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122 results for “ecological approach”
FIGURE 4 in An osteometric approach to reconstruct the length and weight of Lutjanus argentiventris (Perciformes: Lujtanidae) for archaeological and ecological purposes
FIGURE 4 | Examples of Lutjanus argentiventris graphs modelling the regression formulae. A. Dentary (Dn1); B. Maxilla (M1); C. Premaxilla (Pmx1); D. Hyomandibula (Hm2); E. Preopercle (Pop1) and F. Quadrate (Qd3).
FIGURE 3 in An osteometric approach to reconstruct the length and weight of Lutjanus argentiventris (Perciformes: Lujtanidae) for archaeological and ecological purposes
FIGURE 3 | Total length (TL) to weight relationship of the modern sample of Lutjanus argentiventris.
FIGURE 1 in An osteometric approach to reconstruct the length and weight of Lutjanus argentiventris (Perciformes: Lujtanidae) for archaeological and ecological purposes
FIGURE 1 | Lutjanus argentiventris geographical distribution (Map adapted from Robertson, Allen, 2015; Image represents a 645 mm TL individual).
Spread of the non-native anemone Anemonia alicemartinae Häussermann & Försterra, 2001 along the Humboldt-current large marine ecosystem: an ecological niche model approach
<p>Environmental variables and script</p>
Trends in research approaches and gender in plant ecology dissertations over four decades
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An objective-based prioritization approach to support trophic complexity through ecological restoration
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Review of ecological research approaches for the study of extreme events in aquatic ecosystems
Extreme climatic events have increased in frequency globally, with a simultaneous surge in scientific interest about their ecological consequences, particularly in sensitive freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems. In this context, it is imperative that ecologists apply their expertise to understand and predict the ecological impacts of extreme events, and to collaborate across disciplines and sectors to improve socio-ecological resilience to extreme events. However, ecological research on extreme events is often opportunistic and hampered by lack of coordination, among ecologists and among interdisciplinary collaborators. We conducted a literature search to investigate the research approaches that ecologists use to study extreme events in aquatic ecosystems (including freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems), that is, to understand how, when, and where ecologists study these events, and to identify areas to improve research practices. We used keywords related to ecology, aquatic ecosystems, and types of extreme events to identify 215 relevant papers in the literature and we examined these papers to identify 49 studies that met our inclusion criteria of including observations of ecological responses to an extreme event occurring in an aquatic ecosystem. We then extracted information from the 49 included papers, including information on the ecosystem, the extreme event, the spatial and temporal approaches to sampling, the types of response variables sampled, and the magnitude of responses measured. This dataset collates research approaches to the study of extreme events in aquatic ecosystems at a broad scale. Based on this literature review, we identified key areas where aquatic ecologists can improve research practices, including prioritizing pre- and post-event data collection, leveraging long-term and cross-site monitoring networks, and adopting novel approaches to analysis, synthesis, and collaboration.
