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165 results for “environmental trait”
Data from: Genome-wide analyses suggest parallel selection for universal traits may eclipse local environmental selection in a highly mobile carnivore
Ecological and environmental heterogeneity can produce genetic differentiation in highly mobile species. Accordingly, local adaptation may be expected across comparatively short distances in the presence of marked environmental gradients. Within the European continent, wolves (Canis lupus) exhibit distinct north–south population differentiation. We investigated more than 67-K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci for signatures of local adaptation in 59 unrelated wolves from four previously identified population clusters (northcentral Europe n = 32, Carpathian Mountains n = 7, Dinaric-Balkan n = 9, Ukrainian Steppe n = 11). Our analyses combined identification of outlier loci with findings from genome-wide association study of individual genomic profiles and 12 environmental variables. We identified 353 candidate SNP loci. We examined the SNP position and neighboring megabase (1 Mb, one million bases) regions in the dog (C. lupus familiaris) genome for genes potentially under selection, including homologue genes in other vertebrates. These regions included functional genes for, for example, temperature regulation that may indicate local adaptation and genes controlling for functions universally important for wolves, including olfaction, hearing, vision, and cognitive functions. We also observed strong outliers not associated with any of the investigated variables, which could suggest selective pressures associated with other unmeasured environmental variables and/or demographic factors. These patterns are further supported by the examination of spatial distributions of the SNPs associated with universally important traits, which typically show marked differences in allele frequencies among population clusters. Accordingly, parallel selection for features important to all wolves may eclipse local environmental selection and implies long-term separation among population clusters.
Data from: Contrasting trait assembly patterns in plant and bird communities along environmental and human-induced land-use gradients
Human-driven environmental changes can induce marked shifts in the functional structure of biological communities with possible repercussion on important ecosystem functions and services. At the same time it remains unclear to which extent these changes may differently affect various types of organisms. We investigated species richness and community functional structure of species assemblages at the landscape scale (1km2 plots) for two contrasting model taxa, i.e., plants (producers and sessile organisms) and birds (consumers and mobile organisms), along topography, climate, landscape heterogeneity, and land-use (agriculture and urbanization) gradients in a densely populated region of Switzerland. Our study revealed that agricultural and urban land uses drove marked shifts in the functional structure of biological communities compared to changes along climate and topography gradients, especially for plants, while for birds these changes were comparable. Agricultural and urban land uses enhanced divergence in traits related to resource use for birds (diet and nesting), growth forms, dispersal, and reproductive traits for plants, while it induced convergence in vegetative plant traits (plant height and leaf dry matter content). These results suggest that contrasting assembly patterns may arise within and across taxonomic groups along the same environmental gradients as result of distinct underlying processes and 'organism-specific' environmental perceptions. Our results further suggest a potential homogenization of biological communities, as well as low functional diversity and redundancy levels of bird assemblages in our human-dominated study region. This might potentially compromise the maintenance of key ecological processes under future environmental changes.
The role of environmental vs. biotic filtering in the structure of European ant communities: a matter of trait type and spatial scale
<p>Functional trait-based approaches are increasingly used for studying the processes underlying community assembly. The relative influence of different assembly rules might depend on the spatial scale of analysis, the environmental context and the type of functional traits considered. By using a functional trait-based approach, we aim to disentangle the relative role of environmental filtering and interspecific competition on the structure of European ant communities according to the spatial scale and the type of trait considered. We used a large database on ant species composition that encompasses 361 ant communities distributed across the five biogeographic regions of Europe; these communities were composed of 155 ant species, which were characterized by 6 functional traits. We then analysed the relationship between functional divergence and co-occurrence between species pairs across different spatial scales (European, biogeographic region and local) and considering different types of traits (ecological tolerance and niche traits). Three different patterns emerged: negative, positive and non-significant regression coefficients suggest that environmental filtering, competition and neutrality are at work, respectively. We found that environmental filtering is important for structuring European ant communities at large spatial scales, particularly at the scale of Europe and most biogeographic regions. Competition could play a certain role at intermediate spatial scales where temperatures are more favourable for ant productivity (i.e. the Mediterranean region), while neutrality might be especially relevant in spatially discontinuous regions (i.e. the Alpine region). We found that no ecological mechanism (environmental filtering or competition) prevails at the local scale. The type of trait is especially important when looking for different assembly rules, and multi-trait grouping works well for traits associated with environmental responses (tolerance traits), but not for traits related to resource exploitation (niche traits). The spatial scale of analysis, the environmental context and the chosen traits merit special attention in trait-based analyses of community assembly mechanisms.</p>
Data from: Modeling effects of environmental change on wolf population dynamics, trait evolution, and life history
Environmental change has been observed to generate simultaneous responses in population dynamics, life history, gene frequencies, and morphology in a number of species. But how common are such eco-evolutionary responses to environmental change likely to be? Are they inevitable, or do they require a specific type of change? Can we accurately predict eco-evolutionary responses? We address these questions using theory and data from the study of Yellowstone wolves. We show that environmental change is expected to generate eco-evolutionary change, that changes in the average environment will affect wolves to a greater extent than changes in how variable it is, and that accurate prediction of the consequences of environmental change will probably prove elusive.
