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325 results for “community response”
Data from: Community carbon and water exchange responses to warming and precipitation enhancement in sandy grassland along a restoration gradient
Temperature increasing and precipitation alteration are predicted to occur in arid and semi-arid lands, however, the response mechanism of carbon and water exchange at community level is still unclear in semi-arid sandy land. We investigated the responses of carbon and water exchanges to warming and precipitation enhancement along a sand-dune restoration gradient: mobile sand dunes (MD), semi-fixed sand dunes (SFD) and fixed sand dunes (FD). The average net ecosystem productivity (NEP) and evapotranspiration (ET) between May and August increased by 98% and 59%, respectively, from MD to SFD. While they had no significant differences between FD and the other two habitats. Warming inhibited ecosystem NEP, ET and water use efficiency (WUE) by 69%), 49% P<0.001 and 80%, respectively in SFD, while it nearly had no significant effects in MD and FD. However, precipitation addition by 30% nearly had no significant effects on community NEP, ET and WUE, except for warming treatment in FD. In general, precipitation addition of 30% may still not be enough to prevent drought stress for growth of plants, due to with low water-holding capacity and high evaporation rates in sandy land. Temperature increase magnified drought stress as it increased evapotranspiration rates especially in summer. In addition, community NEP, ET and WUE were usually influenced by interactions between habitats and temperature, as well as the interactions among habitats, temperature and precipitation. Species differences in each habitat along the restoration gradient may alter climate sensitivity of sandy land. These results will support in understanding and the prediction of the impacts of warming and precipitation change in semiarid sandy grassland.
Data from: Stream microbial communities and ecosystem functioning show complex responses to multiple stressors in wastewater
<div> <p>Multiple anthropogenic drivers are changing ecosystems globally, with a disproportionate and intensifying impact on freshwater habitats. A major impact of urbanisation are inputs from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Initially designed to greatly reduce nutrient loads, WWTPs increasingly release a multitude of micropollutants (i.e., synthetic chemicals) and organisms (including antibiotic resistant bacteria) to receiving environments. This pollution may have pervasive impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Viewed through multiple lenses of macroecological and ecotoxicological theory, we combined field, flume, and laboratory experiments to determine the effects of wastewater on microbial communities and organic-matter processing using a standardized decomposition assay. Firstly, we conducted a mensurative experiment using 60 sampling locations above and below WWTP discharges in 20 Swiss streams. This showed that microbial respiration and decomposition rates were positively influenced by inputs of treated effluent via warming and nutrient enrichment, but with a notable exception: wastewater decreased the activation energy of decomposition, indicating a "slowing" of this fundamental ecosystem process in response to temperature. Secondly, next-generation sequencing of microbial communities indicated that community structure below WWTPs was altered, with significant compositional turnover, reduced fungal richness, and evidence of negative micropollutant influences. Thirdly, a series of flume experiments confirmed that although diluted wastewater generally has a positive influence on microbial-mediated processes, the negative effects of micropollutants are 'masked' by the addition of nutrients. Finally, cotton-strip transplant experiments suggested that wastewater-borne microbes enhance rates of decomposition. Taken together, our results affirm the multiple-stressor paradigm by showing that different aspects of wastewater (i.e., temperature, nutrients, microbes, and micropollutants) jointly influence ecosystem functioning in complex ways. Increased respiration rates below WWTPs potentially generate ecosystem 'disservices' via greater carbon evasion from streams and rivers. However, toxic effects of micropollutants may fundamentally alter ecological scaling relationships, indicating the need for a rapprochement between ecotoxicological and macroecological perspectives.</p> </div>
Data from: Soil functional responses to drought under range-expanding and native plant communities
1. Current climate warming enables plant species and soil organisms to expand their range to higher latitudes and altitudes. At the same time, climate change increases the incidence of extreme weather events such as drought. While it is expected that plants and soil organisms originating from the south are better able to cope with drought, little is known about the consequences of their range shifts on soil functioning under drought events. 2. Here, we test how range-expanding plant species and soil communities may influence soil functioning under drought. We performed a full-factorial outdoor mesocosm experiment with plant communities of range expanders or related natives, with soil inocula from the novel or the original range, with or without summer drought. We measured litter decomposition, carbon mineralization and enzyme activities, substrate-induced respiration, and the relative abundance of soil saprophytic fungi immediately after drought and at 6 and 12 weeks after rewetting. 3. Drought decreased all soil functions regardless of plant and soil origin except one; soil respiration was less reduced in soils of range-expanding plant communities, suggesting stronger resistance to drought. After rewetting, soil functioning responses depended on plant and soil origin. Soils of native plant communities with a history of drought had more litter mass loss and higher relative abundance of saprophytic fungi than soils without drought and soils of range expanders. Functions of soil from range expanders recovered in a more conservative manner than soils of natives, as litter mass loss did not exceed the control rates. At the end of the experiment, after rewetting, most soil functions in mesocosms with drought history did not differ anymore from the control. 4. We conclude that functional consequences of range expanding plants and soil biota may interact with effects of drought, and that these effects are most prominent during the first weeks after rewetting of the soil.
