Find research datasets worth reusing

Environmental stoichiometry mediates phytoplankton diversity effects on communities' resource use efficiency and biomass

Positive biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships are predicted to increase in strength when high environmental variability allows for complementarity between resource use strategies in diverse communities. This environmental variability can be represented by spatial or temporal variation in nutrient ratios, but resource use efficiency (RUE) and therefore biomass build up of primary producers might be restricted when nutrient ratios are highly imbalanced (i.e., limitation by one nutrient and beyond optimal ratios for growth). Whereas the linkages between ecosystem functioning, diversity and nutrient availability are theoretically well understood, we lack experimental evidence on how phytoplankton diversity affects resource use and biomass under variable nutrient ratios (N:P ratios). Combining a mesocosm and a microcosm experiment we tested diversity effects on ecosystem functioning by exposing a species diversity gradient generated by the loss of rare species in a natural community to different N:P ratios (uniform vs a gradient). The N:P supply ratio gradient also allowed us to evaluate responses across balanced and imbalanced ratios. We found that increased species diversity led to increased community RUE when supplied a gradient of N:P ratios; but restricted to the highest diversity level. However, diversity did not affect RUE under uniform nutrient ratios. The overall phytoplankton biomass and carbon:nutrient ratios responses to diversity reflected the patterns detected for RUE. Contrary to theoretical predictions, RUE was maintained under highest N:P supply ratios (extreme phosphorous limitation) suggesting that imbalanced N:P ratios do not necessarily decrease function. Thus, we showed that the nutrient context influences diversity effects on RUE and biomass. Synthesis. Overall, our results suggest that the effect of rare phytoplankton species losses on community RUE and biomass can be compensated by the persistent species when nutrient ratios are uniform, but leads to decreases in ecosystem functioning under variable nutrient ratios. This work provides a first attempt for testing interactions between the nutrient context (including concentrations and ratios) and the diversity of (natural) communities experimentally, which is conceptually understood but poorly tested for phytoplankton.

Data from: Size matters: when resource accessibility by ecosystem engineering elicits wood-boring beetle demographic responses

This data was used to investigate how the age and size of beaver disturbances act as predictors for primary wood-boring beetle abundance and species richness around beaver-altered habitat patches. To do so, we sampled beetles around 16 beaver-disturbed and unaltered watercourses within the Kouchibouguac National Park (Canada) and modeled beetle demographical responses to site conditions and their physical characteristics, distance from the watercourse, deadwood biomass, and the geographical location of the sites.

E-scape: consumer-specific landscapes of energetic resources derived from stable isotope analysis and remote sensing

Energetic resources and habitat distribution are inherently linked. Energetic resource availability is a major driver of the distribution of consumers, but estimating how much specific habitats contribute to the energetic resource needs of a consumer can be problematic. We present a new approach that combines remote sensing information and stable isotope ecology to produce maps of energetic resources (E-scapes). E-scapes project species-specific resource use information onto the landscape to classify areas based on energetic importance. Using our E-scapes, we investigated the relationship between energetic resource distribution and white shrimp distribution and how the scale used to generate the E-scape mediated this relationship. E-scapes successfully predicted the size, abundance, biomass, and total energy of a consumer in salt marsh habitats in coastal Louisiana, USA at scales relevant to the movement of the consumer. Our E-scape maps can be used alone or in combination with existing models to improve habitat management and restoration practices and have potential to be used to test fundamental movement theory.

Contours of the caregiver experience: Social resources and health behaviors in caregiving partners of persons with a spinal cord injury