Data from: Fish functional traits correlated with environmental variables in a temperate biodiversity hotspot
The global biodiversity crisis has invigorated the search for generalized patterns in most disciplines within the natural sciences. Studies based on organismal functional traits attempt to broaden implications of results by identifying the response of functional traits, instead of taxonomic units, to environmental variables. Determining the functional trait responses enables more direct comparisons with, or predictions for, communities of different taxonomic composition. The North American freshwater fish fauna is both diverse and increasingly imperiled through human mediated disturbances, including climate change. The Tennessee River, USA, contains one of the most diverse assemblages of freshwater fish in North America and has more imperiled species than other rivers, but there has been no trait-based study of community structure in the system. We identified 211 localities in the upper Tennessee River that were sampled by the Tennessee Valley Authority between 2009 and 2011 and compiled fish functional traits for the observed species and environmental variables for each locality. Using fourth corner analysis, we identified significant correlations between many fish functional traits and environmental variables. Functional traits associated with an opportunistic life history strategy were correlated with localities subject to greater land use disturbance and less flow regulation, while functional traits associated with a periodic life history strategy were correlated with localities subject to regular disturbance and regulated flow. These are patterns observed at the continental scale highlighting the generalizability of trait-based methods. Contrary to studies that found no community structure differences when considering riparian buffer zones, we found that fish functional traits were correlated with different environmental variables between analyses with buffer zones vs. entire catchment area land cover proportions. Using existing databases and fourth corner analysis, our results support the broad application potential for trait-based methods and indicate trait-based methods can detect environmental filtering by riparian zone land cover.
Multiple paths to cold tolerance: the role of environmental cues, morphological traits and the circadian clock gene vrille
<p><strong>Background</strong>: Tracing the association between insect cold tolerance and latitudinally and locally varying environmental conditions, as well as key morphological traits and molecular mechanisms, is essential for understanding the processes involved in adaptation. We explored these issues in two closely-related species, Drosophila montana and Drosophila flavomontana, originating from diverse climatic locations across several latitudes on the coastal and mountainous regions of North America. We also investigated the association between sequence variation in one of the key circadian clock genes, vrille, and cold tolerance in both species. Finally, we studied the impact of vrille on fly cold tolerance and cold acclimation ability by silencing it with RNA interference in D. montana.</p> <p><strong>Results</strong>: We performed a principal component analysis (PCA) on variables representing bioclimatic conditions on the study sites and used latitude as a proxy of photoperiod. PC1 separated the mountainous continental sites from the coastal ones based on temperature variability and precipitation, while PC2 arranged the sites based on summer and annual mean temperatures. Cold tolerance tests showed D. montana to be more cold-tolerant than D. flavomontana and chill coma resistance (CT<sub>min</sub>) of this species showed an association with PC2. Chill coma recovery time (CCRT) of both species improved towards northern latitudes, and in D. flavomontana this trait was also associated with PC1. D. flavomontana flies were darkest in the coast and in the northern mountainous populations, but coloration showed no linkage with cold tolerance. Body size decreased towards cold environments in both species, but only within D. montana populations largest flies showed fastest recovery from cold. Finally, both the sequence analysis and RNAi study on vrille suggested this gene to play an essential role in D. montana cold resistance and acclimation, but not in recovery time.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: Our study demonstrates the complexity of insect cold tolerance and emphasizes the need to trace its association with multiple environmental variables and morphological traits to identify potential agents of natural selection. It also shows that a circadian clock gene vrille is essential both for short- and long-term cold acclimation, potentially elucidating the connection between circadian clock system and cold tolerance.</p> <p> </p>
