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opencc-zeroJan 2022View details →

Data from: Insect visual sensitivity to long wavelengths enhances colour contrast against vegetation

The sensitivity of animal photoreceptors to different wavelengths of light strongly influence the perceived visual contrast of objects in the environment. Outside of the human visual wavelength range, ultraviolet sensitivity in many species provides important and behaviourally relevant visual contrast between objects. However, at the opposite end of the spectrum, the potential advantage of red sensitivity remains unclear. We investigated the potential benefit of long wavelength sensitivity by modelling the visual contrast of a wide range of jewel beetle colours against flowers and leaves of their host plants to hypothetical insect visual systems. We find that the presence of a long wavelength sensitive photoreceptor increases estimated colour contrast, particularly of beetles against leaves. Moreover, under our model parameters, a trichromatic visual system with ultraviolet (λmax = 355 nm), short (λmax = 445 nm) and long (λmax = 600 nm) wavelength photoreceptors performed as well as a tetrachromatic visual system, which had an additional medium wavelength photoreceptor (λmax = 530 nm). When we varied λmax for the long wavelength sensitive receptor in a tetrachromatic system, contrast values between beetles, flowers and leaves were all enhanced with increasing λmax from 580 nm to at least 640 nm. These results suggest a potential advantage of red sensitivity in visual discrimination of insect colours against vegetation and highlight the potential adaptive value of long wavelength sensitivity in insects.

opencc-by-4.0Jan 2022View details →

Saltmarsh Vegetation Alters the Tidal Hydrodynamics of Small Estuaries

The Delft3D modelling suite is used to investigate the impact of saltmarsh vegetation on tidal dynamics and residual currents in three distinctly different estuaries in Wales, UK, in order to understand the impacts of marsh vegetation on wider estuarine hydrodynamics. The three estuaries, Mawddach, Taf and Loughor, vary in size, tidal range, exposure, and saltmarsh coverage. Tidal constituents and residual currents were calculated using a year-long simulation of tidal dynamics.

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

Submerged aquatic vegetation, water quality (pH, salinity, and turbidity) and waterfowl abundance data from 1991-2017 in Back Bay, Virginia

Back Bay, Virginia, has been documented as an important foraging area for waterfowl since at least the mid-1800s. Expansive submerged plant beds historically supported diverse assemblages of non-breeding waterfowl, however coastal development and other anthropogenic influences have since led to fluctuations in submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) and an associated decline in waterfowl abundance in the bay. To gain insight into the effects of environmental drivers on waterfowl foraging guilds, our study explores the effects of SAV frequency and water quality on the abundance of dabbling ducks, diving ducks, and swans and geese in Back Bay. We use 8 years of SAV, water quality, and waterfowl monitoring data collected by state and federal agencies to model the effects of salinity, turbidity, pH, and percent frequency of SAV on the relative abundance of waterfowl by foraging guild in Back Bay. The appropriateness of the data and reasonability of the preliminary results were then evaluated through semi-structured interviews with 11 local informants representing state, federal, and non-governmental organizations. Quantitative results indicated that dabbling ducks are affected differently than other guilds by water quality and percent frequency of SAV. Thematic analysis of the interview data revealed a number of potential explanations for the model results, as well as highlighted areas of uncertainty in need of further research. In a test of face validity, participants demonstrated a significant degree of belief in turbidity, salinity, and SAV as drivers of waterfowl abundance, but were not convinced by the potential effects of pH as demonstrated by the model. This mixed methods study provides insights that could potentially influence the management and conservation of non-breeding waterfowl populations by challenging the assumption that particular environmental conditions serve all foraging groups equally.

opencc-by-4.0Jan 2022View details →

The benefits of coastal adaptation through conservation of foreshore vegetation Supplementary data

This data consists of the first global scale assessment of the benefits of conserving foreshore vegetation as a means of adaptation to future projections of change in coastal flood risk. In doing so, we extend the current knowledge on the economic feasibility of implementing global scale Nature-based Solutions. We show that globally foreshore vegetation can contribute to a large decrease in both absolute and relative flood risk (13% of present-day, and 8.5% of future conditions in 2080 of global flood risk). Although the analysis of the results give a first proxy of the flood risk reduction benefits of conserving foreshore vegetation at the global scale, it shows promising results for including nature-based and hybrid adaptation measures in coastal adaptation schemes.

