Find research datasets worth reusing

opencc-zeroJan 2021View details →

A practical approach to measuring the acoustic diversity by community ecology methods

The study of the diversity of animal signals on within- and among-species levels is the key to uncover mechanisms that shape the evolution of communication systems. However, the methods used to quantify acoustic diversity (like repertoire size) lack to grasp several aspects of acoustic diversity. Here, we propose a new framework for the study of animal communication, in which we decompose the acoustic diversity with the methodological toolbox from community ecology. We explore how different diversity estimates reflecting different aspects of acoustic diversity can be applied to characterise the complexity of acoustic signals. We propose that this approach can be used in a wide range of animal taxa to derive further insights about the function and evolution of communication systems besides the traditional methods. To illustrate the use of our approach in a case study, we used the song of collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis) as a model system. Based on three frequency and time variables, we calculated three diversity indies (FRic, FEve, and FDiv) to characterise the distribution of song elements (syllables) in the acoustic parameter space. We aimed to uncover the interrelations of diversity indices, reveal the degree of among-individual consistency, and investigate their relationships with certain aspects of individual quality. We found that the chosen diversity indices were largely independent from each other and showed different consistency patterns that were timescale dependent indicating different signalling potential of individual-specific attributes. We also found that FEve strongly related to the age of males. Our case study showed that decomposing the diversity into different components can reveal additional biologically meaningful aspects of birdsong.

opencc-zeroJan 2021View details →

Broadening the ecology of fear: non-lethal effects arise from diverse responses to predation and parasitism

The ecology of fear demonstrates how prey responses to avoid predation cause non-lethal effects at all ecological scales. Parasites also elicit defensive responses in hosts with associated non-lethal effects, which raises the longstanding, yet unresolved question of how non-lethal effects of parasites compare with those of predators. We developed a framework for systematically answering this question for all types of predator and parasite systems. Our framework predicts that trait responses and their non-lethal effects should be strongest from predators and parasites that do not kill individuals to feed on them, but which nevertheless damage fitness. Analysing trait response data on amphibians, which have been well-studied for this area of research, showed that individuals generally responded more directly to short-term predation risks than to parasitism. Apart from studies using amphibians, there have been few direct comparisons of responses to predation and parasitism, and none have incorporated responses to micropredators, parasitoids, or parasitic castrators, or examined their long-term consequences. Addressing these and other data gaps highlighted by our general framework can advance the field toward understanding how non-lethal effects shape real food webs, which contain multiple predator and parasite species.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: Nematode parasite diversity in birds: the role of host ecology, life history and migration

Previous studies have found that migratory birds generally have a more diverse array of pathogens such as parasites, as well as higher intensities of infection. However, it is not clear whether this is driven by the metabolic and physiological demands of migration, differential selection on host life-history traits or basic ecological differences between migratory and non-migratory species. Parasitic helminths can cause significant pathology in their hosts, and many are trophically transmitted such that host diet and habitat use play key roles in the acquisition of infections. Given the concurrent changes in avian habitats and migratory behaviour, it is critical to understand the degree to which host ecology influences their parasite communities. We examined nematode parasite diversity in 153 species of Anseriformes (water birds) and Accipitriformes (predatory birds) in relation to their migratory behaviour, diet, habitat use, geographic distribution and life history using previously published data. Overall, migrators, host species with wide geographic distributions and those utilizing multiple aquatic habitats had greater nematode richness (number of species), and birds with large clutches harboured more diverse nematode fauna with respect to number of superfamilies. Separate analyses for each host order found similar results related to distribution, habitat use and migration; however, herbivorous water birds played host to a less diverse nematode community compared to those that consume some animals. Birds using multiple aquatic habitats have a more diverse nematode fauna relative to primarily terrestrial species, likely because there is greater opportunity for contact with parasite infectious stages and/or consumption of infected hosts. As such, omnivorous and carnivorous birds using aquatic habitats may be more affected by environmental changes that alter their diet and range. Even though there were no overall differences in their ecology and life history compared with non-migrators, migratory bird species still harboured a more diverse array of nematodes, suggesting that this behaviour places unique demands on these hosts and warrants further study.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: Does adaptive radiation of a host lineage promote ecological diversity of its bacterial communities? A test using gut microbiota of Anolis lizards