Data from: Direct and plant trait-mediated effects of the local environmental context on butterfly oviposition patterns
Variation in the intensity of plant-animal interactions over different spatial scales is widespread and might strongly influence fitness and trait selection in plants. Differences in traits among plant individuals have been shown to influence variation in interaction intensities within populations, while differences in environmental factors and community composition are shown to be important for variation over larger scales. However, little is still known about the relative importance of the local environmental context vs. plant traits for the outcome of interactions within plant populations. We investigated how oviposition by the seed-predator butterfly Phengaris alcon on its host plant Gentiana pneumonanthe was related to host plant traits and to local environmental variation, as well as how oviposition patterns translated into effects on host plant fruit set. We considered the local environmental context in terms of height of the surrounding vegetation and abundance of the butterfly's second host, Myrmica ants. The probability of oviposition was higher in plants that were surrounded by lower vegetation, and both the probability of oviposition and the number of eggs increased in early-flowering and tall plants with many flowers in the three study populations. Flowering phenology, shoot height and flower production were, in turn, related to higher surrounding vegetation. Myrmica abundance was correlated with vegetation height, but had no effect on oviposition patterns. Oviposition and subsequent seed predation by the caterpillars strongly reduced host plant fruit set. Our results show that plant-animal interactions are context-dependent not only because the context influences the abundance or the behavior of the animal interactor, but also because it influences the expression of plant traits that affect the outcome of the interaction. The results also demonstrate that heterogeneity in environmental conditions at a very local scale can be important for the outcomes of interactions.
Data from: Impact of environmental conditions on wood anatomical traits of green alder (Alnus alnobetula) at the alpine treeline
<p><strong>The data file</strong> (<em>Alnus alnobetula</em>_Wood anatomy.xlsx) contains all raw data, which have been used to create Figures 3-7 in the article.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Data are documented in the following article</strong>:</p> <p>Gruber A, G Wieser, M Fink, W Oberhuber (2024) Impact of environmental conditions on wood anatomical traits of green alder (<em>Alnus alnobetula</em>) at the alpine treeline.<strong> Forests, 15, 24; doi:10.3390/f15010024 <br></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Summary</strong></p> <p>Due to land use change, green alder (<em>Alnus alnobetula</em>), formerly restricted to moist slopes, is now expanding to drier south-facing sites at the alpine treeline. To evaluate wood anatomical adaptations, we analyzed vessel characteristics (mean vessel area, MVA; vessel density, VD; and theoretic conductive area, TCA) and axial parenchyma abundance, as well as their distribution in the annual ring at a moist north-facing and a dry south-facing site at the alpine treeline (2150 m asl) on Mt. Patscherkofel (Central European Alps, Austria). Results revealed that lower soil water availability and enhanced evaporative demand did not affect MVA, while VD and TCA were significantly reduced at the dry south-facing site. This suggests that in <em>A. alnobetula</em>, vessel size is a static trait whereas vessel number responds plastic. Harsh environmental conditions at the distributional limit of <em>A. alnobetula</em> led to a near semi-ring-porous distribution of vessels and an accumulation of parenchyma in the late growing season. We conclude that in a warmer and drier climate, physiological stress may set limits to the distribution of <em>A. alnobetula</em> at drought-prone sites at the alpine treeline.</p>
Does fluctuating asymmetry of wing traits capture relative environmental stress in a lepidopteran?
