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165 results for “environmental trait”
Data from: The intraspecific relationship between wood density, vessel diameter and other traits across environmental gradients
<p>This data is about several traits measured on branches of 3 wide-niche breadth tree species--Embothrium coccineum (Proteaceae, Nothofagus antarctica (Nothofagaceae) and N. pumilio--growing across environmental gradients in southern Chile. The traits involve leaf, wood anatomy, including wood density, growth, carbon reserves and wood isotopes.</p>
Broad- and small-scale environmental gradients drive variation in chemical, but not morphological, leaf traits of vascular epiphytes
<p>Variation in leaf functional traits along environmental gradients can reveal how vascular epiphytes respond to broad- and small-scale environmental gradients. Along elevational gradients, both temperature and precipitation likely play an important role as drivers of leaf trait variation, but these traits may also respond to small-scale changes in light, temperature, and humidity along the vertical environmental gradient within forest canopies. However, the relative importance of broad- and small-scale environmental gradients as drivers of variation in leaf functional traits of vascular epiphytes is poorly understood. Here, we examined variation in morphological and chemical leaf traits of 102 vascular epiphyte species spanning two environmental gradients along Cofre de Perote mountain in Mexico: i) a broad-scale environmental gradient approximated by elevation as well as by species' lower and upper elevational limits, and ii) small-scale environmental gradients using the relative height of attachment of an epiphyte on a host tree as a proxy for variation in environmental conditions within the forest canopy. We also assessed whether variation in morphological and chemical leaf traits along these gradients were consistent across photosynthetic pathways (CAM and C<sub>3</sub>). Broad- and small-scale environmental gradients explained more variation in chemical traits (marginal R2: 11-89%) than in morphological traits (marginal R2: 2-31%). For example, leaf carbon isotope signatures (δ<sup>13</sup>C), which reflects water-use efficiency, varied systematically across both environmental gradients, suggesting a decrease in water-use efficiency with increasing lower and upper elevational limits and an increase in water-use efficiency with relative height of attachment. The influence of lower and upper elevational limits on trait variation differed between photosynthetic pathways, except for leaf dry matter content and leaf nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratio. Contrary to our expectations, broad- and small-scale environmental gradients explained minimal variation in morphological leaf traits, suggesting that environmental conditions do not constrain morphological leaf trait values of vascular epiphytes. Our findings suggest that assessing multiple drivers of leaf trait variation among photosynthetic pathways is key for disentangling the mechanisms underlying responses of vascular epiphytes to environmental conditions.</p>
Life-history traits modulate the influence of environmental stressors on biodiversity: the case of fireflies, climate, and artificial light at night
Aim Artificial light at night (ALAN) is an unprecedented stressor recently introduced in the abiotic milieu of natural landscapes. As such, understanding how ALAN and other natural stressors act in concert to shape the spatial distribution of biodiversity is a core goal in conservation ecology. Here, we aim at understanding how ALAN and climate interact with life-history traits and courtship signalling systems to dictate the composition of firefly communities in a global biodiversity hotspot. Location An extensive elevational gradient in the Atlantic Rainforest (Brazil) currently known as the hottest hotspot of fireflies on Earth. Methods We used multivariate species distribution models to understand how species traits and courtship signalling systems interact with climate and ALAN to determine species abundances within firefly communities. We also investigated how species-specific responses to climate and ALAN scale up to determine compositional changes in firefly communities along the elevational gradient. Results We found that climate shapes communities by filtering species according to their body size and trophic position. ALAN dictates the dominant courtship signalling system within communities by affecting the abundance of species that use bioluminescence or a combination of bioluminescence and pheromones in courtship. We also found that associations between beta-diversity and ALAN were non-stationary, being higher in regions under low levels of light pollution. This suggests that even incipient increases in ALAN within protected areas can yield fast changes in the composition of firefly communities. Main Conclusions Firefly responses to climate and ALAN are modulated by traits associated with different facets of their life histories. Given the alarming changes in both stressors predicted for the foreseeable future, our findings indicate that firefly communities are vulnerable to compositional changes even within protected areas. --
Data from: Environmental filtering of macroinvertebrate traits influences ecosystem functioning in a large river floodplain