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

Removing understory vegetation in oil palm agroforestry reduces ground-foraging ant abundance but not species richness

Ants are known to provide valuable ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes, including oil palm plantations. Their communities are less diverse and more uneven in oil palm compared with forest, and this may increase their vulnerability to disturbance. This study quantifies ant communities in oil palm agroforestry and experimentally tests their robustness to a common-practice high-disturbance management intervention: removing understory vegetation. Fieldwork was based at the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function in Tropical Agriculture (BEFTA) Understory Vegetation Project in Sumatra, Indonesia, where three treatments varying in their degree of understory vegetation management were established in 2014: (1) widespread herbicide was applied removing all understory vegetation (Reduced); (2) herbicide was applied to the harvesting paths and circles, and other vegetation was allowed to grow (Normal – control); (3) no herbicide was applied (Enhanced). We measured ground-foraging ant communities before and after the treatments were implemented, using pitfall traps over 324 trap-nights (a trap-night is one trap set for one night). We investigated how ant abundance, species richness, species evenness, beta diversity, and community composition differed between the treatments. We found 3507 ants across 68 species or morphospecies. Seven of these were highly abundant and accounted for 78% of individuals. Post-treatment ant abundance was lower in the reduced treatment (mean per plot: 84) than in the normal (159) and enhanced (131) treatments, which did not differ from each other. Species richness, species evenness, beta diversity and community composition were not affected by the vegetation treatments. We recommend that oil palm growers maintain understory vegetation in oil palm plantations to support ground-foraging ants. Though not tested here, this may also improve ant-mediated ecosystem services, such as pest control, seed dispersal, nutrient redistribution, and the maintenance of soil health. This study demonstrates that enhancing habitat complexity through management practices can support biodiversity in monocrop landscapes.

FIGURE. Genuine oromediterranean, high mountain vegetation, characterized by Juniperus sabina and Juniperus communis subsp. hemisphaerica with scattered Abies pinsapo above 1,800 m on the northern summit of La Torrecilla, Rondeño sector. (Photo authors). in Vascular flora of the Sierra de las Nieves National Park and its surroundings (Andalusia, Spain)

FIGURE. Genuine oromediterranean, high mountain vegetation, characterized by Juniperus sabina and Juniperus communis subsp. hemisphaerica with scattered Abies pinsapo above 1,800 m on the northern summit of La Torrecilla, Rondeño sector. (Photo authors).

FIGURE. Hyper-xeric, dolomitic supramediterranean vegetation, dominated by Juniperus phoenicea on the southern face of Sierra de Tolox in the Rondeño sector. (Photo authors). in Vascular flora of the Sierra de las Nieves National Park and its surroundings (Andalusia, Spain)

FIGURE. Hyper-xeric, dolomitic supramediterranean vegetation, dominated by Juniperus phoenicea on the southern face of Sierra de Tolox in the Rondeño sector. (Photo authors).

FIGURE. Serpentine pine forests (Pinus pinaster) accompanied by Erica scoparia and Quercus coccifera, climax vegetation in the Bermejense sector. (Photo authors). in Vascular flora of the Sierra de las Nieves National Park and its surroundings (Andalusia, Spain)

FIGURE. Serpentine pine forests (Pinus pinaster) accompanied by Erica scoparia and Quercus coccifera, climax vegetation in the Bermejense sector. (Photo authors).

