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opencc-by-4.0Jun 2022View details →

Data underlying the figures "Diabatic Upwelling in the Tropical Pacific: Seasonal and subseasonal variability"

Data for the figures in the paper Diabatic Upwelling in the Tropical Pacific: Seasonal and subseasonal variability

Trait shifts in bird communities from primary forest to human settlements in Mexican seasonal forests: Are there ruderal birds?

Agriculture, cattle grazing, and human settlements negatively affect bird biodiversity, driving the loss of ecologically specialized species and favoring the dominance of generalists. Because ecological pressures define organisms' success by acting on their intrinsic traits, biodiversity loss due to anthropization might cause directional trait shifts. Here, we use a trait-based approach to find empirical evidence of trait-shifts in bird communities across an anthropization gradient in seasonal forests in central Mexico. We performed point-count bird surveys within a region of tropical deciduous and seasonal oak forests considering three degrees of anthropization: primary forest, secondary growth, and human settlements. A multivariate analysis (PCA) showed similar trait-covariation patterns for both forest types; in the anthropized habitat the bird communities exhibited shorter life-cycles, higher fecundity, and broader ecological niches (diet, foraging habitat, and nesting resources) than those in the primary forests. Our finding of directional trait shifts resembles Evolutionary Ecological Strategies Theory (EES) predictions for successful organisms within highly disturbed anthropized habitats, which are known as a "ruderal adaptative strategy" in the EES framework. The use of trait-based approaches could improve ecological generalizations in bird communities, leading to a better understanding of avian biodiversity's responses to anthropization.

Three-dimensional stratification pattern in an old-growth lowland forest: how does height in canopy and season influence temperate bat activity?

The study of animal-habitat interactions is of primary importance for the formulation of conservation recommendations. Flying, gliding and climbing animals have the ability to exploit their habitat in a three-dimensional way and the vertical canopy structure in forests plays an essential role for habitat suitability. Forest bats as flying mammals may seasonally shift their microhabitat use due to differing energy demands or changing prey availability, but the patterns are not well understood. We investigated three-dimensional and seasonal habitat use by insectivorous bats in a temperate lowland old-growth forest, the Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Belarus. We acoustically sampled broadleaved and mixed coniferous plots in the forest interior and in gaps in three heights during two reproductive periods (pregnancy/lactation versus post-lactation). In canopy gaps, vertical stratification in bat activity was less pronounced than in the forest interior. Vertical activity patterns differed among species. The upper canopy levels were important foraging habitats for the open-space forager guild and for some edge-space foragers like the Barbastelle bat Barbastella barbastellus and the soprano pipistrelle Pipistrellus pygmaeus. Myotis species had highest activity levels near the ground in forest gaps. Moreover, we found species-dependent seasonal microhabitat shifts. Generally, all species and species groups considered except Myotis species showed higher activity levels during post-lactation. Myotis species tended towards higher activity in the forest interior during post-lactation. P. pygmaeus switched from high activity levels in the upper canopy during pregnancy and lactation to high activity levels near the ground during post-lactation. We conclude that a full comprehension of forest bat habitat use is only possible when height in canopy and seasonal patterns are considered.

Seasonal dynamics of the wild rodent faecal virome

Viral discovery studies in wild animals often rely on cross‐sectional surveys at a single time point. As a result, our understanding of the temporal stability of wild animal viromes remains poorly resolved. While studies of single host–virus systems indicate that host and environmental factors influence seasonal virus transmission dynamics, comparable insights for whole viral communities in multiple hosts are lacking. Utilizing noninvasive faecal samples from a long‐term wild rodent study, we characterized viral communities of three common European rodent species (Apodemus sylvaticus, A. flavicollis and Myodes glareolus) living in temperate woodland over a single year. Our findings indicate that a substantial fraction of the rodent virome is seasonally transient and associated with vertebrate or bacteria hosts. Further analyses of one of the most common virus families, Picornaviridae, show pronounced temporal changes in viral richness and evenness, which were associated with concurrent and up to ~3‐month lags in host density, ambient temperature, rainfall and humidity, suggesting complex feedbacks from the host and environmental factors on virus transmission and shedding in seasonal habitats. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of understanding the seasonal dynamics of wild animal viromes in order to better predict and mitigate zoonotic risks.

