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opencc-zeroMay 2022View details →

Rewetting prolongs root growing season in minerotrophic peatlands and mitigates negative drought effects

Root phenology influences the timing of plant resource acquisition and carbon fluxes into the soil. This is particularly important in fen peatlands, in which peat is primarily formed by roots and rhizomes of vascular plants. However, most fens in Central Europe are drained for agriculture, leading to large carbon losses, and further threatened by increasing frequency and intensity of droughts. Rewetting fens aims to restore the original carbon sink, but how root phenology is affected by drainage and rewetting is largely unknown. We monitored root phenology with minirhizotrons in drained and rewetted fens (alder forest, percolation fen and coastal fen) as well as its soil temperature and water table depth during the 2018 drought. For each fen type, we studied a drained site and a site that was rewetted ~25 years ago, while all the sites studied had been drained for almost a century. Overall, the growing season was longer with rewetting, allowing roots to grow over a longer period in the year and have a higher root production than under drainage. With increasing depth, the growing season shifted to later in time but remained a similar length, and the relative importance of soil temperature for root length changes increased with soil depth. Synthesis and applications. Rewetting extended the growing season of roots, highlighting the importance of phenology in explaining root productivity in peatlands. A longer growing season allows a longer period of carbon sequestration in form of root biomass and promotes the peatlands' carbon sink function, especially through longer growth in deep soil layers. Thus, management practices that focus on rewetting peatland ecosystems are necessary to maintain their function as carbon sinks, particularly under drought conditions, and are a top priority to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change.

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

Data from: Grassland type and seasonal effects have a bigger influence on plant functional and taxonomical diversity than prairie dog disturbances in semi-arid grasslands

Prairie dogs (Cynomys sp.) are considered keystone species and ecosystem engineers for their grazing and burrowing activities (summarized here as disturbances). As climate changes and its variability increases, the mechanisms underlying organisms' interactions with their habitat will likely shift. Understanding the mediating role of prairie dog disturbance on vegetation structure, and its interaction with environmental conditions through time, will increase knowledge on the risks and vulnerability of grasslands. Here, we compared how plant taxonomical diversity, functional diversity metrics and community-weighted trait means (CWM) respond to prairie dog C. mexicanus disturbance across grassland types and seasons (dry and wet) in a priority conservation semiarid grassland of Northeast Mexico. Our findings suggest that functional metrics and CWM analyses responded to interactions between prairie dog disturbance, grassland type and season, whilst species diversity and cover measures were less sensitive to the role of prairie dog disturbance. We found weak evidence that prairie dog disturbance has a negative effect on vegetation structure, except for minimal effects on C4 and graminoid cover, but which depended mainly on season. Grassland type and season explained most of the effects on plant functional and taxonomic diversity as well as CWM traits. Furthermore, we found that leaf area as well as forb and annual cover increased during the wet season, independent of prairie dog disturbance. Our results provide evidence that grassland type and season have a stronger effect than prairie dog disturbance on the vegetation of this short-grass, water restricted grassland ecosystem. We argue that focusing solely on disturbance and grazing effects is misleading, and attention is needed on the relationships between vegetation and environmental conditions which will be critical to understand semi-arid grassland dynamics under future climate change conditions in the region.

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2022View details →

Differential effects of weather, plant phenology and predators on the seasonal variation of aphids on cabbage

Raw field data of aphids and predator (Syrphid, spiders, and coccinellids) densities on cabbage, and weather data in two agroecological zones of Ghana, collected over two years for five cropping seasons. Data was collected on field-grown cabbage weekly after two weeks of transplanting, till when cabbages were matured. The destructive sampling method according to Hughes, 1963 was adopted by randomly sampling the third, fourth, and fifth expanded leaves of 20 randomly selected cabbage plants. Aphids and predators present were visually identified, counted, and recorded.

opencc-zeroAug 2022View details →

Data from: Interactive effects of wildfires, season, and predator activity shape mule deer movements

