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79 results for “urban ecology”
Antipredator behaviors in urban settings: Ecological experimentation powered by citizen science
<p><span>1. Animal behaviors are often modified in urban settings due to changes in species assemblages and interactions. The ability of prey to respond to a predator is a critical behavior, but </span><span>urban populations may experience altered predation pressure, food supplementation, and other human-mediated disturbances that modify their responsiveness to predation risk and promote habituation.</span></p> <p><span>2. Citizen-science programs generally focus on the collection and analysis of observational data (e.g., bird checklists), but there has been increasing interest in the engagement of citizen scientists for ecological experimentation.</span></p> <p><span>3. Our goal was to implement a behavioral experiment in which citizen scientists recorded antipredator behaviors in wild birds occupying urban areas. In North America, increasing populations of Accipiter hawks have colonized suburban and urban areas and regularly prey upon birds that frequent backyard bird feeders. This scenario, of an increasingly common avian predator hunting birds near human dwellings, offers a unique opportunity to characterize antipredator behaviors within urban passerines. </span></p> <p><span>4. For two winters, we engaged citizen scientists in Chicago, IL, USA to deploy a playback experiment and record antipredator behaviors in backyard birds. If backyard birds maintained their antipredator behaviors, we hypothesized that birds would decrease foraging behaviors and increase vigilance in response to a predator cue (hawk playback) but that these responses would be mediated by flock size, presence of sentinel species, body size, tree cover, and amount of surrounding urban area. </span></p> <p><span>5. Using a randomized control–treatment design, citizen scientists at 15 sites recorded behaviors from 3,891 individual birds representing 22 species. Birds were more vigilant and foraged less during the playback of a hawk call, and these responses were strongest for individuals within larger flocks and weakest in larger-bodied birds. We did not find effects of sentinel species, tree cover, or urbanization. </span></p> <p><span>6. By deploying a behavioral experiment, we found that backyard birds inhabiting urban landscapes largely maintained antipredator behaviors of increased vigilance and decreased foraging in response to predator cues. Experimentation in citizen science poses challenges (e.g., observation bias, sample size limitations, reduced complexity in protocol design), but unlike programs focused solely on observational data, experimentation allows researchers to disentangle the complex factors underlying animal behavior and species interactions. </span></p>
Dominance by a single species structures multiple ecological functions in urban landscapes
<p>Dataset used in the analysis of the manuscript "Dominance by a single species structures multiple ecological functions in urban landscapes"</p>
Data from: Social and ecological factors associated with innovation in urban sulphur-crested cockatoos (<em>Cacatua galerita</em>)
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Antipredator behaviors in urban settings: Ecological experimentation powered by citizen science
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Nest-boxes alter the reproductive ecology of urban cavity-nesters in a species-dependent way
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Growing in the city: urban evolutionary ecology of avian growth rates.
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Data for L.R. Johnson and S.N. Handel - Restoration treatments in urban park forests drive long-term changes in vegetation trajectories - Ecological Applications doi:10.1890/14-2063.1
Initial data from long-term research plots in New York City Park forest patches invaded by exotic woody plant species. Half (n = 30) of the sites were restored 15-20 years prior to first sampling in 2009-2010. The same suite of invasive plants was recorded in the other half of the sites at the time of initial restoration in the late 1980s and early 1990s (n = 30), but they were not restored in 2009-2010.