Adaptive radiations provide unique opportunities to test whether and how recent ecological and evolutionary diversification of host species structures the composition of entire bacterial communities. We used 16S rRNA gene sequencing of faecal samples to test for differences in the gut microbiota of six species of Puerto Rican Anolis lizards characterized by the evolution of distinct 'ecomorphs' related to differences in habitat use. We found substantial variation in the composition of the microbiota within each species and ecomorph (trunk-crown, trunk-ground, grass-bush), but no differences in bacterial alpha diversity among species or ecomorphs. Beta diversity analyses revealed subtle but significant differences in bacterial composition related to host phylogeny and species, but these differences were not consistently associated with Anolis ecomorph. Comparison of a trunk-ground species from this clade (A. cristatellus) with a distantly related member of the same ecomorph class (A. sagrei) where the two species have been introduced and are now sympatric in Florida revealed pronounced differences in the alpha diversity and beta diversity of their microbiota despite their ecological similarity. Comparisons of these populations with allopatric conspecifics also revealed geographic differences in bacterial alpha diversity and beta diversity within each species. Finally, we observed high intraindividual variation over time and strong effects of a simplified laboratory diet on the microbiota of A. sagrei. Collectively, our results indicate that bacterial communities are only weakly shaped by the diversification of their lizard hosts due to the strikingly high levels of bacterial diversity and variation observed within Anolis species.

opencc-zeroMay 2019View details →

Data from: Biodiversity and thermal ecological function: the influence of freshwater algal diversity on local thermal environments

The influence of temperature on diversity and ecosystem functioning is well studied; the converse however, i.e. how biodiversity influences temperature, much less so. We manipulated freshwater algal species diversity in microbial microcosms to uncover how diversity influenced primary production, which is well documented in biodiversity research. We then also explored how visible-spectrum absorbance and the local thermal environment responded to biodiversity change. Variations in the local thermal environment, that is, in the temperature of the immediate surroundings of a community, are known to matter not only for the rate of ecosystem processes, but also for persistence of species assemblages and the very relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In our microcosm experiment, we found a significant positive association between algal species richness and primary production, a negative association between primary production and visible-spectrum absorbance, and a positive association between visible-spectrum absorbance and the response of the local thermal environment (i.e., change in thermal infrared emittance over a unit time). These findings support an indirect effect of algal diversity on the local thermal environment pointing to a hitherto unrecognized biodiversity effect in which diversity has a predictable influence on local thermal environments.

opencc-zeroSep 2019View details →

Data from: Ecological constraints coupled with deep-time habitat dynamics predict the latitudinal diversity gradient in reef fishes

We develop a spatially explicit model of diversification based on paleohabitat to explore the predictions of four major hypotheses potentially explaining the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG), namely, the 'time-area', 'tropical niche conservatism', 'ecological limits' and 'evolutionary speed' hypotheses. We compare simulation outputs to observed diversity gradients in the global reef fish fauna. Our simulations show that these hypotheses are non-mutually exclusive and that their relative influence depends on the time scale considered. Indeed, simulations suggest that reef habitat dynamics produced the LDG during deep geological time, while ecological constraints shaped the modern LDG, with a strong influence of the reduction in the latitudinal extent of tropical reefs during the Neogene. Overall, this study illustrates how mechanistic models in ecology and evolution can provide a temporal and spatial understanding of the role of speciation, extinction and dispersal in generating contemporary biodiversity patterns.

opencc-zeroDec 2010View details →

Data from: Extinction, ecological opportunity, and the origins of global snake diversity

Snake diversity varies by at least two orders of magnitude among extant lineages, with numerous groups containing only one or two species, and several young clades exhibiting exceptional richness (>700 taxa). With a phylogeny containing all known families and subfamilies, we find that these patterns cannot be explained by background rates of speciation and extinction. The majority of diversity appears to derive from a radiation within the superfamily Colubroidea, potentially stemming from the colonization of new areas and the evolution of advanced venom-delivery systems. In contrast, negative relationships between clade age, clade size, and diversification rate suggest the potential for possible bias in estimated diversification rates, interpreted by some recent authors as support for ecologically-mediated limits on diversity. However, evidence from the fossil record indicates that numerous lineages were far more diverse in the past, and that extinction has had an important impact on extant diversity patterns. Thus, failure to adequately account for extinction appears to prevent both rate- and diversity-limited models from fully characterizing richness dynamics in snakes. We suggest that clade-level extinction may provide a key mechanism for explaining negative or hump-shaped relationships between clade age and diversity, and the prevalence of ancient, species-poor lineages in numerous groups.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: Phylogenetic revision of the Strophomenida, a diverse and ecologically important palaeozoic brachiopod order

