Find research datasets worth reusing

Coweeta site, station Site 427, high elevation mixed oak, study of soil temperature at 5 cm depth (mean) in units of celsius on a yearly timescale

The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from Coweeta (CWT) contains soil temperature at 5 cm depth (mean) measurements in celsius units and were aggregated to a yearly timescale.

Coweeta site, station Site 527, high elevation northern hardwood, study of soil temperature at 20 cm depth (mean) in units of celsius on a monthly timescale

The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from Coweeta (CWT) contains soil temperature at 20 cm depth (mean) measurements in celsius units and were aggregated to a monthly timescale.

Coweeta site, station Site 527, high elevation northern hardwood, study of soil temperature at 20 cm depth (mean) in units of celsius on a yearly timescale

The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from Coweeta (CWT) contains soil temperature at 20 cm depth (mean) measurements in celsius units and were aggregated to a yearly timescale.

Coweeta site, station Site 527, high elevation northern hardwood, study of soil temperature at 50 cm depth (mean) in units of celsius on a monthly timescale

The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from Coweeta (CWT) contains soil temperature at 50 cm depth (mean) measurements in celsius units and were aggregated to a monthly timescale.

Coweeta site, station Site 527, high elevation northern hardwood, study of soil temperature at 50 cm depth (mean) in units of celsius on a yearly timescale

The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from Coweeta (CWT) contains soil temperature at 50 cm depth (mean) measurements in celsius units and were aggregated to a yearly timescale.

Coweeta site, station Site 527, high elevation northern hardwood, study of soil temperature at 5 cm depth (mean) in units of celsius on a monthly timescale

Coweeta site, station Site 527, high elevation northern hardwood, study of soil temperature at 5 cm depth (mean) in units of celsius on a yearly timescale

openCC (other)Apr 2018View details →

Analytical dataset: Effects of climate variability on snowmelt and implications for organic matter in a high elevation lake

Few paired lake-watershed studies examine long term effects of climate on the ecosystem function of lakes in a hydrological context. We use thirty-two years of hydrological and biogeochemical data from a high-elevation site in the Sierra Nevada of California to characterize variation in snowmelt in relation to climate variability, and explore the impact on factors affecting phytoplankton biomass. The magnitude of accumulated winter snow, quantified through basin-wide estimates of snow water equivalent (SWE), was the most important climate factor controlling variation in the timing and rate of spring snowmelt. Variations in SWE and snowmelt led to significant differences in lake flushing rate, water temperature, and nitrate concentrations across years. On average in dry years, snowmelt started 25 days earlier and proceeded 7 mm/d slower, and the lake began the ice-free season with nitrate concentrations ~2 uM higher and water temperatures 9 C warmer than in wet years. Flushing rates in wet years were 2.5 times larger than dry years. Consequently, particulate organic matter concentrations, a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, were 5 – 6 uM higher in dry years. There was a temporal trend of increase in particulate organic matter across dry years that corresponded to lake warming independent of variation in SWE. These results suggest that phytoplankton biomass is increasing as a result of both interannual variability in precipitation and long term warming trends. Our study underscores the need to account for local-scale catchment variability that may affect the accumulation of winter snowpack when predicting climate responses in lakes.

openCustomMay 2013View details →

High Resolution LiDAR Elevation Data for Hog Island, VA May 2013

High Resolution LiDAR elevation and nearshore bathymetry data for Hog Island, Northampton County, VA, collected on May 26, 2013 on behalf of the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center using the Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging Lidar (CZMIL) system. Elevations are in meters and coordinates are in degrees.

zenodo32/100

Explaining the exceptional 4270m high elevation limit of an evergreen oak in the SE Himalaya

Raw research data supporting the manuscript entitled "Explaining the exceptional 4270m high elevation limit of an evergreen oak in the SE Himalaya" by Yang Yang, Sun Hang and Christian Körner publihsed in Tree Physiology.

