Find research datasets worth reusing
Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.
158
datasets available to search
ShareScore release 0.9.0
Dataset results
158 results for “metacommunity”
Data from: Season-specific and guild-specific effects of anthropogenic landscape modification on metacommunity structure of tropical bats
1. Fragmentation per se due to human land conversion is a landscape-scale phenomenon. Accordingly, assessment of distributional patterns across a suite of potentially connected communities (i.e. metacommunity structure) is an appropriate approach for understanding the effects of landscape modification, and complements the plethora of fragmentation studies that have focused on local community structure. To date, metacommunity structure within human-modified landscapes has been assessed with regard to nestedness along species richness gradients. This is problematic because there is little support that species richness gradients are associated with the factors moulding species distributions. More importantly, many alternative patterns are possible, and different patterns may manifest during different seasons and for different guilds because of variation in resource availability and resource requirements of taxa. 2. We determined the best-fit metacommunity structure of a phyllostomid bat assemblage, frugivore ensemble, and gleaning animalivore ensemble within a human-modified landscape in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica during the dry and wet seasons to elucidate important structuring mechanisms. Furthermore, we identified the landscape characteristics associated with the latent gradient underlying metacommunity structure. 3. We discriminated among multiple metacommunity structures by assessing coherence, range turnover, and boundary clumping of an ordinated site-by-species matrix. We identified the landscape characteristics associated with the latent gradient underlying metacommunity structure via hierarchical partitioning. 4. Metacommunity structure was never nested nor structured along a richness gradient. 5. The phyllostomid assemblage and frugivore ensemble exhibited Gleasonian structure (range turnover along a common gradient) during the dry season and Clementsian structure (range turnover and shared boundaries along a common gradient) during the wet season. Distance between forest patches and forest edge density structured the phyllostomid metacommunity during the dry and wet seasons, respectively. Proportion of pasture and forest patch density structured the frugivore metacommunity during the dry season. 6. Gleaning animalivores exhibited chequerboard structure (mutually exclusive species-pairs) during the dry season and random structure during the wet season. 7. Metacommunity structure was likely mediated by differential resource use or interspecific relationships. Furthermore, the interaction between landscape characteristics and seasonal variation in resources resulted in season-specific and guild-specific distributional patterns.
Data from: Dispersal mode mediates the effect of patch size and patch connectivity on metacommunity diversity
1. Metacommunity theory predicts that increasing patch size and patch connectivity can alter local species diversity by affecting either colonization rates, extinction rates or both. Although species' dispersal abilities or 'dispersal mode' (e.g. gravity-, wind- or animal-dispersed seeds) can mediate the effects of patch size and connectivity on diversity, these important factors are frequently overlooked in empirical metacommunity work. 2. We use a natural metacommunity of aspen stands within a grassland matrix to determine whether dispersal mode alters the influence of stand size and connectivity on understorey plant diversity. We sampled the same area in each patch, controlled for the presence of matrix species in aspen stands, and tested for the effects of size, connectivity and dispersal mode on metacommunity richness. Because dispersal groups responded differently to patch size and connectivity, we created a null model and assessed ungulate activity to explore whether competitive dynamics or herbivory were driving diversity patterns. 3. Animal-dispersed species and species with no dispersal aid had higher diversity per unit area in larger stands, likely because large stands can both support larger populations that are less prone to extinction and may also attract seed-dispersing animals such as birds and small mammals that are sensitive to edge effects. Consistent with other empirical work, we found a positive relationship between diversity and connectivity for wind-dispersed species. However, we detected a negative effect of stand connectivity on the diversity of species with no dispersal aid, possibly due to the presence of other highly competitive species groups dominating well-connected patches, as our null model results suggest. We found no evidence for higher ungulate activity in highly connected patches, suggesting that herbivory may not be driving the decline in diversity of plants with no dispersal aid. 4. Synthesis. Overall, we see a positive effect of stand area on diversity for most groups despite sampling equal area in all stands, which is a prediction of metacommunity theory that is normally overlooked. Our results demonstrate the importance of considering variation in the dispersal modes of focal species for explaining the diversity patterns of natural metacommunities.