<p>The Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function hypothesis postulates that higher biodiversity is correlated with faster ecosystem process rates and increased ecosystem stability in fluctuating environments. Exhibiting high spatio-temporal habitat diversity, floodplains are highly productive ecosystems, supporting communities that are naturally resilient and highly diverse. </p> <p>We examined linkages among floodplain wetland habitats, invertebrate communities and their associated traits, and ecosystem function across 60 sites within the floodplain wetlands of the lower Wolastoq | Saint John River, New Brunswick, using structural equation modelling and Threshold Indicator Taxa ANalysis (TITAN2). </p> <p>We identified key environmental filters structuring invertebrate communities, by linking increased niche differentiation through shoreline change, flood pulse dynamics, and macrophyte bed complexity with increased taxa and functional diversity. </p> <p>Examination of traits linked to ecosystem functions revealed that more resilient wetlands with balance between primary productivity and decomposition as carbon sources were associated with greater functional evenness and richness, while habitat patches with elevated decomposition rates had lower functional richness, reflecting a simplified, more disturbed habitat. </p> <p>While our more complex overarching SEM model was ultimately compromised by an overspecified number of pathways, our results nevertheless are indicative of a divergence between wetland and riverine ecosystems in their relationships linking biodiversity and ecosystem function, illustrating how to define ecosystem health in wetland habitats, and demonstrating how critical functions support healthy wetland habitats by providing increased resilience to disturbance.</p>
New proposal of epiphytic Bromeliaceae functional groups to include nebulophytes and shallow tanks: functional traits and environmental variables data bases
<p>Data set contains two data files (two .xlsx files). The first data file contains records of functional traits from 204 Bromeliacea species, this records are separeted in two sheets, one with new data compiled from publications, original data and data messuered from herbarium specimens; the second sheed compiled data published by Heits et al., 2021, that was combined with sheet 1 data to carry out statistical analysis; this base also contains other sheets with refrences, contributors and sites of collection.The second data file contains environmental data obtand from bioclim, Terraclimate, Zomer et al. (2022) and FAO, such as vapor presure deficit, precipitation, aridity index, soil capacity to retein moisture, evapotranspiration, temperature and ecological zones from species records from GBif and herbarium georeferenced records. Records include references and contributors.</p>
The confluence of traits and environmental factors driving diversification and niche expansion in the globally distributed order Myrtales
<p>Supplementary files for the article: <strong>The confluence of traits and environmental factors driving diversification and niche expansion in the globally distributed order Myrtales</strong></p>
Traits mediate environmental responses of benthic ciliates in dynamic coastal habitats
<p><strong>Aim:</strong> Understanding how species' traits mediate environmental responses provides a mechanistic perspective on community assembly processes. Although traits that influence the response of multicellular organisms to environments have been studied, the identification of such traits in unicellular organisms, like ciliates, is underexplored. Since ciliates are dominate animals at coastal sandy sediments and contribute significantly to interstitial community respiration, identifying links between their occurrence and sandy-coast characteristics is crucial for conserving biodiversity and protecting coastal habitats.</p> <p><strong>Location:</strong> Coasts of China.</p> <p><strong>Methods:</strong> We used Hierarchical Modeling of Species Communities, a trait-based joint species distribution model, to analyze ciliate community data collected from 344 sites belonging to 31 beaches across the Chinese coastline.</p> <p><strong>Results:</strong> We found that physical variables play the most important role in determining ciliate occurrence. The beach index which combines the tidal range, sediment grain size and beach slope of beach selected species based on body size as well as feeding type, while sediment grain size constrained different mobility types, with swimming species favoring fine sandy sediments. The significant contribution of phylogeny in explaining the residual variation among species responses indicates that there are phylogenetically conserved but unmeasured traits too that influence species' responses. Species richness of benthic ciliates was higher in dissipative beaches with high primary productivity.</p> <p><strong>Main conclusions:</strong> Based on our research, ciliate occurrence in coastal beaches is mediated by their traits which are filtered by local environmental variables. The beach index is essential in predicting distribution patterns and species richness of benthic ciliates. Nevertheless, further research is needed to identify additional traits that will enhance the accuracy of predicting ciliate niches. Our study provides insights into the mechanisms driving ciliate community assembly processes and has implications for the conservation of biodiversity in sandy coastal habitats.</p>
Data from: Environmental conditions differently shape leaf, seed and seedling trait composition between and within elevations of tropical montane forests