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2019View details →

zenodo32/100

Water Management Panel Data (1985-2018) of California's Western Sierra Nevada High-Elevation Basins

This is 34 years of water data from 14 high-elevation basins on the western slope of California's Sierra Nevada. All data originates from the California Data Exchange Center (CDEC: <a href="http://cdec.water.ca.gov/">http://cdec.water.ca.gov/</a>). The data were cleaned and aggregated between the years 2013-2019. The panel data table includes records of April-July runoff forecasts (the 50% exceedance forecast), forecast uncertainty (as measured by the difference between the 90% and 10% exceedance forecasts), available reservoir space to store runoff on March 31st, April-July releases, and the interaction term forecastXuncertainty. The data are organized as an unbalanced panel data table (N=416) for 34 years of records for 14 basins. All water volumes are reported in cubic kilometers. This data set includes a key that details the common names of each basins, each of their aggregated surface reservoir storage capacity, the measurement location where the data are aggregated in reference to, and a three letter code that links the key to the panel data table. This is the same three letter key used to query some of these data within CDEC. Detailed information on the project is available in the companion open-access publication (DOI available upon publication). The description of this data is in progress and will be fully updated upon acceptance of accompanying peer-reviewed journal article.

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2020View details →

opencc-zeroSep 2020View details →

Data from: Collective aggressiveness limits colony persistence in high but not low elevation sites in Amazonian social spiders

Identifying the traits that foster group survival in contrasting environments is important for understanding local adaptation in social systems. Here we evaluate the relationship between the aggressiveness of social spider colonies and their persistence along an elevation gradient using the Amazonian spider, Anelosimus eximius. We found that colonies of A. eximius exhibit repeatable differences in their collective aggressiveness (latency to attack prey stimuli), and that colony aggressiveness is linked with persistence in a site-specific manner. Less aggressive colonies are better able to persist at high-elevation sites, which lack colony-sustaining large-bodied prey, whereas colony aggression was not related to chance of persistence at low-elevation sites. This suggests that low aggressiveness promotes colony survival in high-elevation, prey-poor habitats, perhaps via increased tolerance to resource limitation. These data reveal that the collective phenotypes that relate to colony persistence vary by site, and thus, the path of social evolution in these environments is likely to be affected.

opencc-zeroDec 2013View details →

Data from: Differential high-altitude adaptation and restricted gene flow across a mid-elevation hybrid zone in Andean tit-tyrant flycatchers

The tropical Andes are a global hotspot of avian diversity that is characterized by dramatic elevational shifts in community composition and a preponderance of recently evolved species. Bird habitats in the Andes span a nearly two-fold range of atmospheric pressure that poses challenges for respiration, thermoregulation, water balance, and powered flight, but the extent to which physiological constraints limit species' elevational distributions is poorly understood. We report a previously unknown hybrid zone between recently diverged flycatchers (Aves, Tyrannidae) with partially overlapping elevational ranges. The southern Anairetes reguloides has a broad elevational range (0-4200 m), while the northern Anairetes nigrocristatus is restricted to high elevations (>2200 m). We found hybrids in central Peru at elevations between ~3100-3800 m, with A. nigrocristatus above this elevation and A. reguloides below. We analyzed variation in hematology, heart mass, morphometrics, plumage, and one mitochondrial and three nuclear loci across an elevational transect that encompasses the hybrid zone. Phenotypic traits and genetic markers all showed steep clines across the hybrid zone. Hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit, mean cellular hemoglobin concentration, and relative heart mass each increased at altitude more strongly in A. reguloides than in A. nigrocristatus. These findings suggest that A. nigrocristatus is more resistant than A. reguloides to high-altitude hypoxic respiratory stress. Considering that the ancestor of the genus is suggested to have been restricted to high elevations, A. reguloides may be secondarily adapted to low-altitude. We conclude that differential respiratory specialization on atmospheric pressure combined with competitive exclusion maintains replacement along an elevational contour, despite interbreeding.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: High-speed displays encoding motor skill trigger elevated territorial aggression in downy woodpeckers

