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76 results for “habitat loss”
Habitat loss shapes the structure and species roles in tropical plant-frugivore networks
<p>Habitat loss is a global threat to biodiversity with pervasive effects on species and populations. These impacts may generate cascading effects on ecological processes propagating across ecological networks. Thus, understanding how habitat loss affects ecological networks is fundamental for conservation. We used a database of 25 plant-frugivore networks distributed across the whole Brazilian Atlantic Forest to understand how landscape-scale habitat loss shapes network structure, robustness, species role and traits related to seed dispersal. We compared whether these network properties have linear or non-linear relationships and used centrality metrics and indirect effects to evaluate if habitat loss change the role of species in plant-frugivore networks. We found linear and non-linear relationships with negative effects of habitat loss on the network structure. As a consequence of shifts in species richness and number of links, the number of interactions and the proportion of possible interactions observed (connectance) were negatively associated with habitat loss. In contrast, nestedness increased with habitat loss. Network robustness, mean bill width and mean seed size were not significantly related to habitat loss. In addition to changes in interaction patterns at network level, habitat loss also favors changes in interaction among species, shifting the species playing central roles in network organization or contributing to indirect effects in the networks. In forested landscapes, obligate frugivores are the main central species in the network, and the ones potentially contributing to indirect effects, while in deforested landscapes these roles are fulfilled by occasional frugivores. Thus, our results emphasize the widespread effect of habitat loss on plant-frugivore systems, adding evidence that its pervasive effects on biodiversity also proliferate on mutualistic interactions with negative consequences for seed dispersal that potentially go beyond the direct pairs of interacting species. </p>
Data from: Artificial refuges to combat habitat loss for an endangered marsupial predator: how do they measure up?
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From nature reserve to mosaic management: improving matrix survival, not permeability, benefits regional populations under habitat loss and fragmentation
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Habitat loss shapes the structure and species roles in tropical plant-frugivore networks
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Data from: Landscape heterogeneity can partially offset negative effects of habitat loss on mammalian biodiversity in agroecosystems
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Pearson correlation tests for environmental variables, Student t-test for range shift and comparisons for habitat loss in 2070
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A lack of suitable roosts increases the threat of intertidal foraging habitat loss to migratory shorebirds
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Data from: Habitat loss in the restricted range of the endemic Ghanaian cichlid Limbochromis robertsi
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Bees travelling south: climate-induced range shifts and suitable habitat losses in south-eastern neotropics
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Caught in a bottleneck: Habitat loss for woolly mammoths in central North America and the ice-free corridor during the last deglaciation
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Data for: Climate warming and projected loss of thermal habitat volume in lake populations of brook trout
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Wind energy development can lead to guild-specific habitat loss in boreal forest bats
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Selective extinctions resulting from random habitat destruction lead to under‐estimates of local and regional biodiversity loss in a manipulative field experiment
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Robustness of a meta‐network to alternative habitat loss scenarios
<p>Studying how habitat loss affects the tolerance of ecological networks to species extinction (i.e. their robustness) is key for our understanding of the influence of human activities on natural ecosystems. With networks typically occurring as local interaction networks interconnected in space (a meta-network), we may ask how the loss of specific habitat fragments affects the overall robustness of the meta-network. To address this question, for an empirical meta-network of plants, herbivores and natural enemies we simulated the removal of habitat fragments in increasing and decreasing order of area, age and connectivity for plant extinction and the secondary extinction of herbivores, natural enemies and their interactions. Meta-network robustness was characterized as the area under the curve of remnant species or interactions at the end of a fragment removal sequence. To pinpoint the effects of fragment area, age and connectivity, respectively, we compared the observed robustness for each removal scenario against that of a random sequence. The meta-network was more robust to the loss of old (i.e. long-fragmented), large, connected fragments than of young (i.e. recently fragmented), small, isolated fragments. Thus, young, small, isolated fragments may be particularly important to the conservation of species and interactions, while contrary to our expectations larger, more connected fragments contribute little to meta-network robustness. Our findings highlight the importance of young, small, isolated fragments as sources of species and interactions unique to the regional level. These effects may largely result from an unpaid extinction debt, in which case these fragments are likely to lose species over time. Yet, there may also be more long-lasting effects from cultivated lands (e.g. water, fertilizers and restricted cattle grazing) and network complexity in small, isolated fragments. Such fragments may sustain important biological diversity in fragmented landscapes, but maintaining their conservation value may depend on adequate restoration strategies.</p>
