Find research datasets worth reusing
Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.
2,603
datasets available to search
ShareScore release 0.9.0
Dataset results
2,603 results for “Ecological data”
Data from: Africa's overlooked top predator: towards a better understanding of martial eagle feeding ecology in the Maasai Mara, Kenya
<p>Raptors exert top-down influences on ecosystems via their effects on prey population dynamics and community composition. Most raptors are sympatric with other predators, thus complicating our understanding of their relative influence in these systems. Estimates of kill rates and prey biomass recycling have been used as predation metrics that allow quantitative comparison among species and assessment of the relative role of single species within complex food webs. Few studies have produced findings of kill rates or prey biomass recycling for raptors. We used a supervised machine learning algorithm to behaviourally classify high resolution accelerometer informed GPS locations of tagged adult non-breeding martial eagles <em>Polemaetus bellicosus</em> in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya to estimate kill rates and prey biomass recycling. Eagle locations classified as feeding were clustered using distance and time thresholds to identify kills and calculate kill rates. Identified kill sites were quickly ground-truthed to confirm kills and identify prey species. We estimated kill rates for martial eagles at 0.59 kills/day for males and 0.38 kills/day for females, and we estimated biomass recycling per ground-truthed kill at 1796 g for males and 3860 g for females. From our sample of identified ground-truthed kills, "gamebirds" was the most frequently recorded prey category for male eagles and "small ungulates" was the most frequently recorded prey category for female eagles. These results position martial eagles close to sympatric mammalian top predators in trophic pyramids and provide evidence for their classification as a top predator.</p>
Data & codes for "Changes in abundance and distribution of European forest bird populations depend on biome, ecological specialisation and traits"
<h1>1. Selection of European forest bird species and classification of their biome preferences</h1> <p>We selected all species that are related to forest and woodland based on two data sources: Storchová & Hořák (2018) and Tobias et al. (2022), resulting in 107 bird species studied (Data S1). We defined forest bird species as those using environments ranging from closed-canopy forests to more open-canopy woodlands (A. Lehikoinen & Virkkala, 2018; Storchová & Hořák, 2018; Tobias et al., 2022). We determined their biome specialisation using breeding distribution centroids and the overall breeding distribution of each of the species, using the global map of terrestrial ecoregions from Olson et al. (2001) and range data from European Breeding Bird Atlas 1 and 2 (Hagemeijer & Blair, 1997; Keller et al., 2020). We categorised species as Mediterranean, temperate, or boreal based on their predominant biogeographic region. We considered species commonly occurring over several biomes as “generalists”. For instance, we reclassified the two typically boreal species Glaucidium passerinum Linnaeus and Strix uralensis Pallas as “generalists” due to significant range expansions into central and southern Europe in recent decades, therefore no longer restricted to the boreal region. For the complete list of species, biome specialisation, traits, and specialisation indices, refer to Data S1.</p> <h1>2. Changes in abundance and distribution of European forest bird species</h1> <p>We assessed long-term changes in European forest bird populations through two approaches: (i) changes in estimated total European-level species abundance over a 40-year timeframe; and (ii) changes in species spatial distribution over a 30-year timeframe (Fig. 1).</p> <p>We utilized the estimated trends in European-level population size (i.e., the total number of individuals) for each common native European bird species from 1980 to 2017, as reported by Burns et al. (2021). Three species out of the 107 studied forest species were missing in the original manuscript and we used data generated with the same method from 1980 to 2018 from the European assessment, Article 12 (https://nature-art12.eionet.europa.eu/article12/). These abundance trends were calculated by Burns et al. (2021) using multi-sourced annual times series. For each species, they gathered population estimates and trends from each European country as well as European Union (EU)-level population trends. They analysed these data with a Bayesian hierarchical model to reconstruct EU-level smoothed species population time series. The model outputs include an average annual rate of abundance change and an associated 95% credible interval (Burns et al., 2021). Therefore, we did not directly use the average annual rate of abundance change, as this would have led us to consider species with low uncertainty as similar to those with high uncertainty. To account for the uncertainty, we categorised species as (i) declining, i.e., annual rates below one, (ii) increasing, i.e., annual rates above one and (iii) stable, i.e., annual rate whose 95% CI overlap one, i.e., no significant change. To better acknowledge the magnitude of the abundance change, significant changes with rates below 0.98 were labelled as “strongly declining” (i.e., 6.5% of the 107 species), while those above 1.02 were labelled as “strongly increasing” (i.e., 11% of the 107 species). To evaluate the sensitivity of the decision to categorised abundance change data, we also analysed abundance trend as continuous variable (see Supporting Information Fig. S8).