Find research datasets worth reusing

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2024View details →

Climatic Data Analysis Years 2019, 2020, 2021

<ul> <li> Climatic Data Analysis:   Years 2019-2020-2021, naming convention of the Excels organized by month (English):   “Month”_”Year”_T_HR_V  </li> <li>The data structure is:   1st Column Sampling Time (h) - 2nd Temperature (ºC) - 3rd Relative Humidity (%) - 4th Wind Speed (m/s)</li> </ul>

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2024View details →

Data for "Nonlinear and non-monotonic effect of ocean tidal mixing on exoplanet climates and habitability"

Dataset analysed in order to obtain the results published in "Nonlinear and non-monotonic effect of ocean tidal mixing on exoplanet climates and habitability": <ul> <li>IGCM_data: atmospheric data obtained by using the flux programme on the outcome of the standard FORTE2.0 climate simulations (instellation = 1.00 insolation)</li> <li>MOMA_standard_runs: oceaninc data of the standard FORTE2.0 climate simulations (instellation = 1.00 insolation)</li> <li>MOMA_reduced_runs: oceaninc data of the reduced FORTE2.0 climate simulations (instellation = 0.90, 0.85, 0.80 insolation)</li> </ul> The FORTE2.0 code, compilation instructions and example run scripts, together with all necessary ancillary files, are accessible at <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4108373">doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4108373</a> (<a href="https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/14/275/2021/#bib1.bibx6">Blaker et al.</a>, <a href="https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/14/275/2021/#bib1.bibx6">2020</a>).

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2024View details →

Supporting Data for "The Vertical Structure of Tropical Temperature Change in Global Storm-Resolving Model Simulations of Climate Change"

Code and netcdf files of processed X-SHiELD and CMIP6 simulations to reproduce the figures of the revised submission of Timothy M. Merlis, Ilai Guendelman, Kai-Yuan Cheng, Lucas Harris, Yan-Ting Chen, Christopher S. Bretherton, Maximilien Bolot, Linjiong Zhou, Alex Kaltenbaugh, Spencer K. Clark, and Stephan Fueglistaler (2024): "The Vertical Structure of Tropical Temperature Change in Global Storm-Resolving Model Simulations of Climate Change".

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2024View details →

Data for Article "Climate change activity in small and medium-sized Polish towns"

Research Data for Article "Climate change activity in small and medium-sized Polish towns" ZIP file contains: - spreadsheet with anonymised survey data - 10 text files with anonymised interviews with research subjects. The interviews have been edited for clarity (technical parts with no connection to the research have been omitted). The interviews and surveys have been uploaded in the original language.

Data from: Less favorable climates constrain demographic strategies in plants

Correlative species distribution models are based on the observed relationship between species' occurrence and macroclimate or other environmental variables. In climates predicted less favourable populations are expected to decline, and in favourable climates they are expected to persist. However, little comparative empirical support exists for a relationship between predicted climate suitability and population performance. We found that the performance of 93 populations of 34 plant species worldwide – as measured by in situ population growth rate, its temporal variation and extinction risk – was not correlated with climate suitability. However, correlations of demographic processes underpinning population performance with climate suitability indicated both resistance and vulnerability pathways of population responses to climate: in less suitable climates, plants experienced greater retrogression (resistance pathway) and greater variability in some demographic rates (vulnerability pathway). While a range of demographic strategies occur within species' climatic niches, demographic strategies are more constrained in climates predicted to be less suitable.

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

Data from: Two-thirds of global cropland area impacted by climate oscillations

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) peaked strongly during the boreal winter 2015-2016, leading to food insecurity in many parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Besides ENSO, the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) are known to impact crop yields worldwide. Here, we assess for the first time in a unified framework the relationship between ENSO, IOD and NAO and simulated crop productivity at the sub-country scale. Our findings reveal that during 1961–2010, crop productivity is significantly influenced by at least one large-scale climate oscillation in two-thirds of global cropland area. Besides observing new possible links – especially for NAO in Africa and the Middle East, our analyses confirm several known relationships between crop productivity and these oscillations. Our results improve the understanding of climatological crop productivity drivers, which is essential for enhancing food security in many of the most vulnerable places on the planet.