Up in the air: threats to Afromontane biodiversity from climate change and habitat loss revealed by genetic monitoring of the Ethiopian Highlands bat
<p>Whilst climate change is recognised as a major future threat to biodiversity, most species are currently threatened by extensive human-induced habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation. Tropical high altitude alpine and montane forest ecosystems and their biodiversity are particularly sensitive to temperature increases under climate change, but they are also subject to accelerated pressures from land conversion and degradation due to a growing human population. We studied the combined effects of anthropogenic land-use change, past and future climate changes and mountain range isolation on the endemic Ethiopian Highlands long-eared bat, <i>Plecotus balensis</i>, an understudied bat that is restricted to the remnant natural high altitude Afroalpine and Afromontane habitats. We integrated ecological niche modelling, landscape genetics and model-based inference to assess the genetic, geographic and demographic impacts of past and recent environmental changes. We show that mountain range isolation and historic climates shaped population structure and patterns of genetic variation, but recent anthropogenic land-use change and habitat degradation are associated with a severe population decline and loss of genetic diversity. Models predict that the suitable niche of this bat has been progressively shrinking since the last glaciation period. This study highlights threats to Afroalpine and Afromontane biodiversity, squeezed to higher altitudes under climate change while losing genetic diversity and suffering population declines due to anthropogenic land-use change. We conclude that the conservation of tropical montane biodiversity requires a holistic approach, using genetic, ecological and geographic information to understand the effects of environmental changes across temporal scales and simultaneously addressing the impacts of multiple threats.</p>
Habitat loss on seasonal migratory range imperils an endangered ungulate
<ol> <li>Endangered species policies and their associated recovery documents and management actions do not always sufficiently address the importance of migratory behavior and seasonal ranges for imperiled populations.</li> <li>Using a telemetry location dataset spanning 1981 – 2018, we tested for changes in prevalence of migratory tactics (resident, migrant) over time, switching between tactics, shifts in seasonal space-use including migration corridors, and survival consequences of migrant and resident tactics for 237 adult female endangered woodland mountain caribou in one population in western Canada.</li> <li>Over more than three decades, the proportion of individuals displaying annual migration to the low elevation forested winter range declined from nearly 100% to 38%. Correspondingly, there was a strong switch away from being migrant to being year-round residents at high elevation.</li> <li>These behavioral changes corresponded to abandonment of low elevation winter ranges in association with increasing levels of anthropogenic land uses, including forestry and oil and gas developments. Furthermore, there were no identifiable migration corridors to target for migratory route protection.</li> <li>These shifts translated to lower survival rates, particularly for caribou demonstrating resident tactics, consistent with recent declines of the caribou population. That migrants switched to residency in their largely undisturbed summer range, despite lower survival, indicates maladaptive habitat selection consistent with recent patterns of mountain caribou extirpations.</li> <li>Globally, endangered species policies and their associated recovery plans and management actions often do not explicitly consider the challenge of protecting migratory species. Effective conservation of migratory species requires protecting critical habitats needed for the entire life history of the species, including all seasonal ranges and migratory habitat.</li> </ol>
Data from: Climate change and human colonization triggered habitat loss and fragmentation in Madagascar.
The relative effect of past climate fluctuations and anthropogenic activities on current biome distribution is subject to increasing attention, notably in biodiversity hot spots. In Madagascar, where humans arrived in the last ~4 to 5,000 years, the exact causes of the demise of large vertebrates that cohabited with humans are yet unclear. The prevailing narrative holds that Madagascar was covered with forest before human arrival and that the expansion of grasslands was the result of human-driven deforestation. However, recent studies have shown that vegetation and fauna structure substantially fluctuated during the Holocene. Here, we study the Holocene history of habitat fragmentation in the north of Madagascar using a population genetics approach. To do so, we infer the demographic history of two northern Madagascar neighbouring, congeneric and critically endangered forest dwelling lemur species—Propithecus tattersalli and Propithecus perrieri—using population genetic analyses. Our results highlight the necessity to consider population structure and changes in connectivity in demographic history inferences. We show that both species underwent demographic fluctuations which most likely occurred after the mid-Holocene transition. While mid-Holocene climate change probably triggered major demographic changes in the two lemur species range and connectivity, human settlements that expanded over the last four millennia in northern Madagascar likely played a role in the loss and fragmentation of the forest cover.