</p> <p>To determine changes in species distributions, we used a comparison of species distributions between two periods (i.e., 1985-1988 and 2013-2017) using the European Breeding Bird Atlas 1 and 2 (EBBA 1 & 2; Hagemeijer & Blair, 1997; Howard et al., 2023; Keller et al., 2020). Howard et al. (2023) provided calculations of observed colonisation and extinction areas at a 50 x 50 km resolution across Europe. We measured changes in range as the difference between colonisations and extinctions of each species, with negative values indicating contracting ranges and positive values indicating expanding ranges. Additionally, we calculated the shift in the centre of gravity of the distribution range between the two periods, as a distance (km) along the south-north gradient for each species (Howard et al., 2023).</p> <h1>3. Trait and specialisation data for European forest bird species</h1> <p>We extracted data for six functional traits from several sources (Table 1). (i) The species temperature index (STI)represents the long-term average temperature within the species’ breeding range (A. Lehikoinen et al., 2021). (ii) Diet data during the breeding season were obtained from Storchová & Hořák (2018), classifying species into binary variables as vertebrate carnivorous, invertebrate carnivorous, and herbivores (combining the leaf and seed eaters). Storchová & Hořák (2018) classified species into a diet category when the corresponding food resource represented at least 10% of the species diet throughout the breeding season. Therefore, one species can be in several categories (i.e., omnivores). (iii) We obtained nesting site data from Pearman et al. (2014), classifying species into binary variables as ground nesters, tree hole nesters, or elevated nesters (> 1 m in a tree or shrub). We also included data on (iv) species dependence on old-growth forests (Data S1; mostly from Fraixedas et al. (2015) and Mönkkönen et al. (2014), if present on both references, we classified them as “1” and if only in one reference as “0.5”), (v) migration distance (Howard et al., 2023), and (vi) body mass (Tobias et al., 2022).</p> <p>Finally, we extracted and developed seven species specialisation indices. (i) We used an overall specialisation index based on multiple traits (i.e., temperature, diet, foraging behaviour and substrate, habitat, and nesting site), and (ii) a nesting specialisation index, both obtained from Morelli et al. (2019). Both indices represent species specialization based on the dispersion of trait preferences for each species: e.g., nesting specialism equal 0 for species that nest in all habitat type and equal 1 for species that nest in only one habitat type). They are both calculated using the Gini index of inequality, which measures overall dispersion across, e.g., all traits for the overall specialization, based on data from Pearman et al. (2014) and Storchová & Hořák (2018). For additional information, see Morelli et al. (2019). We also used (iii) the diet specialisation index, (iv) the species distribution range during the breeding season (hereafter “breeding range area”) and (v) the climatic niche breadth from Reif et al. (2016). The diet specialisation index was calculated as the coefficient of variation for diet preferences for each species, where high values denotes specialized species (Reif et al., 2016). The breeding range area was evaluated as the number of 50-km squares in the distribution maps in Europe occupied by each species during the reproduction period, and is based on EBBA 1 (Hagemeijer & Blair, 1997). The climatic niche breadth was calculated as the difference between the 5% hottest and the 5% coldest mean temperature between April and June in which each species occurs, using EBBA 1 (Hagemeijer & Blair, 1997; Reif et al., 2016).</p> <p>Additionally, (vi) we calculated a broadleaf forest specialisation index based on binary forest habitat preferences (Storchová & Hořák, 2018), assigning values of one for species found only in broadleaf forests; zero for those in coniferous forests, and 0.5 for those found in both. Lastly, (vii) we created a forest specialisation index based on the species habitat preferences (Storchová & Hořák, 2018). The forest specialisation index was calculated as the mean of species affinity across habitats. We used increasing habitat weights along a gradient of tree dominance: open habitats as 1, shrubland as 1.5, woodland as 2 (i.e., species associated with habitats structured by trees in lower density than in forest), forest generalist (found in both coniferous and broadleaf dense forests) as 3, and forest specialist (found only either in coniferous or broadleaf dense forests) as 4. For instance, the index value for species occurring either in shrubland, woodland or both broadleaf and coniferous forests is 2.167.