Background and rationale: Informal caregiving is highly prevalent in Switzerland and in the long-term associated with chronic stress as evidenced by its negative effects on caregivers health and well-being. To date, most of research on informal caregiving has been focused on the elderly. Yet, the evidence from these studies may not be applicable and misinform policy in context of physical disabilities, which may further concerns younger-aged caregivers. Spinal cord injury (SCI) is an exemplary condition for the enforced need of long-term informal care that oftentimes occurs in middle-age. To better understand the mechanisms behind the health-adverse effects of caregiving, a improved understanding of the interplay between social and behavioral factors and the caregiver experience is needed. This project was a follow-up of the longitudinal pro-WELL study (pro-WELL 1), which investigated associations of productive activities and social relationships with health and well-being in persons with SCI and their caregiving partners (SNSF Project 100017_153256/1). Using the follow-up funding by SNF (pro-WELL 2) we further explored the pro-WELL data to foster a comprehensive understanding of the caregiver experience, also to promote the discussion and transfer of the gained knowledge to stakeholders. Objectives: The overall objective of this pro-WELL follow-up study ("pro-WELL 2") was to explore the relationship of social and behavioral factors with the caregiver experience to better understand the causal pathway linking the caregiver experience with health and well-being of the caregiving partners of persons with SCI. The specific aims were to investigate 1) whether socioeconomic conditions shape the caregiver experience, 2) whether social relationships moderate the association between the caregiver experience and health, and 3) whether the caregiver experience has an effect on health behaviors in the caregiving partners of persons with SCI. Using the evidence gained by pro-WELL 1 and 2, we aimed to conduct stakeholder dialogues in order to develop strategies to support burdened caregivers within the network of the Swiss Paraplegic Group. Methods: Pro-WELL is an observational longitudinal survey with three measurement waves. Data collection was completed in January 2017 and n=133, n=123, and n=119 couples participated at baseline, month 6 and month 12, respectively. The analyses were based on longitudinal dyadic data from the caregiving partners of persons with SCI that completed at least two waves (n=123). We applied multivariable regression modelling and path analysis to explore the research questions. Results: We demonstrated that caregivers with lower socioeconomic status reported a higher burden of care (Tough, Brinkhof, Siegrist, Fekete 2020, Int J Equity Health), provided evidence that social support moderates the association between the caregiver burden and health (Tough, Brinkhof, Fekete. submitted), and showed that the caregiver burden negatively affects specific health behaviors (Tough, Brinkhof, Fekete 2020, Health Psychology Behav Med). Discussion: This study was among the first to investigate the social and behavioral factors related to the caregiver experience, and to evaluate possible pathways through which the caregiver experience may impact upon health and well-being in middle-aged caregivers of persons with a physical disability. This study identified targets for interventions aimed at improving the caregiver experience with the ultimate goal to contribute to caregivers' health and well-being. The results of the pro-WELL 2 study were used to inform stakeholder dialogues on the current needs and potential actions to improve the situation of informal caregivers in Switzerland.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2021View details →

Demonstrating a Bayesian Online Learning forEnergy-Aware Resource Orchestration in vRANs

Radio Access Network Virtualization (vRAN) will spearhead the quest towards supple radio stacks that adapt to heterogeneous infrastructure: from energy-constrained platforms deploying cells-on-wheels (e.g., drones) or battery-powered cells to green edge clouds. We demonstrate a novel machine learning approach to solve resource orchestration problems in energy-constrained vRANs. Specifically, we demonstrate two algorithms: (i) BP-vRAN, which uses Bayesian online learning to balance performance and energy consumption, and (ii) SBP-vRAN, which augments our Bayesian optimization approach with safe controls that maximize performance while respecting hard power constraints. We show that our approaches are data-efficient, converge an order of magnitude faster than other machine learning methods-and have provably performance, which is paramount for carrier-grade vRANs. We demonstrate the advantages of our approach in a testbed comprised of fully-fledged LTE stacks and a power meter, and implemented our approach into O-RAN's non-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC).

Effects of enhanced productivity of resources shared by predators in a food-web module: Comparing results of a field experiment to predictions of mathematical models of intra-guild predation

