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83 results for “resource ecology”
Raw data for: Novel food resources and conservation of ecological interactions between the Andean Araucaria and the Austral parakeet
<p><span>In fragile ecosystems, the introduction of exotic species could alter some ecological processes. The Austral parakeet (<em>Enicognathus</em> <em>ferrugineous</em>) shows close ecological and evolutionary relationships with the Andean Araucaria (<em>Araucaria</em> <em>araucana</em>), so any alteration in these interactions may have negative consequences for both partners and for ecosystem functioning and structure. We conducted extensive roadside surveys to estimate the abundance of parakeets in the northern Patagonian Andes over four years and recorded the food plants consumed by foraging flocks. The use of native habitats and humanized areas like villages and farms was influenced by Araucaria seed crop. In masting years, the large seed crop allowed a massive use of this resource during the non-breeding season, and even during the breeding season. The exploitation of exotic plants was minor in the masting year, but became predominant in non-masting years, especially during the non-breeding season. This feeding switch towards exotic plants primarily arose because the low Araucaria seed crop in non-masting years is entirely consumed just after production by domestic and wild exotic mammals living in Araucaria forests year-round, thus forcing the displacement of parakeets towards anthropic habitats to exploit exotic plants. Given the degradation of the remaining Andean Araucaria forests due to the impact of exotic mammals on the ecological interaction between Araucaria and Austral parakeets, ambitious programs to exclude or reduce the density of these alien mammals, including livestock, are warranted. </span></p>
Data supplementing the article "Boosting DNA metabarcoding for biomonitoring with phylogenetic estimation of OTUs' ecological profiles" F. Keck, V. Vasselon, F. Rimet, A. Bouchez, and M. Kahlert submitted to Molecular Ecology Resources journal
<p>These data supplement the article "Enhancing DNA metabarcoding for biomonitoring with phylogenetic estimation of OTUs' ecological profiles" F. Keck, V. Vasselon, F. Rimet, A. Bouchez, and M. Kahlert submitted to Molecular Ecology Resources journal</p> <p>The directory contains the following files:</p> <p><strong>278 (139 x 2 replicates) samples fastq files.rar </strong>- contains the 278 fastq files provided by the sequencing platform with demultiplexed and contig DNA reads corresponding to the 139 samples with 2 sequencing replicates (A and B).</p> <p><strong>Counts_diatoms.xlsx </strong>- contains the morphological inventories with species list (Omnidia code) and valve abundances for the 139 samples.</p> <p><strong>Sites_list.xlsx </strong>- contains information regarding the 139 samples, including: River name, GPS coordinates, code used for molecular analysis and corresponding to sequencing fastq names.</p>
Data from: Mismatches between the resources for adult herbivores and their offspring suggest invasive Spartina alterniflora is an ecological trap
1. Plant invasions can alter the behavior and performance of native herbivorous insects because the insects are evolutionarily naïve to the novel plants. An ecological trap results when native insects prefer invasive plants over their native hosts but suffer reduced fitness on the invaders. Although such traps are predicted to occur frequently given the prevalence of invasive plants, empirical support for ecological traps and their underlying mechanisms remains sparse. 2. We examined the potential for the invasive plant Spartina alterniflora to act as an ecological trap for the native moth Laelia coenosa, which previously fed mainly on the indigenous plant Phragmites australis in a Chinese saltmarsh. We surveyed Laelia egg densities on Spartina and Phragmites in the field, and determined adult oviposition preference and offspring development on the two plant species. To investigate the causes of adult preference and offspring performance patterns, we compared resource abundance in the field, plant-odor attractiveness, and leaf nutritional and defensive traits between Spartina and Phragmites. 3. We found that Laelia egg density and female preference for ovipositing were higher on Spartina than Phragmites. However, performance of offspring was poorer on Spartina than Phragmites. Spartina dominated a larger area and had greater leaf biomass than Phragmites in the field, and volatile odors released by Spartina were more attractive to Laelia females than those released by Phragmites. Although leaf C, C:P ratio, and terpenoid content did not differ significantly between the two plant species, Spartina leaves were tougher and more waxy, had lower N, and had higher concentrations of alkaloids and phenolics than Phragmites leaves. 4. Synthesis: Our data suggest that invasive Spartina can create an ecological trap for the native insect Laelia. This trap appears to result from environmental cues (resource availability and leaf odors) that attract the herbivore to the plant, but do not reliably predict the dietary qualities (nutrition and defenses) that negatively affect herbivore offspring performance. These findings reveal an important negative effect of plant invasions on resident herbivores and highlight the roles of resource availability and plant traits at different life stages of the insect.