Data from: Microhabitat and climatic niche change explain patterns of diversification among frog families

A major goal of ecology and evolutionary biology is to explain patterns of species richness among clades. Differences in rates of net diversification (speciation minus extinction over time) may often explain these patterns, but the factors that drive variation in diversification rates remain uncertain. Three important candidates are climatic niche position (e.g., whether clades are primarily temperate or tropical), rates of climatic niche change among species within clades, and microhabitat (e.g., aquatic, terrestrial, arboreal). The first two factors have been tested separately in several studies, but the relative importance of all three is largely unknown. Here we explore the correlates of diversification among families of frogs, which collectively represent ∼88% of amphibian species. We assemble and analyze data on phylogeny, climate, and microhabitat for thousands of species. We find that the best-fitting phylogenetic multiple regression model includes all three types of variables: microhabitat, rates of climatic niche change, and climatic niche position. This model explains 67% of the variation in diversification rates among frog families, with arboreal microhabitat explaining ∼31%, niche rates ∼25%, and climatic niche position ∼11%. Surprisingly, we show that microhabitat can have a much stronger influence on diversification than climatic niche position or rates of climatic niche change.

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

Data from: Regional climate and local-scale biotic acceptance explain native-exotic diversity relationships in Australian annual plant communities

Native and exotic species richness is expected to be negatively related at small spatial scales where individuals interact, and positive at larger spatial scales as a greater variety of habitats are sampled. However, a range of native-exotic richness relationships (NERRs) have been reported, including positive at small scales and negative at larger scales. We present a hierarchical metacommunity framework to explain how contrasting NERRs may emerge across scales and study systems, and then apply this framework to NERRs in an invaded winter annual plant system in south-west Western Australia. We analysed NERRs at increasing spatial scales from neighbourhoods (0.09 m2) to communities (225 m2) to metacommunities (>10 ha) within a multi-level structural equation model. In contrast to many previous studies, native and exotic richness were positively related at the neighbourhood scale and were not significantly associated at larger scales. Heterogeneity in soil surface properties was weakly, but positively, associated with native and exotic richness at the community-scale. Metacommunity exotic richness increased strongly with regional temperature and moisture availability, but relationships for native richness were negative and much weaker. Thus, we show that neutral NERRs can emerge at larger scales due to differential climatic filtering of native and exotic species pools.

Data from: How bird clades diversify in response to climatic and geographic factors

While the environmental correlates of global patterns in standing species richness are well understood, it is poorly known which environmental factors promote diversification (speciation minus extinction) in clades. We tested several hypotheses for how geographic and climatic variables should affect diversification using a large dataset of bird sister genera endemic to the New World. We found support for the area, evolutionary speed, environmental predictability and climatic stability hypotheses, but productivity and topographic complexity were rejected as explanations. Genera that had accumulated more species tend to occupy wider niche space, manifested both as occurrence over wider areas and in more habitats. Genera with geographic ranges that have remained more stable in response to glacial-interglacial changes in climate were also more species rich. Since many relevant explanatory variables vary latitudinally, it is crucial to control for latitude when testing alternative mechanistic explanations for geographic variation in diversification among clades.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: Is there any evidence for rapid, genetically-based, climatic niche expansion in the invasive common ragweed?

Climatic niche shifts have been documented in a number of invasive species by comparing the native and adventive climatic ranges in which they occur. However, these shifts likely represent changes in the realized climatic niches of invasive species, and may not necessarily be driven by genetic changes in climatic affinities. Until now the role of rapid niche evolution in the spread of invasive species remains a challenging issue with conflicting results. Here, we document a likely genetically-based climatic niche expansion of an annual plant invader, the common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.), a highly allergenic invasive species causing substantial public health issues. To do so, we looked for recent evolutionary change at the upward migration front of its adventive range in the French Alps. Based on species climatic niche models estimated at both global and regional scales we stratified our sampling design to adequately capture the species niche, and localized populations suspected of niche expansion. Using a combination of species niche modeling, landscape genetics models and common garden measurements, we then related the species genetic structure and its phenotypic architecture across the climatic niche. Our results strongly suggest that the common ragweed is rapidly adapting to local climatic conditions at its invasion front and that it currently expands its niche toward colder and formerly unsuitable climates in the French Alps (i.e. in sites where niche models would not predict its occurrence). Such results, showing that species climatic niches can evolve on very short time scales, have important implications for predictive models of biological invasions that do not account for evolutionary processes.