<p></p> <p><b>Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) may be a useful predictor of population canalization, especially for organisms at risk from environmental change.</b></p> <ol> <li> <p><b>Identification of traits that meet statistical criteria as FA measures remains a challenge.</b></p> </li> <li> <p><b>In the present study, a laboratory experiment subjected immature butterflies (Vanessa cardui) to a range of diet and temperature conditions of varying stress levels. Variation in dietary macronutrient ratio (protein: carbohydrate) and rearing temperature (optimal: 25°C; elevated: 32°C) were introduced as stressors.</b></p> </li> <li> <p><b>Individuals subjected to stressful conditions were predicted to show elevated FA of three wing size traits.</b></p> </li> <li> <p><b>While FA of all three traits proved measurable, it did not vary across diet and temperature treatments. Instead, treatment levels impacted viability: the combined incidence of death prior to eclosion and expression of significant wing malformations increased in treatment levels predicted to increase FA. Variation in adult dry mass also reflected predicted stress levels. Results suggest that predicted FA variation was not found because individuals predicted to display increased FA either died or displayed gross developmental aberrations.</b></p> </li> <li> <p><b>This experiment illustrates important constraints on the investigation of FA, including selection of appropriate traits and identification of appropriate levels of stressors to avoid elevated mortality. The latter concern brings into question the utility of FA as an indicator of stress in vulnerable, natural populations, where stress levels are rarely controlled, and mortality and fitness effects are often not quantifiable.</b></p> </li> </ol>
Environmental stress gradients regulate the relative importance of predator density- and trait-mediated indirect effects in oyster reef communities
<p>Predators affect community structure by influencing prey density and traits, but the importance of these effects often is difficult to predict. We measured the strength of blue crab predator effects on mud crab prey consumption of juvenile oysters across a flow gradient that inflicts both physical and sensory stress to determine how the relative importance of top predator density-mediated indirect effects (DMIEs) and trait-mediated indirect effects (TMIEs) change within systems. Overall, TMIEs dominated in relatively benign flow conditions where blue crab predator cues increased oyster survivorship by reducing mud crab oyster consumption. Blue crab DMIEs became more important in high sensory stress conditions, which impaired mud crab perception of blue crab chemical cues. At high physical stress, the environment benefitted oyster survival by physically constraining mud crabs. Thus, factors that structure communities may be predicted based on an understanding of how physical and sensory performances change across environmental stress gradients.</p>
Indonesian soil and litter Collembola species and trait matrix with environmental data
<p>Rainforest conversion and expansion of plantations in tropical regions is associated with changes in animal communities and biodiversity decline. In soil, Collembola are one of the most numerous invertebrate groups that control microbial processes and support arthropod predators. Despite that, information on the impact of changes in land use in the tropics on species and trait composition of Collembola communities is very limited. We investigated the response of Collembola to the conversion of rainforest into rubber agroforest ('junge rubber'), rubber and oil palm plantations in Jambi province (Sumatra, Indonesia), a region that experienced one of the strongest deforestation globally during the last decades. Collembola from litter and soil layers were collected in 2013 and 2016 using heat extraction. In the litter layer, density and species richness in plantation systems declined by 25-38% and 30-40%, respectively, compared to rainforest. By contrast, in the soil layer, density, species richness and trait diversity of Collembola were only slightly affected by land-use change contrasting the response of many other animal groups. Species and trait composition of Collembola communities in litter and soil layers differed between all land-use systems. Water content and pH were identified as main factors related to the differences in species and trait composition both in litter and soil layers, followed by the density of micro- and macropredators. Dominant Collembola species in rainforest and jungle rubber were characterized by small body size, absence of furca and absent or intense pigmentation, while in plantations larger species with long furca and diffuse or patterned coloration were more abundant. The trait-based responses were similar to those observed in Collembola from temperate regions and to those in a similar study on spiders at our study sites. Overall, land-use change negatively affected Collembola communities in the litter layer, but only little affected Collembola communities in soil. Several pantropical Collembola genera (i.e., <i>Isotomiella</i>, <i>Pseudosinella</i> and <i>Folsomides</i>) dominated across land-use systems, reflecting their high environmental adaptability or efficient dispersal calling for studies on their ecology and genetic diversity. The decline in species richness and density of litter-dwelling Collembola with the conversion of rainforest into plantation systems calls for management practices mitigating negative effects of the deterioration of the litter layer in rubber but in particular in oil palm plantations.</p>
Phylogenetic and environmental patterns of sex-differentiation in physiological traits across Drosophila species
