Find research datasets worth reusing

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

Data from: Effect of a severe cold spell on overwintering survival of an invasive forest insect pest

Data from a study of a servere cold event in February 2023 on the survival of hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae Annand) from four populations in Canada. Cold temperatures can play a significant role in the range and impact of pest insects. Severe cold events can reduce the size of insect outbreaks or in some cases even cause outbreaks to end. Measuring the precise impact of cold events, however, can be difficult because estimates of insect mortality are often made at the end of the winter season. In late January, 2023 long-term climate models predicted a significant cold event to occur over eastern North America. We used this event to evaluate the immediate impact on hemlock woolly adelgid overwintering mortality at four sites on the northern edge of the insects invaded range in eastern North America. We observed complete mortality, partial mortality and no effect of the cold event that correlated with the location and strength of the cold event. Our data also showed lack of support for preconditioning of overwintering adelgids as impacting their overwintering survival following this severe cold event. Finally, we compared the climatic conditions at our sites to historical weather data. The cold event observed in February 2023 resulted in the coldest temperatures observed at these sites, including the period within which hemlock woolly adelgid invaded these sites, suggesting cold conditions, especially under anthropogenic climate forcing, may not be a limiting factor in determining the ultimate northern range of hemlock woolly adelgid in eastern North America.

opencc-byMay 2021View details →

Oldest Surviving Civil War Monument

Excerpt from the Frazier Kentucky History Museum's Website: "Carved in January 1862, the 3,500-lb. limestone memorial features an eagle relief and a German-language inscription. **It is believed to be the nation's oldest surviving Civil War monument.** Private August Bloedner of the 32nd Indiana Infantry, a Union regiment comprised entirely of German-American immigrants, carved the monument after the Battle of Rowlett's Station, which took place December 17, 1861 in Munfordville, Kentucky, to mark the interments of fellow soldiers who died there. In 2010, the Frazier Museum obtained the monument through a long-term loan from the NCA." This model was created using photogrammetry. The photos were taken May 10, 2021. This model is incomplete and represents only a proof of concept, since access to the exhibit was limited by guard rails and the artifact was placed against a wall. A more comprehensive scan of the artifact would result in a much higher quality 3D model. Learn more at www.johnclere.com. Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab

opencc-byMay 2020View details →

Survival knife

here is a survival knfe that I have made for a survival based game I have used maya to create the 3D model and have used 3D-coat to make the textures. Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab

Data from: Upland Sandpipers select for later time since fire and experience high nest survival in grasslands managed with patch-burn grazing

Upland Sandpipers (Bartramia longicauda) are a grassland obligate shorebird that nests in dense vegetation structure near recently disturbed areas and could benefit from management practices that promote heterogenous vegetation structure. Although, Upland Sandpipers primary breeding range is generally managed for livestock production using traditional practices that lack patchy disturbances to facilitate higher levels of structural heterogeneity. Patch-burn grazing (PBG) could be an alternative management practice for Upland Sandpiper conservation for its ability to create areas of dense vegetation structure near recently disturbed areas. However, limited information is available regarding nest production of Upland Sandpipers within a PBG framework. To assess the compatibility of PBG with Upland Sandpiper conservation, we estimated nest site selection and survival of Upland Sandpiper nests on private lands managed with PBG in the unglaciated plains region of North Dakota. We located 59 nests from 2017–2020. Upland Sandpipers avoided 1 year since fire (YSF) patches and selected for 2 and 3 YSF patches for nest sites. Additionally, nest site selection decreased with increased bare ground and at intermediate distances to the nearest Upland Sandpiper nest. Upland Sandpipers experienced high overall nest survival during the study with 51 of 59 nests successfully hatching, which limited our ability to make inferences between daily survival rates and variables of interest. Our findings suggest that PBG can provide suitable nesting cover for Upland Sandpipers in later YSF patches despite annual prescribed fire and livestock grazing during the nesting season. PBG seems a suitable grassland management strategy that should be included in conservation planning within Upland Sandpiper's breeding distribution.