</p> <h1>4. Data analysis</h1> <p>Data analyses were conducted with R software version 4.4.1. (R Core Team, 2024). Given the non-independence of species due to their genetic relatedness, we accounted for interspecific phylogenetic distance in all models. We constructed the phylogenetic tree for the 107 European forest bird species using ‘rotl’ and ‘ape’ R-packages (Michonneau et al., 2022; Paradis et al., 2023). We used rotl as an interface with the "Open Tree of Life", employing tol_induced_subtree R-function to generate the phylogenetic tree and compute.brlen R-function to set branch lengths using Grafen’s computation. We generated separate phylogenetic trees for boreal (17), temperate (15), Mediterranean (16) and “generalist” (59) species to perform biome-specific analysis (see Supplementary Information, Figs. S1 & S2).</p> <p>To investigate the effects of functional traits and specialisation indices on abundance, range changes, and distribution shift, we used two regression methods. All methods were based on the relationships between a measure of change and a functional trait or specialisation index. Our sample unit is an individual forest bird species (i.e., one value for each species, either abundance or range change, or distribution shift). Abundance change was a categorical variable (i.e., strong decline – decline – stable – increase – strong increase), while range change (i.e., difference between colonisation and extinction) and distribution shift (i.e., south-north shift) were continuous variables. Therefore, to study abundance changes, we used proportional-odds linear mixed effects model using (Phylo)clmm R-function from the ‘ordinal’ R-package (Christensen, 2022). Interspecific phylogenetic relatedness was included as a random effect, reflecting the correlation between species based on phylogenetic distances (see also Hagge et al. (2021) and Seibold et al. (2015)). For distribution changes, we employed phylogenetic generalised least squares regression (PGLS) using the gls R-function from the ‘nlme’ R-package (Pinheiro et al., 2023). The phylogenetic correlation structure was integrated into PGLS using Pagel’s lambda parameter (λ; Pagel (1999)) a widely used measured of phylogenetic signal strength (see, e.g., Hagge et al., 2021; Triviño et al., 2013).</p> <p>Furthermore, we included latitude, a key driver of bird communities at broad scales (Luoto et al., 2007), as a fixed covariable (centroid latitude of the species’ breeding distribution) in all global models (i.e., species from all biomes together), except for the STI model due to strong correlation. For biome-specific analysis, we included latitude only in boreal species models for range change and distribution shift, as it significantly improved model fit (ΔAIC < -2). We did not add latitude for models specific to temperate, Mediterranean, and generalist species since it did not improve model fits (ΔAIC > -2). Additionally, we included breeding range area in range change and distribution shift models, assuming that species with larger ranges would exhibit larger shifts. We scaled predictors to a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1 to facilitate effect size comparisons. We adjusted p-values using the Holm method (for n=3) to account for multiple testing of traits and specialisation indices on three response variables.</p>
Data for Characterizing the spatial signal of environmental DNA in river systems using a community ecology approach
<p>Environmental DNA (eDNA) is gaining a growing popularity among scientists but its applicability to biodiversity research and management remains limited in river systems by the lack of knowledge about the spatial extent of the downstream transport of eDNA.</p> <p>Here, we assessed the ability of eDNA inventories to retrieve spatial patterns of fish assemblages along two large and species rich Neotropical rivers. We first examined overall community variation with distance through the distance decay of similarity and compared this pattern to capture-based samples. We then considered previous knowledge on individual species distributions, and compared it to the eDNA inventories for a set of 53 species.</p> <p>eDNA collected from 28 sites in the Maroni and 25 sites in the Oyapock rivers permitted to retrieve a decline of species similarity with distance between sites. The distance decay of similarity derived from eDN<span>A </span>was similar, and even more pronounced, than that obtained with capture-based methods (gil-nets). In addition, the species upstream-downstream distribution range derived from eDNA matched to the known distribution of most species.</p> <p>Our results demonstrate that environmental DNA does not represent an integrative measure of biodiversity across the whole upstream river basin but provide a relevant picture of local fish assemblages. Importantly, the spatial signal gathered from eDNA was therefore comparable to that gathered with local capture based methods, which describes fish fauna over a few hundred metres.</p>
Data from: Species Delimitation of Endemic Atlantic Forest Inga subnuda (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae, mimosoid clade) Subspecies Based on Morphological, Ecological and Palaeoecological Data
