Find research datasets worth reusing

opencc-zeroNov 2022View details →

Data from: European common frog (Rana temporaria) recolonised Switzerland from multiple glacial refugia in northern Italy via trans- and circum-Alpine routes

The high mountain ranges of western Europe had a profound effect on the biotic recolonisation of Europe from glacial refugia. The Alps present a particularly interesting case because they form an absolute barrier to dispersal for most taxa, obstructing recolonisation from multiple refugia in northern Italy. Here we investigate the effect of the European Alps on the phylogeographic history of the European common frog Rana temporaria. Based on partial cytochrome b and COXI sequences from Switzerland, we find two mitochondrial lineages roughly north and south of the alpine ridge, with contact zones between them in eastern and western Switzerland. The northern haplogroup falls within the previously identified western European haplogroup, while the southern haplogroup is unique to Switzerland. We find that the lineages diverged ~110 kya, at approximately the onset of the last glacial glaciation; this indicates that they are from different glacial refugia. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that the northern and southern haplogroups colonised Switzerland via trans- and circum-alpine routes from at least two separate refugia in northern Italy. Our results illustrate how a complex recolonisation history of the central European Alps can arise from the semi-permeable barrier created by high mountains.

opencc-by-4.0May 2022View details →

Auxiliary Euro-Calliope datasets: Spatial data to represent a European energy system model at several spatial resolutions

Main output generated with the <a href="https://github.com/brynpickering/possibility-for-electricity-autarky/tree/custom-regions">custom-region possibility-for-electricity-autarky</a> workflow. This output provides similar data to <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3246302">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3246302</a> (technically eligible land area for renewables and other spatially disaggregated energy system data), but with two key differences: <ol> <li>The spatial extent has been expanded to include Iceland.</li> <li>Two new spatial resolutions have been added: `ehighways` and `ehighways_disaggregated`.</li> </ol> `ehighways` defines 98 regions based on the result of work undertaken in the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme project e-HIGHWAY 2050 [1]. The regions cover 35 European countries; 19 are described at a national resolution and the rest at a subnational resolution. Those at a subnational resolution are aggregated from NUTS3-2006 statistical units. `ehighways_disaggregated` provides the data at the resolution of statistical units in Europe, which is then aggregated to produce the data at the `ehighways` resolution. The mapping from statistical units to ehighways regions is defined in `./ehighways/statistical_units_to_ehighways_regions.csv`. `./ehighways/units.png` shows a map of the resulting 98 `ehighways` regions. The region colours are used to help differentiate regions and have no other meaning. This dataset is used as an input to the <a href="https://github.com/calliope-project/sector-coupled-euro-calliope">Sector-Coupled Euro-Calliope workflow</a>. [1] Anderski, T., Surmann, Y., Stemmer, S., Grisey, N., Momot, E., Leger, A.-C., Betraoui, B., and van Roy, P. (2014). European cluster model of the Pan-European transmission grid (e-HIGHWAY 2050)

opencc-zeroMay 2022View details →

Thermoregulation of European bats inhabiting artificial roosts

Anthropogenic land use changes, such as deforestation and commercial forestry, have substantially reduced natural roost sites for European bats. A common conservation solution is to provide artificial roosts (i.e., bat boxes), but there are concerns that these can become hotter than natural roosts in summer and could be death traps during heat waves. Nevertheless, females of several bat species form maternity colonies in these boxes, thus occupying hotter and more humid microclimates than solitarily roosting males. We tested if cooling efficiency and heat tolerance differ between sexes in European bats, and estimated the evaporative water requirements of living in bat boxes during hot summer days. We used indirect calorimetry and thermometry to quantify thermoregulation at high air temperatures (Ta) in four species of verspitilionid bats that regularly occupy artificial roosts. We measured resting metabolic heat production, evaporative water loss rates (EWL), and body temperature (Tb) at Ta between 28 °C and 48 °C during summer. We predicted that females have higher evaporative cooling capacity (evaporative heat loss/metabolic heat production) than males, allowing them to reach their heat tolerance limit at higher Ta. We found no sex differences in maximum evaporative cooling efficiency, maximum Tb, and maximum Ta tolerated. However, the patterns of increasing EWL with Ta differed between sexes. Females tolerated higher Ta before increasing EWL than males and then rapidly increased EWL to higher values than males at the maximum Ta tolerated. These sex differences in heat‑dissipation strategies may reflect varying ecological and physiological constraints associated with different summer roosting habits. Our study revealed that small European bat species are already at risk of succumbing to lethal dehydration during present-day heat waves. For conservation managers working with common European bat species, particularly those in monoculture forests with woodcrete bat-boxes, our physiologically-informed recommendations include positioning boxes in diverse locations varying in aspect and sun exposure. This will ensure thermal heterogeneity of roost sites and provide a wide gradient of microclimate conditions, allowing for roost switching when necessary.