Data from: Butterfly and moth communities differ in their response to habitat structure in rainforests of Mount Cameroon
Mechanisms structuring tropical communities are still under-studied, especially in Afrotropical rainforests. Although insect herbivores are considered to depend on plant diversity, we hypothesized that vegetation structure, together with other microhabitat characteristics, can be more important for some insects. Here, we compared habitat associations of fruit-feeding butterflies and moths, two ecologically different groups of Lepidoptera, in three rainforest localities in foothills of Mount Cameroon, West/Central Africa. Based on a comprehensive dataset of 16,040 specimens of 398 species systematically collected by 240 traps at 48 plots (altogether 9.68 ha), we analyzed how plant community composition, habitat openness, and forest structure affect communities of butterflies and moths. We expected different habitat descriptors to predict communities of the two insect groups. Habitats of tropical fruit-feeding moth communities have never been studied before. In both analyses of species richness and community structure, butterfly communities depended mostly on forest openness. Moth species richness depended on plant diversity and forest openness, whilst the latter substantially influenced their community composition. Additionally, we revealed differences in habitat associations between understory and canopy communities of both groups. Whilst species richness of understory communities was not influenced by any habitat characteristics, it generally followed the general patterns in canopies. By contrast, composition of understory communities followed the general patterns, whilst effects of habitat characteristics on canopy communities were minor for butterflies and none for moths. The differences between such closely related groups of herbivorous insects warn against generalization based on single-taxon studies and highlight the need of community-wide research of tropical rainforests.
Stochastic processes and ecological connectivity drive stream invertebrate community responses to short-term drought
1. Community responses to and recovery from disturbances depend on local (e.g. presence of refuges) and regional (connectivity to recolonization sources) factors. Droughts are becoming more frequent in boreal regions, and are likely to constitute a severe disturbance for boreal stream communities where organisms largely lack adaptations to such hydrological extremes. 2. We conducted an experiment in 24 seminatural stream flumes to assess the effects of local and regional factors on the responses of benthic invertebrate communities to a short-term drought. We manipulated flow (drought vs. constant-flow), spatial arrangement of leaf litter patches (aggregated vs. evenly distributed) and colonization from regional species pool (enhanced vs. ambient connectivity) to test the combined effects of disturbance, connectivity, and resource arrangement on the structural and functional responses of benthic invertebrate communities. 3. We found that a drought as short as one week reduced invertebrate richness and abundances, mainly through stochastic extinctions. Such changes in richness were not reflected in functional diversity. This suggests that communities were characterized by a high degree of functional redundancy, which allowed maintenance of functional diversity despite species losses. Feeding groups responded differently to drought, with organic matter decomposers responding more than scrapers and predators. 4. Three weeks was insufficient for a complete invertebrate community recovery from the drought. However, recovery was greater in channels subjected to enhanced connectivity, which increased taxonomic diversity and abundance of certain taxa. Spatial configuration of resources explained the least variation in our response variables, having a significant effect only on invertebrate abundance and evenness (both sampling occasions) and species richness (end of recovery period). 5. Even a short drought, if occurring late to the season, may not allow communities to recover before the onset of winter, thus having a potentially long-lasting effect on stream communities. For boreal headwaters, extreme dewatering poses a novel disturbance regime that may trigger substantial and potentially irreversible changes. An improved understanding of such changes is needed to underpin adaptive management strategies in these increasingly fragmented and disturbed ecosystems. 18-Dec-2020
Contrasting responses of different functional groups stabilise community responses to a dominant shrub under global change
<p>1. Changes in precipitation regimes and nitrogen deposition levels due to global change are altering terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Most attempts at understanding how biotic interactions affect plant species and community responses to global change have focused on biotic interactions measured at the community-level. However, these approaches ignore that communities include functionally dissimilar species that might respond differently to changes in the effects of dominant neighbours along environmental gradients. We test the hypothesis that plant species with differences in functional traits may exhibit contrasting interactions with a dominant shrub species within a single community, thereby stabilizing community-level responses to the effects of global change.