This dataset contains data from a field experiment described in the publication "Wise, D. H. & Farfan, M.A. (2021) Effects of enhanced productivity of resources shared by predators in a food-web module: Comparing results of a field experiment to predictions of mathematical models of intra-guild predation. Ecology and Evolution, 00: 1-11. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8375">https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8375</a>". The field experiment compared the response to increased input of nutrients and energy (artificial detritus) to an empirical model of intra-guild predation (IGP) to the predictions of published, simple mathematical models of asymmetric IGP (a generalist IG Predator that feeds both on a specialist IG Prey and a Resource that it shares with the IG Prey). The empirical model was a food-web module created by pooling species abundances across many families in a community of soil micro-arthropods into three response variables: IG Predator (large predatory mites), IG Prey (small predatory mites) and a shared Resource (fungivorous mites and springtails). The pattern of change over time in densities of the three response variables (IG Predator, IG Prey and Resource) was compared to the predictions of mathematical models of IGP to determine if the feeding relationships in this community of soil micro-arthropods could be abstracted into a simple IGP module. Thus, we were testing the hypothesis that IGP is a dominant organizing principle in this community. Simple mathematical models predict that increased input of nutrients and energy to the shared Resource will increase the equilibrium density of Resource and IG Predator, but will decrease that of IG Prey. By the experiment's end, densities of fungivores (Resource) had increased ~1.5x (ratio of pooled fungivore densities in the High treatment to plots with no addition of detritus (None treatment); and IG Predator densities had increased ~4x. Contrary to the prediction of mathematical models, IG Prey had not decreased, but instead had increased ~1.5x. We discuss possible reasons for the failure of the empirical model to agree with IGP theory.

Data from: Resource partitioning and interspecific interactions among sympatric rain forest arboreal mammals of the Western Ghats, India

Resource partitioning in a community of diurnal arboreal mammals consisting of the lion-tailed macaque Macaca silenus, bonnet macaque (BM) Macaca radiata, Nilgiri langur Semnopithecus johnii, and the Indian giant squirrel Ratufa indica of the Western Ghats, southern India, was studied. Differences in their diet, vertical stratification, food resource niche breadth, niche overlap, and behavioral interactions were examined. Resource partitioning was through differential habitat use, resource use, and vertical stratification. Of the four species, the BM was not a resident species and made frequent forays into evergreen forest from the adjacent deciduous forest during the flowering season of Cullenia exarillata and fruiting season of Ficus microcarpa. The macaques had narrower niches, and the langur and the squirrel had wider niches. Niche overlap was highest between the two macaques. Overlap among the study species was particularly pronounced during the flowering of C. exarillata. There was significant correlation between niche overlap and intolerance among the study species. Certain species pairs showed little or no mutual intolerance despite high overlap. Cooperative interactions such as alarm calls occurred more frequently among the resident species. Interaction matrices revealed an underlying pattern of interspecific dominance hierarchy, with the BM dominating over the other three species. Our study suggests that the BM do not coexist with the other three because of high overlap with its congener and low occurrence of cooperative interactions.

Model and data for: Economical defense of resources structures territorial space use in a cooperative carnivore

Manuscript Abstract: Ecologists have long sought to understand space use and mechanisms underlying patterns observed in nature. We developed an optimality landscape and mechanistic territory model to understand mechanisms driving space use and compared model predictions to empirical reality. We demonstrate our approach using gray wolves (Canis lupus). In the model, simulated animals selected territories to economically acquire resources by selecting patches with greatest value, accounting for benefits, costs, and tradeoffs of defending and using space on the optimality landscape. Our approach successfully predicted and explained first- and second-order space use of wolves, including the population's distribution, territories of individual packs, and influences of prey density, competitor density, human-caused mortality risk, and seasonality. It accomplished this using simple behavioral rules and limited data to inform the optimality landscape. Results contribute evidence that economical territory selection is a mechanistic bridge between space use and animal distribution on the landscape. This approach and resulting gains in knowledge enable predicting effects of a wide range of environmental conditions, contributing to both basic ecological understanding of natural systems and conservation. We expect this approach will demonstrate applicability across diverse habitats and species, and that its foundation can help continue to advance understanding of spatial behavior. Model & Data Abstract: In support of the above manuscript, all model files and data to re-create the analyses for the manuscript are included on Dryad. The model can be run in NetLogo (installation file included), using the associated input files to build the Montana landscape for wolves. Expertise in NetLogo is strongly recommended for using this model. Output files are likewise included along with code to create each plot in the manuscript and SI. Software files for the model and code to create each plot in the manuscript are located at Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5802243.