opencc-by-4.0May 2022View details →

Willingness to replace animal-based products with pulses among consumers in different European countries

The growing world population and increased meat consumption pose a challenge for current food production systems. While pulses present a promising position in terms of low impacts in primary production and high nutritional quality, it is unclear whether consumers are willing to consume pulses instead of meat. Based on an online survey answered by 4,322 respondents across five European countries, this study examined consumers’ willingness to utilize pulses as a plant-based alternative to animal-based products. More than a third of pulse consumers (42%) were, to some extent, already using pulses as an alternative to animal-based foods. Beef was noted as the most frequently replaced type of food, mainly driven by arguments relating to health, environment, and sustainability, especially relevant for German and Danish consumers. Respondents who did not indicate a current replacement of animal-based foods stated a relatively low willingness to change in the future (40%). German pulse consumers were likely to be part of the low willingness segment. In contrast, Polish consumers possessed a relatively higher incidence of using pulses instead of meat, especially pork and poultry. Respondents with a low replacement willingness indicated a high importance of future pulse-based products to be natural, while respondents already using pulses instead of animal-based foods expected convenient and minimally processed foods. Respondents, who already replaced meat with pulses or expressed a low future willingness, stated to prefer plain pulses over processed pulse-based products, and meat-resembling forms considering the former segment, alternatively to meat. These preferences and expectations should be considered for future product development, especially if aiming to attract unwilling consumers to shift to pulse-based foods.

Database of European ore deposits relevant for ROBOMINERS

This report presents how public data on mineral deposits which are potential targets of the robotic mining technology, was collected in several European countries, screened and organised in a comprehensive database, to be included in the EU’s Raw Materials Knowledge Base. The database is available at http://robominers.geologicalsurvey.be/.

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

Pre-generated network files for "Intersecting near-optimal spaces: European power systems with more resilience to weather variability"

These are network files that can be used to investigate the impacts of weather variability on the European power system using PyPSA-Eur as in <a href="https://github.com/aleks-g/intersecting-near-opt-spaces/tree/v1.0">https://github.com/aleks-g/intersecting-near-opt-spaces/tree/v1.0</a>. Find more information about the approach in the README of that repository. These network files are a shortcut to reproduce the results and use a fixed configuration ("v1.0"). For other configurations, it may be necessary to download ERA5 reanalysis cutouts (more on this in the git repository). Instructions can be found in the git repository.

Creating Comparability among European Neighbourhoods to Enable the Transition of District Energy Infrastructures towards Positive Energy Districts

The aim of the this raster file is to allow comparability of districts across Europe, to support energy transformation in urban areas. Comparability will allow to transfer knowledge between district energy renovation projects. This dataset combines different raster files from the <a href="https://gitlab.com/hotmaps">Hotmaps project</a>. The dataset combines data from <a href="https://gitlab.com/hotmaps/heat/heat_res_curr_density/-/tree/master">Heat density</a>, <a href="https://gitlab.com/hotmaps/heat/heat_res_curr_density/-/tree/master">Total Gross Floor Area</a>, <a href="https://gitlab.com/hotmaps/gfa_res_curr_density">Residential Gross Floor Area</a>. These three dataset act as a proxy to Heat Demand, Floor Space Index and Share of Residential Gross Floor Area. Further description can be found in the paper "Creating comparability among European neighbourhoods to enable district energy infrastructure towards positive energy districts".

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

European badger (Meles meles) responses to low-intensity, selective culling: using mark recapture and relatedness data to assess social perturbation

Culling the main wildlife host of bovine tuberculosis in Great Britain (GB) and Ireland, the European badger (Meles meles) to reduce infections in cattle, has been employed in both territories. In GB, this has been controversial, with results suggesting that culling induces disturbance to badger social structure, facilitating wider disease dissemination. Previous analyses hypothesized that even very low-level, selective culling may cause similar deleterious effects by increasing ranging of individuals and greater mixing between social-groups. To assess this hypothesis, a novel, prospective, landscape-scale 'before-and-after' Test and vaccinate or remove (TVR) study was implemented. Test-positive badgers were culled and test-negative badgers were BCG vaccinated and released. Mark-recapture metrics of badger ranging and genetic metrics of social group relatedness did not change significantly over the study period. However, selective culling was associated with a localised reduction in social-group relatedness in culled groups. Synthesis and application: Ecological context is important; extrapolation across territories and other disease epidemiological-systems (epi-systems) is likely to be challenging. However, we demonstrate that small-scale, selective removal of test-positive badgers was not associated with metrics of increased ranging but was associated with localised changes in social-group relatedness. This adds to the evidence base on badger control options for policy makers.