Active season body mass patterns of Little Brown Bats and Northern Myotis: Raw and fitted mass values, environmental conditions and inflection point estimates

Animals are expected to adjust their behavioural patterns to improve fitness outcomes, such as fecundity or offspring survival. For long-lived hibernators, decisions made in each annual cycle may reflect considerations not just for concurrent survival and reproduction, but also the pressure to maximize overwinter survival and future reproductive success. We examined how these elements manifest themselves in the body mass variation patterns of North American northern latitude temperate bats, whose size and roosting habits present considerable monitoring challenges. We characterized and compared the summer and fall mass variation patterns of little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) and northern myotis (M. septentrionalis) from a historic dataset. In summer, the estimated date of parturition was strongly associated with spring foraging conditions (low wind, low precipitation, warm temperatures), and mass gain associated with female reproduction conferred considerable differentiation between the mass variation patterns of females and males. In fall, differences were most apparent among species, although adults exhibited a greater capacity for rapid mass gain than juveniles. These results demonstrate how reproductive constraints and interannual survival have important influences on the behaviour of temperate bats. Future work should seek to quantify the fitness benefits of patterns identified in this study, such as the rate of prehibernation mass gain.

openncgl-uk-2.0Jul 2022View details →

Mean sea-level pressure and related indices from control and tropical relaxation winter seasonal hindcasts using the Met Office GloSea5 system.

© Crown Copyright, Met Office The accompanying data is made available under the terms of the Non-Commercial Government Licence (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/non-commercial-government-licence/version/2/). These data are the results of ensemble modelling simulations using the Met Office GloSea5 numerical seasonal prediction system. Files in (zipped) netcdf format contain winter seasonal-mean mean sea-level pressure (MSLP) fields for each member of specified ensemble and hindcast winter (December-February from 1993-94 to 2015-16). The files are named according to the specification of relaxation towards observational reanalysis in each. HCAST has no relaxation, ALL has tropical (approximately 22.5S to 22.5N) relaxation at all atmospheric heights, TROP is similar to ALL but with relaxation limited to below 18km and STRAT is similar to ALL but with relaxation limited to above 18km. The relaxation is designed to constrain the atmospheric state to be close to that which was observed within the domain over which it is applied. Details of the technique can be found in Maidens et al., 2021* and references therein. An additional text file is provided to give summary statistics of key MSLP-based winter indices.   * Maidens, A., Knight, J. R., &  Scaife, A. A. (2021). Tropical and stratospheric influences on winter atmospheric circulation patterns in the North Atlantic sector. Environmental Research Letters, 16, 024035. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abd8aa

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2022View details →

Savanna plant and soil carbon data from different burn seasons and histories across Mole National Park, Ghana

Aboveground plant pool and belowground (soil plus root) carbon data for a space-for-time substitution survey of different burn seasons and histories across Mole National Park, Ghana. Carbon data was collected to determine the impact of unintentional late growing season wildfires on carbon storage in a protected area dominated by early growing season prescribed burning land management. The methodology and findings from the study are detailed in the below publication: Awuah J, Smith SW, Speed JDM, Graae BJ. 2022. Can seasonal fire management reduce the risk of carbon loss from wildfires in a protected Guinea savanna? Ecosphere, e4283. https://doi. 88 org/10.1002/ecs2.4283  This data repository contains the following data (and descriptive metadata):  (1) Study_site_coordinates: locations for 28 sites surveyed in 2016 as part of an ecosystem carbon stock assessment (2) Aboveground_carbon: aboveground tree, shrub, herbaceous vegetation, deadwood and litter carbon stocks estimated from either destructive biomass sampling or allometric equations. Aboveground carbon data are presented per site.  (3) LOI_to_carbon_conversion: a subset of soil samples were analysed for both loss on ignition (LOI) and automated dry combustion using an elemental analyser, the latter more accurate for carbon determination and used to correct LOI values.  (4) Belowground_carbon: combined soil and root carbon collected collected to a maximum depth of 17 cm, and split into four soil layers (0-2 cm, 2-7 cm, 7-12 cm and 12-17 cm).  MCD14DL MODIS Active Fire Detections data used to defined different burn seasons and histories for sites has not been uploaded and is freely available from online sources detailed in the journal article.

