Find research datasets worth reusing

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2016View details →

Posina Catchment Digital elevation model

This is the DEM data set used in paper "Estimating the water budget components and their variability in a Pre-Alpine basin with JGrass-NewAGE" by Abera W., Formetta G., Borga M. and Rigon R.

opencc-by-4.0May 2017View details →

Parallel Body Shape Divergence in the Neotropical Fish Genus Rhoadsia (Teleostei: Characidae) Along Elevational Gradients of the Western Slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes

TPS files for geometric morphometric analysis of body shape data of Rhoadsia spp. (Teleostei: Characidae) collected in western Ecuador.

opencc-by-4.0May 2017View details →

Parallel Body Shape Divergence in the Neotropical Fish Genus Rhoadsia (Teleostei: Characidae) Along Elevational Gradients of the Western Slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes

Morphological data collected from specimens of Rhoadsia spp. (Teleostei: Characidae) in western Ecuador. Excel file with individual standard length (SL), body depth (BD), size-adjusted fineness ratio (Adj_FR), and size-adjusted canonical variates analysis scores on axes 1 and 2 (Adj_CV1, Adj_CV2).

opencc-zeroOct 2023View details →

Data from: Evaluating temporal turnover in avian species richness in a Mediterranean semiarid region: different responses to elevation and forest cover

Aim. When studying the effects of global change on biodiversity, it is far more common for the effects of climate change and land-use changes to be assessed separately rather than jointly. However, the effects of land-use changes in recent decades on species richness in areas affected by climate change have been less studied. We assess the temporal turnover in species richness of an avian community between a historical period and a modern one as a consequence of global change. Location. Semiarid Mediterranean ecosystem (Southeastern Spain). Method. We fitted a hierarchical multi-species occupancy model for each period (1991-1992, and 2012-2017), obtaining avian species-specific estimates of occupancy probability in relation to environmental covariates (elevation and forest cover). We analyze the relationships between changes in the bird community and environmental variables, analysing the temporal turnover of the species richness and the richness-based species-exchange ratio. Results. The estimated species richness accounting for detectability was higher than observed species richness, and decreased in the more recent period. Following our hypotheses, we observed a dual pattern of species richness increase associated with different elevations, showing different species turnover rates due to the joint effects of climate change and land-use change. There is a trend toward greater species richness with higher elevations that is associated with climate change, where the species turnover rate is low. Also, species richness increased towards lower elevations, but with a high turnover rate. The latter can be due to species expansions throughout new habitat configurations in bordering forest systems associated with anthropic land-use changes. Conclusions. Our study is of great interest to understand the temporal turnover of avian species richness associated with areas experiencing both climate and land-use change.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2023View details →

Main output data used in "Coupling the regional climate MAR model with the ice sheet model PISM mitigates the melt-elevation positive feedback" (Delhasse et al., 2024)