Corresponding spreadsheet to the Paper 'Comparative analysis of pre-Covid19 child immunization rates across 30 European countries and identification of underlying positive societal and system influences'

This study provides a macro-level societal and health system focused analysis of child vaccination rates in 30 European countries, exploring the effect of context on coverage. The importance of demography and health system attributes on health care delivery are recognized in other fields, but generally overlooked in vaccination. The analysis is based on correlating systematic data built up by the Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) Project with data from international sources, so as to exploit a one-off opportunity to set the analysis within an overall integrated study of primary care services for children, and the learning opportunities of the ‘natural European laboratory’. The descriptive analysis shows an overall persistent variation of coverage across vaccines with no specific vaccination having a low rate in all the EU and EEA countries. However, contrasting with this, variation between total uptake per vaccine across Europe suggests that the challenge of low rates is related to country contexts of either policy, delivery, or public perceptions. Econometric analysis aiming to explore whether some population, policy and/or health system characteristics may influence vaccination uptake provides important results - GDP per capita and the level of the population’s higher education engagement are positively linked with higher vaccination coverage, whereas mandatory vaccination policy is related to lower uptake rates. The health system characteristics that have a significant positive effect are a cohesive management structure; a high nurse/doctor ratio; and use of practical care delivery reinforcements such as the home-based record and the presence of child components of e‑health strategies.

Electronic Supplementary Data to "Zika vector competence data reveals risks of outbreaks: the contribution of the European ZIKAlliance project"

Electronic Supplementary Data to "Zika vector competence data reveals risks of outbreaks: the contribution of the European ZIKAlliance project"

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2022View details →

Genetic parentage reconstruction as a practical tool applied to aquaculture and restoration programs for the European flat oyster, Ostrea edulis

Preserving and maximizing genetic diversity in conservation programs, including for restocking, are of high importance. The threatened European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) is currently the subject of several applied conservation and restocking programs, but concerns have been raised over potential negative side effects of these programs, for example due to our limited knowledge about the genetic effects in natural populations of releasing offspring of hatchery origin. Here, we developed a cost-effective, easily applicable and highly reliable method to assess the genetic diversity and parental contributions in flat oyster hatchery production based on analyses of 17 microsatellite loci. We analyzed broodstock and hatchery-produced spat (total n = 289) and compared diversity to that in wild samples of adults and spat from the broodstock source in the Limfjorden (total n = 190). Based on four hatchery tank experiments, we found that five swarming events (larval releases) were characterized by a single maternal and multiple paternal contributions, and that the number of contributing parents varied greatly both among individual tanks, and between swarming events within tank. On average, the effective number of breeders was only one third of the actual broodstock size. Although the broodstock exhibited high genetic variation, the high reproductive skew resulted in produced seed representing only a relatively small subset of this variation. The work demonstrates potential impact of hatchery reared offspring on decreasing genetic diversity in wild populations, but also that genetic monitoring can be integrated in conservation programs to minimize negative effects on restoration and supplementary restocking programs that utilize hatchery reared spats to support natural populations.

opencc-zeroJul 2022View details →

Elevated temperature increases reproductive investment in less preferred mates in the invasive European corn borer moth

Rapidly changing environments may weaken sexual selection and lead to indiscriminate mating by interfering with the reception of mating signals or by increasing the costs associated with mate choice. If temperature alters sexual selection, it may impact population response and adaptation to climate change. Here, we examine how differences in temperature of the mating environment influence reproductive investment in the European corn borer moth (Ostrinia nubilalis). Mate preference in this species is known to be related to pheromone usage, with assortative mating occurring between genetically distinct E- and Z-strains that differ in the composition of female and male pheromones. We compared egg production within and between corn borer lines derived from four different populations that vary in pheromone composition and other traits. Pairs of adults were placed in a mating environment that matched the pupal environment (ambient temperature) or at elevated temperature (5ºC above the pupal environment). At ambient temperature, we found that within-line pairs produced eggs sooner and produced more egg clusters than between-line pairs. However, at elevated temperature, between-line pairs produced the same number of egg clusters as within-line pairs. These results suggest that elevated temperature increased investment in matings with typically less preferred, between-line mates. This increased investment could result in changes in gene flow among corn borer populations in warming environments.

opencc-zeroJul 2022View details →

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.