Ecological patterns of root nodule diversity in cultivated and wild rooibos populations: a community prediction approach
<p>There is interest in understanding the factors behind the biogeography of root-associated bacteria due to the joint effects that plant host, climate, and soil conditions can have on bacterial diversity. For legume crops with remaining wild populations, this is of even more importance, because the effects of cropping on undisturbed root-associated bacterial communities can be addressed. Here, we used a community prediction approach to describe the diversity of the root nodule bacterial communities of rooibos (<i>Aspalathus linearis</i>), an endemic legume crop from South Africa. The goal was to reveal whether patterns of root nodule community composition in paired cultivated and wild rooibos populations could be related to geographical distance, plant traits, and plant population type (i.e. cultivated or uncultivated). We identified a core of dominant and widespread <i>Mesorhizobium</i> ZOTUs that each defined one of 4 different root nodule community classes. Rooibos cultivation impacted root nodule bacterial diversity at regional and local scales, while the geographical origin of the root nodule communities was the strongest predictor of root nodule community structure. Beyond impacts of cultivation on root nodule bacterial diversity, this study suggests a mixture of dispersal limitation and ecological drift regionally, and selection by different plant populations locally, define the biogeography of rooibos root nodule bacterial communities. </p>
Data from: A new null model approach to quantify performance and significance for ecological niche models of species distributions
Aim: Ecological niche modelling requires robust estimation of model performance and significance, but common evaluation approaches often yield biased estimates. Null models provide a solution but are rarely used in this field. We implemented an important modification to existing null-model tests, evaluating null models with the same withheld records that were used to evaluate the real model. We built and evaluated models across a range of modelling scenarios and for various performance measures using the algorithm Maxent and the monk parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus). Location: Native range in Southern America and global invasions predominantly in North/Central America and Europe Methods: We tested the ability of models built under 15 scenarios (five sets of calibration records and three settings that varied the level of model complexity) to predict spatially independent evaluation data in the invaded range (in effect, testing the models under spatial transfer). We quantified performance with measures of discriminatory ability and overfitting based on AUC and the omission error rate. We estimated null distributions of these measures and calculated effect size and significance. We determined how these estimates varied across modelling scenarios, comparing with two tests existing in the literature. Results: Performance varied starkly across modelling scenarios. As expected, the measures of overfitting agreed with each other and provided different information than that of discriminatory ability. However, high performance per se did not show strong association with high effect size and significance. Main Conclusions: Ecological niche models should be assessed with measures of effect size and significance based on appropriate null distributions, in contrast to several approaches existing in the literature. The proposed approach using independent evaluation data, implemented with our accompanying code, allows such estimates for either the same or a different region/time period, and it merits use and continued development.
Data from: Genomic, ecological, and morphological approaches to investigating species limits: a case study in modern taxonomy from Tropical Eastern Pacific surgeonfishes
A wide variety of species are distinguished by slight color variations. However, molecular analyses have repeatedly demonstrated that coloration does not always correspond to distinct evolutionary histories between closely related groups, suggesting that this trait is labile and can be misleading for species identification. In the present study, we analyze the evolutionary history of sister species of Prionurus surgeonfishes in the Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP), which are distinguished by the presence or absence of dark spots on their body. We examined the species limits in this system using comparative specimen-based approaches, a mitochondrial gene (COI), more than 800 nuclear loci (Ultraconserved Elements), and abiotic niche comparisons. The results indicate there is a complete overlap of meristic counts and morphometric measurements between the two species. Further, we detected multiple individuals with intermediate spotting patterns suggesting that coloration is not diagnostic. Mitochondrial data recovered a single main haplotype shared between the species and all locations resulting in a complete lack of structure (ST = 0). Genomic analyses also suggest low levels of genetic differentiation (FST = 0.013), and no alternatively fixed SNPs were detected between the two phenotypes. Furthermore, niche comparisons could not reject niche equivalency or similarity between the species. These results suggest that these two phenotypes are conspecific and widely distributed in the TEP. Here we recognize Prionurus punctatus Gill 1862 as a junior subjective synonym of P. laticlavius (Valenciennes 1846). The underlying causes of phenotypic variation in this species is unknown. However, this system gives insight into general evolutionary dynamics within the TEP.