Mesophotic corals in Hawaii maintain autotrophy to survive low-light conditions: Stable isotope dataset

In mesophotic coral ecosystems, reef-building corals and their photosynthetic symbionts can survive with less than 1% of surface irradiance. How depth-specialist corals rely upon autotrophically and heterotrophically-derived energy sources across the mesophotic zone remains unclear. We analyzed the stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values of a Leptoseris community from the ʻAuʻau Channel, Maui, Hawaiʻi (65-125 m) including four coral host species living symbiotically with three algal haplotypes. We characterized the isotope values of hosts and symbionts across species and depth to compare trophic strategies. Symbiont δ13C was consistently 0.5‰ higher than host δ13C at all depths. Mean colony host and symbiont δ15N differed by up to 3.7‰ at shallow depths and converged at deeper depths. These results suggest that both heterotrophy and autotrophy remained integral to colony survival across depth. The increasing similarity between host and symbiont δ15N at deeper depths suggests that nitrogen is more efficiently shared between mesophotic coral hosts and their algal symbionts to sustain autotrophy. Isotopic trends across depth did not generally vary by host species or algal haplotype, suggesting that photosynthesis remains essential to Leptoseris survival and growth despite low light availability in the mesophotic zone.

Data from: Effects of deer browsing on eastern hemlock growth and survival

Studies during the past six decades convincingly demonstrate that persistent browsing by native white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) eliminates the ability of eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), and several other long-lived tree species to regenerate in forests of the upper Midwest and northeastern United States. The data shared here were used for three publications to date (see the Related Works section, below): The first is Alverson et al. 2019, which critically examined the relative contributions of deer versus snowshoe hare in reducing the growth and survival of eastern hemlock. The second is Alverson et al. 2024, a more detailed examination of growth and mortality rates of eastern hemlock, and the relationship of those two variables. The third is Waller et al. 2024, which explores the Regeneration Ratio, a new metric that integrates growth ("transit time" through the zone of vulnerability to browsing by deer and other herbivores) and mortality (half-life), and can be used to assess regeneration potential in populations of other tree species. (We are interested in collaborations to further test this metric for additional temperate and tropical species.) This is a rich data set from extensive fieldwork in northern Wisconsin and the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA, from 1991 to 2011. It will be useful to others who wish to check our results, or examine specific subsets of data, e.g., the growth and mortality of specific size classes of hemlocks, behaviour of cohorts during a specific decade relative to regional changes in deer or hare abundance, or the characteristics of cohorts growing in specific ownerships. Although we examined the relationship of diameter and height, we did not consider allometry in detail in these publications. We encourage others to explore the allometry of these indigenous, juvenile hemlocks and would be happy to share the limited additional data that we have, upon request.

Struggling to survive: A comparison of Vanessa cardui larval survivorship on putative host plants

The painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) is a generalist herbivore with a global distribution. In North America, over 100 species have been identified as V. cardui larval host plants. This cosmopolitan species is commercially available in all life stages and can be reared on an artificial diet. As a result, V. cardui commonly serves as a model organism for education and outreach. However, gaps in our knowledge remain with regard to V. cardui ecology and larval host plant suitability for supporting complete development of larvae to reproductive adulthood. In a laboratory setting, we tested host plant suitability of five reported host plants commonly found in California sage scrub ecosystems by assessing survival of V. cardui caterpillars in their entirety. We also assessed how commercially sourced larvae survived on an artificial diet: both raising the caterpillars exclusively on an artificial diet, as well as switching diets from artificial to thistle (a commonly reported host plant) and switching from thistle to artificial diet. We found that all commercially-sourced caterpillars exhibited both high larval mortality and low pupation rates when reared on host plants, although larvae reared on Malacothamnus fasciculatus and Sphaeralcea ambigua survived longest. Moreover, M. fasciculatus and S. ambigua were the only host plants tested that supported successful pupation. This contrasted with a 63% higher survival of wild-collected larvae. Our findings suggest that commercially obtained V. cardui may struggle to utilize wild host plants and that future investigations into host plant suitability in wild populations are needed. Additionally, future research using commercial larvae should consider the implications for interpreting host plant suitability as larvae may exhibit adaptations to artificial diet or the loss of adaptation to consuming plant material.

opencc-zeroMar 2024View details →

Data from: Digital PCR quantification of ultrahigh ERBB2 copy number identifies poor breast cancer survival after trastuzumab

