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opencc-zeroMay 2024View details →

Houbara time budgets according to individual and season

Understanding the behaviours and time budgets of translocated animals post-release has the potential to improve rearing and release protocols, and therefore survival rate. Otididae (bustards) inhabit open landscapes across the Middle East and Asia, are highly mobile on the ground and have similar lifestyles and body plans. The Asian Houbara (Chlamydotis macqueenii) is a bustard of conservation concern inhabiting the middle East to Central Asia and is frequently reared in captivity for population management. We deployed tri-axial accelerometers on 20 captive Asian Houbaras in two seasons to catalogue basic behaviours, provide a template applicable to other bustard species and examine seasonal differences in behaviour. We created Boolean algorithms to define the following behaviours using raw acceleration data and derived metrics: stationary, locomotion and eating/drinking. We used video recordings to cross-validate the algorithms, yielding recalls from 95% to 97%, and precisions between 97% and 98%. Houbaras spent significantly more time 'stationary' and less time on 'locomotion' in Summer (June) compared to Spring (March). Simple Boolean algorithms proved useful in identifying several behaviours and have the potential to be applicable to other bustard species, in captivity and in the wild post-release.

opencc-zeroOct 2022View details →

Reading HaunthiTrust, or Spooky Season fun in the HTDL

Just for fun, let's read a HathiTrust collection called HaunthiTrust.

Data from: Sea ice choke points reduce the length of the shipping season in the Northwest Passage

Arctic sea ice has shifted from a perennial (older, thicker ice) to a seasonal (younger, thinner) ice regime, leading to the increasingly common belief that shipping through Canada's Northwest Passage is becoming more viable. Here, we use the Risk Index Outcome values derived from the Polar Operational Limit Assessment Risk Indexing System and analyze recent changes to shipping season lengths along individual sections of the Northwest Passage routes from 2007 to 2021. Results show that multi-year ice flushed southward from high-latitude regions maintains the so-called choke points along certain route sections, reducing overall shipping season length. There is considerable spatiotemporal variability in shipping season lengths along the southern and northern routes. Specifically, parts of the northern route exhibit a decrease of up to 14 weeks over the 15 years. The variability of shipping season and, in particular, the shortening of the season will impact not only international shipping but also resupply and the cost of food in many Arctic communities, which require a prompt policy response.

Data from: Thermal plasticity in protective wing pigmentation is modulated by genotype and food availability in an insect model of seasonal polyphenism

Phenotypic variation in natural populations results from complex interactions between organisms and their changing environments. The environment shapes both phenotypic frequencies (during adaptation) and organismal phenotypes (through phenotypic plasticity). Developmental plasticity, in particular, refers to the phenomenon whereby an organism's phenotype depends on the environmental conditions during development. It can match phenotype to ecological conditions and help organisms to cope with environmental heterogeneity, including differences between alternating seasons. Experimental studies of developmental plasticity often focus on the impact of individual environmental cues and do not take explicit account of genetic variation. In contrast, natural environments are complex, comprising multiple variables with combined effects that are poorly understood and may vary among genotypes. We investigated the effects of multifactorial environments on the development of the seasonally plastic eyespots of Bicyclus anynana butterflies. Eyespot size depends on developmental temperature and is involved in alternative seasonal strategies for predator avoidance. In nature, both temperature and food availability undergo seasonal fluctuations. However, our understanding of how thermal plasticity in eyespot size varies in response to food availability and across genotypes remains limited. To address this, we investigated the combined effects of temperature (T; two levels: 20°C and 27°C) and food availability (N; two levels: control and limited) during development. We examined their impact on wing and eyespot size in adult males and females from multiple genotypes (G; 28 families). We found evidence of thermal and nutritional plasticity and temperature-by-nutrition interactions (significant TxN) on the size of eyespots in both sexes. Food limitation resulted in relatively smaller eyespots and tempered the effects of temperature. Additionally, we found differences among families for thermal plasticity (significant GxT effects), but not for nutritional plasticity (non-significant GxN effects) nor for the combined effects of temperature and food limitation (non-significant GxTxN effects). Our results reveal the context dependence of thermal plasticity, with the slope of thermal reaction norms varying across genotypes and across nutritional environments. We discuss these results in light of the ecological significance of pigmentation and the value of considering thermal plasticity in studies of the biological impact of climate change.