<p>Sex-based differences in physiological traits may be influenced by both evolutionary and environmental factors. Here we used male and female flies from >80 <em>Drosophila </em>species reared under common conditions to examine variance in a number of physiological traits including size, starvation, desiccation and thermal tolerance. Sex-based differences for desiccation and starvation resistance were comparable in magnitude to those for size, with females tending to be relatively more resistant than males. In contrast thermal resistance showed low divergence between the sexes. Phylogenetic signal was detected for measures of divergence between the sexes, such that species from the <em>Sophophora </em>clade showed larger differences between the sexes than species from the <em>Drosophila </em>clade. We also found that sex-based differences in desiccation resistance, body size and starvation resistance were weakly associated with climate (annual mean temperature/precipitation seasonality) but the direction and association with environment depended on phylogenetic position. The results suggest that divergence between the sexes can be linked to environmental factors, while an association with phylogeny suggests sex-based differences persist over long evolutionary time-frames. </p>
Pollination-related plant traits under environmental changes: seasonal and daily mismatches produce temporal constraints
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Data from: Functional traits and environmental conditions predict community isotopic niches and energy pathways across spatial scales
1. Despite ongoing research in food web ecology and functional biogeography, the links between food-web structure, functional traits and environmental conditions across spatial scales remain poorly understood. Trophic niches, defined as the amount of energy and elemental space occupied by species and food webs, may help bridge this divide. 2. Here, we ask how the functional traits of species, the environmental conditions of habitats and the spatial scale of analysis jointly determine the characteristics of trophic niches. We used isotopic niches as a proxy of trophic niches, and conducted analyses at spatial scales ranging from local food webs and metacommunities to geographically distant sites. 3. We sampled aquatic macroinvertebrates from 104 tank bromeliads distributed across five sites from Central to South America, and compiled the macroinvertebrates' functional traits and stable isotope values (δ15N and δ13C). We assessed how isotopic niches within each bromeliad were influenced by the functional trait composition of their associated invertebrates and environmental conditions (i.e., habitat size, canopy cover, and detrital concentration). We then evaluated whether the diet of dominant predators and, consequently, energy pathways within food webs, reflected functional and environmental changes among bromeliads across sites. Finally, we determined the extent to which the isotopic niches of macroinvertebrates within each bromeliad contributed to the metacommunity isotopic niches within each site, and compared these metacommunity-level niches over biogeographic scales. 4. At the bromeliad level, isotopic niches increased with the functional richness of species in the food web and the detrital concentration in the bromeliad. The diet of top predators tracked shifts in prey biomass along gradients of canopy cover and detrital concentration. Bromeliads that grew under heterogeneous canopy cover displayed less trophic redundancy and therefore combined to form larger metacommunity isotopic niches. Finally, the size of metacommunity niches depended on within-site heterogeneity in canopy cover. 5. Our results suggest that the trophic niches occupied by food webs can predictably scale from local food webs to metacommunities to biogeographic regions. This scaling process is determined by both the functional traits of species and heterogeneity in environmental conditions.
Data from: Environmental heterogeneity and population differences in blue tits personality traits
Environmental heterogeneity can result in spatial variation in selection pressures that can produce local adaptations. The pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis predicts that habitat-specific selective pressures will favor the coevolution of personality, physiological, and life-history phenotypes. Few studies so far have compared these traits simultaneously across different ecological conditions. In this study, we compared 3 personality traits (handling aggression, exploration speed in a novel environment, and nest defense behavior) and 1 physiological trait (heart rate during manual restraint) across 3 Corsican blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) populations. These populations are located in contrasting habitats (evergreen vs. deciduous) and are situated in 2 different valleys 25 km apart. Birds from these populations are known to differ in life-history characteristics, with birds from the evergreen habitat displaying a slow pace-of-life, and birds from the deciduous habitat a comparatively faster pace-of-life. We expected personality to differ across populations, in line with the differences in pace-of-life documented for life-history traits. As expected, we found behavioral differences among populations. Despite considerable temporal variation, birds exhibited lower handling aggression in the evergreen populations. Exploration speed and male heart rate also differed across populations, although our results for exploration speed were more consistent with a phenotypic difference between the 2 valleys than between habitats. There were no clear differences in nest defense intensity among populations. Our study emphasizes the role of environmental heterogeneity in shaping population divergence in personality traits at a small spatial scale.