Diversity patterns along ecological succession in tropical dry forests: A multi-taxonomic approach
<p>Evaluating the diversity of multiple taxa is fundamental to understand community assembly and to assess the integrity and functionality of tropical secondary forests. In this study, we analyzed the natural regeneration of tropical dry forests (TDFs) in three regions of Brazil using Hill-Simpson diversity, abundance and β-diversity of trees and five groups of insects (herbivores, fruit-feeding butterflies, ants, culicid mosquitoes and dung beetles). Sampling was conducted in 39 0.1 ha plots using a chronosequence approach (13 plots in early, intermediate and old-growth forests). We evaluated the contribution of three different levels to γ-diversity: α (within plots), β¹ (among plots) and β² (among successional stages), and further determined the relative importance of turnover (species replacement) and nestedness (differences in species number among sites) to β². Our results showed that, unexpectedly, the Hill-Simpson diversity was consistently higher in early than old-growth stages for all regions, but varied more widely in the intermediate stages. For each group separately, the same trend was observed for butterflies, ants, dung beetles and herbivores and did not differ among stages for mosquitoes. Successional differences in abundance were only detected for trees (increasing along the gradient) and for mosquitoes (decreasing). According to our expectations, the additive partitioning analysis showed that β2-diversity contributed more to γ-diversity than β1-diversity, when all taxa were considered together and for most of them separately (except for butterflies and dung beetles). Most of the β²-diversity was due to species turnover, but this contribution varied among groups and regions, with the highest turnover for herbivores and the lowest for dung beetles. Our results suggest that the Hill-Simpson diversity and changes in species composition (as given by β²-diversity) are better indicators of forest natural regeneration than raw species richness, corroborating previous studies with plants and animals.</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>
Dataset for: An optimisation approach for designing wildlife corridors with ecological and spatial considerations
<p>The fragmentation of wildlife habitats caused by anthropogenic activities has reduced biodiversity and impaired key ecosystem functions. Wildlife corridors play an important role in linking detached habitats. The optimal design of such corridors considering spatial, ecological, and economic factors is addressed in this paper.</p> <p>We present a novel graph-theoretic optimisation approach and a mixed-integer linear programming model to determine an optimal wildlife corridor connecting two given habitat patches. The model maximises the total quality of the corridor and satisfies pre-specified corridor width and length requirements under a resource constraint.</p> <p>Compared to the corridor design models presented in the literature, our model is conceptually simpler, and it is computationally convenient. We applied the model to a real data set for Eldorado National Forest in California, USA, involving 1,363 irregular land parcels.</p> <p>The model can be extended to design multiple corridors that connect two or more existing habitat patches.</p>
An innovative approach combining metabarcoding and ecological interaction networks for selecting candidate biological control agents
<p>Classical biological control (CBC) can be used to decrease the density of invasive species to below an acceptable ecological and economic threshold. Natural enemies specific to the invasive species are selected from its native range and released into the invaded range. This approach has drawbacks, despite the performance of specificity tests to ensure its safety, because the fundamental host range defined under controlled conditions does not represent the actual host range <em>in natura, </em>and these tests omit indirect interactions within community.</p> <p>We focus on <em>Sonchus oleraceus</em> (Asteraceae), a weed species originating from Western Palearctic that is invasive in many countries and notably in Australia. We explore how analyses of interaction network within its native range can be used to 1) inventory herbivores associated to the target plant, 2) characterize their ecological host ranges, and 3) guide the selection of candidate biocontrol agents considering interactions with species from higher trophic levels. Arthropods were collected from plant community sympatric to <em>S. oleraceus</em>, in three bioclimatic regions, and interactions were inferred by a combination of molecular and morphological approaches.</p> <p>The networks reconstructed were structured in several trophic levels from basal species (plant community), to intermediate and top species (herbivorous arthropods and their natural enemies). The subnetwork centered on <em>S. oleraceus</em> related interactions contained 116 taxa and 213 interactions. We identified 47 herbivores feeding on <em>S. oleraceus</em>, 15 of which were specific to the target species. Some discrepancies with respect to published findings or conventional specificity tests suggested possible insufficient sampling effort for the recording of interactions or the existence of cryptic species. Among potential candidate agents, 6 exhibited interactions with natural enemies.</p> <p>Synthesis and applications: Adopting a network approach as prerequisite step of the classical biological control program can provide a rapid screening of potential agents to be tested in priority. Once ecological host range defined, we suggest that priority should be given to agent used by a minimum species, and, when they exist, to agents that possess enemies from the most distant taxonomical group from those occurring in the range of introduction.</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>
Figure 3 in Establishment of an expansion-predicting model for invasive alien cerambycid beetle Aromia bungii based on a virtual ecology approach
Figure 3. Flow chart of simulation procedure the study.