Sex, landscape diversity and primary productivity shape the seasonal space use of a migratory European raptor

Intrinsic and extrinsic drivers shape the space use of wide-ranging raptors. A large proportion of raptors are migrants that shift their activity ranges between summer and winter habitats, where they encounter different environmental conditions. Analysing the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic drivers on the space use in summer and winter habitats provides crucial insights into the ecology of migratory raptors. Here, we investigated the seasonal space use by 43 red kites (Milvus milvus) tracked by GPS-transmitters across central and south-western Europe over seven years. We compared space use patterns, i.e., activity range sizes and mean daily distances of the birds between summer and winter, and analysed the influence of extrinsic (landscape diversity, primary productivity) and intrinsic factors (sex). Within summer, we investigated the influence of breeding success and sex on activity range sizes. We further analysed differences in habitat availability and habitat selection between seasons. We found that space use was smaller in summers than in winters. When compared to those of males, activity ranges of female red kites were larger in summers and smaller in winters, with shorter mean daily distances in both seasons. Within summer, successfully breeding red kites had smaller activity range sizes in both sexes, but this effect was stronger in females than in males. Regardless of the season, landscape diversity was positively correlated with space use, whereas primary productivity was negatively correlated with it. The habitat use differed between seasons, with agricultural landscapes being less proportionally used in summers than in winters. Overall, we showed that both intrinsic and extrinsic drivers shaped space use in both the seasons, leading to differences in space use patterns and habitat use in migratory raptors between their summer and winter habitats. Our findings underline the importance of consideration of the entire annual cycle of migratory species for conservation management.

Direct observational evidence of an oceanic dual kinetic energy cascade and its seasonality

Codes for the analysis and figure generation for drifter data

Model simulation results for "Enhanced seasonal amplitude of atmospheric CO2 by the changing Southern Ocean carbon sink"

This dataset contains the seasonal variations of monthly mean atmospheric CO2 concentration derived from GEOS-Chem model simulations during 2000-2016. Monthly terrestrial CO2 fluxes derived from CLM4.5-CN, used as an input dataset for the GEOS-Chem simulations, are also included. There are six sets of GEOS-Chem simulation results; "ctrl", "BIOfix", "OCNfix", and "FFfix" are the main experiments to evaluate the effects of changes in terrestrial CO2 fluxes, air-sea CO2 fluxes, and fossil fuel CO2 emissions on the seasonal amplitude of atmospheric CO2 over the globe; "ALLfix" and "OCNfix_SO" are additional experiments for identifying the effects of changes in the other factors (i.e., atmospheric transport and biomass burning) and regional changes in air-sea fluxes in the Southern Ocean.   Detailed explanations for each simulation are described in the main text. *We recommend contacting us first if you want to utilize the dataset for study (yjm921@gmail.com).