Data from: Lake regionalization and diatom metacommunity structuring in tropical South America
Lakes and their topological distribution across Earth's surface impose ecological and evolutionary constraints on aquatic metacommunities. In this study, we group similar lake ecosystems as metacommunity units influencing diatom community structure. We assembled a database of 195 lakes from the tropical Andes and adjacent lowlands (8ºN–30ºS and 58–79ºW) with associated environmental predictors to examine diatom metacommunity patterns at two different levels: taxon and functional (deconstructed species matrix by ecological guilds). We also derived spatial variables that inherently assessed the relative role of dispersal. Using complementary multivariate statistical techniques (Principal Component Analysis, cluster analysis, non-metric multidimensional scaling, Procrustes, variance partitioning), we examined diatom-environment relationships among different lake habitats (sediment surface, periphyton and plankton) and partitioned community variation to evaluate the influence of niche- and dispersal-based assembly processes in diatom metacommunity structure across lake clusters. The results showed a significant association between geographic clusters of lakes based on gradients of climate and landscape configuration and diatom assemblages. Six lake clusters distributed along a latitudinal gradient were identified as functional metacommunity units for diatom communities. Variance partitioning revealed that dispersal mechanisms were a major contributor to diatom metacommunity structure, but in a highly context-dependent fashion across lake clusters. In the Andean Altiplano and adjacent lowlands of Bolivia, diatom metacommunities are niche assembled but constrained by either dispersal limitation or mass effects, resulting from area, environmental heterogeneity, and ecological guild relationships. Topographic heterogeneity played an important role in structuring planktic diatom metacommunities. We emphasize the value of a guild-based metacommunity model linked to dispersal for elucidating mechanisms underlying latitudinal gradients in distribution. Our findings reveal the importance of shifts in ecological drivers across climatic and physiographically distinct lake clusters, providing a basis for comparison of broad-scale community gradients in lake-rich regions elsewhere. This may help guide future research to explore evolutionary constraints on the rich Neotropical benthic diatom species pool.
Data from: Host-parasitoid evolution in a metacommunity
Patch size and isolation are predicted to alter both species diversity and evolution; yet, there are few empirical examples of eco-evolutionary feedback in metacommunities. We tested three hypotheses about eco-evolutionary feedback in a gall-forming fly, Eurosta solidaginis and two of its natural enemies that select for opposite traits: (i) specialization and poor dispersal ability constrain a subset of natural enemies from occupying small and isolated patches, (ii) this constraint alters selection on the gall fly, causing phenotypic shifts towards traits resistant to generalist and dispersive enemies in small and isolated patches, and (iii) reduced dispersal evolves in small, isolated populations. We sampled patches in a natural metacommunity and found support for all hypotheses; Eurosta's specialist wasp parasitoid attacked fewer galls in small and isolated patches, generating a selection gradient that favoured small galls resistant to predation by a dispersive and generalist bird predator. Phenotype distributions matched this selection gradient, and these phenotypic differences were maintained in a common garden experiment. Finally, we found lower dispersal abilities in small and isolated patches, a phenotypic shift that aids in the maintenance of local adaptation. We suggest that the trophic rank and the species traits of consumers are central to evolution in metacommunities.
Data from: Dispersal and diversity in experimental metacommunities: linking theory and practice
There has been a recent rise in the number of experiments investigating the effect of dispersal on diversity, with many of the predictions for these tests derived from metacommunity theory. Despite the promise of linking observed relationships between dispersal and diversity to underlying metacommunity processes, empirical studies have faced challenges in providing robust tests of theory. We review experimental studies that have tested how dispersal affects metacommunity diversity to determine why shortcomings emerge, and to provide a framework for empirical tests of theory that capture the processes structuring diversity in natural metacommunities. We first summarize recent experimental work to outline trends in results and to highlight common methods that cause a misalignment between empirical studies and the processes described by theory. We then identify the undesired implications of three widely used experimental methods that homogenize metacommunity structure or species traits, and present alternative methods that have been used to successfully integrate experiments and theory in a biologically relevant way. Finally, we present methodological and theoretical insights from three related ecological fields (coexistence, food web and priority effects theory) that, if integrated into metacommunity experiments, could help isolate the independent and joint effects of local interactions and dispersal on diversity, and reveal the mechanisms underlying observed dispersal–diversity patterns. Together, these methods can provide stronger tests of existing theory and stimulate new theoretical explorations.