Outputs used in: Delhasse, A., Beckmann, J., Kittel, C., and Fettweis, X.: Coupling MAR (Modèle Atmosphérique Régional) with PISM (Parallel Ice Sheet Model) mitigates the positive melt–elevation feedback, The Cryosphere, 18, 633–651, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-633-2024, 2024. MAR-PISM coupling experiments outputs over 1991-2200. The main experiments are: <ul> <li>MAPI-2w: 2-way coupling, consideration online of the melt-elevation feedback (evolving topography in MAR).</li> <li>MAPI-1w: 1-way coupling, consideration of the melt-elevation feedback only with the offline correction (Franco et al., 2012) of the MAR outputs (fixed topography in MAR).</li> <li>MAPI-0w:  0-way coupling, no consideration of the melt-elevation feedback (fixed topography in MAR and no correction during interpolation).</li> </ul> MAR files contain yearly SMB (surface mass balance) and ST (surface temperature) interpolated (with correction) on the PISM-4.5km grid. Gradients used for the correction of the melt-elevation feedback are also given for both variables. SMB and ST are the two required MAR fields to couple MAR with PISM.  PISM files contain yearly ice thickness (THK) and ice mask (MASK) as simulated by PISM for each of the three experiments.  The MAR code used in this dataset is tagged as v3.11.3 on https://gitlab.com/Mar-Group/MARv3# (last access: 23 January 2024) (MARTeam, 2024). The PISM code used is tagged as PISMv1.2.2 on <a href="https://github.com/pism/pism/releases/tag/v1.2.2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/pism/pism/releases/tag/v1.2.2</a> (last access: 23 January 2024). Other coupling scripts are also available upon request by email (<a href="mailto:alison.delhasse@uliege.be" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">alison.delhasse@uliege.be</a>). If you need other variables from MAR or PISM, send us an email (alison.delhasse@uliege.be, johanna.beckmann@monash.edu) and we will be glad to help you. We will also be happy to share the scripts we have developed to analyse the outputs and make the figures in this paper if needed. Please cite the paper if you use these MAR-PISM outputs. Data usage notice: If you use any of these results, please acknowledge the work of the people involved in producing them. Acknowledgments should be similar to the one below that contains information related to MAR and PISM. To document MAR scientific impact and enable ongoing support of the model, users are likely encouraged to contact me to add their works to the list of MAR-related publications.  "We thank A. Delhasse and J. Beckmann, as well as the MAR and PISM teams which make available the model outputs. We also thank agencies (F.R.S - FNRS, CÉCI, and the Walloon Region) that provided computational resources for MAR-PISM simulations. " You should also refer to and cite the following paper in its latest version: Delhasse, A., Beckmann, J., Kittel, C., and Fettweis, X.: Coupling MAR (Modèle Atmosphérique Régional) with PISM (Parallel Ice Sheet Model) mitigates the positive melt–elevation feedback, The Cryosphere, 18, 633–651, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-633-2024, 2024. Reference Franco, B., Fettweis, X., Lang, C., and Erpicum, M.: Impact of spatial resolution on the modelling of the Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance between 1990–2010, using the regional climate model MAR, The Cryosphere, 6, 695–711, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-695-2012, 2012. MARTeam: MARv3.11, GitLab [data set], <a href="https://gitlab.com/Mar-Group/MARv3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://gitlab.com/Mar-Group/MARv3#</a> (last access: 28 May 2022), 2021.

opencc-zeroNov 2023View details →

Local and regional diversity of frog communities along an extensive rainforest elevation gradient in Papua New Guinea

Rainforests on high tropical mountains are globally important species diversity hotspots. We studied amphibians along an extensive rainforest elevation gradient on Mt. Wilhelm (4,509 m) in Papua New Guinea. We established eight sites at 500 m elevation increments between 200 and 3,700 m a.s.l. and related their community composition to the known species pool of New Guinea island. We recorded 3,390 frogs from 55 species, which is three times more species than at any local community along the elevation gradient. Species diversity peaked at 1,700 m a.s.l. for Mt. Wilhelm communities, and at 500–1,100 m a.s.l. in the broader New Guinea fauna, probably reflecting increasing speciation and decreasing dispersal rates with increasing elevation. The beta diversity between frog communities was high and increased with increasing elevation. The change in frog community composition across 500 m elevation corresponded to the change over 200 km distance within lowland forests. A majority of frog species were distributed over narrow <500 m elevational ranges, at Mt Wilhelm and the New Guinea fauna more broadly. We did not detect Rapoport's pattern of wider elevation range for species at higher elevations than for lowland species, for Mt. Wilhelm communities or the New Guinea fauna. The high beta diversity patterns along elevation gradients generated by rapid species turnover with narrow elevation ranges make frog communities vulnerable to change in the environment, including climate change.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2023View details →

Carole Niffenegger, Sebastian Dirren, Christian Schano, Fränzi Korner-Nievergelt (2023) Data from : Natural nest cavities in a high elevation habitat provide a more constant thermal environment than human-made nest cavities

AbstractNest cavities with suitable thermal conditions can provide fitness benefits for birds through reduced thermoregulatory cost. Insulation can however vary between natural and human-made cavities. While several studies have assessed cavity temperatures, research from high elevation habitats, where environmental conditions are particularly variable, is still scarce. We compared temperature profiles of vacant natural and human-made nest cavities of white-winged snowfinches Montifringilla nivalis, a high elevation cavity nestling species. Human-made cavities experienced more extreme temperatures, with potential consequences for offspring viability, bringing into question their suitability as conservation measure, particularly as extreme temperature events become more frequent.

