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1,640 results for “deserts”
Soil bacterial diversity inventories along small-scale stress gradients in the Arctic, Antarctic, and Chihuahuan Deserts (2022-2023)
Bacteria form the foundation of soil ecosystems in desert ecosystems, driving soil function, diversity, and ecology. Soil physicochemistry is largely dictated by larger topographical variations and can directly drive bacterial community composition and the relationships within. Bacteria may form complex networks of interactions with other bacteria and other soil taxa that have implications for emergent properties such as diversity and stability, but the way these interactions are impacted by environmental stressors remains poorly understood. Here, we sampled soil bacterial communities of three desert ecosystems at different latitudes: the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica; the northern Chihuahuan Desert, Jornada Experimental Range (JER), New Mexico, USA; and the Arctic tundra at the Canadian High Arctic Research Research Station (CHARS), Victoria Island, Nunavut, Canada. In each system, a holistic stress-gradient was sampled based on local topographical variation, vegetation cover, and water availability. Sampling along the stress-gradient was conducted at four distinct stress levels, namely lower elevation with vegetation cover, lower elevation without vegetation cover, higher elevation with vegetation cover, and higher elevation without vegetation cover. To allow robust biodiversity inference and co-occurrence network construction, 30 replicates were collected at each stress level, and this was done at two independent stress gradients for the Chihuahuan Desert and Arctic sites. The Antarctic samples consisted of two independent stress gradients, one ranging from low, middle to high elevation without vegetation cover, and one consisting of two levels with and without vegetation cover. For each site, soil pH and gravimetric water content was also measured. Each replicate was then sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq for 2x250 paired-end sequencing of the 16S rRNA marker. Sequences were archived in NCBI under BioProject PRJNA1098956, with accession numbers included herein.
Long-term dynamics of soil organic matter and aboveground net primary production in a Chihuahuan Desert Grassland at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (1989-2014)
Drylands contain a third of the organic carbon stored in global soils; however, the long-term dynamics of soil organic carbon and soil organic matter (SOM) in drylands remain poorly understood relative to dynamics of the vegetation carbon pool. We examined long-term patterns in SOM against both climate and prescribed fire in a Chihuahuan Desert grassland in central New Mexico, USA. SOM was measured each spring and fall for 25 years (1989–2014) in unburned desert grassland and from 2003 to 2014 following a prescribed fire. SOM concentration from 0-20 cm depth did not show a clear long-term trend but fluctuated seasonally at both burned and unburned sites, ranging from a minimum of 0.9% to a maximum of 3.3%. SOM concentration declined nonlinearly in wet seasons and peaked in dry seasons. These results not only contrast with the positive relationships between aboveground net primary production and precipitation for this region, but also with previous reports of greater SOM in wetter sites across drylands globally, suggesting that space is not a good substitute for time in predicting the dynamics of dryland SOM. We suggest that declines in SOM in wet periods are caused by increased soil respiration, runoff, leaching, and soil erosion. In addition to tracking natural variability in climate, SOM concentration also decreased by 14% following prescribed fire, a response that magnified over time and has persisted for nearly a decade due to the slow recovery of primary production. Our results document the surprisingly dynamic nature of soil organic matter and its high sensitivity to climate and fire in this dryland ecosystem.
SEV-LTER Mean Variance Experiment Desert Shrubland Soil Moisture and Temperature
We designed novel field experimental infrastructure to resolve the relative importance of changes in the climate mean and variance in regulating the structure and function of dryland populations, communities, and ecosystem processes. The Mean x Variance Experiment (MVE) adds three novel elements to prior designs (Gherardi & Sala 2013) that have manipulated interannual variance in climate in the field by (i) determining interactive effects of mean and variance with a factorial design that crosses a drier mean with increased (more) variance, (ii) studying multiple dryland ecosystem types to compare their susceptibility to transition under interactive climate drivers, and (iii) adding stochasticity to our treatments to permit the antecedent effects that occur under natural climate variability. This new infrastructure enables direct experimental tests of the hypothesis that interactions between the mean and variance of precipitation will have larger ecological impacts than either the mean or variance in precipitation alone. A subset of plots have soil moisture and temperature sensors to evaluate treatment effectiveness by addressing, How do MVE manipulations alter the mean and variance in soil moisture and temperature? And, how does micro-environmental variation among plots influence how much MVE treatments alter soil moisture profiles over three soil depths? This data package includes soil moisture and temperature sensor data from the Mean x Variance Climate experiment in the Desert Shrubland ecosystem at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro, NM.