The order Strophomenida was an ecologically abundant and taxonomically diverse group of Palaeozoic brachiopods that originated in the earliest Ordovician and went extinct in the Carboniferous. During their long geological range, the Strophomenida survived two of the 'Big Five' mass extinction events, the Late Ordovician and the Late Devonian, suggesting that they are potentially informative taxa for studying the evolutionary effects of these two distinct mass extinctions, each with drastically different forcing mechanisms. However, while there have been previous phylogenetic studies on smaller groups within the Strophomenida, the phylogenetic relationships of the whole group are still largely unknown. The group has been divided into two major superfamilies, the Strophomenoidea (strophomenoids) and the Plectambonitoidea (plectambonitoids). Despite being treated as separate clades, the plectambonitoids may form a paraphyletic grade into the strophomenoids. We present a detailed higher-level parsimony-based phylogenetic analysis of the Strophomenida, consisting of 69 characters and 62 exemplar species sampled from the majority of the taxonomically defined families/subfamilies. Several species of basal chonetids (strophochonetids) were also included in this analysis, as they may be closely related to the Strophomenida and share several characters with both the plectambonitoids and strophomenoids. The phylogenetic analysis suggests the plectambonitoids, as originally defined, are paraphyletic to the monophyletic strophomenoids. The basal chonetids are reconstructed as a monophyletic group that is sister to the strophomenoids, suggesting that their proper placement might be within the Strophomenida. The topology also suggests that at least 17 of the taxonomically defined strophomenoid and plectambonitoid families are likely to be monophyletic. The Plectambonitidae and the Taffiidae as defined are paraphyletic, and the Grorudiidae and Leptostrophiidae are polyphyletic. Furthermore, subfamilies Leptodontellinae, Dicoelostrophiinae, Palaeostrophomeninae and Aegiromeninae are raised to the level of family. When analysed within this phylogenetic context, the Late Ordovician mass extinction event had little effect on the large-scale evolution of the group.

FIGURE 16. F. smiti larva A in The intertidal Fortuyniidae (Acari: Oribatida): new species, morphological diversity, ecology and biogeography

FIGURE 16. F. smiti larva A) dorsal view. B) ventral view.

FIGURE 15. F. smiti adult left legs, antiaxial view. A in The intertidal Fortuyniidae (Acari: Oribatida): new species, morphological diversity, ecology and biogeography

FIGURE 15. F. smiti adult left legs, antiaxial view. A) leg I. B) leg II. C) leg III. D) leg IV.

FIGURE 14. Fortuynia smiti adult. A in The intertidal Fortuyniidae (Acari: Oribatida): new species, morphological diversity, ecology and biogeography

FIGURE 14. Fortuynia smiti adult. A) dorsal view. B) ventral view. C) lateral view.

FIGURE 2. F in The intertidal Fortuyniidae (Acari: Oribatida): new species, morphological diversity, ecology and biogeography

FIGURE 2. F. maledivensis sp. nov. adult. A) dorsal view. B) ventral view. C) lateral view.

FIGURE 7 in The intertidal Fortuyniidae (Acari: Oribatida): new species, morphological diversity, ecology and biogeography

FIGURE 7. Fortuynia longiseta sp. nov. adult. A) dorsal view. B) ventral view. C) lateral view.

FIGURE 13. A in The intertidal Fortuyniidae (Acari: Oribatida): new species, morphological diversity, ecology and biogeography

FIGURE 13. A. pseudoreticulatus sp. nov. tritonymph. A) dorsal view. B) ventral view.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2023View details →

Data from: Refining the trophic diversity, ecological network structure, and bottom-up importance of prey groups for temperate reef fishes