Data from: Reproductive traits as predictors of assembly chronosequence patterns in epiphyllous bryophyte metacommunities
1) Understanding the mechanisms underlying species assembly is a central focus of plant ecology and is crucial to revealing how plant communities are structured. However, the temporal limitations of most terrestrial plant communities preclude collection of species assembly data in a tractable time-frame. 2) The aim of this study is to investigate the importance of dispersal potential, as estimated by inter-specific variation in sexual and asexual expression, as a predictor of patch chronosequence assembly for epiphyllous (leaf-inhabiting) bryophytes. Secondarily, we investigate whether spatio-temporal patterns in patch turnover and compositional variation infer evidence of local (within-patch) population processes. The frequency and distribution of 55 epiphyllous bryophytes across five leaf age classes were studied on an understory shrub Piper grande (Piperaceae) in pre-montane Panamanian tropical forest. Logistical models were used to test whether inter-specific variation in dispersal-related life history traits predicts assembly order. Beta diversity and ordination analyses were employed to examine nestedness versus turnover, and probe for repeatable patterns in patch chronosequence assembly, respectively. 3) Our results emphasize the importance of dispersal potential on species assembly patterns as earlier arrivals exhibit greater probabilities of sexual and specialized asexual expression. High turnover coupled with temporal convergence in species composition also point to evidence of within-patch biotic filtering. 4) Synthesis: Epiphylls are locally diverse in humid tropical forests worldwide; however, the mechanisms which maintain their high local diversity are unknown. This study suggests that inter-specific variation in dispersal capacity in combination with diffuse indirect effects are the principal contributors to the high alpha-diversity of these ephemeral metacommunities.
Data from: The effects of temporal resolution on species turnover and on testing metacommunity models
Patterns of low temporal turnover in species composition found within long paleoecological time series contrast with the high turnover predicted by dispersal-limited neutral metacommunity models and thus have been used to support non-neutral models. However, predictions assume temporal resolution on the scale of a season or year whereas individual fossil assemblages are typically time-averaged to decadal or centennial time scales. Here, we simulate the effects of time averaging by building time-averaged assemblages from local dispersal-limited non-averaged (living) assemblages and compare the predicted species turnover with observed patterns in mollusk and ostracod fossil records. Time averaging substantially reduces temporal turnover such that neutral predictions converge with those of trade-off and density-dependent models, and tends to decrease species dominance and increase the proportion of rare species. Observed turnover rates are comparable to an appropriately scaled neutral model: patterns of high community stability can be produced or reinforced by time averaging alone. The community attributes of local time-averaged assemblages approach those of the metacommunity. Time-averaged assemblages are thus unlikely to capture attributes arising from processes operating at small spatial scales, but should do well at capturing the turnover and diversity parameters of metacommunities, and thus will be a valuable basis for analyzing the large-scale processes that determine metacommunity evolution.