Coadaptation shapes ecological interactions in mixotroph-resource systems
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Data from: A resource on latitudinal and altitudinal clines of ecologically relevant phenotypes of the Indian Drosophila
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Data from: Mismatches between the resources for adult herbivores and their offspring suggest invasive Spartina alterniflora is an ecological trap
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Raw data: multispecies amplicon sequencing (Loera, Studer, and Kölliker, 2021, Molecular Ecology Resources)
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Raw data for: Novel food resources and conservation of ecological interactions between the Andean Araucaria and the Austral parakeet
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Full list of publications dealing with resources nutritional quality in ecology
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Fisher’s local ecological knowledge reveals valuable information about the impact of environmental changes on coastal fishing resources
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Data and R code for “Both weather and resources influence masting in chestnut oak (Quercus montana Willd.) and black oak (Q. velutina Lam.)”, Plant Ecology, 2021
Masting is the synchronous and highly variable production of fruit within a population. Although several hypotheses have been proposed to explain why and how masting evolved in plants as a reproductive strategy, the factors that trigger a large reproductive effort in a particular year are still not well understood. While both weather and resources have been proposed to play an important role, testing these hypotheses has been challenging due to a lack of long-term data and appropriate experimental designs. In this manuscript, we used 18 years of acorn production data to analyze the relationship between resources, weather, and masting in black oak (Quercus velutina) and chestnut oak (Q. montana). The data were collected in southeast Ohio as part of the Fire and Fire Surrogate (FFS) study, which applied silvicultural treatments (i.e., thinning and prescribed fires) to reduce competition and manipulate resources. We found species-specific responses to the thinning and fire treatments, with an overall increase in acorn production for chestnut oak in the thin + burn treatment and an increase for black oak in the thin-only treatment compared to the control. Chestnut oak reproduction also had strong positive relationships with warm spring temperatures, and a positive change in summer temperatures compared to the previous year (i.e., summer temperatures that went from cool to warm). For black oak, warm spring temperatures increased acorn production while later starts to spring warming the year before decreased acorn production. These results support the hypotheses that both resources and weather (as a cue and as a limiting factor) are important for masting in oaks. Thus, both factors should be included in predictive models for acorn production under current and future climate conditions.
Supplementary data for Cariou et al (2020, Molecular Ecology Resources, "How consistent is RAD-seq divergence with DNA-barcode based clustering in insects?")
<p>This dataset accompanies a paper by Cariou et al, to be published in Molecular Ecology Resources, where we assessed in 92 insect species if the genetic clustering of specimens into species like units, on the basis of mitochondrial DNA, was consistent with genome wide divergence, as estimated by RAD-seq data. The present repository includes: (1) a detailed description of the bioinformatic analysis indicating which programs were used, together with parameter values, (2) the raw RAD-seq data following demultiplexing, (3) the consensus sequences of all RAD loci for all specimens, and (4) large tables indicating genetic distances at all RAD loci for all species.</p>
Data from: Competing for blood: the ecology of parasite resource competition in human malaria-helminth co-infections
Ecological theory suggests that co-infecting parasite species can interact within hosts directly, via host immunity and/or via resource competition. In mice, competition for red blood cells (RBCs) between malaria and bloodsucking helminths can regulate malaria population dynamics, but the importance of RBC competition in human hosts was unknown. We analyzed infection density (i.e. the concentration of parasites in infected hosts), from a 2-year deworming study of over 4,000 human subjects. After accounting for resource-use differences among parasites, we find evidence of resource competition, priority effects, and a competitive hierarchy within co-infected individuals. For example, reducing competition via deworming increased Plasmodium vivax densities 2.8-fold, and this effect is limited to bloodsucking hookworms. Our ecological, resource-based perspective sheds new light into decades of conflicting outcomes of malaria-helminth co-infection studies with significant health and transmission consequences. Beyond blood, investigating within-human resource competition may bring new insights for improving human health.
Data from: Resource allocation during ontogeny is influenced by genetic, developmental, and ecological factors in the horned beetle, Onthophagus taurus
Resource allocation trade-offs arise when developing organs are in competition for a limited pool of resources to sustain growth and differentiation. Such competition may constrain the maximal size to which structures can grow and may force a situation in which the evolutionary elaboration of one structure may only be possible at the expense of another. However, recent studies have called into question both the consistency and evolutionary importance of resource allocation trade-offs. This study focuses on a well-described trade-off between the horns and eyes of Onthophagus beetles and assesses the degree to which it is influenced by genetic, developmental and ecological conditions. Contrary to expectations, we observed that trade-off signatures (i) were mostly absent within natural populations, (ii) mostly failed to match naturally evolved divergences in horn investment among populations, (iii) were subject to differential changes in F1 populations derived from divergent field populations and (iv) remained largely unaffected by developmental genetic manipulations of horn investment. Collectively, our results demonstrate that populations subject to different ecological conditions exhibit different patterns of, and differential plasticity in, resource allocation. Further, variation in ecological conditions, rather than canalized developmental mechanisms, may determine whether and to what degree morphological structures engage in resource allocation trade-offs.