Raw data: multispecies amplicon sequencing (Loera, Studer, and Kölliker, 2021, Molecular Ecology Resources)

Grasslands cover close to two fifths of Earth's land. They provide many ecosystem services related to the maintenance of soil integrity, and the regulation of water, carbon and nitrogen flows. Grasslands constitute the basis for sustainable roughage production for ruminant feeding. In Switzerland, grasslands cover more than 70% of the total agricultural land, which highlights their importance in the domestic food production chains. Plant genetic diversity (PGD), a component of biodiversity, influences ecosystem functioning in grasslands. High levels of grassland PGD are related to resistance against invasive plants and yield stabilization during environmental stress (e.g., drought or frost). The PGD of grasses and legumes —the two most economically relevant plant families found in grasslands, which naturally grow in a wide climate spectrum— harbors valuable genetic resources for forage breeding. Nevertheless, most PGD studies of natural or semi-natural grasslands (i.e., grasslands that are not sown) focus on a single or a few related species. Traditional PGD monitoring methods (e.g., simple sequence repeats, or SSRs) are ill-suited for large-scale, multispecies assessments. This limits our ability to study the ecological effects of grassland PGD, its spatiotemporal patterns, and its significance for grassland management. Looking to provide cost-effective tools for multispecies PGD monitoring in grasslands, we performed a sequence capture assay targeting 611 single-copy nuclear loci, followed by multispecies amplicon sequencing (i.e., amplicon sequencing using primer pairs that can be used in multiple species) on eleven selected loci. Our results indicate that multispecies amplicon sequencing is a cost-effective tool for genetic diversity assessment in grassland plant species. Furthermore, the sequence capture data provides the means to extend the number of multispecies amplicons for further research.

opencc-by-4.0Feb 2022View details →

Resources for the Future Socioeconomic Projections (RFF-SPs)