<p>The composition of plant functional traits varies in response to environmental conditions due to processes of community assembly and species sorting. However, there is a lack of understanding of how plant trait composition responds to environmental conditions at different spatial scales and across the plant life cycle. We investigated the trait composition of leaves (specific leaf area), seeds (seed mass) and seedlings (initial seedling height) across elevations and within elevations in relation to soil and light conditions in a tropical montane forest in southern Ecuador. We surveyed traits and communities of adult trees, seeds and seedlings on nine plots at three elevations (1000-3000 m a.s.l.) and calculated community-weighted mean trait values to analyse trait variation across and within elevations. In addition, we measured two environmental factors (soil C/N ratio and canopy openness) to quantify local-scale variation in environmental conditions within elevations. We found that community-weighted means of specific leaf area, seed mass and initial seedling height decreased consistently with increasing elevation. Within elevations, mean trait values of trees, seeds and seedlings responded differently to local-scale environmental conditions. Specific leaf area decreased with increasing soil C/N ratio, and initial seedling height decreased with increasing canopy openness. Seed mass was associated neither with soil nor with light conditions. Our findings show that broad-scale and local-scale processes differently shape the composition of leaf, seed and seedling traits in tropical forests, indicating a scale-dependence in trait-environment associations. Furthermore, plant traits corresponding to different life stages were related differently to environmental conditions within elevations. Community assembly processes may therefore lead to differences in species sorting at early and late plant life stages.</p>
Linking individual and species-level leaf traits with ontogenetic development stage to explain tree performance under competition and environmental contexts
<p><span>To verify how species traits and individual traits link ontogenetic size, external biotic and abiotic factors to influence tree performance. In a temperate natural forest in northeastern China, we measured dynamic performance, size, as well as competition, topography, and soil variables as biotic and abiotic variables for all 1320 trees of 17 species in 62 monitoring plots from 2010-2020. For each individual tree, we also measured five typical functional traits representing leaf size and elemental content: leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf nitrogen content, and leaf carbon : nitrogen ratios. These traits are not only strongly associated with performance, but trade-offs between traits have previously been shown to express plant acquisitive-conservative strategy characteristics. Reconceptualized based on previous understanding of trait-based approach (Fig. 1). We first tested the direct explanatory effects of species traits and individual traits on performance in multifactorial contexts.</span> <span>We first tested the direct explanatory effects of species traits and individual traits on performance in multifactorial contexts. Subsequently, we analyzed the moderating and mediating effects of these two levels of traits in explaining ontogenetic size, external competition, and environmental influences on performance. The following three questions were posed in response to the results:</span></p> <p><em><span>QI: Do species and individual traits differ in directly explaining performance in a multifactor context that includes ontogenetic size, external biotic and abiotic factors?</span></em></p> <p><em><span>QII: How species and individual traits explain the effect of ontogenetic size on performance</span> </em><em><span>by moderating and mediating effects.</span></em></p> <p><em><span>QIII: Can traits at the species and individual level influence competition- and environment-performance relationships</span> </em><em><span>through trait-based approaches? Does ontogenetic size work jointly with traits at different levels in this process?</span></em></p>
Data from: Native plant traits and invasibility of restored communities: Importance of environmental context and trait hierarchies
<p>During community assembly, theory predicts trait convergence among species due to environmental filtering, and trait divergence due to biotic filtering. Learning how traits of non-native species enable them to overcome these filters informs the process of invasion.<strong> </strong>We manipulated mixtures of native plants in a large restoration project in Southern California that was initially dominated by non-native annual grasses and forbs but was restored to a mixture of native shrubs, grasses, and forbs. We measured subsequent establishment and performance by three non-native species (<em>Brassica nigra</em>, <em>Salsola tragus,</em> and <em>Sonchus oleraceus</em>) on N- and S-facing slopes to investigate relationships between the abiotic environment, native community composition, and invasibility in the context of trait-driven ecological filters. We then evaluated which community metrics influenced invader performance and tested whether relationships between invader performance and community-weighted traits varied depending on slope aspect. Plots with slow-growing native shrubs contained less of the fast-growing invasive, <em>Brassica nigra</em>. Invasibility was greatest in native communities restored with native grass and on N-facing slopes. Traits of individual species indicated relatively greater biotic as compared to environmental filtering. For example, abundance of <em>Phacelia cicutaria</em>, a native annual with traits