HER2/ERBB2 evaluation is necessary for treatment decision-making in breast cancer (BC), however current methods have limitations and considerable variability exists. DNA copy number (CN) evaluation by droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) has complementary advantages for HER2/ERBB2 diagnostics. In this study, we developed a single-reaction multiplex ddPCR assay for determination of ERBB2 CN in reference to two control regions, CEP17 and a copy-number-stable region of chr. 2p13.1, validated CN estimations to clinical in situ hybridization (ISH) HER2 status, and investigated the association of ERBB2 CN with clinical outcomes. 909 primary BC tissues were evaluated and the area under the curve for concordance to HER2 status was 0.93 and 0.96 for ERBB2 CN using either CEP17 or 2p13.1 as reference, respectively. The accuracy of ddPCR ERBB2 CN was 93.7% and 94.1% in the training and validation groups, respectively. Positive and negative predictive value for the classic HER2 amplification and non-amplification groups was 97.2% and 94.8%, respectively. An identified biological "ultrahigh" ERBB2 ddPCR CN group had significantly worse survival within patients treated with adjuvant trastuzumab for both recurrence-free survival (hazard ratio, HR: 3.3; 95% CI 1.1–9.6; p = 0.031, multivariable Cox regression) and overall survival (HR: 3.6; 95% CI 1.1–12.6; p = 0.041). For validation using RNA-seq data as a surrogate, in a population-based SCAN-B cohort (NCT02306096) of 682 consecutive patients receiving adjuvant trastuzumab, the ultrahigh-ERBB2 mRNA group had significantly worse survival. Multiplex ddPCR is useful for ERBB2 CN estimation and ultrahigh ERBB2 may be a predictive factor for decreased long-term survival after trastuzumab treatment.

opencc-zeroMar 2024View details →

Reduced hybrid survival in a migratory divide between songbirds

Migratory divides, hybrid zones between populations that use different seasonal migration routes, are hypothesized to contribute to speciation. Specifically, relative to parental species, hybrids at divides are predicted to exhibit intermediate migratory behavior and reduced fitness as a result. We provide the first direct test of the second prediction here with one of the largest existing avian tracking datasets, leveraging a divide between Swainson's thrushes where the first prediction is supported. Using detection rates as a proxy for survival, our results supported the migratory divide hypothesis with lower survival rates for hybrids than parental forms. This finding was juvenile-specific (vs. adults), suggesting selection against hybrids is stronger earlier in life. Reduced hybrid survival was not explained by selection against intermediate phenotypes or negative interactions among phenotypes. Additional work connecting specific features of migration is needed, but these patterns provide strong support for migration as an ecological driver of speciation.

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Boldness suppresses hoarding behavior in food hoarding season and reduces over-wintering survival in a social rodent

The "pace-of-life" syndrome (POLS) framework can encompass multiple personality axes that drive important functional behaviours (e.g., foraging behaviour) and that co-vary with multiple life history traits. Food hoarding is an adaptive behaviour important for an animal's adaptation to seasonal fluctuations in food availability. However, the empirical evidence for the relationships between animal personality and hoarding behaviour remains unclear, including its fitness consequences in the POLS framework. In this study, the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus), a social rodent, was used as a model system to investigate how boldness or shyness is associated with food hoarding strategies in the food hoarding season and overwinter survival or reproduction at individual and group levels. The results of this study showed that compared to shy gerbils, bold gerbils had a lower effort foraging strategy during the food hoarding season and exhibited lower overwinter survival, but bold–shy personality differences had no effect on overwinter reproduction. These findings suggest that the personality of the animal is a key factor that affects the foraging strategy during the food hoarding season in Mongolian gerbils. Personality may be related to energy states or the reaction to environmental change (e.g., predation risk, food availability) in bold or shy social animals. These results reflect animal life history trade-offs between "current versus future reproduction" and "reproduction versus self-maintenance", thereby helping Mongolian gerbils adapt to seasonal fluctuations in their living environment.

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Data from: Release from aboveground enemies increases seedling survival in grasslands

Plant enemies can influence plant community assembly and structure. However, it is unclear how insect herbivores and fungal pathogens affect seedling recruitment. Complex interactions with competition and resource availability make it difficult to isolate the effect of enemies. This uncertainty can impede understanding of community assembly drivers, species coexistence, and trophic interactions; and limits hypothesis testing such as the enemy release hypothesis, a key hypothesis in invasion biology. Using a novel species-specific approach, we examine how enemies affect seedling survival and recruitment of 16 grassland species. We planted seedlings of 16 native species from two functional groups (C4 grasses and non-legume forbs) into two grassland sites (early and mid succession). We hand-painted 1,548 individual seedlings with pesticides (insecticide and fungicide) over the course of one growing season to enforce aboveground species-specific release from enemies, and tested whether it enhanced survival relative to untreated controls. Applying treatments to individuals allowed us to test for the effect of enemies on plant performance while controlling for contexts such as competition from the resident community and resource levels. Release from insects increased seedling survival by 56% on average, with no additional benefit of release from fungal pathogens. This effect was observed for both forbs and C4 grasses across both sites, and was strongest in resource-acquisitive species. There was no effect of the mean phylogenetic distance between our target species and the resident plant community, or of light availability or soil moisture. Synthesis. The significant positive effect of release from insect herbivores on survival early in colonisation – a trend that held across functional groups and types of resident communities – suggests insects play an important regulatory role in community assembly, especially for resource-acquisitive species. As variation between species could be explained by traits but not by phylogeny, we emphasise the importance of trait-based approaches to plant community ecology. Our results also support the key mechanism (increased performance following release from enemies) underlying the enemy release hypothesis. Enemy release may therefore aid initial recruitment of plants during the invasion process.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2024View details →