Data from: Linking niche theory to ecological impacts of successful invaders: insights from resource fluctuation-specialist herbivore interactions
1. Theories of species coexistence and invasion ecology are fundamentally connected and provide a common theoretical framework for studying the mechanisms underlying successful invasions and their ecological impacts. Temporal fluctuations in resource availability and differences in life-history traits between invasive and resident species are considered as likely drivers of the dynamics of invaded communities. Current critical issues in invasion ecology thus relate to the extent to which such mechanisms influence coexistence between invasive and resident species, and to the ability of resident species to persist in an invasive-dominated ecosystem. 2. We tested how a fluctuating resource and species traits differences may explain and help predict long-term impacts of biological invasions in forest specialist insect communities. We used a simple invasion system comprising closely related invasive and resident seed-specialized wasps (Hymenoptera: Torymidae) competing for a well-known fluctuating resource, and displaying divergent diapause, reproductive and phenological traits. 3. Based on extensive long-term field observations (1977-2010), we developed a combination of mechanistic and statistical models aiming to (i) obtain a realistic description of the population dynamics of these interacting species over time, and (ii) clarify the respective contributions of fluctuation-dependent and fluctuation-independent mechanisms to long-term impact of invasion on the population dynamics of the resident wasp species. 4. We showed that a fluctuation-dependent mechanism was unable to promote coexistence of the resident and invasive species. Earlier phenology of the invasive species was the main driver of invasion success, enabling the invader to exploit an empty niche. Phenology also had the greatest power to explain the long-term negative impact of the invasive on the resident species, through resource preemption. 5. This study provides strong support for the critical role of species differences in interspecific competition outcomes within animal communities. Our mechanisticstatistical approach allows disentangling the critical drivers of the dynamics of coexistence and exclusion within novel species assemblages, following both intentional and non-intentional species introductions.
Data from: Resource availability and roosting ecology shape reproductive phenology of rain forest insectivorous bats
Bats in temperate and subtropical regions typically synchronize birth of a single young with peaks in resource availability driven by local climate patterns. In tropical rain forest, insects are available throughout the year, potentially allowing departures from seasonal monoestry. However, reproductive energy budgets may be constrained by the cost of commuting to foraging grounds from distant roosts. To test these hypotheses, we simultaneously tracked female reproductive activity of 11 insectivorous bat species, insect biomass, and local weather variables for 20 months in a Malaysian rain forest. Five species roost in forest structures and hence have low commuting costs, whereas six species depend on caves, which are limited in the landscape, and are presumed to incur higher commuting costs to foraging sites. Monthly insect biomass was positively correlated with monthly rainfall, and there was a significant relationship between insect biomass and lactation in cave-roosting but not forest-roosting species. Cave-roosting species were seasonally monoestrus, with parturition confined to a two-month period, whereas in forest-roosting species, pregnancy and lactation were recorded throughout the year. Our results suggest that the energetic costs of commuting from roosts to foraging grounds shape annual reproductive patterns in tropical rain forest insectivorous bats. Ongoing changes in forest landscapes are likely to increase these costs for cave-roosting bats, further restricting reproductive opportunities. Climate change is projected to influence the timing of rainfall events in many tropical habitats, which may disrupt relationships between rainfall, insect biomass, and bat reproductive timing, further compromising reproductive success.
Data from: From resource to female defence: the impact of roosting ecology on a bat's mating strategy
With their extraordinary species richness and diversity in ecological traits and social systems, bats are a promising taxon for testing socio-ecological hypotheses in order to get new insights into the evolution of animal social systems. Regarding its roosting habits, proboscis bats form an extreme by occupying sites which are usually completely exposed to daylight (e.g. tree trunks, vines or rocks). This is accompanied by morphological and behavioural adaptations to remain cryptic in exposed day roosts. With long-term behavioural observations and genetic parentage analyses of individually marked proboscis bats, we assessed its social dispersion and male mating strategy during day and night. Our results reveal nocturnal male territoriality—a strategy which most closely resembles a resource-defence polygyny that is frequent also in other tropical bats. Its contrasting clumped social dispersion during the day is likely to be the result of strong selection for crypsis in exposed roosts and is accompanied by direct female defence in addition to male territoriality. To the best of our knowledge, such contrasting male mating strategies within a single day–night cycle have not been described in a vertebrate species so far and illustrate a possible evolutionary trajectory from resource-defence to female-defence strategy by small ecologically driven evolutionary steps.