Living in the concrete jungle: carnivore spatial ecology in urban parks
<p>People and wildlife are living in an increasingly urban world, replete with unprecedented human densities, sprawling built environments, and altered landscapes. Such anthropogenic pressures can affect multiple processes within an ecological community, from spatial patterns to interspecific interactions. We tested two competing hypotheses, human shields versus human competitors, to characterize how humans affect the carnivore community using multi-species occupancy models. From 2017-2020, we conducted the first camera survey of city parks in Detroit, Michigan, and collected spatial occurrence data of the local native carnivore community. Our 12,106-trap night survey captured detected data for coyotes (Canis latrans), red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), raccoons (Procyon lotor), and striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis). Overall occupancy varied across species (Ψcoyote=0.40, Ψ raccoon=0.54, Ψred fox =0.19, Ψstriped skunk =0.09). Contrary to expectations, humans did not significantly affect individual occupancy for these urban carnivores. However, co-occurrence between coyote and skunk only increased with human activity. The observed positive spatial association between an apex and subordinate pair supports the human shield hypothesis. Our findings demonstrate how urban carnivores can exploit spatial refugia and coexist with humans in the cityscape. </p>
Data from: Comparing convenience and probability sampling for urban ecology applications
1. Urban forest ecosystems confer multiple ecosystem services. There is thus a need to quantify ecological characteristics in terms of community structure and composition so that benefits can be better understood in ecosystem service models. Efficient sampling and monitoring methods are crucial in this process. 2. Full tree inventories are scarce due to time and financial constraints, thus a variety of sampling methods exist. Modern vegetation surveys increasingly use stratified-random plot-based sampling to reduce the bias associated with convenience sampling, even though the latter can save time and increase species richness scores. The urban landscape, with a high degree of conspecific clustering and high species diversity, provides a unique biogeographical case for comparing these two methodological approaches. 3. We use two spatially extensive convenience samples of the urban forest of Meran (Italy) and compare the community structure, tree characteristics and ecosystem service provision with 200 random circular plots. 4. The convenience sampling resulted in a higher species diversity, incorporating more rare species. This is a result of covering more area per unit sampling time. Pseudorandom sub-plots were compared to the random plots revealing similar Shannon diversity and sampling comparability indices. Measured tree variables (diameter at breast height, height, tree-crown width, height to crown base) were similar between the two methods, as were ecosystem service model outputs. 5. Synthesis and applications. The results suggest that convenience sampling may be a time and money saving alternative to random sampling as long as stratification by land-use type is incorporated into the design. The higher species richness can potentially improve the accuracy of urban ecological models, which rely on species-specific functional traits.
Data from: Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient
Despite decades of work in environmental science and ecology, estimating human influences on ecosystems remains challenging. This is partly due to complex chains of causation among ecosystem elements, exacerbated by the difficulty of collecting biological data at sufficient spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales. Here, we demonstrate the utility of environmental DNA (eDNA) for quantifying associations between human land use and changes in an adjacent ecosystem. We analyze metazoan eDNA sequences from water sampled in nearshore marine eelgrass communities and assess the relationship between these ecological communities and the degree of urbanization in the surrounding watershed. Counter to conventional wisdom, we find strongly increasing richness and decreasing beta diversity with greater urbanization, and similar trends in the diversity of life histories with urbanization. We also find evidence that urbanization influences nearshore communities at local (hundreds of meters) rather than regional (tens of km) scales. Given that different survey methods sample different components of an ecosystem, we then discuss the advantages of eDNA—which we use here to detect hundreds of taxa simultaneously—as a complement to traditional ecological sampling, particularly in the context of broad ecological assessments where exhaustive manual sampling is impractical. Genetic data are a powerful means of uncovering human-ecosystem interactions that might otherwise remain hidden; nevertheless, no sampling method reveals the whole of a biological community.
Cultivating scientific literacy and a sense of place through course-based urban ecology research
<p>Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to increase engagement, improve learning outcomes, and enhance career development for students in ecology. However, these opportunities may not be accessible to all students, and incorporating inquiry-based research directly into undergraduate curricula may help overcome barriers to participation and improve representation and inclusion in the discipline. The shift to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed even greater challenges for providing students with authentic research experiences, but the pandemic may also provide a unique opportunity for creative projects conducted remotely. In this paper, I describe a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) designed for an upper-level ecology course at California State University, Dominguez Hills during remote learning. The primary focus of student-led research activities was to explore the potential impacts of the depopulation of campus during the pandemic on urban coyotes (<em>Canis latrans</em>), of which there were increased sightings reported during this time. Students conducted two research studies, including an evaluation of urban wildlife activity, behavior, and diversity using camera traps installed throughout campus and an analysis of coyote diet using data from scat dissections. Students used the data they generated and information from literature reviews, class discussions, and meetings with experts to develop a coyote monitoring and management plan for our campus and create posters to educate the public. Using campus as a living laboratory, I aimed to engage students in meaningful research while cultivating a sense of place, despite being online. Students' research outcomes and responses to pre- and post-course surveys highlight the benefits of projects that are anchored in place-based education and emphasize the importance of ecological research for solving real-word problems. CUREs focused on local urban ecosystems may be a powerful way for instructors to activate ecological knowledge and capitalize on the cultural strengths of students at urban universities.</p>
Figure 7 in Reproductive ecology of the glass frog Espadarana prosoblepon (Anura: Centrolenidae) in an urban forest of the Central Andes of Colombia
Figure 7. Preferred use of fronds of Selaginella geniculata as substrates for oviposition in Espadarana prosoblepon in a population in the Botanical Garden at Universidad del Quindío, Armenia, Colombia. The expected legend refers to the number of clutches that should be found in a given substrate category according to the abundance of these in the habitat; the observed legend refers to the actual number of clutches found per substrate category in this study. The category 'Leaves' refers to leaves of species other than S. geniculata while 'Others' refers to branches, trunks, and rocks.