FIGURE. Graminoid vegetation with Festuca elegans in a matrix of spring-flowering Erinacea anthyllis subsp. anthyllis cushion scrub in the upper summits of the Rondeño sector. At the bottom, the peak La Torrecilla (1,918 m). (Photo authors). in Vascular flora of the Sierra de las Nieves National Park and its surroundings (Andalusia, Spain)

FIGURE. Graminoid vegetation with Festuca elegans in a matrix of spring-flowering Erinacea anthyllis subsp. anthyllis cushion scrub in the upper summits of the Rondeño sector. At the bottom, the peak La Torrecilla (1,918 m). (Photo authors).

opennotspecifiedJan 2022View details →

FIGURE. Taphonomic process corresponding to the abundance of different kinds of plant remains in the three layers of "vegetational Pompeii" tuff bed. Single, double and triple repeated icons in different layers indicate rare, moderate and frequent occurrence respectively. Note that the thickness of the tuff bed is scaled but that of the two coal beds is neglected. in Discovery of coprolites in an Early Permian fern mesophyll

FIGURE. Taphonomic process corresponding to the abundance of different kinds of plant remains in the three layers of "vegetational Pompeii" tuff bed. Single, double and triple repeated icons in different layers indicate rare, moderate and frequent occurrence respectively. Note that the thickness of the tuff bed is scaled but that of the two coal beds is neglected.

opennotspecifiedJan 2022View details →

FIGURE. Coprolites preserved in an early Permian fern mesophyll. A, Gross morphology of a fragmentary fern frond, specimen PB23532. B, Basal part of a penultimate pinna showing sphenopteroid vegetative pinnules. C, Polished surface showing two sporangia with typical annulus structures (white arrowheads). D, SEM image showing an in situ trilete spore. E, The fertile pinnule which contains numerous coprolites along a transverse wound area. F, Enlargement showing coprolites filled with brown to black contents. G, SEM image of the same part in E. H, SEM image showing locally preserved epidermal cells and nearby coprolites. in Discovery of coprolites in an Early Permian fern mesophyll

FIGURE. Coprolites preserved in an early Permian fern mesophyll. A, Gross morphology of a fragmentary fern frond, specimen PB23532. B, Basal part of a penultimate pinna showing sphenopteroid vegetative pinnules. C, Polished surface showing two sporangia with typical annulus structures (white arrowheads). D, SEM image showing an in situ trilete spore. E, The fertile pinnule which contains numerous coprolites along a transverse wound area. F, Enlargement showing coprolites filled with brown to black contents. G, SEM image of the same part in E. H, SEM image showing locally preserved epidermal cells and nearby coprolites.

opencc-by-4.0Feb 2022View details →

Simulated dataset of dryland vegetation model

This file contains simulated output from a drylands vegetation model used to produce figs 3, S3, S4 and S6 in the paper "Remotely-sensed slowing down in spatially patterned dryland ecosystems" authored by Michiel P. Veldhuis, Ricardo Martinez-Garcia, Vincent Deblauwe, Robert M. Pringle, Corina E. Tarnita & Vasilis Dakos

opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

Distances, climatic differences, and vegetation similarities of alpine grasslands in Europe

The importance of environmental difference among sites and dispersal limitations of species to the explanation of diversity differs among biological systems and geographical regions. We hypothesized that climate and then dispersal limitation will predominantly explain the similarity of alpine vegetation at increasing distances between pairs of regions at sub-continental extent. We computed the similarity of all pairs of 23 European mountain regions below 50°N after dividing the species lists of each region by calcareous or siliceous substrates. Distance decay in similarity was better fitted by a cubic polynomial than a negative exponential function, and the fit was better on calcareous than on siliceous substrate. Commonality analysis revealed that the proportion of explanation of beta diversity by climatic difference had unimodal patterns on a gradient of increasing distance between regions, while explanation by dispersal limitation had consistently rising patterns on both substrates. On siliceous substrate, dispersal limitation explained more of the variation in beta-diversity only at longer distances, but it was predominant at all distances on calcareous substrate. The steeper response to distance at <1600 km and >2600 km may indicate dispersal limitation at different temporal scales, and the uptick in the response to distance at the longest distances may reflect how isolated some regions have been before and since the Last Glacial Maximum.