Data supporting "Seasonal dynamics and punctuated carbon sink reduction suggest photosynthetic capacity of boreal silver birch is reduced by the accumulation of hexose"

Data supporting our New Phytologist publication: "Seasonal dynamics and punctuated carbon sink reduction suggest photosynthetic capacity of boreal silver birch is reduced by the accumulation of hexose". The file present the data produced during long-term (three consecutive years 2019-2021) field observations and short-term girdling manipulation of top-crown shoots in three mature Betula pendula trees as details of our manuscript. Values of leaf gas-exchange, environmental variables, leaf water and nitrogen status, and concentrations of sucrose, hexoses (glucose and fructose), starch, total sugar, and total non-structural carbohydrate in leaves are listed.

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2022View details →

AsiaRiceYield4km: Seasonal Rice Yield in Asia from 1995 to 2015

请注意,我们已更新版本,包含两个名为 Version1 和 Version2 的文件! 第一个文件名为Version1.zip,是之前的版本,其中包含 126 个压缩到单个文件夹中的 .tif 文件。 该文件支持地球系统科学数据中发表的题为“ AsiaRiceYield4km:1995 年至 2015 年亚洲季节性水稻产量”(https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-791-2023)的出版物。 以下是Version1.zip的描述: 吴华清和 张静对本文的贡献相同,为共同第一作者。 该数据集提供了1995年至2015年亚洲主要稻米生产国4公里网格季节性稻米产量。 *** 数据文件为“.tif”格式 *** 时间分辨率:季节性 *** 时间范围:1995-2015 *** 像素大小:4 公里 *** 投影信息:EPSG:4326 本数据库使用的地图边界并不意味着我们对任何国家、领土、城市或地区或其当局的法律地位,或对其边界或边界的划定发表任何意见。 至于名为Version2.zip的文件,则是更新版本,将东南亚的研究期从 1991 年延长至 2021 年,使用相同的产量估算方法。本次更新由程飞进行。  以下是Version 2.zip的描述: 该数据集提供了1991年至2021年东南亚主要稻米生产国0.05°网格季节性稻米产量。 *** 数据文件为“.nc”格式 *** 时间分辨率:季节性 *** 时间范围:1991-2021 *** 像素大小:0.05° *** 投影信息:EPSG:4326

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2021View details →

Fig. 1 in Circulating dengue virus serotypes and vertical transmission in AEdES larvae during outbreak and inter-outbreak seasons in a high dengue risk area of Sri Lanka

Fig. 1 Map of Sri Lanka showing the location of Mawanella, the study area

Data from: No slowdown of growing season extension with warming in a permafrost-affected meadow on the Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau holds the world's largest alpine permafrost and is undergoing an acceleration of warming. Phenological shifts over alpine permafrost in a warmer world have been little studied and are greatly underrepresented in current syntheses. Here, we conducted seasonal and gradient temperature-controlled experiments in a permafrost-affected meadow to evaluate how warming drives shifts in spring and autumn phenology, and associated growing-season length at both community and species levels. Our results showed that there is no sign of slowdown in spring advance with warming under a higher year-around warming treatment, aligning with a future medium warming scenario. This finding can be attributed to the possibility that winter warming is insufficient to reduce chilling accumulation, which would not delay spring phenology and then lead to a non-slowdown in spring phenological advancement. Although spring advance led to an advance in autumn senescence according to spring-only warming experiments, the advance could not offset the delay due to concurrent warming. As a result, year-around warming significantly delayed autumn senescence, although there was a deceleration in delay with warming under high temperature treatment than under the low one. Taken together, there is no slowdown in an extension of growing season length with warming under a higher year-around warming treatment, with an increase of length by 9 and 21 days at the end of this century under a CO2 stabilization and medium warming scenarios, respectively. Our results suggest that a continued growing season extension at least under the medium warming scenario would help permafrost-affected meadow ecosystems to mitigate permafrost carbon release on the Tibetan Plateau.