<p><i>Inga subnuda</i> Salzm. ex Benth. are one of 31 endemic species in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Intermixed leaf and floral traits have made morphological distinctiveness difficult, and its current taxonomic treatment considers <i>I. subnuda</i> as one species with two subspecies. We aim to explore different lines of evidence to disentangle and clarify species boundaries in these two subspecies. Morphological variation and bioclimatic data of the two subspecies of the complex were assessed by using multivariate morphometric analyses and ecological niche modeling. Morphological quantitative characters allowed the recognition of different groups. The climatic space was similar but not identical, and the recent climatic cycles that could have shaped the current distribution are discussed. The results of our integrative study suggest regard both subspecies as two different species. Moreover, we propose a change in status of <i>I. subnuda subsp. luschnathiana</i> to the rank of species. The new up-ranked taxon is described and illustrated.</p>
Ecological consequences of large herbivore exclusion in an African savanna: 12 years of data from the UHURU experiment
<p>Diverse communities of large mammalian herbivores (LMH), once widespread, are now rare. LMH exert strong direct and indirect effects on community structure and ecosystem functions, and measuring these effects is important for testing ecological theory and for understanding past, current, and future environmental change. This in turn requires long-term experimental manipulations, owing to the slow and often nonlinear responses of populations and assemblages to LMH removal. Moreover, the effects of particular species or body-size classes within diverse LMH guilds are difficult to pinpoint, and the magnitude and even direction of these effects often depends on environmental context. Since 2008, we have maintained the Ungulate Herbivory Under Rainfall Uncertainty (UHURU) experiment, a series of size-selective LMH exclosures replicated across a rainfall/productivity gradient in a semi-arid Kenyan savanna. The goals of the UHURU experiment are to measure the effects of removing successively smaller size classes of LMH (mimicking the process of size-biased extirpation) and to establish how these effects are shaped by spatial and temporal variation in rainfall. The UHURU experiment comprises three LMH-exclusion treatments and an unfenced control, applied to 9 randomized blocks of contiguous 1-ha plots (n = 36). The fenced treatments are: "MEGA" (exclusion of megaherbivores, elephant and giraffe); "MESO" (exclusion of herbivores ≥40 kg); and "TOTAL" (exclusion of herbivores ≥5 kg). Each block is replicated three times at three sites across the 20-km rainfall gradient, which has fluctuated over the course of the experiment. The first five years of data were published previously (Ecological Archives E095-064) and have been used in numerous studies. Since that publication, we have (a) continued to collect data following the original protocols, (b) improved the taxonomic resolution and accuracy of plant and small-mammal identifications, and (c) begun collecting several new data sets. Here, we present updated and extended raw data from the first 12 years of the UHURU experiment (2008–2019). Data include daily rainfall data throughout the experiment; annual surveys of understory plant communities; annual censuses of woody-plant communities; annual measurements of individually tagged woody plants; monthly monitoring of flowering and fruiting phenology; every-other-month small-mammal mark-recapture data; and quarterly large-mammal dung surveys.</p>
Data from: Machine learning identifies ecological selectivity patterns across the end-Permian mass extinction
<p>The end-Permian mass extinction occurred alongside a large swathe of environmental changes that are often invoked as extinction mechanisms, even when a direct link is lacking. One way to elucidate the cause(s) of a mass extinction is to investigate extinction selectivity as it can reveal critical information on organismic traits as key determinants of extinction and survival. Here we show that machine learning algorithms, specifically gradient boosted decision trees, can be used to identify determinants of extinction as well as predict extinction risk. To understand which factors led to the end-Permian mass extinction during an extreme global warming event, we quantified the ecological selectivity of marine extinctions in the well-studied South China region. We find that extinction selectivity varies between different groups of organisms and that a synergy of multiple environmental stressors best explains the overall end-Permian extinction selectivity pattern. Extinction risk was greater for genera that had a low species richness, had narrow bathymetric ranges limited to deep-water habitats, had a stationary mode of life, possessed a siliceous skeleton or, less critically, had calcitic skeletons. These selective losses directly link the extinction to the environmental effects of rapid injections of carbon dioxide into the ocean-atmosphere system, specifically the combined effects of expanded oxygen minimum zones, rapid warming, and potentially ocean acidification.</p>
Raw data: multispecies amplicon sequencing (Loera, Studer, and Kölliker, 2021, Molecular Ecology Resources)
