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1,271 results for “tropical forest”
Data from: Soil gross N ammonification and nitrification from tropical to temperate forests in eastern China
1. Nitrogen (N) ammonification and nitrification are two primary microbial processes controlling the availability of soil ammonium (NH4+), a key nutrient for vegetative growth. The large-scale patterns of gross ammonification (GA) and gross nitrification (GN) rates represent soil microbial adaptations to different vegetative and environmental conditions. In this study, we investigated GA and GN rates in nine forest soils along a 3500-km north-south transect in eastern China (NSTEC). 2. We used 15N-labeling techniques, along with field experiments and laboratory incubations, to as-sess in situ and potential rates of the GA and GN. The mean in situ GA rate was 4.9 ± 0.5 mg N kg–1 day–1, whereas the mean potential rate of GA was 32.0 ± 8.6 mg N kg–1 day–1. The mean in situ GN rate was 1.7 ± 0.3 mg N kg–1 day–1 (potential GN rate: 3.2 ± 0.6 mg N kg–1 day–1). GA was sig-nificantly higher than GN along the transect and there were high variations in GA and GN among different forests. Significant relationships were identified between meteorological factors (tempera-ture and precipitation) and the GA and GN rates during the sampling month (August 2013). How-ever, the mean GA rate in primary forest was significantly lower in the Huzhong (HZ), Dongling (DL), Taiyue (TY), and Dinghu (DH) sites compared with other sites, whereas with the exception of the Liangshui (LS) sampling site, the mean GN rate in primary and secondary forests showed the same trends. Significant differences in GA rates were found between primary and secondary forests at the LS and Chang Bai (CB) sites, and differences were detected in GN rate at the HZ, LS, and Jiulian (JL) sites. 3. Structural equation modeling analysis suggested that soil N contents, microbial biomass N pool sizes, and bacterial abundance are the primary determinants of the in situ rates of GA and GN. The strong control of edaphic factors on GA and GN indicates a need to improve soil N models with more explicit representation of edaphic factors and their control on soil N transformations.
Data from: Variation of stomatal traits from cold-temperate to tropical forests and association with water use efficiency
1.Stomata control carbon and water vapor exchange between leaves and the atmosphere, thus it can influence water use efficiency and reflect plant adaptation to climate. However, the spatial patterns of leaf stomatal traits and relationships between stomatal trait and water use efficiency across natural communities remain unclear. 2.We measured stomatal density, stomatal size, and stomatal area fraction for 737 plant species from nine forests ranging from tropical to cold-temperate forests. 3.Stomatal density, stomatal size, and stomatal area fraction were all log-normally distributed, and different across species, plant functional groups (trees, shrubs, and herbs), and communities. At the regional scale, variation in stomatal traits was primarily related to species, followed by climate and soil types. 4.The community-weighted mean of stomatal size increased linearly with latitude, whereas those of stomatal density and stomatal area fraction showed humpbacked relationship. The community-weighted mean of stomatal area fraction was correlated with climatic aridity, consistent with the adaptation strategies of plant species to achieve high maximum rates of gas exchange in arid regions when water is available. Further, community-weighted mean of stomatal area fraction was positively correlated with water use efficiency in natural forest communities, indicating that plants have lower stomatal conductance in order to adapt greater aridity conditions. 5.These findings highlight the strong associations of stomatal traits with plant functional group and climate at a regional scale, representing the adaptation strategies of stomatal traits across natural forest communities to climate.
Data from: Does plant diversity increase top–down control of herbivorous insects in tropical forest?