The Role of Genomic Data in Stratifying Patients within Predictive Models for Breast Cancer Survival Outcome

Data associated with my PhD thesis titled "The Role of Genomic Data in Stratifying Patients within Predictive Models for Breast Cancer Survival Outcome".

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Do maternal allocations towards offspring quality and quantity ameliorate the effects of predators on offspring survival?

Reproductive allocation is often balanced between the quantity and quality of offspring. Ecological stresses, like exposure to predators, can cause organisms to shift their allocations along this continuum. While the consequences of such plastic shifts for offspring performance are often untested, they are critical to understanding the potential long-term benefits of manipulating predation risk as an agricultural pest management technique. Predation risk induces reductions in egg production and increases in nutritional condition due to maternal provisioning in Colorado potato beetles (Leptinotarsa decemlineata, CPB). Here we tested whether reductions in density or increases in offspring condition, which may increase per-capita larval survival, can compensate for the reduction in total egg production, especially when offspring are exposed to predators. In two field trials, we manipulated the density and condition of larval CPB and measured survival through development to adulthood in field cages with and without predaceous stink bugs (Podisus maculiventris). As expected, cages with the higher initial larval densities had more larvae and adults surviving in the treatments without predators –about 30-50% survival across densities. When predators were present this relationship did not hold because of density-dependent predation. Larval condition interacted with density and impacted larval survival in both trials albeit in different ways. In Trial 1, unprovisioned beetles had higher survival at the higher densities, in Trial 2 provisioned beetles had higher survival across densities. Synthesis and Applications: Overall, our test of the effects of predation risk via manipulations of larval density and condition revealed few net compensatory benefits to the prey of reduced density and higher condition. Benefits to the prey of shifts in allocation from the quantity to quality of offspring may depend on factors that influence the strength of density dependence, including predation intensity. Our results suggest a new strategy of taking advantage of the reductions in prey density due to the non-consumptive effects of predators as a pest management approach to protect plants.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2024View details →

Raw data for the manuscript: Survival and reproduction effects of microplastics from three agricultural mulching films on Folsomia candida, Sinella curviseta, Heteromurus nitidus and Ceratophysella denticulata (Collembola)

Survival and reproduction data from single species tests involving four Collembola species and three types of plastic materials.

opencc-zeroOct 2021View details →

Data from: Invasive hybridization has variable effects on survival among salmonid populations

Human-mediated hybridization threatens global biodiversity, but the fitness consequences of hybridization are poorly understood, especially in vertebrates. We used capture-recapture data from 5,249 individuals in three hybridizing populations of invasive rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and native cutthroat trout (O. clarkii) to quantify the effects of rainbow trout genetic admixture and environmental conditions on survival. Seasonal variation in environmental conditions interacted with individual admixture to influence seasonal survival. Overall, annual survival declined with admixture at the warmest site (juvenile hybrids with 25% non-native ancestry had 20.7% lower annual survival than non-hybridized cutthroat trout) but increased with admixture at the coldest site (juvenile hybrids with 25% non-native ancestry had 19.7% higher survival than non-hybridized cutthroat trout), providing evidence that fitness effects of hybridization vary in a context-dependent manner. Furthermore, higher survival for hybrids in cold streams and lower survival in warm streams is opposite of admixture-environment correlations, demonstrating that environmental gradients often used to infer patterns of hybridization may poorly predict variation in fitness across the landscape. Individual-based studies measuring fitness-related traits in vertebrate taxon are rare. Most studies of human-mediated hybridization in wild populations quantify the spatial extent of non-native admixture or test for admixture-environment associations to infer factors affecting fitness in hybridizing populations. We used an extensive capture-recapture dataset to measure seasonal survival in hybridized populations that experience different environmental conditions. Our work shows that non-native admixture can affect survival differently among seasons and populations, and that inferences from individual-based studies can conflict with those from admixture-environment associations. For studies of non-native hybridization, this work highlights the importance of directly measuring fitness (survival and reproductive success), and at appropriate spatial and temporal scales to elucidate the variation in fitness differences (i.e., among populations and seasons).