<p>Grasslands cover close to two fifths of Earth's land. They provide many ecosystem services related to the maintenance of soil integrity, and the regulation of water, carbon and nitrogen flows. Grasslands constitute the basis for sustainable roughage production for ruminant feeding. In Switzerland, grasslands cover more than 70% of the total agricultural land, which highlights their importance in the domestic food production chains.</p> <p>Plant genetic diversity (PGD), a component of biodiversity, influences ecosystem functioning in grasslands. High levels of grassland PGD are related to resistance against invasive plants and yield stabilization during environmental stress (e.g., drought or frost). The PGD of grasses and legumes —the two most economically relevant plant families found in grasslands, which naturally grow in a wide climate spectrum— harbors valuable genetic resources for forage breeding. Nevertheless, most PGD studies of natural or semi-natural grasslands (i.e., grasslands that are not sown) focus on a single or a few related species. Traditional PGD monitoring methods (e.g., simple sequence repeats, or SSRs) are ill-suited for large-scale, multispecies assessments. This limits our ability to study the ecological effects of grassland PGD, its spatiotemporal patterns, and its significance for grassland management.</p> <p>Looking to provide cost-effective tools for multispecies PGD monitoring in grasslands, we performed a sequence capture assay targeting 611 single-copy nuclear loci, followed by multispecies amplicon sequencing (i.e., amplicon sequencing using primer pairs that can be used in multiple species) on eleven selected loci.</p> <p>Our results indicate that multispecies amplicon sequencing is a cost-effective tool for genetic diversity assessment in grassland plant species. Furthermore, the sequence capture data provides the means to extend the number of multispecies amplicons for further research.</p>
Microsatellite genotype data from: Male-biased dispersal in a fungus-gardening ant symbiosis (Matthews et al, Ecology and Evolution)
<p>For nearly all organisms, dispersal is a fundamental life history trait that can shape their ecology and evolution. Variation in dispersal capabilities within a species exists and can influence population genetic structure and ecological interactions. In fungus-gardening (attine) ants, co-dispersal of ants and mutualistic fungi is crucial to the success of this obligate symbiosis. Female-biased dispersal (and gene flow) may be favored in attines because virgin queens carry the responsibility of dispersing the fungi, but a paucity of research has made this conclusion difficult. Here, we investigate dispersal of the fungus-gardening ant <i>Trachymyrmex septentrionalis</i> using a combination of maternally- (mitochondrial DNA) and biparentally-inherited (microsatellites) markers. We found three distinct, spatially isolated mitochondrial DNA haplotypes; two were found in the Florida panhandle and the other in the Florida peninsula. In contrast, biparental markers illustrated significant gene flow across this region and minimal spatial structure. The differential patterns uncovered from mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite markers suggest that most long-distance ant dispersal is male-biased and that females (and concomitantly the fungus) have more limited dispersal capabilities. Consequently, the limited female dispersal is likely an important bottleneck for the fungal symbiont. This bottleneck could slow fungal genetic diversification, which has significant implications for both ant hosts and fungal symbionts regarding population genetics, species distributions, adaptive responses to environmental change, and coevolutionary patterns.</p>
Ecological inference using data from accelerometers needs careful protocols
<p>1. Accelerometers in animal-attached tags have proven to be powerful tools in behavioural ecology, being used to determine behaviour and provide proxies for movement-based energy expenditure. Researchers are collecting and archiving data across systems, seasons and device types. However, in order to use data repositories to draw ecological inference, we need to establish the error introduced according to sensor type and position on the study animal and establish protocols for error assessment and minimization.</p> <p>2. Using laboratory trials, we examine the absolute accuracy of tri-axial accelerometers and determine how inaccuracies impact measurements of dynamic body acceleration (DBA) in human participants, with DBA as the main acceleration-based proxy for energy expenditure. We then examine how tag type and placement affect the acceleration signal in birds, using (i) pigeons <i>Columba livia</i> flying in a wind tunnel, with tags mounted simultaneously in two positions, and (ii) back- and<i> </i>tail-mounted tags deployed on wild kittiwakes <i>Rissa tridactyla.</i> Finally, we (iii) present a case study where two generations of tag were deployed using different attachment procedures on red-tailed tropicbirds <i>Phaethon rubricauda</i> foraging in different seasons.</p> <p>3. Bench tests showed that individual acceleration axes required a two-level correction to eliminate measurement error. This resulted in DBA differences of up to 5% between calibrated and uncalibrated tags for humans walking at a range of speeds. Device position was associated with greater variation in DBA, with upper- and lower back-mounted tags varying by 9% in pigeons, and tail- and back-mounted tags varying by 13% in kittiwakes. The largest variation occurred between tropicbirds tagged in different seasons, where DBA varied by 25%, which may be due to tag attachment procedures. In general, the tropicbird study highlights the difficulties of attributing changes in signal amplitude to a single factor, when confounding influences tend to covary.</p> <p>4. Accelerometer accuracy, tag placement, and attachment critically affect the signal amplitude and thereby the ability of the system to detect biologically meaningful phenomena. We propose a simple method to calibrate accelerometers that can be executed under field conditions. This should be used prior to deployments and archived with resulting data. We also suggest a way that researchers can assess accuracy in previously collected data, and caution that variable tag placement and attachment can increase sensor noise and even generate trends that have no biological meaning.</p>