Higher trophic level interactions are key mediators of ecosystem functioning in tropical forests. A rich body of theory has been developed to predict the effects of plant diversity on communities at higher trophic levels and the mechanisms underlying such effects. The 'enemies hypothesis' states that predators exert more effective top–down control of herbivorous insects with increasing plant diversity. Support for this hypothesis has been found in temperate forests and agroecosystems, but remains understudied in tropical forests. We compared incidence of attacks of different natural enemies using artificial caterpillars in a tropical forest landscape and investigated the role of plant community structure (i.e. species richness, composition and density), and the role of forest fragmentation (i.e. patch size, edge distance and canopy openness) on predation intensity. Plant community effects were tested with respect to three vegetation strata: trees, saplings and herbs. Observed predation was substantially due to ants. Predation rates increased with plant species richness for trees and herbs. Density of saplings, herb cover and herb species composition were important factors for predation. No significant patterns were found for fragmentation parameters, suggesting that forest fragmentation has not altered predation intensity. We conclude that in tropical forests, top–down control of herbivorous insects in the understory vegetation is affected by a combination of plant diversity, plant species composition and structural features of the plant community.
Data from: Unravelling the role of allochthonous aquatic resources to food web structure in a tropical riparian forest
1. The role of matter and energy flow across ecosystem boundaries for subsidized consumer populations is well known. However, little is known on the effects of allochthonous subsidies on food web structure and trophic niche dimensions of consumers in the tropics. 2. We excluded allochthonous aquatic insects from tropical streams using greenhouse-type exclosures to test the influence of aquatic allochthonous subsidies on the trophic structure and niche dimensions of terrestrial predators using stable isotope methods. 3. In exclosure treatments, abundance and biomass of terrestrial predators, and biomass of phytophages, decreased and increased, respectively. Vegetation-living predators were more responsive to allochthonous inputs than those living on the ground. Overall, lower availability of allochthonous inputs did not affect community-wide metrics and niche width of predators. However, the niche width of some spider families had very low overlap between treatments, and others had wider isotopic niches in the control than exclusion treatment. Most of the C and N in predators living in control stretches came from aquatic subsidies, and those predators living in exclusion treatments switched their diets to terrestrial sources, showing a preference of predators for allochthonous subsidies. 4. Our results suggest that allochthonous subsidies are also relevant to tropical fauna living upon vegetation. Moreover, allochthonous resources may amplify the niche dimension of certain predators, or considerably change the trophic niche of others. Our study highlights the importance of including modern isotopic tools in elucidating the role of allochthonous resources on the patterns of trophic structure and niche dimensions of consumers from donor ecosystems.
Data from: Towards accurate species-level metabarcoding of arthropod communities from the tropical forest canopy
Metabarcoding of arthropod communities can be used for assessing species diversity in tropical forests but the methodology requires validation for accurate and repeatable species occurrences in complex mixtures. This study investigates how the composition of ecological samples affects the accuracy of species recovery. Starting with field-collected bulk samples from the tropical canopy, the recovery of specimens was tested for subsets of different body sizes and major taxa, by assembling these subsets into increasingly complex composite pools. After metabarcoding, we track whether richness, diversity and most importantly composition of any size class or taxonomic subset is affected by the presence of other subsets in the mixture. Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) greatly exceeded the number of morphospecies in most taxa, even under very stringent sequencing read filtering. There was no significant effect on the recovered OTU richness of small and medium-sized arthropods when metabarcoded alongside larger arthropods, despite substantial biomass differences in the mixture. The recovery of taxonomic subsets was not generally influenced by the presence of other taxa, although with some exceptions likely due to primer mismatches. Considerable compositional variation within size and taxon-based subcommunities were evident resulting in high beta diversity among samples from within a single tree canopy, but this beta diversity was not affected by experimental manipulation. We conclude that OTU recovery in complex arthropod communities, with sufficient sequencing depth and within reasonable size ranges, is not skewed by variable biomass of the constituent species. This could remove the need for time-intensive manual sorting prior to metabarcoding. However, there remains a chance of taxonomic bias, which may be primer-dependent. There will never be a panacea primer; instead, metabarcoding studies should carefully consider whether the aim is broad-scale turnover, in which case these biases may not be important, or species lists, in which case separate PCRs and sequencing might be necessary. OTU number inflation remains an issue in metabarcoding and requires bioinformatic development, particularly in read filtering and OTU clustering, and/or greater use of species-identifying sequences generated outside of bulk sequencing.