Data from: What determines prey selection in owls? Roles of prey traits, prey class, environmental variables, and taxonomic specialization
Ecological theory suggests that prey size should increase with predator size, but this trend may be masked by other factors affecting prey selection, such as environmental constraints or specific prey preferences of predator species. Owls are an ideal case study for exploring how predator body size affects prey selection in the presence of other factors due to the ease of analyzing their diets from owl pellets and their widespread distributions, allowing interspecific comparisons between variable habitats. Here, we analyze various dimensions of prey resource selection among owls, including prey size, taxonomy (i.e., whether or not particular taxa are favored regardless of their size), and prey traits (movement type, social structure, activity pattern, and diet). We collected pellets of five sympatric owl species (Athene noctua, Tyto alba, Asio otus, Strix aluco, and Bubo bubo) from 78 sites across the Mediterranean Levant. Prey intake was compared between sites, with various environmental variables and owl species as predictors of abundance. Despite significant environmental impacts on prey intake, some key patterns emerge among owl species studied. Owls select prey by predator body size: Larger owls tend to feed on wider ranges of prey sizes, leading to higher means. In addition, guild members show both specialization and generalism in terms of prey taxa, sometimes in contrast with the expectations of the predator–prey body size hypothesis. Our results suggest that while predator body size is an important factor in prey selection, taxon specialization by predator species also has considerable impact.
Data from: Environmental resource deficit may drive the evolution of intraspecific trait variation in invasive plant populations
Intraspecific trait variation within natural populations (i.e. intra‐population trait variation, IPTV) is the basic source for selection and can have significant ecological consequences. Higher IPTV may increase a population's niche breath and benefit interspecies competition under a resource‐limited environment, thus affecting the ability of a species to move into novel habitats. However, the reciprocal influences of variation in environmental conditions and phenotypic trait expression in spreading plant populations are not clearly defined. We propose that during invasion, IPTV and its relative change in response to key resource enrichment may increase with the resource deficit of invaded sites, and that this relationship may facilitate plant invasions into resource‐limited environments. We analyzed the invasion trend, IPTV and its response to water enrichment, and moisture variability among populations of an annual grass Brachypodium hybridum in California, United States. We incorporated a genotyping‐by‐sequencing approach, a common garden experiment that had two water level treatments, and public plant and climate databases. Our hypothesis was supported by the observation that for populations that invaded sites with higher spring moisture deficit, both their seed biomass IPTV (for the water‐enriched treatment only) and relative change of the IPTV across water treatments were larger when examined in the common garden experiment. A generally north to south spreading direction was found in these B. hybridum populations, towards a drier and warmer climate exhibiting higher moisture deficit for plant growth. Our results suggest a role for interactions between IPTV (rather than trait means) and environmental resource availability in promoting plant invasions, providing new insights into the significance of IPTV in shaping plant geographic distributions.
Data from: Plant functional traits and environmental conditions shape community assembly and ecosystem functioning during restoration
Recovering biological diversity and ecosystem functioning are primary objectives of ecological restoration, yet these outcomes are often unpredictable. Assessments based on functional traits may help with interpreting variability in both community composition and ecosystem functioning because of their mechanistic and generalizable nature. This promise remains poorly realized, however, because tests linking environmental conditions, functional traits, and ecosystem functioning in restoration are rare. Here, we provide such a test through what is to our knowledge the first empirical application of the 'response–effect trait framework' to restoration. This framework provides a trait-based bridge between community assembly and ecosystem functioning by describing how species respond to environmental conditions based on traits and how the traits of species affect ecosystem functioning. Our study took place across 29 prairies restored from former agricultural fields in southwestern Michigan. We considered how environmental conditions affect ecosystem functioning through and independently of measured functional traits. To do so, we paired field-collected trait data with data on plant community composition and measures of ecosystem functioning and used structural equation modelling to determine relationships between environmental conditions, community-weighted means of functional traits and ecosystem functioning. Environmental conditions were predictive of trait composition. Sites restored directly from tillage (as opposed to those allowed to fallow) supported taller species with larger seeds and higher specific leaf area (SLA). Site age and fire frequency were both negatively related to SLA. We also found a positive relationship between soil moisture and SLA. Both trait composition and environmental conditions predicted ecosystem functioning, but these relationships varied among the measured functions. Pollination mode (animal pollination) increased and fire frequency decreased floral resource availability, seed mass had a negative effect on below-ground biomass production, and vegetative height increased decomposition rate. Soil moisture and fire frequency both increased while site age decreased above-ground biomass production, and site age and soil moisture both increased decomposition rate. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that both trait composition and environmental conditions play a role in shaping ecosystem function during restoration, and the importance of each is dependent on the function of interest. Because of this, environmental heterogeneity will be necessary to promote multiple ecosystem functions across restored landscapes. A trait-based approach to restoration can aid interpretation of variable outcomes through insights into community assembly and ecosystem functioning.