Hey History! (Season 1)

A podcast for kids age 8-12 about Australian history with stories, music, and immersive soundscapes. The podcast follows Stage 2 and 3 of the Australian curriculum, and of NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland. Students can listen in class and use our Learning Materials designed and road-tested by a primary school educator. Go back in time to the Gold Rush. What happened at the meetings between Captain Cook and First Nations people at Kamay Botany Bay? Experience life as a convict kid, and hear how First Nations people learn on Country. Hey History! is made by history professors, so you'll hear from Australia's top historians and experts. It's produced by The Australian Centre for Public History and Impact Studios at the University of Technology Sydney, in partnership with La Trobe University. Available from: https://www.heyhistory.net/ Or your podcast app: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/hey-history/id1744861001

Species assemblages and their drivers differ between trees and lianas in a seasonal-evergreen forest in Thailand

We provide the R codes and datasets used in the analysis presented in the manuscript maintext titled "Species assemblages and their drivers differ between trees and lianas in a seasonal-evergreen forest in Thailand," published in Ecosphere.

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2022View details →

Fig. 2 in Transportation of microplastic during high-flow and low-flow seasons in southeastern Black Sea: A modelling approach

Fig. 2 — Mountly mean wind, and current during high-flow (a, b) and low-flow (c, d) seasons

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2022View details →

Fig. 1 in Transportation of microplastic during high-flow and low-flow seasons in southeastern Black Sea: A modelling approach

Fig. 1 — Map of the study area and microplastic release point

Diverse host-parasite interactions mediate seasonal ecosystem linkages

Nematomorph parasites manipulate terrestrial arthropods, such as crickets and ground beetles, to enter streams where the parasites reproduce. These manipulated arthropods become a substantial prey subsidy for stream salmonids, causing cross-ecosystem energy flow. Diverse nematomorph-arthropod interactions are known to underlie the energy flow. However, whether and how they can mediate the magnitude and temporal attributes of energy flow remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated whether distinct species or phylogenetic groups of nematomorphs respectively manipulate different arthropod hosts, and how the diverse nematomorph-arthropod interactions, if any, mediate seasonal prey subsidy for stream salmonids. We found that distinct phylogenetic groups of Gordionus and Gordius nematomorphs infected ground beetle and orthopteran hosts, respectively. The Gordionus nematomorphs led their ground beetle hosts to enter streams in spring, subsidizing salmonid individuals during that season. By contrast, the Gordius nematomorphs manipulated orthopterans in autumn, causing the prey subsidy for salmonid individuals during that time. Maintaining the two distinct nematomorph-arthropod interactions, thus, resulted in the parasite-mediated prey subsidy in both spring and autumn in the study streams. Manipulative parasites are common, and they often associate with a range of host lineages, suggesting that similar effects of diverse host-parasite interactions on energy flow might be widespread in nature.

Supplementary data for "Seasonal emergence and circulation coupling of moist layers over the tropical Atlantic"

The data provided here contains the derived moist layer characteristics from ERA5 reanalysis, as presented in the associated publication. Data is given on a 0.25° latitude/longitude grid between 30°N/S on the native vertical levels of the ERA5 dataset, cut off at 50 hPa. When a moist layer is detected at a given location and altitude, as identified by the method described in Sect. 2.2 of the publication, the moist layer characteristics (strength, pressure level, upper bound pressure, lower bound pressure) are written in the associated files at the given location (lat/lon) and pressure level of the moist layer. Here, we provide the 15 year means and standard deviations for the months January and July, and the 3 hourly data along the equatorial and 15°N cross-sections of the Atlantic used for the Hovmoller diagrams in Fig. 4 and Supporting Figure S1 of the publication. Files containing "geographical_mean" indicate monthly means on the latitude/longitude grid. Files containing "moisture_space" indicate monthly means within moisture space over the tropical Atlantic, as defined in the paper.  Code used to generate the data and to conduct the analysis presented in the publication are provided in the github repository URL listed in the Software section.

Data from: Investigating the Association of Seasonal Dynamics in GEDI Canopy Cover Profiles and Sentinel-1 Backscatter in Temperate Forests

This dataset supports the analysis about Investigating the Association of Seasonal Dynamics in GEDI Canopy Cover Profiles and Sentinel-1 Backscatter in Temperate Forests

Carrion use by a reptile is influenced by season, habitat, and competition with an apex mammalian scavenger