Wildfires are increasing in size, frequency, and severity due to climate change and fire suppression, but the direct and indirect effects on wildlife remain largely unresolved. Fire removes forest canopy, which can improve forage for ungulates but also reduce snow interception, leading to a deeper snowpack and potentially increased vulnerability to predation in winter. If ungulates exhibit predator-mediated foraging, burns should generally be selected for in summer to access high-quality forage and avoided in winter to reduce predation risk in deep snow. Fires also typically increase the amount of deadfall and initiate growth of dense understory vegetation, creating obstacles that may confer a hunting advantage to stalking predators and a disadvantage to coursing predators. To minimize risk, ungulates may therefore avoid burns when and where stalking predators are most active, and use burns when and where coursing predators are most active. We used telemetry data from GPS-collared mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), cougars (Puma concolor), and wolves (Canis lupus) to develop step selection functions to examine how mule deer navigated species-specific predation risk across a landscape in northern Washington, USA that has experienced substantial wildfire activity during the past several decades. We considered a diverse array of wildfire impacts, accounting for both the severity of the fire and time since the burn (1 to 35 years) in our analyses. We observed support for the predator mediating foraging hypothesis: mule deer generally selected for burned areas in summer and avoided burns in winter. In addition, deer increased use of burned areas when and where wolf activity was high and avoided burns when and where cougar use was high in winter, suggesting the hunting mode of resident predators mediated the seasonal response of deer to burns. Deer were not more likely to die by predation in burned than in unburned areas, indicating that they adequately manage fire-induced changes to predation risk. As fire activity increases with climate change, our findings indicate the impact on ungulates will depend on tradeoffs between enhanced summer forage and functionally reduced winter range, mediated by characteristics of the predator community.

opencc-zeroAug 2022View details →

Effectiveness of seasonal malaria chemoprevention administered in a mass campaign in the Kedougou region of Senegal in 2016: a Case-control study

Context Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) with Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine plus Amodiaquine (SPAQ) is a malaria prevention strategy recommended since 2012 by the World Health Organization (WHO) for children under 5 years of age. In Senegal, the scaling up of the SMC has started since 2013 in the south-eastern regions of the country with an extension of the target to 10 years old children. The scaling up of SMC requires a regular evaluation of the strategy as recommended by the WHO. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of SMC. Methodology A case-control study was conducted in some villages of the health districts of Saraya and Kedougou in the Kedougou region from July to December 2016. A "case" was a sick child, aged 3 months to 10 years, seen in consultation and with a positive RDT. The "control" was a child of the same age group with a negative RDT and living in the same compound as the case or in a neighbouring compound. Each case was matched with two controls. Exposure to SMC was assessed by interviewing the mothers/caretakers and by checking the SMC administration card. Results A total of 492 children, including 164 cases and 328 controls, were recruited for our study. Their mean ages were 5.32 (+/- 2.15) and 4.44 (+/-2.25) years for the cases and the controls respectively. Male children predominated in both cases (55.49%) and controls (51.22%) (p=0.18). Net ownership was 85.80% among cases and 90.85% among controls (p=0.053). The proportion of controls who received SMC was higher than that of cases (98.17% vs 85.98%; (p=1.10-7)). The protective effectiveness of SMC was 89% (IC 95% = 84–93%) (OR=0.11). Conclusion SMC is therefore an effective strategy in the control of malaria in children. Case-control studies are a good approach for monitoring the efficacy of drugs administered during SMC.

opencc-zeroOct 2022View details →

Data from: Effects of manipulated food availability and seasonality on innate immune function in a passerine

1. The innate immune system is essential for survival, yet many immune traits are highly variable between and within individuals. In recent years, attention has shifted to the role of environmental factors in modulating this variation. A key environmental factor is food availability, which plays a major role in shaping life-histories, and may affect resource allocation to immune function through its effect on nutritional state. 2. We developed a technique to permanently increase foraging costs in seed-eating birds, and leveraged this technique to study the effects of food availability on the innate immune system over a three-year period in 230 zebra finches housed in outdoor aviaries. The immune components we studied were haptoglobin, ovotransferrin, nitric oxide, natural antibodies through agglutination, complement-mediated lysis, and killing capacity of Escherichia coli and Candida albicans, covering a broad spectrum of the innate immune system. We explored effects of food availability in conjunction with other potentially important variables: season, age, sex, and manipulated natal brood size. 3. Increased foraging costs affected multiple components of the immune system, albeit in a variable way. Nitric oxide and agglutination levels were lower under harsh foraging conditions, while Escherichia coli killing capacity was increased. Agglutination levels also varied seasonally, but only at low foraging costs. C. albicans' killing capacity was lower in winter, and even more so for animals in harsh foraging conditions that were raised in large broods. Effects of food availability on ovotransferrin were also seasonal, and only apparent in males. Haptoglobin levels were independent of foraging costs and season. 4. Males had higher levels of immune function than females for 3 of the measured immune traits. Innate immune function was independent of age and manipulated natal brood size. 5. Our finding that food availability affects innate immune function suggests that fitness effects of food availability may at least partially be mediated by effects on the immune system. However, food availability effects on innate immunity varied in direction between traits, illustrating the complexity of the immune system and precluding conclusions on the level of disease resistance.