</p> <p>2. We manipulated water and nitrogen applications in a semi-arid dune community in northern China, quantified the biomass of herbaceous species occurring below the dominant shrub, <i>Artemisia ordosica</i>, and in adjacent open patches (without the shrub), and measured herbaceous species height and leaf dry matter content. The effects of <i>A. ordosica</i> were quantified at the species, group, and community levels using the relative interaction index (<i>RII</i>). Redundancy analysis was performed on species traits and the <i>RII</i> values to assess the relationships between functional differences in species and plant-plant interactions. Species were then grouped using a cluster analysis and the <i>RII</i> values were recalculated at the group level.</p> <p>3. The redundancy analysis showed that species height and leaf dry matter content were significantly correlated to the changes in species' responses to the effect of <i>A. ordosica</i> along treatments. The four groups of species identified by the cluster analysis showed contrasting variations in competitive or facilitative responses depending on species traits and environmental treatments. However, the interactions measured at the group level balanced the community-level responses, as we found no significant changes in the effects of <i>A. ordosica</i> along treatments for community biomass, richness, and functional diversity indices.</p> <p>4. Synthesis. Our findings indicate that species with different functional strategies within a community exhibit contrasting responses to a dominant shrub along environmental gradients. These contrasting changes in plant-plant interactions of functionally different species may balance the responses of community-level metrics. This suggests that functional differences between species groups and the balance of plant-plant interactions stabilize community responses to global change.</p>
Data from: Interspecific variation in post-disturbance growth responses of a savanna tree community and its implications for escaping the fire trap
<p>Vegetation states in savannas are highly sensitive to tree growth rates, which determine whether individual trees can 'escape' periodic disturbances. Resprouting trees have lopsided shoot:root ratios and are often multi-stemmed, and these variables can modify post-disturbance growth rates and therefore the probability of escape. To date, few studies have systematically examined the implications of interspecific variation in these factors for escape. We conducted a two-year field experiment in lowveld savanna in South Africa and quantified post-disturbance growth characteristics of topkilled trees among 16 species. We examined the dependence of growth on pre-disturbance stem size across species, and the relationship between growth rates and the tendency of trees to produce a few large <i>vs.</i> many small resprouts following disturbance. We found that resprout growth was strongly influenced by pre-disturbance size, but the relationship did not vary among species. In contrast, our results showed that fast-growing species tend to allocate resources towards a few dominant stems, while slow-growing species allocated new biomass towards many smaller stems. Tree species that produced a few large stems also tended to produce individual stems that were tall and thin, further suggesting that the "few large <i>vs.</i> many small" axis is linked to intrinsic species attributes. These findings have implications for understanding how interspecific variation in savanna tree communities may influence their ability to escape disturbance traps.</p>
Data from: Chaparral bird community responses to prescribed fire and shrub removal in three management seasons
Chaparral, a type of shrubland common throughout the California Floristic Province, is subject to management and removal in regions where wildfire threatens human lives and property. Management practices include conducting prescribed burns outside of the historical fire season and employing mechanical fuel reduction (mastication). As the wildland–urban interface grows, particularly in coastal California, more of this ecosystem is subject to active management. To understand the ecological implications of current California chaparral fire management practices, we studied bird species composition, abundance and foraging guilds in managed and unmanaged chaparral over 5 years. Study areas were located in Mendocino County in the coast ranges of northern California. We contrast six chaparral removal or "fuels manipulation" treatments: (1) fall fire, (2) winter fire, (3) spring fire, (4) fall mastication, (5) spring mastication and (6) untreated control. Treatments and controls were implemented in plots 2 ha or larger, and replicated four times each. We find that species richness in prescribed fire treatments reaches comparable levels to controls in the first 3 years following treatment, whereas masticated units always have lower species richness. Generalized linear mixed models additionally confirm that mastication has highly negative effects on observed abundances of birds compared to controls and to prescribed fire. The season in which fuels reduction occurred was less important to species richness, although fall fire was more beneficial to bird abundance than spring or winter fire. Fire treatments in all seasons maintain the same general bird community structure as controls, while mastication results in strongly differentiated assemblages, increasing granivores while nearly excluding foliage gleaners. Synthesis and applications. We compare two California chaparral management techniques, prescribed fire and mastication, in three seasons (fall, winter and spring) in northern California, USA. We tracked chaparral bird community response in 23 experimental units for 2–5 years. We conclude that prescribed fire and mastication are not interchangeable management techniques, and that mastication negatively impacts bird communities, altering guild structure and reducing both diversity and abundance.