opencc-zeroAug 2022View details →

Data from: Pervasive introgression during rapid diversification of the European mountain genus Soldanella (L.) (Primulaceae)

Hybridization is a key mechanism involved in lineage diversification and speciation, especially in ecosystems that experienced repeated environmental oscillations. Recently radiated plant groups, which have evolved in mountain ecosystems impacted by historical climate change provide an excellent model system for studying the impact of gene flow on speciation. We combined organellar (whole plastome) and nuclear genomic data (RAD-seq) with a cytogenetic approach (rDNA FISH) to investigate the effects of hybridization and introgression on evolution and speciation in the genus Soldanella (snowbells, Primulaceae). Pervasive introgression has already occurred among ancestral lineages of snowbells and has persisted throughout the entire evolutionary history of the genus, regardless of the ecology, cytotype, or distribution range size of the affected species. The highest extent of introgression has been detected in the Carpathian species, which is also reflected in their extensive karyotype variation. Introgression occurred even between species with dysploid and euploid cytotypes, which were considered to be reproductively isolated. The magnitude of introgression detected in snowbells is unprecedented in other mountain genera of the European Alpine System investigated hitherto. Our study stresses the prominent evolutionary role of hybridization in facilitating speciation and diversification on the one hand, but also enriching previously isolated genetic pools.

opencc-zeroAug 2022View details →

Genetic response to human‐induced habitat changes in the marine environment: A century of evolution of European sprat in Landvikvannet, Norway

Habitat changes represent one of the five most pervasive threats to biodiversity. However, anthropogenic activities also have the capacity to create novel niche spaces to which species respond differently. In 1880, one such habitat alterations occurred in Landvikvannet, a freshwater lake on the Norwegian coast of Skagerrak, which became brackish after being artificially connected to the sea. This lake is now home to the European sprat, a pelagic marine fish that managed to develop a self-recruiting population in barely few decades. Landvikvannet sprat proved to be genetically isolated from the three main populations described for this species; i.e. Norwegian fjords, Baltic Sea, and the combination of North Sea, Kattegat and Skagerrak. This distinctness was depicted by an accuracy self-assignment of 89% and a highly significant FST between the lake sprat and each of the remaining samples (average of ≈0.105). The correlation between genetic and environmental variation indicated that salinity could be an important environmental driver of selection (3.3% of the 91 SNPs showed strong associations). Likewise, Isolation by Environment was detected for salinity, although not for temperature, in samples not adhering to an Isolation by Distance pattern. Neighbour-joining tree analysis suggested that the source of the lake sprat is in the Norwegian fjords, rather than in the Baltic Sea despite a similar salinity profile. Strongly drifted allele frequencies and lower genetic diversity in Landvikvannet compared with the Norwegian fjords concur with a founder effect potentially associated with local adaptation to low salinity. Genetic differentiation (FST) between marine and brackish sprat is larger in the comparison Norway- Landvikvannet than in Norway-Baltic, which suggests that the observed divergence was achieved in Landvikvannet in some 65 generations, i.e., 132 years, rather than gradually over thousands of years (the age of the Baltic Sea), thus highlighting the pace at which human-driven evolution can happen.

opencc-zeroDec 2021View details →

Influence of multiple predators decreases body condition and fecundity of European hares

We assessed the hypothesised negative correlation between the influence of multiple predators and body condition and fecundity of the European hare, from 13 areas in the Netherlands. Year-round abundance of predators was estimated by hunters. We quantified predator influence as the sum of their field metabolic rates, as this sum reflects the daily food requirements of multiple individuals. We determined the ratio between body mass and hindfoot length of hares as an index of body condition, and the weight of their adrenal gland as a measure of chronic exposure to stress, and we counted the number of placental scars to estimate the fecundity of hares. As hypothesised, we found that the sum of field metabolic rate of predators was negatively correlated with body condition and the number of placental scars, whereas it was positively related to the weight of the adrenal glands. In contrast to the sum of the field metabolic rate, the total number of predators did not affect the investigated risk responses. The sum of the field metabolic rate can be a useful proxy for the influence of multiple predators and takes into account predator abundance, type, body weight, and food requirements of multiple predators. With our findings, our paper contributes to a better understanding of the risk effects of multiple predators on prey fitness. Additionally, we identify a potential contributor to the decline of European hare populations.

opencc-zeroAug 2022View details →

Diaspore traits specialized to animal adhesion and sea current dispersal are positively associated with the naturalization of European plants across the World