Data from: Climate and competition effects on tree growth in Rocky Mountain forests

1. Climate is widely assumed to influence physiological and demographic processes in trees, and hence forest composition, biomass and range limits. Growth in trees is an important barometer of climate change impacts on forests as growth is highly correlated with other demographic processes including tree mortality and fecundity. 2. We investigated the main drivers of diameter growth for five common tree species occurring in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States using non-linear regression methods. We quantified growth at the individual tree level from tree core samples collected across broad environmental gradients. We estimated the effects of both climate variation and biotic interactions on growth processes and tested for evidence that disjunct populations of a species respond differentially to climate. 3. Relationships between tree growth and climate varied by species and location. Growth in all species responded positively to increases in annual moisture up to a threshold level. Modest linear responses to temperature, both positive and negative, were observed at many sites. However, model results also revealed evidence for differentiated responses to local site conditions in all species. In severe environments in particular, growth responses varied non-linearly with temperature. For example, in northerly cold locations pronounced positive growth responses to increasing temperatures were observed. In warmer southerly climates, growth responses were unimodal, declining markedly above a threshold temperature level. 4. Net effects from biotic interactions on diameter growth were negative for all study species. Evidence for facilitative effects was not detected. For some species, competitive effects more strongly influenced growth performance than climate. Competitive interactions also modified growth responses to climate to some degree. 6. Synthesis. These analyses suggest that climate change will have complex, species specific effects on tree growth in the Rocky Mountains due to non-linear responses to climate, differentiated growth processes that vary by location and complex species interactions that impact growth and potentially modify responses to climate. Thus, robust model simulations of future growth responses to climate trends may need to integrate realistic scenarios of neighborhood effects as well as variability in tree performance attributed to differentiated populations.

opencc-zeroDec 2013View details →

Data from: Macroevolutionary consequences of profound climate change on niche evolution in marine mollusks over the past three million years

In order to predict the fate of biodiversity in a rapidly changing world, we must first understand how species adapt to new environmental conditions. The long-term evolutionary dynamics of species' physiological tolerances to differing climatic regimes remain obscure. Here, we unite palaeontological and neontological data to analyse whether species' environmental tolerances remain stable across 3 Myr of profound climatic changes using 10 phylogenetically, ecologically and developmentally diverse mollusc species from the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains, USA. We additionally investigate whether these species' upper and lower thermal tolerances are constrained across this interval. We find that these species' environmental preferences are stable across the duration of their lifetimes, even when faced with significant environmental perturbations. The results suggest that species will respond to current and future warming either by altering distributions to track suitable habitat or, if the pace of change is too rapid, by going extinct. Our findings also support methods that project species' present-day environmental requirements to future climatic landscapes to assess conservation risks.

opencc-zeroJul 2019View details →

Data from: Evolutionary potential of a widespread clonal grass under changing climate

Adaptive responses are probably the most effective long-term responses of populations to climate change, but they require sufficient evolutionary potential upon which selection can act. This requires high genetic variance for the traits under selection, and low antagonizing genetic covariances between the different traits. Evolutionary potential estimates are still scarce for long-lived, clonal plants, although these species are predicted to dominate the landscape with climate change. We studied the evolutionary potential of a perennial grass, Festuca rubra, in western Norway, in two controlled environments corresponding to extreme environments in natural populations: cold-dry and warm-wet, the latter being consistent with the climatic predictions for the country. We estimated genetic variances, covariances, selection gradients and response to selection for a wide range of growth, resource acquisition and physiological traits, and compared their estimates between the environments. We showed that the evolutionary potential of F. rubra is high in both environments, and genetic covariances define one main direction along which selection can act with relatively few constraints to selection. The observed response to selection at present is not sufficient to produce genotypes adapted to the predicted climate change under a simple, space for time substitution model. However, the current populations contain genotypes which are pre-adapted to the new climate, especially for growth and resource acquisition traits. Overall, these results suggest that the present populations of the long-lived clonal plant may have sufficient evolutionary potential to withstand long-term climate changes through adaptive responses. We studied the evolutionary potential of a perennial grass, Festuca rubra, in western Norway, in two controlled environments corresponding to extreme environments in natural populations: cold-dry and warm-wet, the latter being consistent with the climatic predictions for the country. We estimated genetic variances, covariances, selection gradients and response to selection for a wide range of growth, resource acquisition and physiological traits, and compared their estimates between the environments. We showed that the evolutionary potential of F. rubra is high in both environments, and genetic covariances define one main direction along which selection can act with relatively few constraints to selection. The observed response to selection at present is not sufficient to produce genotypes adapted to the predicted climate change under a simple, space for time substitution model. However, the current populations contain genotypes which are pre-adapted to the new climate, especially for growth and resource acquisition traits. Overall, these results suggest that the present populations of the long-lived clonal plant may have sufficient evolutionary potential to withstand long-term climate changes through adaptive responses.

opencc-zeroDec 2011View details →

Data from: Persistent genetic signatures of historic climatic events in an Antarctic octopus