RFF-SPs Monte Carlo output data: This dataset includes the socioeconomic and emissions data generated by the Resources for the Future Socioeconomic Projections (RFF-SPs) model as discussed in Rennert et al. (forthcoming) (<a href="https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/the-social-cost-of-carbon-advances-in-long-term-probabilistic-projections-of-population-gdp-emissions-and-discount-rates/">https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/the-social-cost-of-carbon-advances-in-long-term-probabilistic-projections-of-population-gdp-emissions-and-discount-rates/</a>). The data take the form of a Monte Carlo simulation with n = 10,000 draws. File structure and column metadata are described here: --- death_rates/ --- <ul> <li>rffsp_death_rates_run_1.feather</li> <li>rffsp_death_rates_run_2.feather</li> <li>rffsp_death_rates_run_2.feather</li> </ul>        ... <ul> <li>rffsp_death_rates_run_999.feather</li> <li>rffsp_death_rates_run_1000.feather</li> </ul> This folder contains 1,000 files in the .feather file format (<a href="https://arrow.apache.org/docs/python/feather.html">https://arrow.apache.org/docs/python/feather.html</a>), which is optimized for I/O speed and compressed to minimize storage requirements. Each file in this folder contains 3 columns: ISO3, Year, and DeathRate. For each row: - ISO3 contains the ISO numeric-3 code (<a href="https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html">https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html</a>) of the country whose GDP and population are projected. - Year contains the calendar year of the predictions. - year contains the calendar year of the prediction. - DeathRate contains a death rate in average deaths per 1000 people. Baseline mortality data found in data/mortality was derived from the death_rates.csv provided to the RFF team on October 7th from Hana Sevcikova.  In that source file, the column DeathRate is the annual deaths per 1000 people. PopAvg is the denominator (average between two time periods) and PopStart is population at the start of the time interval. Values are average deaths per 1000 people. There is one mortality death rate trajectory for each population trajectory, and each RFF-SP is matched to one of these 1000 trajectories. The file sampled_pop_trajectory_numbers.csv described below maps each of the 10,000 RFF SP scenarios to the baseline mortality scenario (out of 1000) matched to its population draw. --- emissions/ --- <ul> <li>rffsp_co2_emissions.csv</li> <li>rffsp_ch4_emissions.csv</li> <li>rffsp_n2o_emissions.csv</li> </ul> Each file in this folder contains 3 columns: sample, year, and value. For each row: - sample contains the number identifying which draw a prediction belongs to (from 1 to 10,000). - year contains the calendar year of the prediction. - value contains the projected annual global emissions of the gas specified in the filename. The units are as follows: <ul> <li>rffsp_co2_emissions.csv is in gigatons C</li> <li>rffsp_ch4_emissions.csv is in megatons CH4</li> <li>rffsp_n2o_emissions.csv is in megatons N2</li> </ul> --- pop_income/ --- <ul> <li>rffsp_pop_income_run_1.feather</li> <li>rffsp_pop_income_run_2.feather</li> <li>rffsp_pop_income_run_3.feather</li> </ul>        ... <ul> <li>rffsp_pop_income_run_9999.feather</li> <li>rffsp_pop_income_run_10000.feather</li> </ul>   This folder contains 10,000 files in the .feather file format (<a href="https://arrow.apache.org/docs/python/feather.html">https://arrow.apache.org/docs/python/feather.html</a>), which is optimized for I/O speed and compressed to minimize storage requirements. Each file corresponds to one draw of our socioeconomic data, and contains 4 columns: Country, Year, Pop, and GDP. The number in each filename corresponds to the "sample" column in the emissions data. For each row: - Country contains the ISO Alpha-3 code (<a href="https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html">https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html</a>) of the country whose GDP and population are projected. - Year contains the calendar year of the predictions. - Pop contains the projected population for a given country and year, in units of thousands of people. - GDP contains the projected GDP for a given country and year, in units of millions of 2011 USD. --- The probabilistic population projections were produced by Adrian E. Raftery and Hana &Scaron;evčíková (University of Washington), using the methods described by Raftery and &Scaron;evčíková (2021). Please cite this reference in any publications using these projections. Their research was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) under NIH grant number R01 HD-070936. The probabilistic economic and emissions projections are from Rennert et al. (forthcoming), which in turn are based in part on Müller, Stock, and Watson (forthcoming). --- sample_numbers/ --- <ul> <li>sampled_gdp_trajectory_numbers.csv</li> <li>sampled_pop_trajectory_numbers.csv</li> </ul> These two files hold the sample IDs corresponding to the 10,000 draws from the dataset described above in the pop_income/ section. For reproducibility, these sample sets are available as inputs to the scripts which created them and used when the script is run in deterministic mode.  More information on the weighting and specifications of such sampling is available in the code. --- ypc1990/ --- <ul> <li>rffsp_ypc1990.csv</li> </ul> This CSV file is a matrix of 10,000 rows, pertaining to the 10,000 draws, and 184 columns, pertaining to the 184 countries in this analysis. The columns are labeled with the ISO Alpha-3 code (<a href="https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html">https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html</a>). The values are the GDP for a given country and sample, in units of millions of 2011 USD. References Müller, U.K, Stock, J.H., and Watson, M.W. (forthcoming). An Econometric Model of International Growth Dynamics for Long-Horizon Forecasting. The Review of Economics and Statistics, available online 30 October 2020. URL: <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/doi/10.1162/rest_a_00997/97738/An-Econometric-Model-of-International-Growth">https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/doi/10.1162/rest_a_00997/97738/An-Econometric-Model-of-International-Growth</a> Raftery, A.E. and &Scaron;evčíková, H. (2021). Probabilistic population forecasting: Short to very long-term. International Journal of Forecasting, available online 7 October 2021. URL: <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169207021001394">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169207021001394</a> Rennert, K., Prest, B.C., Pizer, W., Newell, R.G., Anthoff, D., Kingdon, C., Rennels, L., Cooke, R., Raftery, A.E., &Scaron;evčíková, H, and Errickson, F. (forthcoming). The Social Cost of Carbon: Advances in Long-Term Probabilistic Projections of Population, GDP, Emissions, and Discount Rates. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Available online 27 October 2021. URL: <a href="https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/the-social-cost-of-carbon-advances-in-long-term-probabilistic-projections-of-population-gdp-emissions-and-discount-rates/">https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/the-social-cost-of-carbon-advances-in-long-term-probabilistic-projections-of-population-gdp-emissions-and-discount-rates/</a>

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

Data for: Habitat diversity, resource availability, and island age in the species-area relationship