Small Mammal Exclosure Study (SMES) Surface Soil Disturbance in the Chihuahuan Desert Grassland and Shrubland at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (1995-2005)
The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not the activities of small mammals regulate plant community structure, plant species diversity, and spatial vegetation patterns in Chihuahuan Desert shrublands and grasslands. What role if any do indigenous small mammal consumers have in maintaining desertified landscapes in the Chihuahuan Desert? Additionally, how do the effects of small mammals interact with changing climate to affect vegetation patterns over time? This is data for animal created soil surface disturbance measured from each of the SMES study plots. Soil surface disturbance was measured from each of the 36 one-meter2 quadrats twice each year when vegetation was measured.
Least cost network data for ancient camel transportation in the Eastern desert of Egypt - Desert Networks HiSoMA CNRS
<p>This repository contains the data necessary for the realization of a least cost network for camel transport during antiquity (Ptolemaic and Roman period) in the Egyptian eastern desert. The details of the network construction and data processing can be found in the the associated paper and datapaper.</p> <p>Study paper:<br> Manière, L., Crépy, M., Redon, B. (2020) Building a Model to reconstruct the Hellenistic and Roman Road Networks of the Eastern desert of Egypt, a Semi-Empirical Approach Based on Modern Travelers’ Itineraries. DOI : <a href="http://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.67">http://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.67</a></p> <p>Datapaper:<br> Manière, L., Crépy, M., Redon, B. (2020) Geospatial data from the “Modelling the Hellenistic and Roman Road Networks of the Eastern desert of Egypt, a Semi-Empirical Approach Based on Modern Travelers’ Itineraries” paper. DOI : <a href="http://doi.org/10.5334/joad.71">http://doi.org/10.5334/joad.71</a></p>
Morpho-sedimentary outlines displayed in Figures 1, S1, and S6-S15 of the article "Source-to-sink aeolian fluxes from arid landscape dynamics in the Lut Desert"
<p>Morpho-sedimentary outlines of the aeolian landforms in the Lut Desert.</p>
Drone orthomosaics for 'Livestock impacts on an iconic Namib Desert plant are mediated by abiotic conditions'
<p>Drone orthomosaics used in the analyses and figures of: Livestock impacts on an iconic Namib Desert plant are mediated by abiotic conditions, accepted in Oecologia.</p> <p>These drone orthomosaics are a data supplement to the code and data repository here: https://github.com/jtkerb/Nara_Paper_Repo</p>
Dataset associated with Banks et al.: "Dust aerosol from the Aralkum Desert influences the radiation budget and atmospheric dynamics of Central Asia"
<p>This dataset contains the COSMO-MUSCAT simulation output for the 'Dustbelt' (DUBLT) scenarios of Central Asian dust aerosol and associated radiative effects described by the paper "Radiative cooling and atmospheric perturbation effects of dust aerosol from the Aralkum Desert in Central Asia", written by Banks et al. and submitted to ACP in 2023. The paper was renamed "Dust aerosol from the Aralkum Desert influences the radiation budget and atmospheric dynamics of Central Asia" in 2024.</p>
Temperature Measurements of Southern California Deserts 2022.
The following data was recorded at various desert field sites within Southern California. Data was collected between May 2022 and June 2022. 3 different deserts; Carrizo, Cuyama, and Mojave, were tested. Temperature pendants were deployed for 30 days and recorded local temperature at 1 hour intervals.
Nevada Desert FACE Facility Soil Organic Carbon Data
This data set is the result of soils analysis from the Nevada Desert Free-Air CO2 Enrichment Facility (NDFF) experiment in the Mojave Desert and reports soil organic carbon (%C) and delta 13C stable isotope values. These soils were collected at the end of the NDFF experiment in 2007 and stored at Cornell University until analysis in 2018. Soils were harvested from 6 cover types (5 perennial vegetation covers and unvegetated interspace soils) from 0-100 cm in the soil profile in 20 cm increments. Soils were pretreated for inorganic carbon removal using an acid fumigation technique with HCl. Bulk density from NDFF plots is provided (kg soil* ha ^ -1) so that SOC stocks may be calculated. These data provide the basis for a publication challenging the prevailing idea that arid ecosystems will increase soil organic carbon stocks under long term elevated CO2.