opencc-zeroNov 2021View details →

Northern Bobwhite juvenile survival southwest Missouri 2016-2018

These data and code are associated with the publication in Ornithological Applications entitled "Northern Bobwhite juvenile survival is greater on native grasslands managed with fire and grazing, and lower in non-native field borders and strip crop fields." We evaluated the influence of brood age, vegetation cover type, woody vegetation structure, habitat management, and landscape cover on juvenile survival in southwest Missouri 2016-2018.

opencc-zeroNov 2021View details →

The contributions of individual traits to survival among terrestrial juvenile pond-breeding salamanders

Individual survival is influenced by interactions between local environmental conditions and an organism's morphological, behavioral, and physiological traits. Studies examining the effects of individual phenotypes on survival under variable conditions are relatively rare among early transitional life stages, though the vital rates of these life stages can importantly influence population dynamics. We experimentally examined the effects of initial body mass, movement, standard metabolic rate (SMR), and respiratory surface area water loss (RSAWL) on survival in the transitional juvenile life stage of two biphasic amphibian species (Ambystoma maculatum and A. opacum) in a seven-month mark-recapture study under semi-natural conditions. Juveniles with a larger initial body mass, lower initial SMR, and/or a lower tendency to change locations had a higher likelihood of known survival. In contrast, we found no significant effect of RSAWL on juvenile survival. The relationships between individual phenotypes and survival did not differ between species, but equivalent species-specific survival rates may have been attributed to larger initial body sizes in A. maculatum and lower SMR in A. opacum. Our results illuminate the complex ways in which individual traits influence survival during the early transitional life stage of two ambystomatid species under varying abiotic conditions. More generally, our findings illustrate potential advantages of simultaneously examining multiple traits to evaluate survival.

opencc-zeroDec 2021View details →

Caribbean Roseate Tern nest survival and monitoring data

Determining how site characteristics influence reproductive success can help guide conservation planning for declining wildlife populations. For colonially-breeding seabirds, nest survival and predation risk can be influenced by both colony and nest site characteristics such as colony size, nest density, and nest location. We evaluated reproductive success of a declining population of Roseate Terns (Sterna dougallii) in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands to identify primary causes of nest failure and investigate the influence of colony and nest site covariates on nest survival. In addition, we measured the influence of colony characteristics on chick provisioning to determine if resource competition in larger colonies affected foraging rates. Monitoring was conducted in 2017–18 via motion-triggered cameras, which enable 24-hour monitoring with minimal nest disturbance. Nest survival was defined by both hatch success and early chick success, defined as a chick surviving from hatching through the 4th post-hatch day. We monitored 118 nests in 6 colonies over the 2 breeding seasons. We found that predation was the primary cause of nest failure. Both hatch and nest success increased with colony size, and neither nest survival nor predation probability were influenced by individual nest site characteristics. Provisioning rates were comparable among colony sites and did not vary with colony size. Our results suggest that directing management efforts toward enhancing colony size, rather than focusing on nest site characteristics, can be beneficial for tropical seabird conservation.

opencc-zeroDec 2021View details →

Supporting data for: Post-fire early successional vegetation buffers surface microclimate and increases survival of planted conifer seedlings in the southwestern United States

Climate change and fire-exclusion have increased the flammability of western US forests, leading to forest cover loss when wildfires occur under severe weather conditions. Increasingly large high-severity burn patches are a limitation to natural regeneration because of dispersal distance, increasing the chance that these areas are converted to non-forest. Post-fire planting can overcome dispersal limitations, yet warmer and drier post-fire conditions can still limit survival. Early successional vegetation can alter surface microclimate; however, it is unclear whether this is enough to increase planted seedling survival in southwestern US forests. Here we examined how two shrub species of different canopy density would affect survival rates of planted tree seedlings following a high-severity fire in northern New Mexico. We expected that shrubs with a higher density canopy (Gambel oak) would have a greater effect on buffering below-shrub climate than shrubs with a lower density canopy (New Mexico locust) and seedlings planted under Gambel oak would have higher survival rates. We found that seedlings planted under Gambel oak had survival rates approximately 10% to 35% greater than those planted under New Mexico locust. The higher light availability beneath New Mexico locust corresponded to higher temperatures, lower humidity, and higher VPD, which impacted the mortality of planted tree seedlings. These results suggest that by waiting for post-fire shrub establishment, shrubs can be leveraged to buffer microclimate and increase post-fire planting success in the southwestern US.