Aim: The island species-area relationship (ISAR) and its theoretical justifications assume the area of islands to be homogeneous across an archipelago, which is generally not the case. We compare the performance of models that adjust or substitute for island area with measures of habitat diversity, island age, and resource availability to account for the violation of this assumption. We further compare the performance of models for two taxonomic groups. Location: Five hotspot archipelagos (Azores, Galapagos, Hawaii, Cape Verde, Canary Islands). Taxa: Vascular plants and birds. Methods: We used the mathematical framework of the power law to compare relevant models, treating the one containing only area as a null model against which others were compared. Data was collated from the GIFT database and from the literature. Models were compared using linear regression within archipelagos and via mixed effect models with archipelago as a random effect. Results: Weighting of island area by habitat diversity and resource availability systematically improved statistical significance and model fits versus the area only power law. Models including island age did not show the same systematic improvement in model fits. For vascular plants, weighting islands by resource availability (energy and water) performed better than weighting by habitat diversity, although for birds these weightings performed equally well. Main Conclusions: Given that islands within archipelagos are fairly uniform in climate, topography, and geology, it is worth accounting for this in ISARs. Our results suggest that, for islands in volcanic hotspot archipelagos this is best done by using direct measures of habitat diversity and resource availability rather than using island age as a proxy. Because weighting area by habitat diversity and resource availability produced better predictors of species diversity, the proposed approach may be particularly valuable in conservation science.

ATAC-seq processing resources for the GRCm38 (mm10) assembly of the mouse genome

A collection of publicly available, but preprocessed, reference data for the analysis of ATAC-seq samples using the GRCm38 (mm10) assembly of the mouse genome using the <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6323634">Ultimate ATAC-seq Data Processing & Analysis Pipeline</a> (details in the documentation on GitHub).

Figures 2 and 3 in HighRes for Springer book chapter "Online Infrastructures For Open Educational Resources"

Figure 2 and Figure 3 in high resolution for the book chapter: Marín, V. I., & Villar-Onrubia, D. (in press, 2022). Online Infrastructures For Open Educational Resources. In I. Jung & O. Zawacki-Richter (Eds.), Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education (Global Perspectives and Internationalization). Springer. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0351-9_18-1">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0351-9_18-1</a> ---- Details for the figures: Fig. 2 Examples of national and regional digital infrastructures in Europe. (Note: The original figure of the Europe map was created by Commons user Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0, shared via Wikimedia Commons) Figure 3. Examples of national and regional digital infrastructures in South America. (Note: The original figure of the South America map was created by TUBS, CC BY-SA 3.0, shared via Wikimedia Commons)

Case study on an integrated interoperable metadata model for geoscience information resources

An integrated metadata schema was created to promote interoperability and to characterize historically collected geoscience data. The metadata standard describes the steps taken to develop a switching‐across methodology that allows geoscience metadata standards (ISO 19115, CSDGM, ANZLIC and INSPIRE) to communicate with one another. We also demonstrated a real example of one of the switching‐across that was created. A representative metadata schema was created using items from harmonization standards that might be optimally mapped. Semantic interoperability allows users to access equivalent classes across several metadata standards in a uniform and consistent rule. It also tries to provide fundamental aspects that might characterize acquisition information to enhance data reuse and current metadata standards for data preservation and distribution. This dataset contains 5 data and contains the content standard of each of the four metadata schema and the metadata information of integrated metadata schema. <ul> <li>data_ISO19115.xlsx: Core level of metadata elements for geographic resources of ISO 19115</li> <li>data_CSDGM.xlsx: Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata of CSDGM</li> <li>data_INSPIRE.xlsx: Content Standard of INSPIRE metadata modeldata_ANZLIC.xlsx: Content Standard of ANZLIC Metadata Profile</li> <li>data_integrated model.xlsx: metadata class and their elements in the integrated interoperable metadata model</li> </ul>

opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

Incubation mound-building by the Australian megapode (Malleefowl, Leipoa ocellata) creates novel, resource-rich patches in a semi-arid woodland