Repeated cycles of glaciation have had major impacts on the distribution of genetic diversity of the Antarctic marine fauna. During glacial periods, ice cover limited the amount of benthic habitat on the continental shelf. Conversely, more habitat and possibly altered seaways, were available during interglacials when the ice receded and the sea level was higher. We used microsatellites and partial sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase c subunit 1 (MT-CO1) gene to examine genetic structure in the direct-developing, endemic Southern Ocean octopod Pareledone turqueti Joubin, 1905 sampled from a broad range of areas that circumvent the Antarctic continent. We find that, unusually for a species with poor dispersal potential, P. turqueti has a circumpolar distribution and is also found off the islands of South Georgia and Shag Rocks. The overriding pattern of spatial genetic structure can be explained by hydrographic (with ocean currents both facilitating and hindering gene flow) and bathymetric features. The Antarctic Peninsula region displays a complex population structure, consistent with its varied topographic and oceanographic influences. Genetic similarities between the Ross and Weddell Seas, however, are interpreted as a persistent historic genetic signature of connectivity during the hypothesized Pleistocene Western Antarctic Ice Sheet collapses. A calibrated molecular clock indicates two major lineages within P. turqueti, a continental lineage and a subAntarctic lineage, that diverged in the mid-Pliocene with no subsequent gene flow. Both lineages survived subsequent major glacial cycles. Our data are indicative of potential refugia around the Antarctic continent within the Ross Sea, Weddell Sea and off Adélie Land, with mean age of mtDNA diversity within these main continental lineages coinciding with Pleistocene glacial cycles.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: Do ecological niche models accurately identify climatic determinants of species ranges?

Defining species' niches is central to understanding their distributions and is thus fundamental to basic ecology and climate change projections. Ecological niche models (ENMs) are a key component of making accurate projections and include descriptions of the niche in terms of both response curves and rankings of variable importance. In this study, we evaluate Maxent's ranking of environmental variables based on their importance in delimiting species' range boundaries by asking whether these same variables also govern annual recruitment based on long-term demographic studies. We found that Maxent-based assessments of variable importance in setting range boundaries in the California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense; CTS) correlate very well with how important those variables are in governing ongoing recruitment of CTS at the population level. This strong correlation suggests that Maxent's ranking of variable importance captures biologically realistic assessments of factors governing population persistence. However, this result holds only when Maxent models are built using best-practice procedures and variables are ranked based on permutation importance. Our study highlights the need for building high-quality niche models and provides encouraging evidence that when such models are built, they can reflect important aspects of a species' ecology.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: Small-mammal isotope ecology tracks climate and vegetation gradients across western North America

Stable carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen isotopes have been used to infer aspects of species ecology and environment in both modern ecosystems and the fossil record. Compared to large mammals, stable isotopic studies of small-mammal ecology are limited; however, high species and ecological diversity within small mammals presents several advantages for quantifying resource use and organism–environment interactions using stable isotopes over various spatial and temporal scales. We analyzed the isotopic composition of hair from two heteromyid rodent species, Dipodomys ordii and Perognathus parvus, from localities across western North America in order to characterize dietary variation in relation to vegetation and climatic gradients. Significant correlations between the carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) of these species and several climatic variables imply that seasonal temperature and precipitation control the composition and distribution of dietary resources (grass seeds). Our results also suggest a moisture influence on the nitrogen isotopic composition (δ15N) of heteromyid diets. Population- and species-level variation in δ13C and δ15N values record fine-scale habitat heterogeneity and significant differences in resource use between species. Using classification and regression-tree techniques, we modeled the geographic variation in heteromyid δ13Cdiet values based on 10 climatic variables and generated an isotope landscape model ('isoscape'). The isoscape predictions for δ13Cdiet differ from expectations based on observed C4 distributions and instead indicate that D. ordii and P. parvus record seasonally abundant grass resources, with additional model deviations potentially attributed to geographic variation in dietary selection. The oxygen and hydrogen isotopic composition of D. ordii is enriched relative to local meteoric water and suggests that individuals rely on highly evaporated water sources, such as seed moisture. Based on the climatic influences on vegetation and diet documented in this study, the isotopic composition of small mammals has high potential for recording ecological responses to environmental changes over short and long time scales.

opencc-zeroMay 2020View details →

Data from: Nonnative old-field species inhabit early-season phenological niches and exhibit unique sensitivity to climate