Data from: Experimental N and P additions alter stream macroinvertebrate community composition via taxon‐level responses to shifts in detrital resource stoichiometry
1. Increases in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availability are changing animal communities, partly by altering stoichiometric imbalances between consumers and their food. Testing relationships between resource stoichiometry and consumer assemblage structure requires ecosystem-level manipulations that have been lacking to date. 2. We analyzed patterns of macroinvertebrate community composition in five detritus-based headwater streams subject to experimental whole-stream N and P additions that spanned a steep gradient in dissolved N:P ratio (2:1, 8:1, 16:1, 32:1, 128:1) over two years, following a one-year pre-treatment period. 3. We predicted that shifts in leaf litter stoichiometry would drive overall patterns of community composition via greater responses of shredders to enrichment than other taxa, as shredders dominate primary consumer biomass and experience larger consumer-resource elemental imbalances than other functional groups in stream ecosystems. Specifically, we expected litter C:P to be a significant predictor of shredder biomass given the greater relative imbalances between shredder and litter C:P than C:N. Finally, we tested whether shredder responses to enrichment were related to other taxon-level traits, including body size and stoichiometry, larval lifespan and growth rate. 4. Whole-community composition shifted similarly across the five streams after enrichment, largely driven by increased shredder and predator biomass. These shifts were limited to the autumn/winter seasons and related to decreased leaf litter C:P, highlighting important links between the quality of seasonal litter subsidies and community phenology. 5. Among 10 taxa that drove structural shifts, two declined while other taxa from the same functional/taxonomic groups responded positively, suggesting that specific life-history traits may determine sensitivity to enrichment. 6. Increases in total shredder biomass, and in biomass of several common shredders, were associated with lower litter C:P. Body C:P did not predict shredder response to enrichment. However, weak negative relationships between shredder response and body size, and larval lifespan, suggest that small-bodied and short-lived taxa may be more responsive to shifting resource stoichiometry. 7. Moderate anthropogenic increases in N and P availability affect resource stoichiometry and can alter animal communities, influencing additional food-web and ecosystem properties. We provide support for ecological stoichiometry as a framework for predicting such outcomes based on changes in the elemental composition of resource pools.
Data from: Functional responses of multi-taxa communities to disturbance and stress gradients in a restored floodplain
1. Trait-based approaches can reveal the mechanisms through which disturbances or stress impact communities, allowing comparisons of the role of different mechanisms in shaping communities among taxonomic groups. Such information can lead to higher comparability, transferability and predictability of the outcome of restoration projects. However, multitaxa trait-based approaches were rarely used in the context of ecosystem restoration. 2. We investigated the responses to environmental gradients of seven taxa (vascular plants, staphylinid and carabid beetles, spiders, isopods, diplopods and earthworms) in a restored floodplain using a species traits approach. We assessed the impact of flood disturbances and soil hydric stress on the functional diversity (FD) and community-weighted mean (CWM) response of traits for each taxon. 3. Ordination of hydrological variables revealed two main gradients. The first was related to the spatiotemporal dynamics of flood disturbances and the second to the average changes in soil hydric conditions. 4. The analysis of CWM revealed that larger, poorly mobile species with narrow ecological tolerances were filtered by regular floods and/or changes in soil hydric conditions. 5. Functional diversity patterns differed between the two gradients: decreasing with increasing flood disturbance, but increasing along the soil hydric stress gradient. This suggests that the mechanisms shaping community composition differ between the two gradients with environmental filtering being dominant with increasing flood disturbances and competition decreasing with more soil hydric stress. 6. Synthesis and applications. Our study shows that the impact of restored flood disturbances and soil hydric stress on plant and invertebrate functional diversity and community-weighted mean can be positive, negative or more complex depending on the taxonomic group and environmental gradient considered. The patterns can to some extent be explained by the specific characteristics of each group. Larger, poorly mobile species with narrow ecological tolerances were particularly vulnerable to changes in disturbance and stress regime following floodplain restoration. These species may therefore be lost in the initial phases of restoration projects, but other more characteristic species of dynamic floodplains will be favoured. Understanding the consequences of these contrasted responses for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning constitutes the next challenge for ecosystem restoration.