Insight into the ecology of vaginal bacteria through integrative analyses of metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data
<p>Datasets and code used to analyze and and to prepare figures for: "Insight into the ecology of vaginal bacteria through integrative analyses of metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data", France et al 2022.</p>
Data from: Ecological genetics of Juglans nigra: differences in early growth patterns of natural populations
<p>Many boreal and temperate forest tree species distributed across large geographic ranges are composed of populations adapted to the climate they inhabit. Forestry provenance studies and common gardens provide evidence of local adaptation to climate when associations between fitness traits and the populations' home climates are observed. Most studies that evaluate tree height as a fitness trait do so at a specific point in time. In this study, we elucidate differences in early growth patterns in black walnut (<em>Juglans nigra L.</em>) populations by modeling height growth from seed up to age 11. The data comprise tree height measurements between ages 2 to 11 for 52 natural populations of black walnut collected through its geographic range and planted in one or more of 3 common gardens. We use the Chapman-Richards growth model in a mixed-effects framework and test whether populations differ in growth patterns by incorporating populations' home climate into the model. In addition, we evaluate differences in populations' absolute growth and relative growth based on the fitted model. Models indicated that populations from warmer climates had the highest cumulative growth through time, with differences in average tree height between populations from home climates with a mean annual temperature (MAT) of 13 °C and of 7 °C estimated to be as high as 80% at age 3. Populations from warmer climates were also estimated to have higher and earlier maximum absolute growth rate than populations from colder climates. In addition, populations from warm climates were predicted to have higher relative growth rates at any given tree size. Results indicate that natural selection may shape early growth patterns of populations within a tree species, suggesting that fast early growth rates are likely selected for in relatively mild environments where competition rather than tolerance to environmental stressors becomes the dominant selection pressure.</p>
Code and data from: Competition among small individuals hinders adaptive radiation despite ecological opportunity
<p>Ontogenetic diet shifts, where individuals change their resource use during development, are the rule rather than the exception in the animal world. Here, we aim to understand how such changes in diet during development affect the conditions for an adaptive radiation in the presence of ecological opportunity. We use a size-structured consumer–resource model and the adaptive dynamics approach to study the ecological conditions for speciation. We assume that small individuals all feed on a shared resource. Large individuals, on the other hand, have access to multiple food sources on which they can specialize. We find that competition among small individuals can hinder an adaptive radiation to unfold, despite plenty of ecological opportunity for large individuals. When small individuals experience strong competition for food, they grow slowly and only a few individuals are recruited to the larger size classes. Hence, competition for food among large individuals is weak and there is therefore no disruptive selection. In addition, initial conditions determine if an adaptive radiation occurs or not. A consumer population initially dominated by small individuals will not radiate. On the other hand, a population initially dominated by large individuals may undergo adaptive radiation and diversify into multiple species.</p>
Data from: Freshwater ecological quality assessment of the gold mining Mashcon watershed, Cajamarca - Peru
<p>These data were generated to investigate the aquatic community gradients across different types of anthropogenic impacts (reference, mining, rural and urban) and Andean environmental gradients (headwaters, midstream and downstream) in the Mashcon watershed. </p> <p>The macroinvertebrates' taxa abundance and abundance of traits modalities serve as biological values. The latter in combination with abiotic measurements of the freshwater habitats (i.e. physicochemical water quality and hydromorphology) constitute the ecological data.</p> <p>The values were obtained from river sediments (macroinvertebrates collection), water samples for laboratory analyses, field protocols and in-situ water quality measurements at 40 sites, wherein 6 were downstream of the gold mine's artificially recharged headwaters, 8 sites at near-pristine headwaters tributary streams, 14 sites at midstream rural areas and 12 sites at downstream urban areas (sample grouping information is shown in the Field_protocol.xlsx file).</p>