Ecological significance of marcescence in Himalayan plants: Why is standing dead phytomass more important in demanding, resource-limited environments?
<ol> <li>Understanding mechanisms allowing plants to thrive in challenging conditions is critical for predicting their responses to global environmental change. An often overlooked ecological adaptation is marcescence, where leaves and stems are retained beyond their typical shedding time, with implications for nutrient recycling and carbon sequestration. Marcescence may be common in plants with conservative resource-use strategies, especially in environments with limited resources and marked seasonality, such as deserts and alpine regions. However, the extent to which marcescence occurs in different taxa across different habitats and its relationship to seasonality and plant functioning as reflected in ecophysiological traits remains understudied.</li> <li>We studied 600 individuals across 40 Himalayan herb species found in desert, steppe, alpine, and subnival habitats, spanning 3000 to 5400 m elevation. Marcescence was observed in 37 out of 40 species evaluated, with 57% of the sampled individuals displaying dead phytomass, indicating the widespread nature of this phenomenon in Himalayan ecosystems.</li> <li>Environment and plant traits emerged as significant factors influencing the amount of dead-standing biomass. These findings remained robust after accounting for intraspecific variation and phylogenetic inertia. Desert and steppe species exhibited greater marcescent biomass, characterized by tenfold more dead stem biomass than alpine and subnival plants. In contrast, the proportion of dead phytomass increased with elevation due to increased dead leaf fraction.</li> <li>Tall desert species with heavily lignified stems and limited nitrogen and phosphorus content had high levels of stem marcescence, which may aid litter photodegradation and nutrient recycling but also deter herbivory and promote seed dispersal (tumbleweed). Conversely, slow-growing alpine and subnival plants with higher water-use efficiency, foliar C:N ratios, and parenchymatic storage tissue rich in mobile carbohydrates had a high proportion of marcescent leaves, which may aid survival in these resource-limited environments by providing delayed nutrients through moisture-conserving mulch that also provides insulation and protection from frost.</li> <li>This study provides new insights into the complex interplay of habitat, seasonality, and plant traits in dead phytomass retention in Himalayan plants. Marcescence is prevalent in resource-conservative species in highly seasonal, resource-limited habitats and may significantly shape the functioning and biodiversity of Himalayan ecosystems.</li> </ol>
Data from: Human judgment vs. quantitative models for the management of ecological resources
Despite major advances in quantitative approaches to natural resource management, there has been resistance to using these tools in the actual practice of managing ecological populations. Given a managed system and a set of assumptions, translated into a model, optimization methods can be used to solve for the most cost-effective management actions. However, when the underlying assumptions are not met, such methods can potentially lead to decisions that harm the environment and economy. Managers who develop decisions based on past experience and judgment, without the aid of mathematical models, can potentially learn about the system and develop flexible management strategies. However, these strategies are often based on subjective criteria and equally invalid and often unstated assumptions. Given the drawbacks of both methods, it is unclear whether simple quantitative models improve environmental decision making over expert opinion. In this study, we explore how well students, using their experience and judgment, manage simulated fishery populations in an online computer game and compare their management outcomes to the performance of model-based decisions. We consider harvest decisions generated using four different quantitative models: (1) the model used to produce the simulated population dynamics observed in the game, with the values of all parameters known (as a control), (2) the same model, but with unknown parameter values that must be estimated during the game from observed data, (3) models that are structurally different from those used to simulate the population dynamics, and (4) a model that ignores age structure. Humans on average performed much worse than the models in cases 1–3, but in a small minority of scenarios, models produced worse outcomes than those resulting from students making decisions based on experience and judgment. When the models ignored age structure, they generated poorly performing management decisions, but still outperformed students using experience and judgment 66% of the time.
Rapid evolution of ecological sexual dimorphism driven by resource competition
<p>Sex differences in ecologically-important traits are common in animals and plants, and prompted Darwin to first propose an ecological cause of sexual dimorphism. Despite theoretical plausibility and Darwin's original notion, a role for ecological resource competition in the evolution of sexual dimorphism has never been directly demonstrated and remains controversial. I used experimental evolution in <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em> to test the hypothesis that resource competition can drive the evolution of sex differences in diet. Following just three generations of adaptation, offspring from flies evolved in low-resource, high-competition environments show elevated sexual dimorphism in diet preference compared to both the ancestor and populations evolved on high resource availability. This increased sexual dimorphism was the result of divergence in male sucrose intake and female yeast intake consistent with the differential nutritional requirements of the sexes. These results provide the first real-time direct evidence for evolution of sexual dimorphism driven by resource competition.</p>
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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.