Data from: Unequal contributions of species' persistence and migration on plant communities' response to climate warming throughout forests
Community reshuffling is lagging behind climate warming for many taxa, thereby generating a climatic debt. However, only few studies have attempted to assess the underlying factors that explain this debt. Here I examine how effects of species' migration and persistence on the current climatic debt vary spatially in forest herbaceous communities throughout the French territory. I show that Mediterranean communities are responding to climate warming through both high species' migration and persistence effects, while alpine forest is the only ecosystem where species' migration overtakes species' persistence mechanisms. Such an approach seems promising in assessing the underlying mechanisms of the biodiversity response to climate change locally, and it can be applied for conservation issues to assess biodiversity sensitivity and optimize its management.
Data from: Divergent melanism strategies in Andean butterfly communities structure diversity patterns and climate responses
Aim: Geographic distributions are driven by a combination of species sensitivity and exposure to climate. We quantified colour lightness, a trait that mediates the interaction between sensitivity and exposure, of diverse butterfly communities to test whether colour lightness is associated with community assembly across climate-elevation gradients. Location: Ecuadorian Andes Methods: We used a long-term dataset of museum specimens for two of the most speciose genera of Pieridae butterflies in Ecuador, Catasticta and Leptophobia. Within a phylogenetic framework we examined how communities assemble based on four traits across elevation: colour lightness, species-specific heating rate, maximum temperature (under experimental solar exposure), and elevation breadth. Results: We found that colour lightness in both genera was related to elevation, but the two genera exhibited opposite patterns; Catasticta are darker and Leptophobia are lighter with increasing elevation. The two genera have opposite configurations of body and body + wings colour lightness but achieve comparable thermoregulation, assessed via their rates of heating under experimental solar exposure. Additionally, we found that the phylogenetic signal for colour lightness was strong, and that patterns between traits and elevation held after correction for phylogeny in Catasticta but not in Leptophobia. Main conclusions: The two genera exhibit divergent relationships between elevational and colour lightness patterns, with evidence that these relationships evolved multiple times in Catasticta. Communities from these two genera have likely been shaped by selection on different traits, with Catasticta colour lightness more responsive to temperature than Leptophobia. The observed geographic patterns of colour lightness in both body + wings (Catasticta) and body (Leptophobia) correspond strikingly with the distribution of montane cloud forests. Habitat fragmentation and cloud lifting from climate change documented across the Andes may therefore significantly impact communities through increased exposure to solar radiation and highlights the complexity of conserving these diverse montane communities.
Data from: Belowground community responses to fire: meta-analysis reveals contrasting responses of soil microorganisms and mesofauna
Global fire regimes are shifting due to climate and land use changes. Understanding the responses of belowground communities to fire is key to predicting changes in the ecosystem processes they regulate. We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of 1634 observations from 131 empirical studies to investigate the effect of fire on soil microorganisms and mesofauna. Fire had a strong negative effect on soil biota biomass, abundance, richness, evenness, and diversity. Fire reduced microorganism biomass and abundance by up to 96%. Bacteria were more resistant to fire than fungi. Fire reduced nematode abundance by 88% but had no significant effect on soil arthropods. Fire reduced richness, evenness and diversity of soil microorganisms and mesofauna by up to 99%. We found little evidence of temporal trends towards recovery within 10 years post-disturbance suggesting little resilience of the soil community to fire. Interactions between biome, fire type, and depth explained few of these negative trends. Future research at the intersection of fire ecology and soil biology should aim to integrate soil community structure with the ecosystem processes they mediate under changing global fire regimes.