Data from: Habitat fragmentation, not habitat loss, drives the prevalence of blood parasites in a Caribbean passerine
Habitat destruction due to human land-use activities is well recognized as a central threat to biodiversity. However, there is still debate about the relative influence of its two components, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, mostly because few studies have been able to disentangle their respective effects. We studied mechanisms by which habitat destruction might influence the prevalence of vector-transmitted haemosporidian blood parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus the Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, Loxigilla noctis, on the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique . Starting from a large set of environmental descriptors (including metrics reflecting habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and landscape heterogeneity; as well as other variables not linked to habitat destruction, such as climatic conditions), we used PLS regression analyses to determine which variables were driving parasite prevalence on the islands. Our results showed that variables related to forest destruction were much more influential than other factors for all parasites analyzed on both islands. Remarkably, the effects documented were almost exclusively due to forest fragmentation, as opposed to habitat loss. This positive effect of forest fragmentation on blood parasite prevalence is proposed to happen through its effects on insect vectors and/or host biology. Increased understanding of the role of habitat fragmentation as a driver of parasitic diseases can help anticipate future effects and limit the risk of emergence and proliferation of wildlife pathogenic outbreaks and zoonosis through informed landscape planning.
Data from: A decline in molluscan carbonate production driven by the loss of vegetated habitats encoded in the Holocene sedimentary record of the Gulf of Trieste
Carbonate sediments in non-vegetated habitats on the NE Adriatic shelf are dominated by shells of molluscs. However, the rate of carbonate molluscan production prior to the 20th century eutrophication and overfishing on this and other shelves remains unknown because (1) monitoring of ecosystems prior to the 20th century was scarce and (2) ecosystem history inferred from cores is masked by condensation and mixing. Here, based on geochronological dating of four bivalve species, carbonate production during the Holocene is assessed in the Gulf of Trieste, where algal and seagrass habitats underwent a major decline during the 20th century. Assemblages of sand-dwelling Gouldia minima and opportunistic Corbula gibba are time-averaged to > 1,000 years and C. gibba shells are older by >2,000 years than shells of co-occurring G. minima. This age difference is driven by temporally disjunct production of two species coupled with decimeter-scale mixing. Stratigraphic unmixing shows that Corbula gibba declined in abundance during the highstand phase and increased again in the 20th century. In contrast, one of the major contributors to carbonate sands, Gouldia minima, increased in abundance during the highstand phase, but declined to almost zero abundance over the past two centuries. G. minima and herbivorous gastropods associated with macroalgae or seagrasses are abundant in the top-core increments but are rare alive. Although G. minima is not limited to vegetated habitats, it is abundant in such habitats elsewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. This live-dead mismatch reflects the difference between highstand baseline communities (with soft-bottom vegetated zones and hard-bottom Arca beds) and present-day oligophotic communities with organic-loving species. Therefore, the decline in light penetration and the loss of vegetated habitats with high molluscan production traces back to the 19th century. More than 50% of the shells on the seafloor in the Gulf of Trieste reflect inactive production that was sourced by heterozoan carbonate factory in algal or seagrass habitats.
Data from: Natural habitat loss and exotic plants reduce the functional diversity of flower visitors in a heterogeneous subtropical landscape
1. Functional diversity (FD) of pollinators can increase plant reproductive output and the stability of plant-pollinator communities. Yet, in times of worldwide pollinator declines, effects of global change on pollinator FD remain poorly understood. Loss of natural habitat and exotic plant invasions are two major drivers of global change that particularly threaten pollinator diversity. 2. In a subtropical South African landscape, we investigated changes in the FD of flower visitor assemblages on native and exotic plants along gradients of natural habitat loss and relative abundance of exotic plants. We used a dataset of 1434 flower visitor individuals sampled on 131 focal plants and calculated the FD in three flower visitor traits that are strongly related to plant-flower visitor interactions and pollination processes: proboscis length, proboscis diameter and body length. 3. Multivariate FD of flower visitors decreased with both increasing natural habitat loss and relative exotic abundance. Importantly, changes in FD went beyond those in flower visitor richness. Furthermore, flower visitor richness was not related to either natural habitat loss or relative exotic abundance. Loss in multivariate FD seemed to be mediated by complementary reductions of FD in proboscis length with natural habitat loss and of FD in body length with both global change drivers. Correspondingly, we recorded lower abundances of long-tongued flower visitors with natural habitat loss and reduced variance in body size with both drivers. In contrast, FD in proboscis diameter was unaffected by either driver. All effects of the two global change drivers were non-interactive. 4. Our results show that both natural habitat loss and exotic plants negatively affect flower visitor FD, which may imperil pollination of specialised plant species in degraded habitats. In contrast, flower visitor richness may not cover all facets of flower visitor FD that are relevant to pollination processes, and here future studies are needed. Distinct responses of visitor traits to the two drivers suggest limited options to infer relations of one trait to another. Finally, additive effects of natural habitat loss and exotic plant invasions highlight the need to consider multiple drivers of global change when investigating ecosystem processes at a community scale.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
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.