Data from: Defaunation and fragmentation erode small mammal diversity dimensions in tropical forests
Forest fragmentation and defaunation are considered the main drivers of biodiversity loss, yet the synergistic effects of landscape changes and biotic interactions on assemblage structure have been poorly investigated. Here, we use an extensive dataset of 283 assemblages and 105 species of small mammals to understand how defaunation of medium and large mammals and forest fragmentation change the community composition and diversity of rodents and marsupials in tropical forests of South America. We used structured equation models to investigate the relationship between small mammal species, functional and phylogenetic diversity with forest size, forest cover and the occurrence of medium and large mammals. The best-fit model showed that defaunation reduced functional diversity, and that species diversity of small mammals increased with forest patch size. Forest cover did not affect functional and phylogenetic diversity. Our results indicate that occurrence of medium and large sized mammals (probably acting as predators, or competitors of small mammals) and forest patch size help to retain species and functional diversity in small mammal communities. Further, the number of species in a small mammal community was critical to the maintenance of phylogenetic diversity, and may have a pronounced influence on the ecological functions played by small mammals. Identifying how phylogenetic and functional diversity change in function of human pressures allows us to better understand the contribution of extant lineages to ecosystem functioning in tropical forests.
Data from: The impact of tropical forest logging and oil palm agriculture on the soil microbiome
Selective logging and forest conversion to oil palm agriculture are rapidly altering tropical forests. However, functional responses of the soil microbiome to these land-use changes are poorly understood. Using 16S rRNA gene and shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we compared composition and functional attributes of soil biota between unlogged, once-logged and twice-logged rainforest, and areas converted to oil palm plantations in Sabah, Borneo. Although there was no significant effect of logging history, we found a significant difference between the taxonomic and functional composition of both primary and logged forests and oil palm. Oil palm had greater abundances of genes associated with DNA, RNA, protein metabolism and other core metabolic functions, but conversely, lower abundance of genes associated with secondary metabolism and cell–cell interactions, indicating less importance of antagonism or mutualism in the more oligotrophic oil palm environment. Overall, these results show a striking difference in taxonomic composition and functional gene diversity of soil microorganisms between oil palm and forest, but no significant difference between primary forest and forest areas with differing logging history. This reinforces the view that logged forest retains most features and functions of the original soil community. However, networks based on strong correlations between taxonomy and functions showed that network complexity is unexpectedly increased due to both logging and oil palm agriculture, which suggests a pervasive effect of both land-use changes on the interaction of soil microbes.
Data from: Towards more effective integration of tropical forest restoration and conservation
Conservation and restoration interventions can be mutually reinforcing and are converging through an increased focus on social dimensions. This paper examines how to more effectively integrate the complementary goals of conservation and restoration of tropical forests. Forest conservation and restoration interventions are integral components of a broad approach to forest ecosystem and landscape management that aims to maintain and restore key ecological processes and enhance human well-being, while minimizing biodiversity loss. The forest transition model provides a useful framework for understanding the relative importance of forest conservation and restoration interventions in different regions. Harmonizing conservation and restoration presents serious challenges for forest policy in tropical countries, particularly regarding the use and management of secondary forests, fallow vegetation, and forests degraded by logging and fire. Research to implement restoration more effectively in tropical regions can be stimulated by transforming questions that initially focused on conservation issues. Examination of papers published in Biotropica from 2000–2018 shows that most studies relevant to tropical forest conservation do not address forest restoration issues. Forest restoration studies, on the other hand, show a consistent association with conservation issues. There is much scope for further integration of conservation and restoration in research, practice, and policy. Securing a sustainable future for tropical forests requires developing and applying integrated approaches to landscape management that effectively combine knowledge and tools from multiple disciplines with practical experience and engagement of local stakeholders.