Plant responses to diversity-driven selection and associated rhizosphere microbial communities
<p><b>1.</b> Plant diversity loss can alter plant interactions and rhizosphere microbial communities. These altered interactions in turn exert diversity-driven selection pressures to which plants may respond with phenotypic changes. Diverse plant communities may favour the survival and fitness of individuals with traits that avoid competition. Conversely monocultures may accumulate species-specific pests favouring greater investment in defence traits. Yet it is unknown how altered plant rhizosphere interactions influence the plant diversity-driven selection for altered plant phenotypes. <b>2.</b> We tested for plant diversity-driven selection on plant aboveground traits and how these traits are modified by their rhizosphere microbial communities after 11 years in experimental plant monocultures and mixtures. Plants propagated from monocultures or mixtures were grown in combination with their 'home' vs. 'away' arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) or non-AMF microbes in two separate experiments using five and eight plant species respectively. We hypothesized plants in monocultures may be selected for better defence and better performance in association with rhizosphere microbial communities compared with plants in mixtures. <b>3.</b> Monoculture and mixture plants significantly differed in their aboveground phenotypes. As predicted, plant traits related to defence (greater leaf mass per area and leaf dry matter content, reduced leaf damage) were more pronounced in monoculture plants in both experiments. Effects of the rhizosphere microbial communities, which generally enhanced plant growth, tended to be species-specific. Significant three-way interactions between diversity-driven selection, AMF treatment and plant species showed that home vs. away effects could be positive or negative, depending on plant species. <b>4.</b> We conclude that long-term differences in plant diversity lead to selection for altered plant phenotypes. Such differences may be further modified in association with the AMF microbial communities derived from the different plant diversity treatments, but often outcomes are species-specific. This suggests that plant species differ in their capacity to respond to diversity loss and associated changes in rhizosphere microbial communities, making it complicated to predict community-level responses to such loss.</p>
Data from: Climate constrains lake community and ecosystem responses to introduced predators
Human activities have resulted in rising temperatures and the introduction or extirpation of top predators worldwide. Both processes generate cascading impacts throughout food webs and can jeopardize important ecosystem services. We examined the impact of fish stocking on communities and ecosystems in California mountain lakes across an elevation (temperature and dissolved organic carbon) gradient to determine how trophic cascades and ecosystem function vary with climate. Here, we show that the impact of fish on the pelagic consumer-to-producer biomass ratio strengthened at low elevation, while invertebrate community composition and benthic ecosystem rates (periphyton production and litter decomposition) were most influenced by predators at high elevation. A warming climate may therefore alter the stability of lake ecosystems by shifting the strength of top-down control by introduced predators over food web structure and function.
Data from: Do intraspecific or interspecific interactions determine responses to predators feeding on a shared size-structured prey community?
1. Coexistence of predators that share the same prey is common. This is still the case in size structured predator communities where predators consume prey species of different sizes (interspecific prey responses) or consume different size classes of the same species of prey (intraspecific prey responses). 2. A mechanism has recently been proposed to explain coexistence between predators that differ in size but share the same prey species, emergent facilitation, which is dependent on strong intraspecific responses from one or more prey species. Under emergent facilitation predators can depend on each other for invasion, persistence or success in a size structured prey community. 3. Experimental evidence for intraspecific size-structured responses in prey populations remain rare and further questions remain about direct interactions between predators that could prevent or limit any positive effects between predators (e.g. intraguild predation). 4. Here we provide a community wide experiment on emergent facilitation including natural predators. We investigate both the direct interaction between two predators that differ in body size (fish vs. invertebrate predator) and the indirect interaction between them via their shared prey community (zooplankton). 5. Our evidence supports the most likely expectation of interactions between differently sized predators, that intraguild predation rates are high and interspecific interactions in the shared prey community dominate the response to predation (i.e. predator-mediated competition). The question of whether emergent facilitation occurs frequently in nature requires more empirical and theoretical attention, specifically to address the likelihood that its pre-conditions may co-occur with high rates of intraguild predation.
Data from: Evolution of resistance to a multiple-herbavore community: genetic correlations, diffuse coevolution, and constraints on the plant's response to selection
Although plants are generally attacked by a community of several species of herbivores, relatively little is known about the strength of natural selection for resistance in multiple-herbivore communities—particularly how the strength of selection differs among herbivores that feed on different plant organs or how strongly genetic correlations in resistance affect the evolutionary responses of the plant. Here, we report on a field study measuring natural selection for resistance in a diverse community of herbivores of Solanum carolinense. Using linear phenotypic-selection analyses, we found that directional selection acted to increase resistance to seven species. Selection was strongest to increase resistance to fruit feeders, followed by flower feeders, then leaf feeders. Selection favored a decrease in resistance to a stem borer. Bootstrapping analyses showed that the plant population contained significant genetic variation for each of 14 measured resistance traits and significant covariances in one-third of the pairwise combinations of resistance traits. These genetic covariances reduced the plant's overall predicted evolutionary response for resistance against the herbivore community by about 60%. Diffuse (co)evolution was widespread in this community, and the diffuse interactions had an overwhelmingly constraining (rather than facilitative) effect on the plant's evolution of resistance.