1) Many species perform social displays that incorporate complex body movements. However, the reason why such exaggerated behavioral signals evolve in the first place is unclear. 2) Recent work posits that physical displays arise in part because they showcase an animal's motor skill—that is, the ability to produce challenging motor acts with great coordination, precision, and/or speed. Support for this idea is largely correlational, with few studies attempting to manipulate metrics of motor skill to assess their effect on physical display efficacy. 3) Here, we address this issue in the downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens). Individuals of this species compete for territories through the performance of drums, which are complex displays produced by rapidly hammering the bill against a resonate surface at rates of 16 hits sec-1. This display is a whole-body endeavor, and its production relies on the ability to swiftly oscillate the head forward and backward at fraction-of-a-second periods. 4) Using a series of playback studies, we expose resident birds to experimentally engineered drums that reflect putative fine-scale differences in the motor command of the head and neck. We show that resident individuals respond more aggressively to drums characterized by a cadence with a 9-msec faster beat speed. These residents even modulate their own drum speed to resemble this high-performance stimulus, although they often fail to reach it. Residents also appear to appraise drum acceleration by listening to the time intervals between successive beats in a single drum, while tracking how these time intervals change as the signal progresses. 5) Our data support a connection between motor skill and the effectiveness of a physical display produced through elaborate body movement. We therefore suspect that motor skill is adaptive and evolves in response to selection by competition for effective drum displays.

opencc-zeroDec 2018View details →

Data from: Seed predation increases from the Arctic to the Equator and from high to low elevations

Species interactions have long been predicted to increase in intensity toward the tropics and low elevations because of gradients in climate, productivity, or biodiversity. Despite their importance for understanding global ecological and evolutionary processes, plant-animal interaction gradients are particularly difficult to test systematically across large geographic gradients, and evidence from smaller, disparate studies is inconclusive. By systematically measuring postdispersal seed predation using 6995 standardized seed depots along 18 mountains in the Pacific cordillera, we found that seed predation increases by 17% from the Arctic to the Equator and by 17% from 4000 meters above sea level to sea level. Clines in total predation, likely driven by invertebrates, were consistent across treeline ecotones and within continuous forest and were better explained by climate seasonality than by productivity, biodiversity, or latitude. These results suggest that species interactions play predictably greater ecological and evolutionary roles in tropical, lowland, and other less seasonal ecosystems.

opencc-zeroDec 2018View details →

Data from: Spatial patterns along an elevation gradient in high altitude grasslands, Brazil

The Brazilian high altitude grasslands are important biodiversity centers that contribute to human well being far outside their boundaries. They host many vulnerable species that may go locally extinct as a result of small changes in the environment. Performing studies on local species distribution is important to achieve biodiversity conservation in these areas. This study intended to characterize a high altitude grassland plant community along an elevation gradient in Southeastern Brazil. Simple logistic regression, chi-squared tests and indicator species analysis were performed to investigate respectively whether: (i) the occurrence of botanical families was related to the altitude; (ii) the richness and abundance of life forms varied along the gradient and (iii) there were populations associated with specific altitudinal belts. Rubiaceae and Polygalaceae had higher occurrence probability in higher altitudes. Hemicryptophytes and chamaephytes seem to be the most favored life forms under local extreme conditions such as low temperatures and drought. Vegetation spectra varied significantly along the gradient, highlighting the major role of the turnover of habitats in a local scale in underlying patterns of species distribution. Upper elevations encompassed a high number of indicator species, and further identification of high altitude grasslands' indicator species will provide clues about adaptability of local species, which is important to be considered in ecosystem management and conservation.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: High-elevation range limit of an annual herb is neither caused nor reinforced by declining pollinator service