Net primary production (NPP) and climate data from Sevilleta LTER core and control sites in desert grassland and shrubland ecosystems, 1999 - 2017
This dataset and R code were used to create the figures, tables and statistical analyses for the following publication: Rudgers, JA et al. 2018. Climate sensitivity functions and net primary production: A framework for incorporating climate mean and variability. Ecology. Data were collected by the Sevilleta LTER program, which is located in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR), New Mexico. These are long-term, continuing data sets. Data collection started in 1999 at the black grama grassland and creosote shrubland, and in 2002 for blue grama grassland. Meteorological stations started recording data as early as 1989. The study abstract from Rudgers et al. 2018 is: Understanding controls on net primary production (NPP) has been a long-standing goal in ecology. Climate is a well-known control on NPP, although the temporal differences among years within a site are often weaker than the spatial pattern of differences across sites. Climate sensitivity functions describe the relationship between an ecological response (e.g., NPP) and both the mean and variance of its climate driver (e.g., aridity index), providing a novel framework for understanding how climate trends in both mean and variance vary with NPP over time. Nonlinearities in these functions predict whether an increase in climate variance will have a positive effect (convex nonlinearity) or negative effect (concave nonlinearity) on NPP. The influence of climate variance may be particularly intense at ecosystem transition zones, if species reach physiological thresholds that create nonlinearities at these ecotones. Long-term data collected at the confluence of three dryland ecosystems in central New Mexico revealed that each ecosystem exhibited a unique climate sensitivity function that was consistent with long-term vegetation change occurring at their ecotones. Our analysis suggests that rising temperatures in drylands could alter the nonlinearities that determine the relative costs and benefits of varia
Extreme Drought in Grasslands Experiment (EDGE): High frequency measurements from the northern Chihuahuan Desert site, Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, NM, USA (2013-2023)
The Extreme Drought in Grasslands Experiment (EDGE) is distributed across six representative grassland ecosystems of the central United States. EDGE serves as an important research platform for understanding the resistance and resilience of these grassland ecosystems to extreme prolonged drought as well as to changes in precipitation seasonality. This data package contains high-frequency environmental sensor measurements from the northern Chihuahuan Desert site, dominated by black grama (Bouteloua eriopoda), located in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico.
Rabbit Population Dynamics in Chihuahuan Desert Grasslands and Shrublands at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (1992-present) (Reformatted to a Darwin Core Archive)
This data package is formatted as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A, event core). For more information on Darwin Core see https://www.tdwg.org/standards/dwc/. This Level 2 data package was derived from the Level 1 data package found here: https://pasta.lternet.edu/package/metadata/eml/edi/334/2, which was derived from the Level 0 data package found here: https://pasta.lternet.edu/package/metadata/eml/knb-lter-sev/23/121705. The abstract below was extracted from the Level 0 data package and is included for context: This study explores the population dynamics of black-tail jackrabbits (Lepus californicus) and desert cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus auduboni) in the grasslands and creosote shrublands of McKenzie Flats, Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. The study was initiated in January 1992, and continues quarterly each year. Rabbits are sampled via night-time spotlight transect sampling along the roads of McKenzie Flats once during winter, spring, summer, and fall. The route is 21.5 miles long. Measurements of perpendicular distance of each rabbit from the center of the road are used to estimate densities (number of rabbits per square kilometer) via Program DISTANCE. Results from January 1992 to May 2004 indicated that spring was the period of peak density period, with generally steady declines through the rest of the year until the following spring. Evidence of a long-term "cycle" (e.g., the 11-year-cycle reported for rabbits in the Great Basin Desert) does not appear in the Sevilleta rabbit populations.