Abundance, biomass and species richness of macrozoobenthos along an intertidal elevation gradient

Ecology aims to comprehend species distribution and its interaction with environmental factors, from global to local scales. While global environmental changes affect marine biodiversity, understanding the drivers at smaller scales remains crucial. Tidal flats can be found on most of the world's coastlines and are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbances. They are important transient ecosystems between terrestrial and marine ecosystems and their biodiversity provides important ecosystem services. Owing to this unique position at the terrestrial-marine transition, strong environmental gradients of elevation, sediment composition and food availability prevail. The data set contains information on macrozoobenthos abundance, biomass and community composition and abiotic and biotic environmental factors at a regional and local level at back barrier tidal flats of three East-Frisian islands in Germany. As environmental data elevation, mud content in the sediment, total organic carbon (TOC), porewater nutrients and Chl a are included.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2023View details →

Data from "Elevation affects both the occurrence of ungulate browsing and its effect on tree seedling growth for four major tree species in European mountain forests"

This repository contains the field data used in the paper from Bernard et al. on the interactive effect of elevation and ungulate browsing on tree regeneration. This dataset is associated with a github repository containing the code to run the analyses of the paper, publicly available at https://github.com/jbarrere3/BaccaraPaper.  Data were collected for the Baccara project, by Elena Granda, Raquel Benavides, Sonia Rabasa, Georges Kunstler, and Marco Heurich.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2023View details →

Room temperature and elevated temperature tensile test and elastic properties data of Al-alloy EN AW-2618A after different aging times and temperatures

The dataset contains two types of data: elastic properties (Young's and shear modulus, Poisson's ratio) between room temperature and 250 °C and a set of tensile tests at different aging times, aging temperatures, and test temperatures.

Data from: Microbial carbon use efficiency and soil organic carbon stocks across an elevational gradient in the Peruvian Andes

Soils of mountain ecosystems are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems to climate change, while the ecosystem services they produce are significant and currently at risk. High altitude soils contain high C stocks, but due to difficult access to sites these areas are understudied. Moreover, how the C and N cycling is changing in response to climate change in these ecosystems, is still unclear. Microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) and its dependency on the environmental constraints along the altitudinal gradients is one important unknown factor. Here we present results from an altitudinal gradient study (3500 to 4500 m a.s.l.) from a Polylepis forest in the Peruvian Andes. We measured the soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and microbial metabolic CUE by 13C glucose tracing and microbial resource use efficiency (CUEC:N) based on enzyme activity measurements. We expected to find an increase in SOC stock, microbial nutrient limitations, and lower CUE with elevation. SOC stocks depended on soil development and followed a unimodal curve that peaks at 4000 m in two of the three studied valleys. Neither 13CUE nor CUEC:N changed significantly with altitude. Soil C:N ratio, β-glucosidase, chitinase, and phosphatase enzyme activities increased with elevation, but peroxidase activity decreased with elevation. We suggest that more labile organic matter left at high elevation could compensate for the increasing nutrient limitation at high elevation, resulting in no noticeable change in CUE with elevation.

Data from: Multi-generation genetic contributions of immigrants reveal cryptic elevated and sex-biased effective gene flow within a natural meta-population

Impacts of immigration on micro-evolution and population dynamics fundamentally depend on net rates and forms of resulting gene flow into recipient populations. Yet, the degrees to which observed rates and sex ratios of physical immigration translate into multi-generational genetic legacies have not been explicitly quantified in natural meta-populations, precluding inference on how movements translate into effective gene flow and eco-evolutionary outcomes. Our analyses of three decades of complete song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) pedigree data show that multi-generational genetic contributions from regular natural immigrants substantially exceeded those from contemporary natives, consistent with heterosis-enhanced introgression. Further, while contributions from female immigrants exceeded those from female natives by up to three-fold, male immigrants' lineages typically went locally extinct soon after arriving. Both the overall magnitude, and the degree of female bias, of effective gene flow therefore greatly exceeded those which would be inferred from observed physical arrivals, reshaping the eco-evolutionary implications of immigration.

opencc-byNov 2017View details →

Elevator in Berlin - Realities.io

- Captured using Sony a9 w/ Voigtlander 15mm lens. - Reconstructed with RealityCapture - Cleaned up w/ MeshMixer Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab

Simulation details for: Radar signatures and surface observations of elevated convection associated with damaging surface winds

Identifying radar signatures indicative of damaging surface winds produced by convection remains a challenge for operational meteorologists, especially within environments characterized by strong low-level static stability and convection for which inflow is presumably entirely above the planetary boundary layer. Numerical model simulations suggest the most prevalent method through which elevated convection generates damaging surface winds is via "up-down" trajectories, where a near-surface stable layer is dynamically lifted and then dropped with little to no connection to momentum associated with the elevated convection itself. Recently, a number of unique convective episodes during which damaging surface winds were produced by apparently elevated convection coincident with mesoscale gravity waves were identified and cataloged for study. A novel radar signature indicative of damaging surface winds produced by elevated convection is introduced through six representative cases. One case is then explored further via a high-resolution model simulation and related to the conceptual model of "up-down" trajectories. Understanding the processes responsible for, and radar signature indicative of, damaging surface winds produced by gravity-wave coincident convection will help operational forecasters identify and ultimately warn for a previously underappreciated phenomenon that poses a threat to lives and property.