Figure 1 in Establishment of an expansion-predicting model for invasive alien cerambycid beetle Aromia bungii based on a virtual ecology approach
Figure 1. Study area and simulation unit
Codes: A new approach to interspecific synchrony in population ecology using tail association
<p>Standard methods for studying the association between two ecologically important variables provide only a small slice of the information content of the association, but statistical approaches are available that provide comprehensive information. In particular, available approaches can reveal<em> tail associations</em>, i.e., accentuated or reduced associations between the more extreme values of variables. We here study the nature and causes of tail associations between phenological or population-density variables of co-located species, and their ecological importance. We employ a simple method of measuring tail associations which we call the <em>partial Spearman correlation.</em> Using multidecadal, multi-species spatiotemporal datasets on aphid first flights and marine phytoplankton population densities, we assess the potential for tail association to illuminate two major topics of study in community ecology: the stability or instability of aggregate community measures such as total community biomass and its<br> relationship with the synchronous or compensatory dynamics of the community's constituent species; and the potential for fluctuations and trends in species phenology to result in trophic mismatches. We find that positively associated fluctuations in the population densities of co-located species commonly show asymmetric tail associations, i.e., it is common for two species' densities to be more correlated when large than when small, or vice versa. Ordinary measures of association such as correlation do not take this asymmetry into account. Likewise, positively associated fluctuations in the phenology of co-located species also commonly show asymmetric tail associations. We provide evidence that tail associations between two or more species' population density or phenology time series can be inherited from mutual tail associations of these quantities with an environmental driver. We argue that our understanding of community dynamics and stability, and of phenologies of interacting species, can be meaningfully improved in future work by taking into account tail associations.</p>
Raw data for: Stable Isotope Trajectory Analysis (SITA): A new approach to quantify and visualize dynamics in stable isotope studies. Sturbois et al., in revision in Ecological Monographs
<p>These data sets are used as ecological applications in Sturbois et al., in revision, Stable Isotope Trajectory Analysis (SITA): A new approach to quantify and visualize dynamics in stable isotope studies. submitted in Ecological Monographs.</p> <p>- DataS1_furseals.Rdata originates from: Kernaléguen, L., Cazelles, B., Arnould, J.P.Y., Richard, P., Guinet, C., Cherel, Y., 2012. Long-Term Species, Sexual and Individual Variations in Foraging Strategies of Fur Seals Revealed by Stable Isotopes in Whiskers. PLoS ONE 7, e32916. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032916</p> <p>- DataS2_Pike.Rdata originates from: Cucherousset, J., Paillisson, J.-M., Roussel, J.-M., 2013. Natal departure timing from spatially varying environments is dependent of individual ontogenetic status. Naturwissenschaften 100, 761–768. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1073-y</p> <p>- DataS4_GT1.Rdata and DataS5_GT2.Rdata originate from: Quillien, N., Nordström, M.C., Schaal, G., Bonsdorff, E., Grall, J., 2016. Opportunistic basal resource simplifies food web structure and functioning of a highly dynamic marine environment. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 477, 92–102.</p> <p>- DataS6_Lakes.Rdata originates from: Zhao, T., Villéger, S., Cucherousset, J., 2019. Accounting for intraspecific diversity when examining relationships between non-native species and functional diversity. Oecologia 189, 171–183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4311-3</p> <p>Information about respective sampling strategies and sample preparation are available in these original articles. All use of this data sets must cite original article as well as the SITA article.</p>
Data from: Comparisons of quantitative approaches for assessing microglial morphology reveal inconsistencies, ecological fallacy, and a need for standardization
<p>Microglia morphology is used as a measure of neuroinflammation and pathology, but different methods to quantify microglia morphology are frequently employed across neuroscience. For reliable inference, it is critical that microglial morphology is accurately quantified and that results can be easily interpreted and compared across studies. We applied five of the most commonly used ImageJ-based methods for quantifying the microglial morphological response to a stimulus to identical photomicrographs and isolated microglial cells, which allowed for direct comparisons of the specificity and reliability of each method.</p>
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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.