most like invasive <em>Brassica nigra</em>, was negatively correlated with abundance of that invasive. Several community-weighted trait metrics were also significantly related to invasibility, but the direction of the relationship varied depending on the specific functional trait, community-weighted trait measure (mean or dispersion), invader, and slope aspect. The native functional group that was more likely to prevent invasion by non-native annual species (native shrubs) was different from the single species that most prevented invasion (a native forb). In restoration planning, functional groups and trait values of individual species may point to different mixtures of native species that prevent invasion by specific non-natives, depending on priority effects. Understanding the priority effects and trait hierarchies that underly biotic filtering appears critical to interpreting community-weighted traits and their complexity of responses to environmental variation in space and time. </p>
Spatial and local environmental factors outperform geo-climatic gradients in structuring taxonomically- and traits-based β‐diversity of benthic algae
<p><b>Aim</b>: Understanding the variation in biodiversity and its underlying drivers and mechanisms is a core task in biogeography and ecology. In this study, we examined: i) the relative contributions of species replacement (i.e. turnover) and richness difference (i.e. nestedness) to taxonomically- and traits-based β-diversity of stream benthic algae; ii) whether these two facets of β-diversity are correlated with each other; and iii) the relative contributions of local environmental (e.g. water chemistry, flow velocity, habitat quality), geo-climatic (e.g. land use types, elevation, precipitation), and spatial factors (e.g. using principal coordinates of neighborhood matrices) to the two facets of β-diversity and their components (i.e. total β-diversity, turnover, and nestedness).</p> <p><b>Location</b>: Hun-Tai River Basin, northeastern China</p> <p><b>Taxon</b>: Stream benthic algae</p> <p><b>Methods</b>: A total of 157 sites were sampled. Mantel tests were used to examine the complementarities between the two facets of β-diversity and their components. Distance-based redundancy analysis and variation partitioning were utilized to investigate the relative contributions of local environmental, geo-climatic, and spatial factors to each facet of β-diversity and their components.</p> <p><b>Results</b>: Weak correlations between taxonomically- and traits-based β‐diversity and their components were detected, which indicated complementarity of ecological information. Taxonomically-based total β‐diversity was largely driven by turnover, whereas traits-based total β-diversity was more driven by nestedness. Variation partitioning results indicated that local environmental and spatial factors contributed more than geo-climatic variables to the total explained variation in taxonomically- and traits-based β‐diversity.</p> <p><b>Main conclusions</b>: Our findings highlighted the importance of the different facets of β‐diversity and their decomposition for understanding diversity patterns of benthic algae relative to abiotic factors. A high level of traits-based convergence among benthic algae communities, despite high taxonomic divergence, demonstrated turnover of species with similar biological traits across our study region. Our study provides a traits-based insight into stream benthic algae communities, which was less documented by previous freshwater studies that focused on regions undergoing recovery following human disturbances.</p>
Environmental-related variation of stoichiometric traits in body and organs of non-native sailfin catfishes Pterygoplichthys spp.
<p><span>Intraspecific variation in stoichiometric traits was </span><span>thought to be</span><span> an adaptive response to reduce the elemental imbalance between organisms and diet in the habitat. Studying the spatial variation of stoichiometric traits of non-native species and the factors </span><span>contributing</span><span> to the variation could help to better understand the invasion mechanism of non-native fish. </span></p> <p><span>In this study, stoichiometric traits (i.e. carbon [C], phosphorus [P], calcium [Ca] and their ratios) variation in the body and organs of non-native sailfin catfishes <em>Pterygoplichthys</em> spp. were investigated across 13 river sections in the main river basins of south China. The relationships between environmental factors and stoichiometric traits were analyzed using a general linear model and an information-theoretic approach. </span><span>A manipulated feeding experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of food quality on the stoichiometry of sailfin catfishes in a greenhouse.</span></p> <p><span>Sailfin catfishes exhibited considerable variability in body and organ elemental composition. Site identity was the main factor contributing to the variation</span><span>, which could be explained </span><span>by a combination of environmental factors</span><span> including climate, diet quality, fish species richness, and trophic status in the invaded rivers.</span> <span>Water chemistry (i.e. total nitrogen and phosphorus, ammonia nitrogen, and soluble reactive phosphorus) contributed to the most variation of stoichiometric traits. </span><span>Imbalances of P and Ca</span><span> between sailfin catfishes and food resources</span><span> varied among sampling sites, </span><span>reflecting </span><span>the spatial heterogeneity of nutrient limitation.</span><span> Juvenile sailfin catfishes exhibited stoichiometric homeostasis (0<1/H<0.25) for all elemental contents and ratios in the </span><span>feeding experiment.</span></p> <p><span>These findings suggested variation in stoichiometric traits of sailfin catfishes might be attributed to the changes in elemental metabolism to cope with context-specific environments. </span><span>This study provided heuristic knowledge about environmental-related variation in stoichiometric traits, which could enhance the understanding of the non-native species' adaptation to resource fluctuation in the invaded ecosystems. </span></p>