Data from: Variation in leaf anatomical traits from tropical to cold-temperate forests and linkage to ecosystem functions
1. Leaf anatomical traits may reflect plant's adaption to environmental changes and influence ecosystem functions, as they regulate light absorption and gas exchange to some extent. Here, we hypothesized that leaf anatomical traits were closely related to gross primary productivity (GPP) because photosynthesis commonly occurs in the chloroplasts of palisade and spongy tissues in leaf. 2. Eight leaf anatomical traits were measured in 916 plant species inhabiting from tropical to cold-temperate forests in eastern China: adaxial epidermis thickness (AD), abaxial epidermis thickness (AB), leaf thickness (LT), palisade tissue thickness (PT), and spongy tissue thickness (ST), palisade-spongy tissue ratio (PT/ST), palisade tissue-leaf thickness ratio (PT/LT), and spongy tissue-leaf thickness ratio (ST/LT). 3. Leaf anatomical traits showed significant latitudinal patterns at species, plant functional groups (PFGs), and communities levels (P < 0.05), and they differed between PFG and community. Temperature and precipitation were the main factors influencing AD, AB, PT/ST, and PT/LT, explaining 33–72% of the total variation at large scale. Furthermore, AB, LT, PT/ST, and PT/LT were significantly correlated with the aridity index. 4. Our findings filled the data gap of plant anatomical traits at regional scales, and broadened current knowledge on the adaptation strategies of plant anatomical traits, which also provided new evidence for linkages of plant traits and functioning across natural communities.
FIGURE 8 in Three new species of Neoscirula (Prostigmata: Cunaxidae) from a Tropical dry forest in Jalisco, Mexico
FIGURE 8. Neoscirula hoffmannae sp. nov. male. G, body dorsal view; H, body ventral view.
FIGURE 5 in Three new species of Neoscirula (Prostigmata: Cunaxidae) from a Tropical dry forest in Jalisco, Mexico
FIGURE 5. Neoscirula baloghi sp. nov. female. G, body dorsal view; H, body ventral view.
FIGURE 3 in Three new species of Neoscirula (Prostigmata: Cunaxidae) from a Tropical dry forest in Jalisco, Mexico
FIGURE 3. Neoscirula aliciae sp. nov. female. G, body ventral view; H, body dorsal view.
FIGURE 1 in Cytotaxonomy and DNA taxonomy of lizards (Squamata, Sauria) from a tropical dry forest in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve on the coast of Jalisco, Mexico
FIGURE 1. Map with the location of the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve.
FIGURE 5 in Cytotaxonomy and DNA taxonomy of lizards (Squamata, Sauria) from a tropical dry forest in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve on the coast of Jalisco, Mexico
FIGURE 5. Karyotype of Hemidactylus frenatus, female (2n = 40 and FN = 54).
FIGURE 13 in Cytotaxonomy and DNA taxonomy of lizards (Squamata, Sauria) from a tropical dry forest in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve on the coast of Jalisco, Mexico
FIGURE 13. Karyotype of Ameiva undulata female (2n = 50).
FIGURE 12 in Cytotaxonomy and DNA taxonomy of lizards (Squamata, Sauria) from a tropical dry forest in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve on the coast of Jalisco, Mexico
FIGURE 12. Karyotype of Mabuya unimarginata female (2n = 32).
FIGURE 10 in Cytotaxonomy and DNA taxonomy of lizards (Squamata, Sauria) from a tropical dry forest in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve on the coast of Jalisco, Mexico
FIGURE 10. Karyotype of Plestiodon parvulus male (2n = 26).
FIGURE 7 in Description of three new species of the tropical Asian jumping spider genus Onomastus Simon, 1900 from high altitude cloud forests of Sri Lanka (Araneae: Salticidae)
FIGURE 7. Onomastus maskeliya sp. nov. from Upcott. A–B. Male in life. C–D. Female in life.
FIGURE 6 in A relict new species of Oreobates (Anura, Strabomantidae) from the Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and its implication to the biogeography of the genus and that of South American Dry Forests
FIGURE 6. Map of South America, showing distributional records of Oreobates.
FIGURE 1 in A relict new species of Oreobates (Anura, Strabomantidae) from the Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and its implication to the biogeography of the genus and that of South American Dry Forests
FIGURE 1. Holotype of Oreobates remotus sp. nov. (MZUSP 141708): Dorsal (A) and ventral (B) views.
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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.