Seasonal patterns of dietary partitioning in vertebrates

Dietary partitioning plays a central role in biological communities, yet the extent of partitioning often varies dramatically over time. Food availability may drive temporal variation in dietary partitioning, but alternative paradigms offer contrasting predictions about its effect. We compiled estimates of dietary overlap between co-occurring vertebrates to test whether partitioning is greater during periods of high or low food abundance. We found that dietary partitioning was generally greatest when food abundance was low, suggesting that competition for limited food drives partitioning. The extent of dietary partitioning in birds and mammals was also related to seasonality in primary productivity. As seasonality increased, partitioning increased during the nonbreeding season for birds and the breeding season for mammals. Although some hypotheses invoke changes in dietary breadth to explain temporal variation in dietary partitioning, we found no association between dietary breadth and partitioning. These results have important implications for the evolution of dietary divergence.

Seasonal variation in impact of non-native species on tropical seed dispersal networks

Invasive non-native species can alter animal-mediated seed dispersal interactions and ultimately affect the stability of recipient communities. The degree of such disturbances, however, is highly variable and depends on several factors, two of which have received little attention: the relative timing of native and non-native fruiting phenologies, and the associated variation in relative resource availability across the fruiting period. Both are likely to alter plant-seed disperser interactions threatened by biological invasions. Here we investigated the impact of plant invasions on the seasonal dynamics of frugivory and seed dispersal networks across a large-scale experimental setup and a plant invasion gradient on a tropical island. We recorded fruit and frugivore abundances, and plant-frugivore interactions across 8 inselbergs (i.e. rocky outcrops) with different levels of plant invasion during 10 months on the island of Mahé, Seychelles. By combining four sampling methods of plant-frugivore interactions we constructed quantitative seed dispersal networks at all sites across two 5-month seasons: the on-peak and off-peak fruiting season. Our findings showed that, by fruiting mostly synchronously with natives, non-native plants compete with natives for dispersal services, predominantly carried out by native frugivores. Variation in native seed dispersal was driven by plant invasion and seasonality. Specifically, native seed dispersal declined with the degree of invasion; dispersal frequency increased with fruit abundance more strongly during the off-peak fruiting season; and networks became increasingly specialised during off-peak. These results indicated that during the main fruiting peak seed dispersal services were saturated, which likely intensified the competition between native and non-native fruits. When resources were scarce during off-peak fruiting season, native and non-native frugivores were more selective in their fruit choice at sites dominated by non-native plants. We showed that native plant and frugivore populations and native seed dispersal interactions were more vulnerable in invaded plant communities, where non-native plants compete with natives for dispersal services potentially reducing native recruitment. As invasive non-native plants dominate many ecosystems worldwide, particularly on islands, our findings showed that controlling plant invasions in vulnerable native communities can be critical to maintain native ecosystem functions and biodiversity.

Differential effects of weather, plant phenology and predators on the seasonal variation of aphids on cabbage

Raw field data of aphids and predator (Syrphid, spiders, and coccinellids) densities on cabbage, and weather data in two agroecological zones of Ghana, collected over two years for five cropping seasons. Data was collected on field-grown cabbage weekly after two weeks of transplanting, till when cabbages were matured. The destructive sampling method according to Hughes, 1963 was adopted by randomly sampling the third, fourth, and fifth expanded leaves of 20 randomly selected cabbage plants. Aphids and predators present were visually identified, counted, and recorded.

Midnight Sun to Polar Night: A model of seasonal light in the Barents Sea - Supplementary Data

Supplementary Data Midnight Sun to Polar Night: A model of seasonal light in the Barents Sea. Connan-McGinty, S., Banas, N.S., Berge, J., Cottier, F., Grant, S., Johnsen, G., Kopec, T.P., Porter, M., McKee, D. (2022). All data and Python code required to re-create figures from the above manuscript.