Understanding what drives non-native species naturalization (the establishment of a self-sustainable population outside its native range) is a central question in invasion science. Plants' capacity for long distance dispersal (LDD) is likely to influence the spread and naturalization of non-native species differently according to their introduction pathways. These pathways include intentional introductions (for economic use, e.g. for agriculture), unintentional introductions (e.g. seed contaminants), plant dispersal via human infrastructures (e.g. roads), and plant spread from an adjacent region where the species was previously introduced. Herein, we tested the relationship between sets of LDD traits (syndromes) of 10,308 European plant species and their global naturalization incidence (i.e. whether a species has become naturalized or not) and extent (i.e. the number of regions where a species has become naturalized) using the most comprehensive database of naturalized plants worldwide (GloNAF). Diaspore traits allowed the identification of four traditional LDD syndromes, namely those with specializations for dispersal by: wind (anemochorous), animal ingestion (endozoochorous), attached to animals (epizoochorous), and sea currents (thalassochorous). These evolutionary specializations have been historically interpreted by biologists even though actual dispersal is not always related to diaspore syndromes. We found that while epizoochorous and thalassochorous traits are positively associated with global plant naturalization incidence, anemochorous and endozoochorous traits show a negative relationship. Species´ residence time outside their native range, their economic use and presence of epizoochorous traits (such as hooks, hairs and adhesive substances) are positively associated with global naturalization extent. Furthermore, we found that plants' economic use reduces the influence of LDD syndromes on the naturalization incidence of intentionally introduced plants. While the success of non-native plants is influenced by a broad array of species- and context-specific factors, LDD syndromes play an important role in this context depending on the economic use of plants.

opencc-by-4.0Sep 2022View details →

Researchers and Their Experimental Models: A Pilot Survey in the Context of the European Union Health and Life Science Research

A significant debate is ongoing on the effectiveness of animal experimentation, due to the increasing reports of failure in the translation of results from preclinical animal experiments to human patients. Scientific, ethical, social and economic considerations linked to the use of animals raise concerns in a variety of societal contributors (regulators, policy makers, non-governmental organisations, industry, etc.). The aim of this study was to record researchers’ voices about their vision on this science evolution, to reconstruct as truthful as possible an image of the reality of health and life science research, by using a key instrument in the hands of the researcher: the experimental models. Hence, we surveyed European-based health and life sciences researchers, to reconstruct and decipher the varying orientations and opinions of this community over these large transformations. In the interest of advancing the public debate and more accurately guide the policy of research, it is important that policy makers, society, scientists and all stakeholders (1) mature as comprehensive as possible an understanding of the researchers’ perspectives on the selection and establishment of the experimental models, and (2) that researchers publicly share the research community opinions regarding the external factors influencing their professional work. Our results highlighted a general homogeneity of answers from the 117 respondents. However, some discrepancies on specific key issues and topics were registered in the subgroups. These recorded divergent views might prove useful to policy makers and regulators to calibrate their agenda and shape the future of the European health and life science research. Overall, the results of this pilot study highlight the need of a continuous, open and broad discussion between researchers and science policy stakeholders.

opencc-by-4.0Feb 2021View details →

European forest disturbance map

Description This repository holds maps of annual forest disturbances across 35 European countries derived from Landsat satellite data. The disturbance maps currently cover the time period 1986-2020 and are accompanied by a map of disturbance severity (for the moment only until 2016) and a forest mask. The methodological details are explained in Senf and Seidl 2021 (see reference blow). The maps are available per country as geoTIFF. The spatial reference system is EPSG 3035 (ETRS89 / LAEA Europe). The most current version is 1.1.2. The maps will be updated regularly. <a href="https://corneliussenf.users.earthengine.app/view/european-disturbance-map">The maps can also be explored online</a>. Citation Please cite the dataset including version number and following paper when using the maps: Senf, C. and Seidl, R. (2021) Mapping the forest disturbance regimes of Europe. Nature Sustainability. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00609-y">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00609-y</a> Version history <ul> <li>1.0.0 - Initial version, covering 2016-1986 and including a forest mask and an estimate of disturbance severity.</li> <li>1.1.0 - Map update until 2020 using same methods as in version 1.0.0. Not accompanied by disturbance severity.</li> <li>1.1.1 - Added disturbance maps for Andorra, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.</li> <li>1.1.2 - Added disturbance severity to version.</li> <li>1.1.3 - Improved file structure for easier download.</li> <li>1.1.4 - Fixed wrong/missing forest masks.</li> </ul> Known issues <ul> <li>Some SLC-off artefacts visible in northern Serbia (both version 1.0.0 and 1.1.0).</li> <li>Known false disturbances mapped in Norway in 2020 in version 1.1.0.</li> <li>Missing disturbances from 1986 in Andorra and Liechtenstein. (version 1.1.1).</li> </ul>