Desert ecosystems are characterised by a patchy distribution of resources. Nutrient sinks associated with landscape modulators (trees) differ markedly from the resource-poor interpatch matrix. Fauna can also act as landscape modulators, modifying patch dynamics by redistributing resources via 'ecosystem engineering'. In semi-arid woodlands, malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata: Megapodiidae) reconfigure surface characteristics by scavenging leaf litter to construct large incubation mounds. The extent to which this movement of resources creates a novel patch and alters extant patches is largely unknown. Ecosystem engineering effects by megapodes have been little studied, but are potentially great, particularly in drylands, where mammalian engineers are known to enhance ecosystem function and drive restoration. We measured vegetation, ground cover, and soil chemistry at malleefowl mounds and four extant microsites (trees and open areas close to, and far from, mounds) and predicted that: 1) malleefowl mounds would represent enriched, yet novel, microsites; 2) the characteristics of tree and open patches close to the mounds would differ from those away from the mounds, because of the diminishing intensity of disturbance; and 3) effects at tree and open patches close to the mound would be shorter-term, compared to the more substantial high-resource patch formation occurring at the mound, but we expected all effects would diminish with time since malleefowl activity. We found that: 1) malleefowl mounds were novel microsites with soil chemistry more similar to tree-modulated patches, and groundcover and vegetation variables more similar to the open, interpatch matrix; 2) effects extended to tree and open patches near the mound, but most effects were short lived; and 3) some novel mound attributes (e.g., soil pH, phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon) were greater at mounds, irrespective of their age, while less plant cover and richness on young mounds dissipated with age. Synthesis: Mound-building megapodes can modulate the distribution of locally derived resources and create a novel microsite. Engineering effects can enhance spatial heterogeneity and ecosystem function over broad spatial and temporal scales, and may assist with ecological restoration, particularly in depauperate, arid systems.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2021View details →

Exploratory pilot study on resource allocation along the dementia continuum under constrained and unconstrained budget scenarios

Supporting quantitative data for a pilot longitudinal balance of care study.

Description of Data Resources Used to Analyze Benefits of Forest and Forest Resource-based Substitution and Carbon Storage in Sweden

The data deposited here has been used for the publication: “On the role of forests and the forest sector for climate change mitigation in Sweden” (Petersson et al., 2022). This document describes in detail how the initial starting data was collected and what the resources were. It further describes the parameter settings used to generate the data using the Swedish Heureka decision support tool.

opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

Data from: Parasite-driven cascades or hydra effects: susceptibility and foraging depression shape parasite-host-resource interactions

This contains data for the manuscript listed in the title. We measured the foraging rates of individual zooplankton hosts, Daphnia dentifera, on phytoplankton resources, Ankistrodesmus falcatus, in the presence of fungal parasites of zooplankton, Metschnikowia bicuspidata. Some of these data are previously published (Genotypes12_foraging.csv by Strauss, Alexander T., et al. "Genotypic variation in parasite avoidance behaviour and other mechanistic, nonlinear components of transmission." Proceedings of the Royal Society B 286.1915 (2019): 20192164.) and some are published now for the first time (Genotype3_foraging.csv). In addition, we present novel evidence from a mesocosm experiment (Mesocosm_data1.csv-Mesocosm_data20.csv) of populations of each genotype or each pair of genotypes with phytoplankton resources and fungal parasites present or absent; our last treatment was low or high nutrient supply for the phytoplankton. With data on infection prevalence, host density, and phytoplankton density, we show how host traits and nutrients control outcomes for prevalence, host density, and phytoplankton density. These data may be reused with appropriate citation.

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2021View details →

Resource Guide for State DOT's Maintenance Equipment Fleet Management Decisions

This research created a guide for state Departments of Transportation fleet management on utilizing equipment fleet management system data to make informed fleet management decisions. The research team took the historical equipment fleet data from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and developed workflows, algorithms, and examples to demonstrate the use of historical equipment data for equipment decisions. Specifically, the research team demonstrated 1) the use of life cycle analysis and dynamic programming models for equipment replacement decisions; 2) developed algorithms to calculate equipment rental rates that can be used by the Department to forecast and allocate equipment operational budget among field districts and central office, 3) developed a procedure to make own-rent/lease decisions based on historical equipment management data. Using the two class codes of equipment (Class Code 5355 – 2 Yd. front-end loaders and Class Code 5385 – 1/2-ton fleetside pickup trucks) as examples, the research team presented the result of the equipment replacement models using both life cycle analysis and dynamic programming approaches and discussed the difference of those two methods. In addition, the impact of model input parameters (specifically depreciation cost estimation using both straight line and double declining balance depreciation calculation methods) on equipment replacement outcomes is discussed. The framework for deciding between on renting or owning for the two class codes of equipment was developed. Also, the equipment rental rates for the most frequently used equipment by ODOT were updated per class code.