Data from: Interactive effects of wildfires, season, and predator activity shape mule deer movements

Wildfires are increasing in size, frequency, and severity due to climate change and fire suppression, but the direct and indirect effects on wildlife remain largely unresolved. Fire removes forest canopy, which can improve forage for ungulates but also reduce snow interception, leading to a deeper snowpack and potentially increased vulnerability to predation in winter. If ungulates exhibit predator-mediated foraging, burns should generally be selected for in summer to access high-quality forage and avoided in winter to reduce predation risk in deep snow. Fires also typically increase the amount of deadfall and initiate growth of dense understory vegetation, creating obstacles that may confer a hunting advantage to stalking predators and a disadvantage to coursing predators. To minimize risk, ungulates may therefore avoid burns when and where stalking predators are most active, and use burns when and where coursing predators are most active. We used telemetry data from GPS-collared mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), cougars (Puma concolor), and wolves (Canis lupus) to develop step selection functions to examine how mule deer navigated species-specific predation risk across a landscape in northern Washington, USA that has experienced substantial wildfire activity during the past several decades. We considered a diverse array of wildfire impacts, accounting for both the severity of the fire and time since the burn (1 to 35 years) in our analyses. We observed support for the predator mediating foraging hypothesis: mule deer generally selected for burned areas in summer and avoided burns in winter. In addition, deer increased use of burned areas when and where wolf activity was high and avoided burns when and where cougar use was high in winter, suggesting the hunting mode of resident predators mediated the seasonal response of deer to burns. Deer were not more likely to die by predation in burned than in unburned areas, indicating that they adequately manage fire-induced changes to predation risk. As fire activity increases with climate change, our findings indicate the impact on ungulates will depend on tradeoffs between enhanced summer forage and functionally reduced winter range, mediated by characteristics of the predator community.

Sex-specific endocrine regulation of seasonal aggression in Siberian hamsters

Coordinating physiological and behavioural processes across the annual cycle is essential in enabling individuals to maximize fitness. While the mechanisms underlying seasonal reproduction and its associated behaviours are well-characterized, fewer studies have examined the hormonal basis of non-reproductive social behaviours (e.g., aggression) on a seasonal timescale. Our previous work suggests that the pineal hormone melatonin facilitates a 'seasonal switch' in neuroendocrine regulation of aggression in male and female Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus), specifically by acting on the adrenal glands to increase the production of the androgen dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) during the short-day (SD) photoperiods of the non-breeding season. Here, we provide evidence that the activity of 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/∆5-∆4 isomerase (3β-HSD), a key enzyme within the steroidogenic pathway that mediates DHEA synthesis and metabolism, varies in a sex-specific and melatonin-dependent manner. Although both male and female hamsters displayed increased aggression in response to SDs and SD-like melatonin, only males showed an increase in adrenal 3β-HSD activity. Conversely, SD and melatonin-treated females exhibited reductions in both adrenal and neural 3β-HSD activity. Collectively, these results suggest a potential role for 3β-HSD in modulating non-breeding aggression and, more broadly, demonstrate how distinct neuroendocrine mechanisms may underlie the same behavioural phenotype in males and females.

Spring phenology and pathogen infection affect multigenerational plant attackers throughout the growing season

Climate change has been shown to advance spring phenology, increase the number of insect generations per year (multivoltinism), and increase pathogen infection levels. However, we lack insights into the effects of plant spring phenology and the biotic environment on the preference and performance of multivoltine herbivores and whether such effects extend into the later part of the growing season. To this aim, we used a multifactorial growth chamber experiment to examine the influence of spring phenology on plant pathogen infection, and how the independent and interactive effects of spring phenology and plant pathogen infection affect the preference and performance of multigenerational attackers (the leaf miner Tischeria ekebladella and the aphid Tuberculatus annulatus) on the pedunculate oak in the early, mid and late parts of the plant growing season. Pathogen infection was highest on late phenology plants, irrespective of whether inoculations were conducted in the early, mid or late season. The leaf miner consistently preferred to oviposit on middle and late phenology plants, as well as healthy plants, during all parts of the growing season, whereas we detected an interactive effect between spring phenology and pathogen infection on the performance of the leaf miner. Aphids preferred healthy, late phenology plants during the early season, healthy plants during the mid season, and middle phenology plants during the late season, whereas aphid performance was consistently higher on healthy plants during all parts of the growing season. Our findings highlight that the impact of spring phenology on pathogen infection and the preference and performance of insect herbivores is not restricted to the early season, but that its imprint is still present – and sometimes equally strong – during the peak and end of the growing season. Plant pathogens generally negatively affected herbivore preference and performance, and modulated the effects of spring phenology. We conclude that spring phenology and pathogen infection are two important factors shaping the preference and performance of multigenerational plant attackers, which is particularly relevant given the current advance in spring phenology, pathogen outbreaks and increase in voltinism with climate change.