Native and nonnative plant species can exhibit differences in the timing of their reproductive phenology as well as their phenological sensitivity to climate. These contrasts may influence species' interactions and the invasion potential of nonnative species; however, a limited number of phenology studies expressly consider phenological mismatches among native and nonnative species over broad spatial or temporal scales. To fill this knowledge gap, we used two complementary approaches: first, we quantified the flowering phenology of native and nonnative plants at five old-field sites across a spatially extensive range of eastern North America. Second, we used herbarium records to compare the sensitivity of flowering and fruiting phenology to climate across a 114-year time period in a subset of common old field species in southwestern Pennsylvania. Across the study region, nonnatives reproduced substantially earlier in the growing season than natives, suggesting that nonnatives occupy a unique phenological niche (0.55 months earlier flowering across the North American study sites; 50.1 days earlier flowering and 17.5 days earlier fruiting in southwestern Pennsylvania). Both natives and nonnatives advanced their reproductive phenology between 1900 to 2014 but exhibited contrasting phenological sensitivity to climate factors. During the flowering stage of phenology, nonnatives were more sensitive to changes in precipitation than natives and generally delayed flowering in wetter years. Nonnative plants had greater sensitivity and advanced fruiting when the month preceding fruiting was warmer while native plants had greater sensitivity and advanced fruiting when the three-month period preceding fruiting was warmer. Our findings suggest that nonnative old-field species occupy an earlier phenological niche relative to native species, which may facilitate their invasion into old-field communities. However, given the different sensitivities of native and nonnative plants to climate factors, present-day patterns of phenology are likely to shift with future climate changes, potentially leading to novel species interactions that may influence the outcomes of invasion.

Data from: Interacting effects of wildlife loss and climate on ticks and tick-borne disease

Both large-wildlife loss and climatic changes can independently influence the prevalence and distribution of zoonotic disease. Given growing evidence that wildlife loss often has stronger community-level effects in low-productivity areas, we hypothesized that these perturbations would have interactive effects on disease risk. We experimentally tested this hypothesis by measuring tick abundance and the prevalence of tick-borne pathogens (Coxiella burnetii and Rickettsia spp.) within long-term, size-selective, large-herbivore exclosures replicated across a precipitation gradient in East Africa. Total wildlife exclusion increased total tick abundance by 130% (mesic sites) to 225% (dry, low-productivity sites), demonstrating a significant interaction of defaunation and aridity on tick abundance. When differing degrees of exclusion were tested for a subset of months, total tick abundance increased from 170% (only mega-herbivores excluded) to 360% (all large wildlife excluded). Wildlife exclusion differentially affected the abundance of the three dominant tick species, and this effect varied strongly over time, likely due to differences among species in their host associations, seasonality, and other ecological characteristics. Pathogen prevalence did not differ across wildlife exclusion treatments, rainfall levels, or tick species, suggesting that exposure risk will respond to defaunation and climate change in proportion to total tick abundance. These findings demonstrate interacting effects of defaunation and aridity that increase disease risk, and they highlight the need to incorporate ecological context when predicting effects of wildlife loss on zoonotic disease dynamics.

opencc-zeroDec 2018View details →

Data from: Response of net primary production to land use and climate changes in the middle-reaches of the Heihe River basin

Net primary production (NPP) supplies matter, energy, and services to facilitate the sustainable development of human society and ecosystem. The response mechanism of NPP to land use and climate changes is essential for food security and biodiversity conservation but lacks a comprehensive understanding, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. To this end, taking the middle-reaches of the Heihe River basin (MHRB) as an example, we uncovered the NPP responses to land use and climate changes by integrating multi-source data (e.g., MOD17A3 NPP, land use, temperature, and precipitation) and multiple methods. The results showed that: (1) land use intensity (LUI) increasing, and climate warming and wetting promoted NPP. From 2000 to 2014, the LUI, temperature and precipitation of MHRB increased by 1.46, 0.58 °C and 15.76 mm, respectively, resulting in an increase of 14.62 gC/m2 in annual average NPP. (2) The conversion of low-yield cropland to forest and grassland increased NPP. Although the widespread conversion of unused land and grassland to cropland boosted both LUI and NPP, it was not conducive to ecosystem sustainability and stability due to huge water consumption and human-appropriated NPP. Urban sprawl occupied cropland, forest and grassland, and reduced NPP. (3) Increase in temperature and precipitation generally improved NPP. The temperature decreasing less than 1.2 °C also promoted the NPP of hardy vegetation due to the simultaneous precipitation increasing. However, warming-induced water stress compromised the NPP in arid sparse grassland and deserts. Cropland had greater NPP and NPP increase than natural vegetation due to the irrigation, fertilizers and other artificial inputs it received. Decrease in both temperature and precipitation generally reduced NPP, but the NPP in the well-protection or less-disturbance areas still increased slightly.