Data for: Environmental gradualism explains variation in pollination systems of columnar cacti: Phylogenetic and trait evolution analyses
<p><strong>Aim</strong>: The Geographic Dichotomy Hypothesis (GDH) states several flowering plant groups have specialized pollination systems in tropical areas, where resources are more reliable and pollinator communities tend to be more stable. Our main goal was to understand the scope of the GDH and/or gradual environmental variation considering the evolutionary history of the pollination traits.</p> <p><strong>Location</strong>: Neotropical tropics and adjacent extra-tropics.</p> <p><strong>Major</strong> <strong>taxa</strong> <strong>studied</strong>: Columnar cacti.</p> <p><strong>Methods</strong>: Using a database composed of ~54 columnar cacti species (31.7% of the global columnar cactus species), four complex traits were analyzed: pollination syndromes, reproductive systems, type of anthesis, and duration of anthesis. We applied GLMs, phylogenetic regressions, evolutionary trait optimization, and multivariate models with 19 bioclimatic variables and potential evapotranspiration.</p> <p><strong>Results</strong>: Weak phylogenetic signal was detected for all traits, giving consistent results between GLMs and phylogenetic regression analysis. The pollination syndrome and duration of anthesis varied with latitude, in contrast to the reproductive system and the type of anthesis. In the Southern Hemisphere, the pollinators were more diverse and the duration of anthesis was longer. Different evolutionary paths between hemispheres were detected and optimization showed a complex pattern in the evolution of traits, suggesting high homoplasy with multiple transformations by convergence and/or parallelism. The environmental models showed thermic seasonality may be at the core of the latitudinal variation of the pollination system.</p> <p><strong>Main</strong> <strong>conclusions</strong>: We did not detect a geographical dichotomy in pollination systems of the cacti, but rather a gradual change in different pollination attributes. Therefore, instead of a GDH, we propose an environmental gradient hypothesis (EGH). Environmental variables may be explaining the variation detected in pollination system traits by conditioning floral properties (morphology, phenology), diversity and distribution of pollinators, and/or coevolution occurrence. The complexity implied in these traits is consistent with high homoplasy levels and a differential evolutionary history between the hemispheres.</p>
Trait-based and multi-scale approach provides insight on responses of freshwater mussels to environmental heterogeneity
<p>Our understanding of the factors driving the distribution of metacommunities at different scales can be obscured by high variation in species composition between sites and a lack of fine-scale distribution data. Trait-based approaches have long been used to better identify and examine ecological patterns. Most recent studies of riverine metacommunities examining trait-based patterns have focused on shorter-lived organisms. Here we focused on a group of longer-lived, sedentary riverine organisms, unionid freshwater mussels. The objective of this study was to examine how (1) the distribution of mussels with different life history strategies (trait-based approach) and (2) the relative importance of environmental and spatial factors (as a proxy for dispersal) would differ with spatial scale and position in the river; and to (3) further compare this with patterns derived from a taxonomic approach. Fine-scale distribution data of mussels and environmental factors were collected every 100 m in spatially extensive surveys in an up- and downstream segment (200 sites/20 km-segment) of a semi-arid river, making them some of the most spatially intensive surveys documented to date. A combination of redundancy analysis, asymmetric eigenvector mapping, and variation partitioning analyses revealed that more variation was explained by environmental factors where more environmental differences occur between sites. Where environmental heterogeneity was lower the amount of variation explained by smaller-scale spatial factors was higher, likely mostly associated with stochastic rather than dispersal processes. A higher amount of unexplained variation at the taxonomic level suggests that stochasticity may also play an important role in determining species composition. In contrast, different life history groups had a highly predictable distribution pattern driven by environmental heterogeneity, especially between river segments and mesohabitat, which was associated with different flow conditions. The role we predict for environmental heterogeneity and stochasticity in shaping the distribution of mussels in our study river likely also applies to other taxa and ecosystems at a spatial scale at which neither dispersal limitation nor mass effects occur. Thus, understanding the magnitude and extent of dispersal relative to the amount of environmental heterogeneity may be key for predicting metacommunity structure and dynamics for different organisms.</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.