The file "Zarco-Perello et al Temperate Reef Fish Trophic Guilds Complete Diet Dataset.xlsx" contains several spreadsheet tabs related to the analyses carried out in the paper: Refining the trophic diversity, ecological network structure, and bottom-up importance of prey groups for temperate reef fishes: <a href="https://doi.org/10.32942/X2CC97">https://doi.org/10.32942/X2CC97</a>All analyses, with the exception of the network calculations, of the study were carried out in the computer software R. The code is contained in the file "Zarco-Perello et al Temperate Reef Fish Trophic Ecology.R". For trophic network analyses we used the computer program Gephi v0.1 <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=15257446&amp;pre=&amp;suf=&amp;sa=0">(Bastian et al. 2009).</a>DATASET DESCRIPTIONRegion of StudyThe region of study encompasses all the temperate reefs of south-western Australia (SWA). Extending along ~1600 km of coast, from Jurien Bay Marine Park (30° 18.6 S, 115° 0.1 E) to the Recherche Archipelago Nature Research (33° 53.7 S, 123° 52.3 E; supplementary Fig. S1), the temperate reefs of SWA are distributed across the Leeuwin and Houtman biogeographical ecoregions <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=1796477&pre=&suf=&sa=0">(Spalding et al. 2007)</a>, conforming approximately ⅓ of the total distribution of temperate Australia, known as the Great Southern Reef <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=4498783&pre=&suf=&sa=0">(Bennett et al. 2016).</a>Species CompositionThe species composition of the metacommunity of temperate reef fishes of the region was obtained from a total of 4589 underwater visual surveys conducted across 206 reefs in 12 locations by the Reef Life Survey (RLS) citizen science program, and the Australian Temperate Reef Collaboration (ATRC, with support from the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions; https://www.atrc.au) from 1997 to 2021.Trophic InformationAll fish species listed in the RLS-ATRC database were classified in trophic guilds based on collected diet information from studies of gut content analyses in SWA, or other Australian and international regions in the absence of local information. A total of 298 fish species composed the metacommunity. For every species, we obtained diet information from the scientific literature reported on Fishbase <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=10423542&pre=&suf=&sa=0">(Froese and Pauly 2019)</a> and through the search engine Scopus using the search terms: TS = (name of species* OR *common name of species*) AND TS = (diet OR *stomach content* OR *gut content* OR consump* OR herbi* OR predat* OR feeding). Diet information consisted of the average proportions of food items represented as the number of items (%N), percent volume (%V), or biomass (%W) in a population of each species. Preference was given to diet studies conducted in the region of study and those presenting biomass proportions. Species that lacked diet information globally were assigned diet proportions based on phylogenetically related species with similar size and habitat preferences based on the Fish Tree of Life <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=10720381&pre=&suf=&sa=0&dbf=0">(Chang et al. 2019)</a>.<< The tab "Guilds Complete Diet Dataset" contains all the diet information (stomach content proportions) and its sources for all fish species considered in the study >>Trophic guilds classificationTo quantify the diversity of trophic guilds and identify important fish consumers of specific groups of prey, we classified the fish species into trophic guilds performing a multi-step cluster analysis. Firstly, species were grouped into main trophic guilds using the mutually exclusive major categories of prey items. The diet proportions in these categories were used to create a dissimilarity matrix among species based on the Bray-Curtis linkage method using the function vegdist of the R package Vegan <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=7457489&pre=&suf=&sa=0">(Oksanen et al. 2022)</a>, which was used to run a sequential divisive hierarchical cluster analysis using the function diana (divisive analysis) of the R package Cluster <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=15165291&pre=&suf=&sa=0">(Maechler et al. 2022)</a>. Subsequently, because there are mismatches in the resolution of diet identification between species belonging to different trophic levels (e.g. the diets of herbivorous fish tend to have higher resolution on macrophytes, while carnivorous species tend to have higher resolution on animal prey), species within each identified main trophic guild were subject to a cluster analysis with higher definition of prey items to identify groups of species with diet specializations using sequential agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis based on Ward's Method and Bray-Curtis or Euclidean dissimilarity matrix <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=205080&pre=&suf=&sa=0">(Pineda‑Munoz and Alroy 2014)</a>.The stomach content of most scarid species (parrotfish; Labridae: Scarinae) is very difficult to identify due to their pharyngeal mill, which grinds all food items to indiscernible particles. However, they are well identified as a special group that ingest detritus and algae by scraping the reef substrate with their specialized fused teeth. Thus, for the sake of differentiating their trophic guild, the proportions of diet for species of parrotfish was arbitrarily defined based on field observations as sediment and detritus (90%) and short filamentous algae (10%) <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=11332249&pre=&suf=&sa=0&dbf=0">(Bonaldo et al. 2014)</a>. Additionally, cleaner fish and false cleaners are a special group of fishes that are difficult to group by diet given that they feed on prey that could be identified as zooplankton or zoobenthos, while in fact true cleaners forage, at least in part, on parasitic invertebrates attached to bigger fish, in addition to fish skin and scales <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=13921938&pre=&suf=&sa=0">(Grutter 1997)</a>; thus, given their particular trophic ecology these labrid and blenny species were arbitrarily grouped in the major trophic group "fish cleaners" for the subsequent specialized trophic group classifications.Visual analysis of the differences in multidimensional space between trophic guilds was done with Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling based on the dissimilarity matrix calculated for clustering using the function metaMDS of the R package vegan (reported in supplementary materials;  <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=7457489&pre=&suf=&sa=0">(Oksanen et al. 2022)</a>. Statistical significance in dietary differences among major and specialized trophic guilds (diet proportions ~ trophic guilds) was tested with permutational analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) using the function adonis2 of the R package vegan <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=7457489&pre=&suf=&sa=0">(Oksanen et al. 2022)</a>, followed by pairwise comparisons using the function pairwise.adonis2 of the R package pairwiseAdonis <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=15190336&pre=&suf=&sa=0">(Martinez 2017)</a>.<< The tabs in the dataset called "Major Guilds Diet Data", "Herbivores Diet Data", "Cleaners Diet Data", "Zoobenthivores Diet Data, "Zooplanktivores Diet Data", and "Piscivores Diet Data" are the datasets with selected diet categories for each guild without "unidentified diet items" and standardized to 100 proportion which were used for the classification of each major trophic guild into specialized trophic guilds. >>Trophic Network Links Between Specialized GuildsThe trophic links between fishes and their invertebrate and macrophyte prey groups were identified by our trophic guild classification (Other Guilds Links tab in dataset); however, the trophic role of piscivores is faced with what here we called a "matrioshka paradox", because to know their links with other guilds, we must first know the trophic links of their prey. Moreover, this is not straightforward because the highest taxonomic identification of piscivorous prey is usually limited to family level, which could belong to multiple trophic guilds. This paradox is usually not explicitly stated in the literature, and it is unclear how trophic links have been drawn in previous studies without performing detailed quantitative trophic classifications. Here we estimated the trophic links between piscivorous guilds and the rest of fish guilds by (i) assigning each fish family identified in the diets of piscivorous fishes into their respective specialized guilds based in our trophic classification, (ii) pooling their diet proportions into each specialized trophic guilds they could belong to, (iii) standardizing values by number of species in each piscivorous guild, and (iv) dividing by the total sum of diet proportions to estimate their potential predation (0-100%) on other trophic guilds in the trophic network. Trophic links that had pooled diet proportions with values <5% were discarded for clarity of the network (Piscivores Trophic Links tab in dataset). This information was joined with the trophic information from non-piscivorous trophic guilds and formatted as a list of nodes (guilds and prey groups), and links between nodes (source-target) to create the trophic network of the entire temperate reef fish metacommunity (Nodes Network List and Edges Network Lisk tabs in dataset). All network analyses were done using the computer program for network visualization and analyzes Gephi v0.1 <a href="https://sciwheel.com/work/citation?ids=15257446&pre=&suf=&sa=0">(Bastian et al. 2009)</a>.<< The tabs "Piscivores Trophic Links" and "Other Guilds Links" are datasets containing the calculations of the links between specialized trophic links for Piscivores and other guilds respectively used to create the data of the tabs "Nodes Network List" and "Edges Network List" to create the trophic network of the system of study. >><< The tab "Herbivory, Omnivory and Carnivory" contains diet proportion data of all fish species of the study formated to build the barplot (Fig. 4) in the manuscript showing the distribution of consumption of macrophytes, invertebrates and fishes >>