Data from: Mountain metacommunities: climate and spatial connectivity shape ant diversity in a complex landscape
Understanding what drives biodiversity patterns across scales is the central goal of ecology. Both environmental gradients and spatial landscape structure have been found to be important factors influencing species distributions and community composition, and partly reflect the balance of underlying deterministic and stochastic community processes. In some systems, environmental gradients and spatial connectivity are intertwined in that steep environmental gradients serve as boundaries on species movements and impose environment-derived complex spatial structure to metacommunities. Mountainous landscapes are prime examples of this, and recent theory has linked principles of geomorphology, environmental gradients, and spatial structure to make predictions for resulting community patterns. In this context, we examine variation in taxonomic and phylogenetic ant diversity patterns along a geographic transect spanning >5000 m in elevational range in the Hengduan mountains of southern China. We found that environmental gradients dominate variation in both alpha and beta diversity in this landscape, with alpha diversity strongly declining with elevation and beta diversity driven by elevational differences. However, within an elevational band spatial connectivity predicts beta diversity better than geographic distance. Our findings deviate from theoretical predictions in several ways, notably alpha diversity is monotonically declining and within-band beta diversity is invariant with increasing elevation. The discrepancies between theory and observation may be explained by differences in the Hengduan landscape from idealized fluvial landscapes, such as a lack of a mid-elevation peak in connectivity, as well as evolutionary limits on the source pool of species available to populate metacommunities at different elevations. The latter is supported by variation in phylogenetic community structure with elevation. Our results demonstrate the power of conceptual, statistical, and theoretical frameworks that integrate the roles of environment and spatial structure in metacommunities, but that additional work is needed to bridge the gap between abstract theory and real systems.
The stability of competitive metacommunities is insensitive to dispersal connectivity in a fluctuating environment
<p>This repository contains four archived folders: 1) all the codes and parameter sets for the simulations, 2) codes to analyse and visualise the simulation outputs, 3) simulation output files and other data files necessary for the analysis, and 4) library management files for julia lang. Please refer to README.txt for the descriptions of the files.</p>
The topology of spatial networks affects stability in experimental metacommunities
<p><span>Understanding the drivers of community stability has been a central goal in ecology. Traditionally the emphasis has been placed on studying the effects of biotic interactions on community variability, and less is understood about how the spatial configuration of habitats promotes or hinders metacommunity stability. To test the effects of contrasting spatial configurations on metacommunity stability, I designed metacommunities with patches connected as random or scale-free networks. In these microcosms, two prey and one protist predator dispersed, and I evaluated community persistence, tracked biomass variations, and measured synchrony between local communities and their neighbors. After 30 generations, scale-free metacommunities had lower global biomass variability and higher persistence, suggesting higher stability. At the local scale, patches in scale-free metacommunities showed a positive relationship between variability and patch connectivity, indicating higher stability in isolated communities. No clear relationship was observed in random networks. These results suggest the increased heterogeneity in connectivity of scale-free networks favors the prevalence of isolated patches in the metacommunity, which likely act as refugia against competition—the most dominant interaction in this system—resulting in higher global stability. These results highlight the importance of accounting for network topology in the study of spatial dynamics.</span></p>
Are metapopulation species drivers of metacommunity structure in sandstone outcrop communities?
<p><strong><em>Questions </em></strong>The extent to which metacommunities exhibit species with metapopulation dynamics is poorly understood. We investigate this issue within sandstone glade plant communities scattered across an upland hardwood forest. We investigate the life forms of metapopulation species and relationships between taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity, composition, and environmental factors.</p> <p><strong><em>Locations </em></strong>Twenty-three sandstone outcrop communities in southern Illinois, USA.</p> <p><strong><em>Methods </em></strong>Following vegetation surveys, species exhibiting metapopulations dynamics were identified and compared to all species based on origin, growth form, and lifecycle. Cohesion, turnover, and boundary clumping were utilized to determine metacommunity structure. Correlations evaluated associations between site-based variables, and regressions evaluated associations between diversity indices. Multivariate analyses compared sites to determine which variables contributed to compositional differences.</p> <p><strong><em>Results </em></strong>Twenty of 130 species exhibited metapopulations dynamics and were usually annual or biennial exotics. Metacommunity elements indicated a Clementsian metacommunity, where metapopulation species were subordinate as opposed to dominant or transient. The largest sites were the most regularly shaped, but not the most diverse. Species richness and metapopulation species determined phylogenetic and functional diversity, but largely non-standardized measures of diversity, indicating independence between types of diversity. Multivariate analyses showed that diversity metrics explained community composition differences, where more species-rich sites with more metapopulation species were also more phylogenetically and functional diverse.