Data from: Towards a better ecological understanding of metacommunity stability: A multiscale framework to disentangle population variability and synchrony effects
<p>1. Despite great progress in our understanding of the mechanisms governing ecosystem stability in local communities, we still lack knowledge at a larger spatial scale. Studying the stability of metacommunities requires assessing the temporal stability and synchrony of populations across space and organizational levels. Previous attempts to disentangle these effects have provided limited ecological interpretations, and conceptual improvements are needed to identify the underlying ecological processes.</p> <p>2. We propose an extended framework aiming at disentangling simultaneously the relative effects of population stability and different types of synchronies on metacommunity stability. We adapted previous methods of decomposing stability into a new set of indices associated with clearer ecological hypotheses. Particularly, we provide synchrony indices that are not affected by statistical properties of the metacommunity but focus on species responses to environment, demography, and interactions. We applied this framework to a unique dataset describing the sorted biomass of individual plant populations, across 12 communities of a species-rich meadow, and for 16 years. The communities were sampled in different treatments of fertilization and dominant removal to evaluate the effect of environmental heterogeneity on stability.</p> <p>3. We found higher stability at a larger spatial scale, mainly due to statistical averaging (portfolio effect). The variability of individual populations was an important determinant of the stability of the whole metacommunity. Consistent with the hypothesis of a common response to environmental conditions, we found that the fluctuations of populations were mostly synchronized (within and between species) at a large spatial scale and tended to destabilize the metacommunity. On the other hand, opposite fluctuations (anti-synchrony) between populations occurred at the local scale, probably due to local species interactions.</p> <p>4. Synthesis Our framework appears as a powerful tool to test how ecological processes occurring simultaneously at different spatial and organizational scales affect the stability of metacommunities. This study advances our ecological understanding of the processes underlying the stability of species-rich environments. --</p>
Data from: Extensive sympatry and frequent hybridization of ecologically divergent aquatic plants on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
<p><span>Hybridization has fascinated biologists in recent centuries for its evolutionary importance, especially in plants. Hybrid zones </span><span>are </span><span>commonly located in regions across environmental gradients due to more opportunities to contact and ecological heterogeneity. For aquatic taxa, intrazonal character makes broad </span><span>overlapping</span><span> regions in intermediate environments between related species. However, we have limited information on the hybridization pattern of aquatic taxa in </span><span>alpines, especially submerged macrophytes</span><span>. In this study, we aimed to test the hypotheses that niche overlap and hybridization might be extensive in related aquatic plants across an altitudinal gradient. We evaluated the niche overlap in three related species pairs on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and assessed the spatial pattern of hybrid populations. Obvious niche overlap and common hybridization were revealed in all three pairs of related aquatic plants. The plateau edge and river basins were broad areas for the sympatry of divergent taxa, where a large proportion of hybrid populations occurred. Hybrids are also discretely distributed in diverse habitats on the plateau. Differences in the extent of niche overlap, genetic incompatibility and phylogeographic history might lead to variations in hybridization patterns among the three species pairs. Our results suggested that plateau </span><span>areas are</span><span> a hotspot for ecologically divergent aquatic species to contact and mate and implied that hybridization may be important for the freshwater biodiversity of highlands.</span></p>
Supporting Data for: Resource requirements for ecosystem conservation: A combined industrial and natural ecology approach to quantifying natural capital use in nature
<p>Data used to derive allometric equations for land area use by mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects, and data for the analysis of natural resource use at the Natural Capital Laboratory site.</p>
Data from: Coyote diet in North America: geographic and ecological patterns during range expansion
<p>This dataset was used to review and analyze coyote diets across North America in "Coyote diets in North America: geographic and ecological patterns during range expansion" by Jensen et al. in Mammal Review. We only include data from studies that reported data as percent frequency of occurrence and from multiple seasons. We ultimately used 93 of the included studies (294 seasonal records) in our analyses.</p>
WorldClim, elevation and distribution data for all palms from: The ecology of palm genomes: Repeat-associated genome size expansion is constrained by aridity
