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412 results for “temperate forests”

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dryad40/100

Fungal community composition and genetic potential regulate fine root decay in northern temperate forests

Understanding how genetic differences among soil microorganisms regulate spatial patterns in litter decay remains a persistent challenge in ecology. Despite fine root litter accounting for ~50% of total litter production in forest ecosystems, far less is known about the microbial decay of fine roots relative to aboveground litter. Here, we evaluated whether fine root decay occurred more rapidly where fungal communities have a greater genetic potential for litter decay. Additionally, we tested if linkages between decay and fungal genes can be adequately captured by delineating saprotrophic and ectomycorrhizal fungal functional groups based on whether they have genes encoding certain ligninolytic class II peroxidase enzymes, which oxidize lignin and polyphenolic compounds. To address these ideas, we used a litterbag study paired with fungal DNA barcoding to characterize fine root decay rates and fungal community composition at the landscape scale in northern temperate forests, and we estimated the genetic potential of fungal communities for litter decay using publicly available genomes. Fine root decay occurred more rapidly where fungal communities had a greater genetic potential for decay, especially of cellulose and hemicellulose. Fine root decay was positively correlated with ligninolytic saprotrophic fungi and negatively correlated with ECM fungi with ligninolytic peroxidases, likely because these saprotrophic and ectomycorrhizal functional groups had the highest and lowest genetic potentials for plant cell wall degradation, respectively. These fungal variables overwhelmed direct environmental controls, suggesting fungal community composition and genetic variation are primary controls over fine root decay in temperate forests at regional scales.

opencc-zeroJan 2023View details →

dryad40/100

Data for linked disturbance in the temperate forest: earthworms, deer, and canopy gaps

Despite the large body of theory concerning multiple disturbances, there have been relatively few attempts to test the theoretical assumptions of how and if disturbances interact. Of particular importance is whether disturbance events are linked, as this can influence the probability and intensity of ecological change. Disturbances are linked when one disturbance event increases or decreases the likelihood or extent of another. To this end, we used two long-term, multi-disturbance experiments in northern Wisconsin to determine whether earthworm invasion is linked to canopy gap creation and white-tailed deer browsing. These three disturbances are common and influential within North American temperate forests, making any interactions among them particularly important to understand. We expected both deer and canopy gaps to favor invasive earthworms, particularly species that live close to or on the soil surface. However, we found only partial support for our hypotheses, as both deer exclosures and canopy gaps decreased earthworms in each experiment. Further, earthworm density increased the most over time in areas far from the gap center and in areas with deer present. Deer exclosures primarily decreased Aporrectodea and Lumbricus species, while gaps decreased Dendrobaena and Lumbricus species. Our findings show that earthworm invasion is linked to deer presence and gap-creating disturbances, which provides new insight toward multiple disturbance theory, aboveground-belowground dynamics, and temperate forest management.

opencc-zeroMar 2023View details →

dryad40/100

Malaise-trap metabarcoding dataset from temperate-zone forest Oregon, USA

DNA-based biodiversity surveys involve collecting physical samples from survey sites and assaying the contents in the laboratory to detect species via their diagnostic DNA sequences. DNA-based surveys are increasingly being adopted for biodiversity monitoring and decision-making. The most commonly employed method is metabarcoding, which combines PCR with high-throughput DNA sequencing to amplify and then read `DNA barcode' sequences. This process generates count data indicating the number of times each DNA barcode was read. However, DNA-based data are noisy and error-prone, with several sources of variation. In this paper, we present a unifying modelling framework for DNA-based survey data, eDNAPlus, for the first time simultaneously allowing for key sources of variation, error and noise in the data-generating process. As we discuss, metabarcoding data alone cannot be used to estimate the species-specific amount of DNA present, or DNA concentration, at surveyed sites. Instead, we estimate changes in DNA biomass within species, across sites, and link those changes to environmental covariates, while accounting for between-species and between-sites correlation. Inference is performed using MCMC, where we employ Gibbs or Metropolis-Hastings updates with Laplace approximations. We further implement a re-parameterisation scheme, appropriate for crossed-effects models, leading to improved mixing, and an adaptive approach for updating latent variables, which reduces computation time. We discuss study design and present theoretical and simulation results to guide decisions on replication at different survey stages and on the use of quality control methods. Finally, we demonstrate the new framework on a dataset of Malaise-trap samples. Specifically, we quantify the effects of elevation and distance-to-road on each species, infer species correlations, and produce maps identifying areas of high biodiversity and species DNA biomass, which can be used to rank areas by conservation value. We also estimate the level of noise between sites and within sample replicates, and the probabilities of error at the PCR stage, which are found to be close to zero for most species considered, validating the employed laboratory processing.

opencc-zeroAug 2023View details →

dryad40/100

Competition for acoustic space in a temperate-forest bird community

Animals that communicate by acoustic signaling share a common acoustic environment. Birds are particularly vocal examples, using a wide repertoire of songs and calls for mate attraction and territorial defense. However, interference caused by sounds that overlap in frequency and time can disrupt signal detection and reduce reproductive success. This may be particularly important in temperate regions where breeding is restricted to short seasonal windows. Here we investigated competition avoidance mechanisms used by the bird community inhabiting a primeval lowland temperate forest in Białowieża, Eastern Poland. We recorded morning soundscapes at 84 locations in early and late spring and calculated song dissimilarity indices to examine how species with greater song similarities use spatial and temporal partitioning to avoid competition for acoustic space throughout the breeding season. The bird community changed its use of acoustic space throughout the day and season. Birds did not use spatial acoustic niche partitioning when we looked at recording locations over the whole study period, but they did in a seasonal context, with species more acoustically different than expected by chance recorded at the same point on the same day. Our results also indicate that daily temporal niche partitioning may only occur at certain times before sunrise, with no evidence of large-scale temporal partitioning between species vocalizing during the same one-minute recordings in daytime. These results contribute toward our understanding of the evolution of bird communication, and highlight the strategies employed by different species to optimize their acoustic niche.

opencc-zeroSep 2023View details →

zenodo40/100

FIGURE 2 in Trophic niche size and overlap in temperate forest land snails are affected by their lifestyle and body size

FIGURE 2 Variation in SEAc of land snail species from the four studied assemblages in relation to their lifestyle (a) and body size (b). Variation in percentages of overlapping SEAc for pairwise species combinations are compared between study sites (c) and three types of lifestyle (d). Different letters refer to significant differences at p<0.0, tested by GEE (a, b) and GLM-qp (c, d). The central line of each box refers to the median value, box height to the interquartile range, whiskers to the non-outlier range (i.e., 1.5 times the interquartile range at each side), and small circles to outliers.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2022View details →

zenodo40/100

FIGURE 1 in Trophic niche size and overlap in temperate forest land snails are affected by their lifestyle and body size

FIGURE 1 Isotopic niches represented by Standard ellipse area corrected for small sample size (SEAc) of the land snail species collected in four study sites (A, B, C, D) at least in five individuals per site.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2022View details →

dryad40/100