</p> <p><strong><em>Conclusions: </em></strong> Sandstone glade communities exhibited diverse plant communities, where phylogenetic and functional diversity were driven by both total and metapopulation species independently. The metapopulation species were usually short-lived and exotic species with their low number likely constrained via dispersal limitations. The communities exhibited Clementsian metacommunity structure indicating predictable community assemblages. Functional traits indicated that these communities include species adapted to xeric, substrate-poor conditions.</p>
Multitrophic metacommunity dataset (butterflies, flowering plants, and butterfly predators)
<p>This dataset includes measures of butterfly and floral diversity and richness collected across 15 sites at Burnt Lands Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, during the summer of 2019. It also includes information on the number of predator and grasshopper attacks on experimental clay butterfly models at each site. It also contains data on site size, connectivity within the site network, and distance to the closest site outside of the network, for the 15 sites.</p>
DNA metabarcoding reveals impact of local recruitment, dispersal, and hydroperiod on assembly of a zooplankton metacommunity
<p><span>Understanding the environmental impact on the assembly of local communities in relation to their spatial and temporal connectivity is still a challenge in metacommunity ecology. This study aims to unravel underlying metacommunity processes and environmental factors that result in observed zooplankton communities. Unlike most metacommunity studies, we jointly examine active and dormant zooplankton communities using a DNA metabarcoding approach to overcome limitations of morphological species identification. We applied two-fragment (COI and 18S) metabarcoding to monitor communities of 24 kettle holes over a two-year period to unravel (I) spatial and temporal connectivity of the communities, (II) environmental factors influencing local communities, and (III) dominant underlying metacommunity processes in this system. We found a strong separation of zooplankton communities from kettle holes of different hydroperiods (degree of permanency) throughout the season, while the community composition within single kettle holes did not differ between years. Species richness was primarily dependent on pH and permanency, while species diversity (Shannon Index) was influenced by kettle hole location. Community composition was impacted by kettle hole size and surrounding field crops. Environmental processes dominated temporal and spatial processes. Sediment communities showed a different composition compared to water samples but did not differ between ephemeral and permanent kettle holes. Our results suggest that communities are mainly structured by environmental filtering based on pH, kettle hole size, surrounding field crops, and permanency. Environmental filtering based on specific conditions in individual kettle holes seems to be the dominant process in community assembly in the studied zooplankton metacommunity.</span></p>
Dataset - results of IBM of an evolving metacommunity
<p>Datasets and scripts corresponding to results of the IBM of an evolving metacommunity (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2280982) as shown in the paper: ''Regional neutrality evolves through local adaptive niche evolution" (www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1808615116).</p>
Data for "Differential effects of Daphnia genotype composition on spatial environmental heterogeneity in experimental metacommunities"
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Elements of fish metacommunity structure in Neotropical freshwater streams
<p>The identification of the mechanisms underlying co-occurrence patterns of species is a way to identify which processes (niche, neutral or both) structure metacommunities. In this paper, our goals are to identify patterns of co-occurrence in neotropical stream fish and determine which processes structure the metacommunity and the gradients that underlie this structure. Our results pointed out that the metacommunity formed by the total pool of species is structured by a nested pattern (Hyperdispersed Species Loss) of co-occurrence and the mass effect mechanism. On the other hand, a set of core species displays a Clementisian pattern and is structured by the species sorting mechanism. Both, hyperdispersed species loss and the Clementisian patterns point to a discrete set of communities in the metacommunity. These communities could be isolated by physicochemical conditions, or physical barriers, like dams or waterfalls.</p>
Alves, W. F./Connectivity and climate influence diversity-stability relationships across spatial scales in European butterfly metacommunities
<p>First release of the codes in support of 'Connectivity and climate influence diversity-stability relationships across spatial scales in European butterfly metacommunities'</p>
Data from: The effects of temporal resolution on species turnover and on testing metacommunity models
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Species turnover through time: colonization and extinction dynamics across metacommunities
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Variation in habitat connectivity generates positive correlations between species and genetic diversity in a metacommunity
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
ScienceDex guides
Understand access before you commit
These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
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.