opennotspecifiedJan 2009View details →

Distribution. Widespread in the C and W regions of S Africa, reaching to about 15° N in SW Angola. Occupies mainly arid and semi-arid areas, but also occurs in regions with higher precipitation and denser vegetation, such as the fynbos biome of South Africa's Western Cape Province. Cape Foxes have expanded their range over recent decades to the SW, where the species reaches the Atlantic and Indian Ocean coastlines. May occur in SW Swaziland, and possibly also in Lesotho. in Canidae

Distribution. Widespread in the C and W regions of S Africa, reaching to about 15° N in SW Angola. Occupies mainly arid and semi-arid areas, but also occurs in regions with higher precipitation and denser vegetation, such as the fynbos biome of South Africa's Western Cape Province. Cape Foxes have expanded their range over recent decades to the SW, where the species reaches the Atlantic and Indian Ocean coastlines. May occur in SW Swaziland, and possibly also in Lesotho.

opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

Mapping scrub vegetation cover from photogrammetric point-clouds

This dataset is derived from photogrammetric point cloud models of UAV imagery. It includes the Above ground models of vegetation as well as the isolated scrub vegetation. We illustrate the method with two case studies from the UK. The scrub cover at Daneway Banks, a calcareous grassland site in Gloucestershire was calculated at 21.8% of the site. The scrub cover at Flat Holm Island, a maritime grassland in the Severn Estuary was calculated at 7%. This approach enabled the scrub layer to be readily measured and if required, modelled to provide a visual guide of what a projected management objective would look like. This approach provides a new tool in reserve management, enabling habitat management strategies to be informed, and progress towards objectives monitored.

opencc-zeroApr 2022View details →

Data from: High spatiotemporal variability of methane concentrations challenges estimates of emissions across vegetated coastal ecosystems

<div> Coastal methane (CH4) emissions dominate the global ocean CH4 budget and can offset the "blue carbon" storage capacity of vegetated coastal ecosystems. However, current estimates lack systematic, high-resolution, and long-term data from these intrinsically heterogeneous environments, making coastal budgets sensitive to statistical assumptions and uncertainties. Using continuous CH4 concentrations, δ13C-CH4 values, and CH4 sea-air fluxes across four seasons in three globally pervasive coastal habitats, we show that the CH4 distribution is spatially patchy over meter-scales and highly variable in time. Areas with mixed vegetation, macroalgae, and their surrounding sediments exhibited a spatiotemporal variability of surface water CH4 concentrations ranging two orders of magnitude (i.e., 6 – 460 nM CH4) with habitat-specific seasonal and diurnal patterns. We observed (1) δ13C-CH4 signatures that revealed habitat-specific CH4 production and consumption pathways, (2) daily peak concentration events that could change >100% within hours across all habitats, and (3) a high thermal sensitivity of the CH4 distribution signified by apparent activation energies of ∼1 eV that drove seasonal changes. Bootstrapping simulations show that scaling the CH4 distribution from few samples involves large errors, and that ∼50 concentration samples per day are needed to resolve the scale and drivers of the natural variability and improve the certainty of flux calculations by up to 70%. Finally, we identify northern temperate coastal habitats with mixed vegetation and macroalgae as understudied but seasonally relevant atmospheric CH4 sources (i.e., releasing ≥100 μmol CH4 m−2 day−1 in summer). Due to the large spatial and temporal heterogeneity of coastal environments, high-resolution measurements will improve the reliability of CH4 estimates and confine the habitat-specific contribution to regional and global CH4 budgets. </div>

opencc-zeroApr 2022View details →

Data from: Species-area relationships in continuous vegetation: evidence from Palaearctic grasslands