Data from: Spatial heterogeneity in soil nutrient supply modulates nutrient and biomass responses to multiple global change drivers in model grassland communities
Changes in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ([CO2]), nutrient availability and biotic diversity are three major drivers of the ongoing global change impacting terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. While it is well established that soil nutrient heterogeneity exerts a strong influence on the development of plant individuals and communities, it is virtually unknown how nutrient heterogeneity and global change drivers interact to affect plant performance and ecosystem functioning. We conducted a microcosm experiment to evaluate the effect of simultaneous changes in [CO2], nutrient heterogeneity (NH), nutrient availability (NA) and species evenness on the biomass and nutrient uptake patterns of assemblages formed by Lolium perenne, Plantago lanceolata and Holcus lanatus. When the nutrients were heterogeneously supplied,assemblages exhibited precise root foraging patterns, and had higher above- and belowground biomass (average increases of 32% and 29% for above- and belowground biomass, respectively). Nutrient heterogeneity also modulated the effects of NA on biomass production, complementarity in nitrogen uptake and below: aboveground ratio, as well as those of [CO2] on the nutrient use efficiency at the assemblage level. Our results show that nutrient heterogeneity has the potential to influence the response of plant assemblages to simultaneous changes in [CO2], nutrient availability and biotic diversity, and suggest that it is an important environmental factor to interpret and assess plant assemblage responses to global change.
Data from: CO2 alters community composition and response to nutrient enrichment of freshwater phytoplankton
Nutrients can limit the productivity of ecosystems and control the composition of the communities of organisms that inhabit them. Humans are causing atmospheric CO2 concentrations to reach levels higher than those of the past millions of years while at the same time propagating eutrophication through the addition of nutrients to lakes and rivers. We studied the effect of elevated CO2 concentrations, nutrient addition and their interaction in a series of freshwater mesocosm experiments using a factorial design. Our results highlight the important role of CO2 in shaping phytoplankton communities and their response to nutrient addition. We found that CO2 greatly magnified the increase in phytoplankton growth caused by the increased availability of nutrients. Elevated CO2 also caused changes in phytoplankton community composition. As predicted from physiology and laboratory experiments, the taxonomic group that was most limited by current day CO2 concentrations, chlorophytes, increased in relative frequency at elevated CO2. This predictable change in community composition with changes in CO2 is not altered by changes in the availability of other nutrients.
Data from: Chronic nitrogen addition induces a cascade of plant community responses with both seasonal and progressive dynamics
Short-lived herbaceous plants provide a useful model to rapidly reveal how multiple generations of plants in natural plant communities of sensitive desert ecosystems will be affected by N deposition. We monitored dynamic responses of community structure, richness, evenness, density and biomass of herbaceous plants to experimental N addition (2:1 NH4+:NO3− added at 0, 0.5, 1, 3, 6 and 24 g N m− 2 a− 1) in three seasons in each of three years in the Gurbantunggut desert, a typical temperate desert of central Asia. We found clear rate-dependent and season-dependent effects of N deposition on each of these variables, in most cases becoming more obvious through time. N addition reduced plant richness, leading to a loss of about half of the species after three generations in the highest N application level. Evenness and density were relatively insensitive to all but the greatest levels of N addition for two generations, but negative effects emerged in the third generation. Biomass, both above and below ground, was non-linearly affected by N deposition. Low and intermediate levels of N deposition often increased biomass, whereas the highest level suppressed biomass. Stimulatory effects of intermediate N addition disappeared in the third generation. All of these responses are strongly interrelated in a cascade of changes. Notably, changes in biomass due to N deposition were mediated by declines in richness and evenness, and other changes in community structure, rather than solely being the direct outcome of release from limitation. The interrelationships between N deposition and the different plant community attributes change not only seasonally, but also progressively change through time. These temporal changes appear to be largely independent of interannual or seasonal climatic conditions.
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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.