Ecological Survey of Central Arizona: a survey of key ecological indicators in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area and surrounding Sonoran desert, ongoing since 1999 (Reformatted to a Darwin Core Archive)
This data package is formatted as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A, event core). For more information on Darwin Core see https://www.tdwg.org/standards/dwc/. This Level 2 data package was derived from the Level 1 data package found here: https://pasta.lternet.edu/package/metadata/eml/edi/247/3, which was derived from the Level 0 data package found here: https://pasta.lternet.edu/package/metadata/eml/knb-lter-cap/652/3. The abstract below was extracted from the Level 0 data package and is included for context: The Ecological Survey of Central Arizona (ESCA) is an extensive field survey and integrated inventory designed to capture key ecological indicators of the CAP LTER study area consisting of the urbanized, suburbanized, and agricultural areas of metropolitan Phoenix, and the surrounding Sonoran desert. The survey, formerly known as the survey 200 and renamed to ESCA in 2015, is conducted every five years at approximately 200 sample plots (30m x 30m) that were located randomly using a tessellation-stratified dual-density sampling design. Study plots cover habitats throughout the CAP LTER study area ranging from native Sonoran desert sites to residential yards to an airport tarmac. Measurements include an inventory of all plants (identified to the lowest possible taxonomic unit, typically species), plant biovolume, soil coring for physicochemical properties, arthropod sweep-net sampling, photo documentation, and a visual survey of site and area characteristics. The objectives of the survey are to (1) characterize patches in terms of key biotic, physical, and chemical variables, and (2) examine relationships among land use, general plant diversity, native plant diversity, plant biovolume, soil nutrient status, and social-economic indices along an indirect urban gradient. A pilot survey was conducted in 1999, and the first full ESCA was conducted in 2000. The maiden survey in 2000 featured a suite of measurements that were not assessed in later surveys, including data fr
The structural and nutrient chemistry of decomposing cacti in the Sonoran Desert
Cacti are an abundant taxa in the Sonoran Desert, but most research focuses on their population dynamics and physiology and relatively little is currently known regarding their role in desert biogeochemical cycles, particularly regarding their decomposition dynamics. A better understanding of cactus decomposition and their role in ecosystem processes is important, considering there are many threatened and endangered species within this group. In this study, we decomposed two common species of cacti, Opuntia chlorotica (pancake prickly pear) and Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa (buckhorn cholla), in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, U.S.A. Mass loss, water loss, nutrient content, and structural and metabolic chemistry were measured at regular intervals over the course of one year of decomposition. Our results demonstrate the contribution of cactus decomposition to carbon and nutrient recycling, with dynamics that are overall comparable to those of woody and herbaceous leaf litter for most elements. We enumerate, however, a particularly important role in calcium dynamics in comparison to woody and herbaceous leaf litter. Despite different structural characteristics, both cactus species released nutrients at a statistically equivalent rate, though with altered timing of net immobilization and mineralization due to temporary mass gain and associated nutrient immobilization in cholla. The release of nutrients and water from decaying cacti have a modest influence on underlying soil CO2 flux, secondary to a more dominant influence of overall soil temperature and moisture. Thus, our data provide a baseline for understanding the decay dynamics of two common cactus species and suggest that, while there is still a lack of information pertaining to cactus decomposition, the similarities between leaf litter and cacti will aid our predictions of the consequences of future changes in cactus populations.
Spiders in a Desert City: What the Behavior and Microclimate of Western Black Widows Can Teach Us About the Impacts of Urbanization
With the planet rapidly urbanizing, understanding the ecological effects of urbanization is a grand challenge for modern biology. For example, increased city temperatures known as the urban heat island effect, disproportionately impact nocturnal taxa and this consideration is widely overlooked. Slight shifts in the thermal microclimate have a cascade of ramifications that directly impact species density and distribution. Animal behavior is a trait that may explain why some species thrive after urbanization when others go locally extinct. In this study we followed 22 adult females of the western black widow, Latrodectus hesperus, from both urban and undisturbed Sonoran Desert habitats. We began looking for differences between urban and desert spiders under field conditions: boldness, voracity, web size and body condition. Both urban and desert spiders were then brought to the laboratory to see how their behavior changed. We found no behavioral differences between urban and desert spiders in the field or the laboratory. We did find that spider behavior differed between the field and the laboratory. Specifically, boldness in the laboratory was significantly lower compared to the field. Voracity was more repeatable in the laboratory versus the field, and boldness was strongly positively correlated with voracity in the laboratory, but not in the field. These behavioral shifts from the field to the laboratory favor the conclusion that black widow behavior is highly plastic and context dependent. Lastly, we monitored web temperature of black widow microhabitat continuously for an entire year using thermochron data loggers. We found microhabitat temperatures differences between urban and desert sites were greatest at night and absent during the daytime. We uncovered a seasonal effect with the highest magnitude temperature difference occurring during the springtime. Additionally, behavior was significantly correlated with field temperatures; the boldest spiders come from the
Vegetation influences desert soil arthropods and their response to altered precipitation
Altered size and frequency of precipitation pulses will influence both plant and soil communities in water-limited systems such as the Sonoran Desert. Little is known about the response of desert soil fauna communities, particularly the mesofauna that are important components of the detrital food web. Further, while there is a well-documented impact of vegetation on soil fauna communities, the role of vegetation in buffering the soil community against such environmental changes is unclear. We conducted a short-term field study to (1) assess how the amount and frequency of monsoon season precipitation pulses influence soil arthropod communities and (2) explore the role of plant-soil linkages in the response of soil arthropod communities to altered precipitation. We experimentally altered the size (ambient and 50% increase) and frequency (ambient and 2X reduced frequency) of monsoon season precipitation for two dominant shrubs representing distinctly different functional types, as well as interplant spaces. We measured the resulting soil arthropod abundance, diversity, and composition, as well as key soil properties to characterize the soil habitat beneath each vegetation type.