<p>Genome size varies 2,400-fold across plants, influencing their evolution through changes in cell size and cell division rates which impact plants' environmental stress tolerance. Repetitive element expansion explains much genome size diversity, and the processes structuring repeat 'communities' are analogous to those structuring ecological communities. However, which environmental stressors influence repeat community dynamics has not yet been examined from an ecological perspective.</p> <p>We measured genome size and leveraged climatic data for 91% of genera within the ecologically diverse palm family (Arecaceae). We then generated genomic repeat profiles for 141 palm species, and analysed repeats using phylogenetically-informed linear models to explore relationships between repeat dynamics and environmental factors.</p> <p>We show that palm genome size and repeat 'community' composition are best explained by aridity. Specifically, <em>Ty3-gypsy</em> and <em>TIR </em>elements were more abundant in palm species from wetter environments, which generally had larger genomes, suggesting amplification. In contrast, <em>Ty1-copia</em> and <em>LINE </em>elements were more abundant in drier environments.</p> <p>Our results suggest that water stress inhibits repeat expansion through selection on upper genome size limits. However, elements which may associate with stress-response genes (e.g., <em>Ty1-copia</em>) have amplified in arid-adapted palm species. Overall, we provide novel evidence of climate influencing the assembly of repeat 'communities'. </p>
Ecological data on evergreen forest types of central plains Cambodia
<p>Four different lowland evergreen forest types, each with a unique species composition and ecological characteristics is described from the central plains, Cambodia. Through six botanical expeditions, we collected data on the forest types using 50x10 = 500 sqm strip sample plots (n=119); i) riverine forest dominated by Dipterocarpus costatus (Dipterocarpaceae): ii) tall dipterocarp forest dominated by Anisoptera costata (Dipterocarpaceae); iii) swamp forest dominated by Macaranga triloba (Euphorbiaceae); and iv) "Sralao" forest with a monodominance of Lagerstroemia cochinchinensis (Lythraceae). This dataset includes i) a matrix showing the occurrence of different species within the 119 sample plots, ii) a summary of forest structure and diversity index values for the 119 individual sample plots, iii) a summary for individual species within forest types of mean, standard error and coefficient of variation of the mean for diameter, density, basal area and frequency, as well as relative density, dominance and frequency and importance value index (IVI), iv) a summary of forest structure variables for diameter classes and forest types. The dataset was analyzed and used to characterize and compare the four evergreen forest types in the publication: Theilade et al. 2022. Evergreen forest types of the central plains in Cambodia: floristic composition and ecological characteristics; published in Nordic Journal of Botany. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/njb.03494" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.1111/njb.03494</a></p>
Data for: The visual ecology of selective predation: Are unhealthy hosts less stealthy hosts?
<p>Predators can strongly influence disease transmission and evolution, particularly when they prey selectively on infected hosts. Although selective predation has been observed in numerous systems, why predators select infected prey remains poorly understood. Here, we use a mathematical model of predator vision to test a longstanding hypothesis about the mechanistic basis of selective predation in a <em>Daphnia</em>-microparasite system, which serves as a model for the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases. Bluegill sunfish feed selectively on <em>Daphnia</em> infected by a variety of parasites, particularly in water uncolored by dissolved organic carbon. The leading hypothesis for selective predation in this system is that infection-induced changes in the transparency of <em>Daphnia</em> render them more visible to bluegill. Rigorously evaluating this hypothesis requires that we quantify the effect of infection on the visibility of prey from the predator's perspective, rather than our own. Using a model of the bluegill visual system, we show that three common parasites, <em>Metschnikowia bicuspidata</em>, <em>Pasteuria ramosa</em> and <em>Spirobacillus cienkowskii</em>, decrease the transparency of <em>Daphnia</em>, rendering infected <em>Daphnia</em> darker against a background of downwelling light. As a result of this increased brightness contrast, bluegill can see infected <em>Daphnia</em> at greater distances than uninfected <em>Daphnia</em> - between 19-33% further, depending on the parasite. <em>Pasteuria</em> and <em>Spirobacillus</em> also increase the chromatic contrast of <em>Daphnia</em>. These findings lend support to the hypothesis that selective predation by fish on infected <em>Daphnia</em> could result from the effects of infection on <em>Daphnia</em>'s visibility. However, contrary to expectations, the visibility of <em>Daphnia</em> was not strongly impacted by water color in our model. Our work demonstrates that models of animal visual systems can be useful in understanding ecological interactions that impact disease transmission.</p>
ScienceDex guides
Understand access before you commit
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.