Data from: Trait interactions effects on tropical tree demography depend on the environmental context
<p><span class="fontstyle0">Although functional traits are defined based on their impact on demographic parameters, trait-demography relationships are often reported as weak. These weak relationships might be due to disregarding trait interactions and environmental contexts, which should modulate species trait-demography relationships. We applied different models, including boosted regression tree (BRT) models, to investigate changes in the relationship between traits and demographic rates of tropical tree species in plots along an elevational gradient and among time intervals between censuses, analyzing the effect of a strong drought event. Based on a large dataset of 18,000 tree individuals from 133 common species, distributed among twelve 1-ha plots (habitats) in the Atlantic Forest (Brazil), we evaluated how trait interactions and the environmental context influence the demographic rates (growth, mortality, and recruitment). Functional traits, trait-trait, and trait-habitat interactions predicted demography with a good fit through either BRTs or linear mixed-models. Changes in growth rates were best related to size (diameter), and mortality rates to habitats, while changes in recruitment rates were best related to the specific leaf area. Moreover, the influence of traits differed among time intervals, and for demographic parameters, habitat affected growth and mortality by interacting with diameter. Here, we provide evidence that trait-demography relationships can be improved when considering the environmental context (space and time) and trait interactions to cope with the complexity of changes in the demography of tropical tree communities. Thus, to expand predictions of demography based on functional traits, we show that it is useful to fully incorporate the concept of multiple trait-fitness optima, resulting from trait interactions in different habitats and growth conditions.</span> </p>
Data from: Freshwater fishes maintain multi-trait phenotypic stability across an environmental gradient in aqueous calcium
<p>Reductions in a limiting nutrient might be expected to necessitate compromises in the functional traits that depend on that nutrient; yet populations existing in locations with low levels of such nutrients often do not show the expected degradation of functional traits. Indeed, we previously found that fish of three species, Logperch (<em>Percina caprodes</em>),Pumpkinseed Sunfish (<em>Lepomis gibbosus</em>), and Yellow Perch (<em>Perca flavescens</em>) residing in low-calcium water in the Upper St. Lawrence River nevertheless maintained levels of scale calcium comparable to those of conspecific populations in high-calcium water. However, it remains possible that the maintenance of one functional trait under nutrient-limited conditions could come at the expense of maintaining other functional traits that depend on that same nutrient. Hence, we here extend prior work by examining other calcium-dependent traits: skeletal element sizes and bone densities in the same fish species in the same area. Using radiographs of 101 fish from the three species across four locations (two in high-calcium water and two in low-calcium water), we document multi-trait "homeostasis" along the gradient of water calcium. That is, we did not detect any effect of calcium regime (low-calcium versus high-calcium) on any of the measured variables. Further, effect sizes for the skeletal traits were very low – lower even than effect sizes previously documented for scale calcium. Our results thus show that native fishes maintain phenotype stability across a suite of functional traits linked to calcium regulation, perhaps pointing to an "organismal-level homeostasis" scenario rather than a "trait-level homeostasis" scenario. </p>
Data from: Cyanobacterial colonization on epilithic mosses in degraded karst ecosystem: The role of moss traits and environmental factors
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Data from: Whole-seedling trait adjustments of mountain birch under contrasting environmental conditions
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Data from: Species interactions and environmental context affect intraspecific behavioural trait variation and ecosystem function
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Traits mediate environmental responses of benthic ciliates in dynamic coastal habitats
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Data from: Genetic and environmental (co)variation of egg size, fecundity, and growth traits in Arctic charr
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Data from: Different phylogenetic and environmental controls of first-order root morphological and nutrient traits: evidence of multidimensional root traits
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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)
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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.