Data from: High predation risk decimates survival during the reproduction season

Predators attack conspicuous prey phenotypes that are present in the environment. Male display behaviour of conspicuous nuptial colouration becomes risky in the presence of a predator, and adult males face higher predation risk. High predation risk in one sex will lead to low survival and sex ratio bias in adult cohorts, unless the increased predation risk is compensated by higher escape rate. Here, we tested the hypothesis that sand lizards (Lacerta agilis) have sex-specific predation risk and escape rate. We expected the differences to manifest in changes in sex ratio with age, differences in frequency of tail autotomy, and in sex-specific survival rate. We developed a statistical model to estimate predation risk and escape rate, combining the observed sex ratio and frequency of tail autotomy with likelihood-based survival rate. Using a Bayesian framework, we estimated the model parameters. We projected the date of the tail autotomy events from growth rates derived from capture-recapture data measurements. We found statistically stable sex ratio in age groups, equal frequency of tail regenerates between sexes, and similar survival rate. Predation risk is similar between sexes, and escape rate increases survival by about 5%. We found low survival rate and a low number of tail autotomy events in females during months when sand lizards mate and lay eggs, indicating high predator pressure throughout reproduction. Our data show that gravid females fail to escape predation. The risks of reproduction season in an ectotherm are a convolution of morphological changes (conspicuous colouration in males, body allometry changes in gravid females), behaviour (nuptial displays), and environmental conditions which challenge lizard thermal performance. Performance of endotherm predators in cold spring months endangers gravid females more than displaying males in bright nuptial colouration.

Effectiveness of seasonal malaria chemoprevention administered in a mass campaign in the Kedougou region of Senegal in 2016: a Case-control study

Context Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) with Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine plus Amodiaquine (SPAQ) is a malaria prevention strategy recommended since 2012 by the World Health Organization (WHO) for children under 5 years of age. In Senegal, the scaling up of the SMC has started since 2013 in the south-eastern regions of the country with an extension of the target to 10 years old children. The scaling up of SMC requires a regular evaluation of the strategy as recommended by the WHO. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of SMC. Methodology A case-control study was conducted in some villages of the health districts of Saraya and Kedougou in the Kedougou region from July to December 2016. A "case" was a sick child, aged 3 months to 10 years, seen in consultation and with a positive RDT. The "control" was a child of the same age group with a negative RDT and living in the same compound as the case or in a neighbouring compound. Each case was matched with two controls. Exposure to SMC was assessed by interviewing the mothers/caretakers and by checking the SMC administration card. Results A total of 492 children, including 164 cases and 328 controls, were recruited for our study. Their mean ages were 5.32 (+/- 2.15) and 4.44 (+/-2.25) years for the cases and the controls respectively. Male children predominated in both cases (55.49%) and controls (51.22%) (p=0.18). Net ownership was 85.80% among cases and 90.85% among controls (p=0.053). The proportion of controls who received SMC was higher than that of cases (98.17% vs 85.98%; (p=1.10-7)). The protective effectiveness of SMC was 89% (IC 95% = 84–93%) (OR=0.11). Conclusion SMC is therefore an effective strategy in the control of malaria in children. Case-control studies are a good approach for monitoring the efficacy of drugs administered during SMC.