Aim: Species-area relationships (SARs) are fundamental scaling laws in ecology although their shape is still disputed. At larger areas power laws best represent SARs. Yet, it remains unclear whether SARs follow other shapes at finer spatial grains in continuous vegetation. We asked which function describes SARs best at small grains and explored how sampling methodology or the environment influence SAR shape. Location: Palaearctic grasslands and other non-forested habitats. Taxa: Vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens. Methods: We used the GrassPlot database, containing standardised vegetation-plot data from vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens spanning a wide range of grassland types throughout the Palaearctic and including 2057 nested-plot series with at least seven grain sizes ranging from 1 cm2 to 1024 m². Using non-linear regression, we assessed the appropriateness of different SAR functions (power, power quadratic, power breakpoint, logarithmic, Michaelis-Menten). Based on AICc, we tested whether the ranking of functions differed among taxa, methodological settings, biomes or vegetation types. Results: The power function was the most suitable function across the studied taxonomic groups. The superiority of this function increased from lichens to bryophytes to vascular plants to all three taxonomic groups together. The sampling method was highly influential as rooted-presence sampling decreased the performance of the power function. By contrast, biome and vegetation type had practically no influence on the superiority of the power law. Main conclusions: We conclude that SARs of sessile organisms at smaller spatial grains are best approximated by a power function. This coincides with several other comprehensive studies of SARs at different grain sizes and for different taxa, thus supporting the general appropriateness of the power function for modelling species diversity over a wide range of grain sizes. The poor performance of the Michaelis-Menten function demonstrates that richness within plant communities generally does not approach any saturation, thus calling into question the concept of minimal area.

opennotspecifiedMay 2022View details →

FIGURE. Geographical location of the Augusto Ruschi Biological Reserve (ARBR), Santa Teresa, Espírito Santo, Brazil. a the state of Espírito Santo, highlighting the location of the ARBR. b delimitation of the ARBR. c–e ARBR vegetation. (a: prepared by Henrique Lauand Ribeiro, b: adapted from Google Earth Pro, c–e: photos of Gabriel Mendes Marcusso). in Augusto Ruschi Biological Reserve vascular epiphytes: a hotspot in the mountains of the Atlantic Forest of Southeastern Brazil

FIGURE. Geographical location of the Augusto Ruschi Biological Reserve (ARBR), Santa Teresa, Espírito Santo, Brazil. a the state of Espírito Santo, highlighting the location of the ARBR. b delimitation of the ARBR. c–e ARBR vegetation. (a: prepared by Henrique Lauand Ribeiro, b: adapted from Google Earth Pro, c–e: photos of Gabriel Mendes Marcusso).

opencc-zeroMay 2022View details →

Interactions between local and global drivers determine long-term trends in boreal forest understory vegetation

Aim: Global change effects on forest ecosystems are increasingly claimed to be context dependent, indicated by interactions between global and local environmental drivers. Most examples of such context dependencies originate from temperate systems, while limited research comes from the boreal biome. Here we set out to test if interactions between climate warming, nitrogen deposition, land-use change resulting in increasing forest density and soil pH drive long-term changes of understory vegetation in boreal forests. Location: Sweden Time period: 1953-2012 Major taxa studied: Vascular plants Methods: We used long-term (50 years) National Forest Inventory data on forest understory vegetation in Sweden to model the combined effects of climate warming, nitrogen deposition, increase in forest density (tree basal area) and soil pH. Results: Our results identify increasing temperature, nitrogen deposition and denser, shadier forest conditions as main drivers of understory vegetation changes during this time period. More importantly, we found that these effects varied with local conditions, i.e. that the change towards a more nitrophilic understory vegetation was more pronounced at low than high soil pH. Forest density was an important modulator of nitrogen deposition and temperature increase, with effects generally decreasing with density. Decreased cover of ericaceous dwarf shrubs was driven by both forest density and nitrogen deposition, with a stronger effect at low than at high pH. Main conclusions: Our results highlight that to understand forest ecosystems´ response to global change, and to make adequate management decisions to mitigate the effects of global change, we need to understand how changes in local environmental factors (forest density and soil pH) interact with global-scale drivers (nitrogen deposition and climate warming). Neglecting such interactions will lead to incorrect estimations of effects. In our case, we would e.g. have underestimated the eutrophication effects on acid soils, which constitute a considerable part of the boreal biome. --