Biogeographic affiliation and centers of richness as predictors of elevational range-size patterns for Malesian flora

Our goal was to interrogate the idea that "mountain passes are higher in the tropics" by investigating ecological and biogeographic drivers of elevational range-sizes patterns among equatorial flora. We used herbarium records for sixty species-rich plant families, representing 18535 species total, to estimate distributions over a 4500 m elevational gradient. For each family, we estimated the change in average range-sizes with increasing elevation (i.e. Rapoport's rule, abbreviated as ERR) and quantified 15 metrics of familial richness distribution, evolutionary age, and biogeographic affiliation. We visualized covariation across families using phylogenetic principal components analysis (pPCA). We then evaluated how family-level ERR slopes correlated with each metric individually, as well as when using multivariate techniques to reduce dimensionality. We hypothesized that if long term climate stability over millions of years promotes habitat specialization, then among taxa with longer-term tropical affiliations, we would expect smaller range-sizes within lowland forests, with greater range-size expansion towards higher elevations, expressed as a positive ERR slope. Conversely, variation in growing conditions should promote larger, relatively consistent, range-sizes at all sections of an elevational gradient, expressed as a neutral ERR slope. Our results support this corollary because of the dichotomy of ERR slopes observed in relation to the elevational distribution of richness and historical biogeographic positioning. We found that families with greater Sundaland endemism, or richness that was restricted to tropical lowland forests, had positive ERR slopes. Families with stronger Sahul affiliation, or montane centered richness, had shallower, neutral, or negative ERR slopes, as did clades with temperate origins. Families with Wallacea affiliation, broader latitudinal or elevational distributions, cosmopolitanism, greater richness, or older evolutionary age had mixed results. We conclude that the relative steepness of an ERR slope is an indicator of a taxonomic group's tolerance of habitat variation and vulnerability to contemporary climate change.

Coral community metabolism during year-long exposure to experimental elevated CO2 conditions

The implications of ocean acidification are acute for calcifying organisms, notably tropical reef corals, for which accretion generally is depressed and dissolution enhanced at reduced seawater pH. We describe year-long experiments in which back reef and fore reef (17-m depth) communities from Moorea, French Polynesia, were incubated outdoors under pCO2 regimes reflecting endpoints of representative concentration pathways (RCPs) expected by the end the century. Incubations were completed in 3–4 flumes (5.0 × 0.3 m, 500 L) in which seawater was refreshed and circulated at 0.1 m s-1, and the response of the communities was evaluated monthly by measurements of net community calcification (NCC) and net community photosynthesis (NCP). For both communities, NCC (but not NCP) was affected by treatments and time, with NCC declining with increasing pCO2, and for the fore reef, becoming negative (i.e., dissolution was occurring) at the highest pCO2 (1067–1433 µatm, RCP8.5). There was scant evidence of community adjustment to reduce the negative effects of ocean acidification, and inhibition of NCC intensified in the back reef as the abundance of massive Porites spp. declined. These results highlight the risks of dissolution under ocean acidification for coral reefs and suggest these effects will be most acute in fore reef habitats. Without signs of amelioration of the negative effects of ocean acidification during year-long experiments, it is reasonable to expect that the future of coral reefs in acidic seas can be predicted from their current known susceptibility to ocean acidification.

Micro- and macroclimate interactively shape diversity, niches, and traits of Orthoptera communities along elevational gradients