opencc-by-nc-4.0Jan 2022View details →

Figure 3 in Seasonality effect on ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) activity in an ecotonal environment in the state of Piauí, Brazil

Figure 3. Non-metric multidimensional scaling – NMDS of ant composition according to seasonality in an ecotonal area between the Caatinga and Cerrado biomes at Floriano, Piauí, Brazil.

opencc-by-nc-4.0Jan 2022View details →

Figure 2 in Seasonality effect on ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) activity in an ecotonal environment in the state of Piauí, Brazil

Figure 2. Number of ant species (average values) collected according to the seasons studied in a transition area between the Caatinga and Cerrado biomes in Floriano, Piauí, Brazil. The lines link the number of species caught in each collection point.

opencc-zeroDec 2021View details →

Seasonality modulates habitat cover effects on avian cross-boundary responses and spillover

Species cross-boundary response is a key mechanism affecting species spillover into agricultural fields. However, temporal changes in edge permeability, which may depend on the seasonal availability of resources in both matrix and native habitats, remain poorly understood. Here we tested how edge crossing behavior and the associated spillover of birds into sun coffee plantations respond to landscape structure and seasonality. We monitored the movement of six insectivorous understory bird species (four forest-specialists and two forest-generalists) using an automated telemetry system along a gradient of forest cover (7-60%) during two seasons (dry vs. wet) at nine sampling sites at the Brazilian Atlantic forest. We monitored 116 individuals and obtained a total of 15,129 bird detections across seasons. Bird resistance to crossing edges was strongly driven by an interaction between seasonality and forest cover in the surrounding landscape, with higher resistance to crossing edges along the dry season and in landscapes with lower amount of forest cover. Furthermore, spillover patterns in plantations were driven by an interaction between forest cover and distance from forest edges, but this was most pronounced for forest-specialist bird species. Forest-specialists moved more intensively and farther from edges in more forested landscapes, whereas forest-generalists showed similar patterns of occupation regardless of forest cover and isolation. Our study contributes to a better understanding of avian cross-boundary responses and spillover in response to landscape structure across seasons and the factors driving bird movement decisions in anthropogenic landscapes. There are a myriad of possible mechanisms governing movement decisions, and these mechanisms may interact in complex ways and remain important foci for research within fields of tropical ecology and evolution in the tropics.

opencc-zeroJun 2024View details →

Data from: From leaves to whole plants: effects of shelter-builders on arthropod communities are stronger in dry seasons

Leaf shelters function as microclimatic refuges, reducing arthropod exposure to climatic fluctuations of surrounding habitats. Although facilitation is expected to increase under stressful conditions, empirical studies investigating the patterns of variation and magnitude of effects of ecosystem engineering at different spatial and temporal scales are still scarce. In this study we evaluated the facilitation consequences of leaf shelter created by gall-inducers on arthropod communities of Miconia ligustroides (DC.) Naudin (Melastomataceae). We evaluated how such effects change at the leaf and plant levels in an environment subject to strong climatic seasonality. The presence of leaf shelters on M. ligustroides increased arthropod diversity and biomass, modified the species composition at both the leaf and plant levels, and in wet and dry seasons. However, the addition of artificial leaf shelters during the dry season showed greater abundance, richness, and biomass of arthropods when compared to shelters added during the wet season. Regarding the global effects of artificial leaf shelters on the diversity of arthropods associated with M. ligustroides, the dry season showed strong and positive effects, increasing the abundance, richness, and biomass of arthropods by an average of 65% for both years. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the patterns of variation and magnitude of ecosystem engineering at different spatial and temporal scales and provides new insights into the importance of shelters for aridity-sensitive species.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2022View details →

Figure 2 in Effect of season and housing systems on various physiobehavioral attributes of local breed of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Figure 2. Mean values for meteorological attributes during different study seasons.

Figure 7 in The effect of insularity on the seasonal population structure of Mesobuthus gibbosus (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

Figure 7: The Relative Surface Density per sampling in the two study sites.

Figure 2 in The effect of insularity on the seasonal population structure of Mesobuthus gibbosus (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

Figure 2: A scorpion marked in the first somite of the mesosoma (November 2001 in Crete).

Figure 4 in The effect of insularity on the seasonal population structure of Mesobuthus gibbosus (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

Figure 4: The population density at the two sites.

Figure 1 in The effect of insularity on the seasonal population structure of Mesobuthus gibbosus (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

Figure 1: Map showing the location of the two study sites in Greece.