Scavenging on carrion is critical and often fiercely competitive for a range of vertebrate species, from native apex predators to invasive species and even reptiles. In Australia, a notable reptilian scavenger is the lace monitor (Varanus varius). In this study, we quantified lace monitor activity at carcasses and compared their use of the resource to common co-occurring predators that also scavenge; the invasive red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and native apex predator, the dingo (Canis dingo). To do so, we deployed 80 macropod carcasses equally across seasons (summer and winter) and habitats (open and closed canopy), in a temperate bioregion and monitored vertebrate scavenging with camera traps. Lace monitor activity was 1.67-times higher in summer than winter, but it did not differ across closed and open habitats. Monitor activity occurred earlier after carcass deployment at sites deployed in summer than winter (1.47-fold earlier), and at carcasses in open than closed habitats (0.22-fold earlier). Lace monitors initially discovered carcass sites faster in summer than winter and before both red foxes and dingoes in summer. Lace monitors were active diurnally in both summer and winter, differing from the red fox, which was strictly a nocturnal scavenger, and the dingo, which was significantly more active at night across both seasons. Finally, we found that lace monitor activity at carcass sites decreased slightly with higher rates of activity for dingoes (0.04-fold decrease as dingo activity increased), but not with red fox activity. Our results have implications for understanding lace monitor foraging and scavenging and highlight the value of monitoring carcasses to provide important insights into the behaviour of varanid lizards that scavenge.

Data from: Challenging trophic position assessments in complex ecosystems: calculation method, choice of baseline, trophic enrichment factors, season and feeding guild do matter. A case study from Marquesas Islands coral reefs

Assessments of ecosystem functioning are a fundamental ecological challenge and an essential foundation for ecosystem-based management. An understanding of species trophic positions (TP) is essential to characterize food web architecture. However, despite the intuitive nature of the concept, empirically estimating TP is a challenging task due to the complexity of trophic interaction networks. Various alternative methods are proposed to assess TPs, including different approaches to account for the different sources of organic matter at the base of the food web (the "baseline"). However, it is often not clear which methodological approach and which baseline choices are the most reliable. Using an ecosystem-wide assessment of a tropical reef (Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia, with available data for 70 coral reef invertebrate and fish species), we tested whether different commonly used TP estimation methods yield similar results and, if not, whether it is possible to identify the most reliable method. We found significant differences in TP estimates of up to 1.7 TP for the same species, depending on the method and the baseline used. When using bulk stable isotope data, the choice of the baseline significantly impacted TP values. Indeed, while δ15N values of macroalgae led to consistent TP estimates, those using phytoplankton generated unrealistically low TP estimates. The use of a conventional enrichment factor (i.e. 3.4 ‰) or a "variable" enrichment factor (i.e. according to feeding guilds) also produced clear discrepancies between TP estimates. Regarding the use of different calculation methods, TPs obtained with δ15N values of source amino acids (compound specifics isotope analysis) were close to those assessed with macroalgae, but evidenced the opposite seasonal pattern, with significantly lower TPs in winter than in summer for the majority of assessed species, with particularly pronounced differences for lower TP species. We use the observed differences to discuss possible drivers of the diverging TP estimates and the potential ecological implications.

opencc-by-4.0Mar 2021View details →

Figure 1 in Non-breeding season records of the Alpine Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus occisinensis

Figure 1. Sampling localities of Phylloscopus affinis (sensu lato) in Bangladesh and Thailand.

Data from: From leaves to whole plants: effects of shelter-builders on arthropod communities are stronger in dry seasons

Leaf shelters function as microclimatic refuges, reducing arthropod exposure to climatic fluctuations of surrounding habitats. Although facilitation is expected to increase under stressful conditions, empirical studies investigating the patterns of variation and magnitude of effects of ecosystem engineering at different spatial and temporal scales are still scarce. In this study we evaluated the facilitation consequences of leaf shelter created by gall-inducers on arthropod communities of Miconia ligustroides (DC.) Naudin (Melastomataceae). We evaluated how such effects change at the leaf and plant levels in an environment subject to strong climatic seasonality. The presence of leaf shelters on M. ligustroides increased arthropod diversity and biomass, modified the species composition at both the leaf and plant levels, and in wet and dry seasons. However, the addition of artificial leaf shelters during the dry season showed greater abundance, richness, and biomass of arthropods when compared to shelters added during the wet season. Regarding the global effects of artificial leaf shelters on the diversity of arthropods associated with M. ligustroides, the dry season showed strong and positive effects, increasing the abundance, richness, and biomass of arthropods by an average of 65% for both years. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the patterns of variation and magnitude of ecosystem engineering at different spatial and temporal scales and provides new insights into the importance of shelters for aridity-sensitive species.