Figure 6 in Reproductive ecology of the glass frog Espadarana prosoblepon (Anura: Centrolenidae) in an urban forest of the Central Andes of Colombia
Figure 6. (a) Amplexus, (b) oviposition, (c) abandonment of the oviposition site by the male and (d) egg attendance by the female in Espadarana prosoblepon.
Figure 5 in Reproductive ecology of the glass frog Espadarana prosoblepon (Anura: Centrolenidae) in an urban forest of the Central Andes of Colombia
Figure 5. (a) Relationship between the body size of males, and chorus tenure (i.e. number of nights a same male was recorded over the duration of the study or until was recorded in amplexus). (b) Influence of chorus tenure in males and their probability of mating. (c) Lack of assortative mating by body size of individuals in amplexus. (d) Relationship between the body size of the females and the size of their egg clutches. Regression line is showed only for the statistically significant tendency at α = 0.05.
Figure 4 in Reproductive ecology of the glass frog Espadarana prosoblepon (Anura: Centrolenidae) in an urban forest of the Central Andes of Colombia
Figure 4. Variation of (a) rainfall and environmental temperature; (b) number of males and females; and (c) egg clutches in the study area between December 2013 and November 2015. Extensions of the bars in the middle figure indicate standard deviation.
Figure 3 in Reproductive ecology of the glass frog Espadarana prosoblepon (Anura: Centrolenidae) in an urban forest of the Central Andes of Colombia
Figure 3. Frequency of activity (number of nights a same individual was observed) of males (left plot) and females (right plot) of the glass frog Espadarana prosoblepon between December 2013 and November 2015 in the Botanical Garden at Universidad del Quindío, Armenia, Central Andes of Colombia.
Figure 2 in Reproductive ecology of the glass frog Espadarana prosoblepon (Anura: Centrolenidae) in an urban forest of the Central Andes of Colombia
Figure 2. Example of patterns of black and yellow dots observed on the back of adult individuals of Espadarana prosoblepon and used to monitor males and females.
Figure 1 in Reproductive ecology of the glass frog Espadarana prosoblepon (Anura: Centrolenidae) in an urban forest of the Central Andes of Colombia
Figure 1. Geographic location of the study area in the Botanical Garden at Universidad del Quindío Armenia, Central Andes of Colombia (orange dot: La Aldana creek).
Ecological and social outcomes of urbanization on regional farming systems: a global synthesis
<p>This dataset contains the data extracted for a systematic review on ecological and social outcomes of urbanization in regional farming systems. It is based on 107 papers that were selected after scooping and screeing done in February 2019.</p>
Identifying environmentally-comparable cities across the globe for urban ecology studies
<p>Defining a comprehensive and quantitative framework for comparing urban areas is a priority for conducting research in urban ecology and related fields. In this study, we use unsupervised learning on a matrix of climate- and human-related features to estimate the number of groups explaining the characteristics of ~6,000 cities across the globe. Using estimates of city-level stability within clusters, we estimate that cities can be clustered in 5–7 clusters, with 6 being the most likely and stable number of groups. Groups of cities are primarily defined by climatic and geographical features (e.g. elevation), with population-level and land use parameters being less relevant for structuring cities. City clusters generally correspond with a continental-based partitioning. However, geographic distances between cities do not necessarily reflect their position in the examined multivariate space. The analytical framework presented in this paper can be extended to accounting for alternative features to describing cities and their characteristics. We implement an online web application for comparing cities across the globe based on the results presented in this study. This application is expected to inform decisions on where to sample populations or species in cities with either similar or divergent climatic conditions.</p>
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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.