Figure 5 in The effect of insularity on the seasonal population structure of Mesobuthus gibbosus (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

Figure 5: The proportion of marked scorpions per sampling.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2018View details →

Dataset: Climate change effects on early stages of Quercus ariifolia (Fagaceae), an endemic oak from seasonally dry forests of Mexico

This repository contains the files associated with the following article: Badano EI, FA Guerra-Coss, EJ Sánchez-Montes de Oca, CI Briones-Herrera & SM Gelviz-Gelvez. Climate change effects on early stages of Quercus ariifolia (Fagaceae), an endemic oak from seasonally dry forests of Mexico. Acta Botanica Mexicana, 126, Article e1466. <a href="https://doi.org/10.21829/abm126.2019.1466">https://doi.org/10.21829/abm126.2019.1466</a> The first Microsoft Excel file (Additional data 01 - Microclimate.xlsx) contains microclimate data gathered within control plots and climate change simulation plots (CCS plots) during the field experiment. These data include air temperature (measured every hour in 10 experimental units of each climate treatment with dataloggers - HOBO U23-Pro-V2, Onset Computer Corporation, USA), rainfall (measured at each rainfall event in 5 experimental units of each climate treatment with automatized pluviometers - HOBO S-RGB-M002, Onset Computer Corporation, USA) and soil water content (measured every week in 10 experimental units of each climate treatment with a time-domain reflectometer - FieldScout TDR 300, Spectrum Technologies, USA). Values of each of these variables are provided in different spreadsheets. The second Microsoft Excel file (Additional data 02 - Seedling responses) contains the data used to calculate the emergence rates and survival rates of Quercus ariaefolia during the experimental period a each experimental treatment. This file also contains the data gathered at the end of the experiment about chlorophyll content (in SPAD Units) and chlorophyll fluorescence (the spreadsheet contains the values of these variables measured on each seedling leaf; the computation of averages across leaves of each seedling is provided on the side), and the other functional traits measured on seedlings from controls and CCS plots.

opencc-zeroDec 2018View details →

Data from: Effect of lianas on forest-level tree carbon accumulation does not differ between seasons: results from a liana removal experiment in Panama

1. Lianas are prevalent in Neotropical forests, where liana-tree competition can be intense, resulting in reduced tree growth and survival. The ability of lianas to grow relative to trees during the dry season suggests that liana-tree competition is also strongest in the dry season. If correct, the predicted intensification of the drying trend over large areas of the tropics in the future may therefore intensify liana-tree competition, resulting in a reduced carbon sink function of tropical forests. However, no study has established whether the liana effect on tree carbon accumulation is indeed stronger in the dry than in the wet season. 2. Using six years of data from a large-scale liana removal experiment in Panama, we provide the first experimental test of whether liana effects on tree carbon accumulation differ between seasons. We monitored tree and liana diameter increments at the beginning of the dry and wet season each year to assess seasonal differences in forest-level carbon accumulation between removal and control plots. 3. We found that median liana carbon accumulation was consistently higher in the dry ( 0.52 Mg C ha-1 yr-1) than the wet season (0.36 Mg C ha-1 yr-1), and significantly so in three of the years. Lianas reduced forest-level median tree carbon accumulation more severely in the wet (1.45 Mg C ha-1 yr-1) than the dry (1.05 Mg C ha-1 yr-1) season in all years. However, the relative effect of lianas was similar between the seasons, with lianas reducing forest-level tree carbon accumulation by 46.9% in the dry and 48.5% in the wet season. 4. Synthesis: Our results provide the first experimental demonstration that lianas do not have a stronger competitive effect on tree carbon accumulation during the dry season. Instead, lianas compete significantly with trees during both seasons, indicating a large negative effect of lianas on forest-level tree biomass increment regardless of seasonal water stress. Longer dry seasons are unlikely to impact liana-tree competition directly; however, the greater liana biomass increment during dry seasons may lead to further proliferation of liana biomass in tropical forests, with consequences for their ability to store and sequester carbon.

opencc-by-nc-4.0Jul 2019View details →

Figure 3 in Distribution of gall-inducing arthropods in areas of deciduous seasonal forest of Parque da Sapucaia (Montes Claros, MG, Brazil): effects of anthropization, vegetation structure and seasonality

Figure 3. Morphological characterization of the galls induced by arthropods in areas of deciduous seasonal forest of Parque da Sapucaia, Montes Claros, MG, Brazil: (A, B, C) Fabaceae – Dalbergia sp.; (D) undetermined; (E, F, G) Loganiaceae – Sthrychnos sp.; (H) Opiliaceae – Agonandra brasiliensis; (I) Sapindaceae – Serjania sp.; (J) Vitaceae – Cissus sp.; (K) Undetermined family 1; and (L) Undetermined family 2.