceanic-stage duration and stage-specific survival rates. Simulations indicated that 321 401 (66 199–397 864) green (Chelonia mydas), loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) turtles were likely within the spill site. These predictions compared favourably with estimates from in-water observations recently made available to the public (though our initial predictions for Kemp's ridley were substantially lower than in-water estimates, better agreement was obtained with modifications to mimic behaviour of young Kemp's ridley turtles in the northern Gulf). Simulations predicted 75.2% (71.9–76.3%) of turtles came from Mexico, 14.8% (11–18%) from Costa Rica, 5.9% (4.8–7.9%) from countries in northern South America, 3.4% (2.4–3.5%) from the United States and 1.6% (0.6–2.0%) from West African countries. Thus, the spill's impacts may extend far beyond the current focus on the northern Gulf of Mexico.
ScienceDex guides
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These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
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
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
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
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.