1. Pollination failure has been proposed to be an important determinant of plant species' range limits, if pollinator activity declines along an environmental gradient, directly limiting plant populations, or if plant populations decline along an environmental gradient and subsequently fail to attract sufficient visitation. Both mechanisms predict reduced pollinator visitation, increased pollen limitation, and decreased seed production towards range limits, and the first additionally predicts declining pollinator abundance independent of any particular plant species. However, many self-compatible species have some capacity for autonomous self-fertilization, which may buffer reproductive success from declining pollinator visitation if inbreeding depression is mild. Thus pollinator-mediated limits may also predict selection for reduced reliance on pollinators towards range limits. 2. We tested these predictions towards the high-elevation limit of the self-compatible, bumble bee (Bombus) pollinated Rhinanthus minor, along two elevation transects in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. 3. Bombus abundance was highest at mid- (range-centre) and high-elevation (range limit) sites, so declining pollinator abundance is unlikely to impose high-elevation limits for bumble bee pollinated species in this area. 4. Flowers per plant and per m2 declined at upper range limits, potentially rendering edge populations less attractive. However, visitation rate did not decline towards the range limit at either transect. Stigmatic pollen receipt declined with increasing elevation, but seed set did not, nor did outcross pollen supplementation increase seed set at any site. 5. Investment in floral attractiveness (corolla area/ovary area) increased towards range limits, but capacity for high-quality autonomous seed set and adult inbreeding coefficients inferred from genetic markers were uniformly high, suggesting frequent self-fertilization and weak inbreeding depression throughout the range. 6. Synthesis We found no evidence for pollination failure towards the upper range limit of R. minor. Moreover, unlike some species with a capacity for autogamy, autonomous selfing makes a major contribution to R. minor's mating system and demography, and likely buffers reproductive success from stochasticity in pollination. Continued investment in floral attractiveness despite high autonomous selfing suggests some evolutionary benefit to pollinator-mediated outcrossing, rather than ecological benefits via increasing seed quantity or quality. Given that >50% of angiosperms are self-compatible, the reproductive assurance provided by selfing may reduce the importance of pollination in limiting plant distributions compared to other biotic interactions.

opencc-zeroMay 2019View details →

Data from: Is black plumage an adaptation to high elevations in a cosmopolitan bird genus?

Black plumage is expected to absorb and retain more heat and provide better protection against UV radiation compared with lighter plumages. Black plumage is common in species of the genera Turdus and Platycichla that inhabit highlands across different regions of the world. Considering this geographical recurrent pattern we tested the hypothesis that black plumage in these two genera has evolved as a co-adaptive response to inhabiting highlands, reconstructing ancestral character states for plumage and altitudinal distribution using maximum-likelihood methods, and a Pagel's multistate discrete method. For these analyses, we used a phylogeny based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA regions that included 60 of the 66 recognized species in the genera Turdus and Platycichla. We found that black-plumage coloration evolved independently on eight occasions within these two genera, and species with black plumage occur more often at highlands. Our results support the hypothesis that black-plumage is adaptative in highlands; but, studies in other bird groups with black-plumage inhabiting at the same elevations will provide evidence for this adaptive hypothesis or if the evolution of black-plumage in other groups is explained by other evolutionary forces.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: The conservation value of high elevation habitats to North American migrant birds

The basic patterns of faunal community composition and habitat associations of high elevation mountainous regions are poorly-known. This is true for the avifauna of western North America where our knowledge of high elevation use is primarily restricted to breeding assemblages. Here we report on systematic avian surveys of high elevation habitats over four years in British Columbia conducted during the post-breeding and fall migration periods (Aug–Oct). We detected a remarkable diversity of birds (95 species in 30 families) using alpine, subalpine, and montane forest, many of which used these habitats seasonally. One quarter of the species are on lists of conservation concern. Density, species richness, and community composition varied considerably between habitats and mountain ranges within the study area, especially between the western slope of the Coast range and other ranges. Most species exhibited strong temporal variation in patterns of abundance that were related to migratory behavior. From an extensive literature-based survey, we found that ~ 35% of North America's breeding bird species use high elevations, and that all primary high elevation habitats are important for full life-cycle conservation of this avifauna. Our findings highlight the importance of high elevation habitats to migrating birds from wide-ranging breeding distributions for at least three months of the year, a period equivalent to the length of the breeding season for most species. These results emphasize the need for effective conservation of fragile alpine and other high elevation habitats that are increasingly threatened by local, regional, and global anthropogenic disturbance.