Map of ecological sites and ecological states for pastures 1, 4, 14, and 15 on the Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center, New Mexico
This data package includes an ArcMap geodatabase for the Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center (CDRRC) pastures 1, 4, 14, and 15: one polygon feature class, one point feature class, associated attribute tables and metadata. The spatial data, CDRRC1_4_14_15_StateMap_v1.gdb.zip, represents the ecological sites and states on Pastures 1, 4, 14 and 15 on the Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center, and includes field traverse data. CDRRC1_4_14_15_StateMapMetadata.pdf and TraversePointsMetadata.pdf contain the geospatial metadata provided by ArcMap. CDRRC1_4_14_15_StateMap_v1.csv is the attribute table associated with the state map’s polygon feature class, and TraversePoints.xlsx is the attribute table associated with the traverse points feature class and includes a sheet containing detailed attribute metadata.
2003 Prescribed Burn Effect on Chihuahuan Desert Grasses and Shrubs at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico: Grass Recovery Study (2003-2018)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife's plan to apply a prescribed burn to a large portion of McKenzie Flats was deemed an opportunity to study the effects of fire on vegetation at the boundary between shrubland and grassland. This study actually was undertaken on an area that had prescribed fire applied to 8 of 16 (300 m x 300 m) plots 10 years before in 1993. This previous study had also examined the effects of fencing to exclude the indigenous prong-horn antelope. In the 2003 study the prescribed fire was applied to the northeastern half of the 16 plots while the southwestern plots were intentionally protected. Sampling prior to the prescribed burn included quantification of cover of grass species in quadrats within all of the 16 plots. Measurements were made using "niner" quadrat frames that are 30 cm x 30 cm frames that are divided into 9 1-decimeter squares. Counts of grass species were made just prior to the June 2003 burn. Following the prescribed burn, quadrats were remeasured in the fall of 2003 to quantify mortality of grass species. These measurements were taken through the fall of 2012 and the fall of 2018. Measurements were not taken for 2014-2017.
Hydraulic Constraints on Two Life History Stages of Larrea tridentata in a Chihuahuan Desert Creosote Shrubland at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2002-2003)
Maintaining high rates of water loss during times of high resource availability could allow establishing woody desert perennials to grow quickly by allowing them to take advantage of the fleeting but abundant monsoonal moisture typical of warm deserts like the Chihuahuan. However, a plant cannot endlessly increase water loss in order to grow faster --there are hydraulic constraints on rates of water loss. The hydraulic properties of each particular plant xylem and soil microsite, as well as the AR:AL absorbing root area to transpiring leaf area ratio) interact to set limits on rates of water loss. If transpiration rates become too high, cavitation may limit the ability of the xylem to supply water to the leaves. The main objective of this study was to test two hypotheses on a population of Larrea tridentata at the Sevilleta LTER in central New Mexico (1) do small plants grow faster and use water less conservatively than large, and (2) are there differences in the hydraulic constraints on small and large plants. Measurements were made every six weeks in the spring, summer and fall from April 2002 - August 2003. Field measurements of shoot growth, gas exchange and plant and soil water potentials were made to determine growth rates and water use. Measurements of leaf specific conductance determined the ability of the xylem to supply water to the leaves. Excavation findings were used to estimate (AR:AL). Xylem vulnerability curves and soil texture analysis were used to determine the hydraulic properties of the plant xylem and soil. A model determined where the limiting conductance occurred in the plant-soil continuum.
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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.