opencc-zeroMay 2019View details →

Supplementary material 1 from: Cerrato C, Rocchia E, Brunetti M, Bionda R, Bassano B, Provenzale A, Bonelli S, Viterbi R (2019) Butterfly distribution along altitudinal gradients: temporal changes over a short time period. In: Mazzocchi MG, Capotondi L, Freppaz M, Lugliè A, Campanaro A (Eds) Italian Long-Term Ecological Research for understanding ecosystem diversity and functioning. Case studies from aquatic, terrestrial and transitional domains. Nature Conservation 34: 91-118. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.34.30728

Supplementary data

openApr 2024View details →

Data and code for: "Mixed evidence for species diversity affecting ecological forecasts in constant versus declining light "

Data and code for the article "Mixed evidence for species diversity affecting ecological forecasts in constant versus declining light "

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2021View details →

Figure 3 from: Santos-Silva C, Louro R, Natário B, Nobre T (2021) Lack of knowledge on ecological determinants and cryptic lifestyles hinder our understanding of Terfezia diversity. MycoKeys 84: 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.84.71372

Figure 3 Terfezia species collected in the present work AT. arenariaBT. fanfaniCT. cistophilaDT. griseaET. dunensisFT. extremadurensisGT. lusitanicaHT. piniIT. solaris-libera.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2021View details →

Figure 1 from: Santos-Silva C, Louro R, Natário B, Nobre T (2021) Lack of knowledge on ecological determinants and cryptic lifestyles hinder our understanding of Terfezia diversity. MycoKeys 84: 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.84.71372

Figure 1 a Phylogenetic relationship between Terfezia species. The reconstructed phylogeny corresponds to the majority rule consensus tree higher than 0.50 of trees sampled in a Bayesian analysis, and the posterior probability values are shown for main nodes b clades with new sequenced specimens collected within the present study.