Temperature is one of the main drivers shaping species diversity and assembly processes. Yet, site-specific effects of the local microclimate on species and trait compositions of insect communities have rarely been assessed along macroclimatic temperature clines. Bavarian Alps, Germany Bayesian joint species distribution models were applied to investigate how ecological and morphological traits drive variation in the climatic niches of 32 Orthoptera species on 93 grassland sites with contrasting microclimatic conditions along a steep elevational macroclimatic gradient in an Alpine region in Central Europe. Species richness and abundance decreased along the elevational macroclimatic gradient, and both benefitted from warm microclimate. Interactive effects of elevation and microclimate on the abundance were, however, species-specific, and partly mediated by traits: Warm microclimatic conditions facilitated the occurrence of demanding xerophilic and late-hatching species, resulting in marked community dissimilarities at mid-elevations where colder sites harboured only a subset of the species. The latter mainly occurred at low elevations together with long-winged species. Abundance peaks of non-xerophilic species were further upslope when microclimate was warm. Intraspecifically, the body sizes and wing lengths of the larger females, but not the males, decreased with elevation akin the community mean, and brown colour morphs were more frequent at sites with warm microclimate. Our nuanced results reveal that trait-dependent responses of species to microclimate play a key role in the assembly and structuring of insect communities along macroclimatic gradients. Since microclimate preferences changed with elevation, we conclude that species temperature niches are narrower than the elevational range suggests and both macro- and microclimatic conditions must be considered when predicting species responses to climate change. Microclimatic contrasts among sites at similar elevations enhanced species turnover mediated by moisture preferences and phenology, highlighting the importance of mountains for conservation as climatic refugia where species with diverging niches can persist in proximity.

Data from: The contribution of carbon budget to masting intervals in Veratrum album populations inhabiting different elevations

Premise: Mast flowering/seeding is often more extreme in lower-resource environments, such as alpine compared to lowland habitats. We studied a masting herb which had less extreme masting at higher elevations, and tested if this difference could be explained by higher photosynthetic productivity and/or lower reproductive investment at the higher elevation sites. Methods: We examined the relationship between flowering intervals and carbon budget (i.e., the balance between reproductive investment and annual carbon fixation) in a masting herb, Veratrum album subsp. oxysepalum, across five lowland and six alpine populations in northern Japan. We evaluated the previous flowering histories of individual plants based on rhizome morphology and analyzed the masting patterns of individual populations. Total mass of the reproductive organs, as a proxy of reproductive investment, was compared between the lowland and alpine populations. Annual carbon fixation was estimated based on photosynthetic capacity, total leaf area per plant, and seasonal transition of light availability. Results: Interval between high-flowering years was shorter and total reproductive investment was smaller in the alpine than in the lowland populations. Owing to its high photosynthetic capacity and continuous bright conditions, annual carbon fixation per plant was 1.5 times greater at the alpine habitat than at the lowland habitat. These results suggest that V. album alpine populations have shorter flowering intervals than lowland populations due to faster recovery from energy loss after reproduction. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that masting intervals in V. album populations can be explained by habitat-specific carbon budget balances.

opencc-zeroFeb 2024View details →

Bromeliad populations perform distinct ecological strategies across a tropical elevation gradient

<ol> <li>The effect of environmental gradients on the remarkable diversity of mountain-associated plants and on the species' abilities to cope with climate change transcends species-specific strategies. For instance, our understanding of the impact of thermal gradients on ecological divergences in populations of widely distributed species is limited, although it could provide important insights regarding species' response to climate change.</li> <li>Here, we investigated whether populations of an endemic species broadly distributed across an elevation gradient employ unique or multiple divergent ecological strategies according to specific environmental conditions. We hypothesized that populations employ distinct strategies, producing a tolerance-avoidance trade-off related to the thermal conditions they experience across elevations.</li> <li>We conducted our research with 125 individuals of Pitcairnia flammea (Bromeliaceae) sampled from various elevations spanning from sea level to ~2,200 meters and cultivated under the same conditions. To assess specific ecological strategies of P. flammea populations across elevations, we examined leaf temperature, heat and cold tolerances, as well as other structural/morphological, optical, physiological, and biochemical leaf traits.</li> <li>We majorly observed that water-saving traits diminish as elevation increases while membrane fluidity, majorly associated with unsaturated and very-long-chain lipids, enhances. Low-elevation individuals of P. flammea invest in water storage tissues, which likely prevent excessive water loss through the intense transpiration rates under warming periods. Conversely, high-elevation plants exhibit increased membrane fluidity, a possible response to the stiffening induced by low temperature.</li> <li>Our results revealed a tolerance-avoidance trade-off related to thermal strategies of populations distributed across an elevation gradient. Low-elevation plants avoid excessive leaf temperature by investing in water-saving traits to maintain transpiration rates. High-elevation individuals, in turn, tend to invest in membrane properties to tolerate thermal variations, particularly cold events.</li> <li>Our findings challenge the conventional notion that plants' vulnerability to warming depends on species-specific thermal tolerance by showing diverse thermal strategies on populations across an elevation gradient.</li> </ol>