Find research datasets worth reusing

opencc-zeroAug 2020View details →

Data from: The standard metabolic rate of a land snail (Cepaea hortensis) is a repeatable trait and influences winter survival

Phenotypic selection on physiological parameters is an underrepresented topic in studies of evolutionary biology. There is especially a lack of studies involving invertebrate organisms. We studied the repeatability of the standard metabolic rate (SMR) and the effect of individual variation in SMR on the subsequent winter survival in a terrestrial shell-bearing mollusc, the white-lipped snail (Cepaea hortensis) in mid-Norway. SMR was measured twice during the autumn and – after an experimental overwintering at controlled conditions – twice during the following spring. We found a significant repeatability of SMR over all three time periods tested, with a clear effect of time, with a high repeatability of 0.56 over 4 days during spring, 0.44 over 12 days in the autumn and 0.17 over 194 days from autumn to spring. That SMR is a repeatable physiological trait across the winter period during which a possible selection might occur, suggests that SMR could be a potential target of natural selection. We indeed found that the autumn SMR significantly influenced the probability of survival during the winter period, with a combination of a positive linear (P = 0.011) and a quadratic stabilizing (P = 0.001) effect on SMR. Our results hence support the view that metabolic rate is an important physiological component influencing the fitness of an organism.

opencc-zeroAug 2021View details →

Data from: Topography, more than land cover, explains genetic diversity in a Neotropical savanna treefrog

Aim: Effective conservation policies rely on information about population genetic structure and the connectivity of remnants of suitable habitat. The interaction between natural and anthropogenic discontinuities across landscapes can uncover the relative contributions of different barriers to gene flow, with direct consequences for decision-making in conservation. Therefore, we aimed to quantify the relative roles of land cover and topographic variables on the population genetic differentiation and diversity of a stream-breeding savanna treefrog (Bokermannohyla ibitiguara) across its range. Location: Serra da Canastra mountain range, Cerrado of Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Methods: We collected and extracted DNA samples from 12 populations within and outside a strictly protected park, and used 17 microsatellite markers to assess genetic structure, among-population differentiation, and within-population diversity measures. We incorporated landscape data derived from digital models and satellite images to create connectivity matrices to correlate with genetic differentiation using Mantel tests. We used generalized linear models and path analyses to assess the roles of each landscape variable in shaping genetic diversity in this species. Results: Populations within and outside the park boundaries belonged to four genetic clusters. Most populations showed evidence of limited gene flow, with significant genetic differentiation, except for those within the park, which also had higher levels of allelic richness and heterozygosity. However, genetic differentiation among populations in this landscape was primarily explained by topographic complexity. Likewise, within-population genetic measures were best explained by models including elevation and topographic complexity, and not the amount of natural habitat or gallery forests. Main conclusions: Our results underscore that topography may be a strong historical factor shaping genetic structure among amphibian populations. Therefore, effective conservation strategies for endangered amphibians should avoid focusing exclusively on habitat suitability, and incorporate topographic complexity, which seems to be a key factor for the fauna of the extremely threatened Brazilian savanna.

Permeability of Neotropical agricultural lands to a key native ungulate – are well-connected forests important?

Much of what remains of the Earth's tropical forests is embedded within agricultural landscapes, where forest is reduced and fragmented. As native forest ungulates are critical to maintaining forest function, it is imperative to understand how this functional group responds to declines in forest cover and connectivity resulting from agricultural expansion. We addressed this issue by evaluating selection of forest cover and forest connectivity by a key native ungulate of Neotropical forests, the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari Link 1795, Tayassuidae, Cetartiodactyla), in agricultural landscapes of Brazil. We evaluated selection using compositional analysis at two hierarchical levels, landscape and home range. From 2013 to 2019, we GPS-tracked eight white-lipped peccary herds in Southwest Brazil, resulting in a total of 14,460 GPS locations. We found that herds can live in landscapes with a wide range of forest cover (35-81% of home ranges covered by native forest), with significant, but not strong, selection at the landscape level (p = 0.045). Nevertheless, herds strongly select for forest cover within their home ranges (81-97% of locations within native forest; highly significant selection at the home-range level: p = 0.008). As for connectivity, herds significantly select the largest, most connected forest fragments at the landscape level (p=0.04), but not at the home-range level (p=0.07). Our results support that Neotropical forests within agricultural landscapes need to be well-connected in order to preserve this key native ungulate, and maintain long-term forest function.

Data from: Phylotranscriptomics resolves interspecific relationships and indicates multiple historical out-of-North America dispersals through the Bering Land Bridge for the genus Picea (Pinaceae)

A robust phylogeny is prerequisite to understand the evolution and biogeography of organisms. However, ancient and recent evolutionary radiations occurred in many plant lineages, which pose great challenges for phylogenetic analysis, especially for conifers characterized by large effective population sizes and long generation times. Picea is an important component of the dark coniferous forests in the Northern Hemisphere. Previous studies improved our understanding of its evolutionary history, but its interspecific relationships and biogeographic history remain largely unresolved. In the present study, we reconstructed a well-resolved phylogeny of Picea by comparative transcriptomic analysis based on a complete species sampling. The phylogenetic analysis, together with molecular dating and ancestral area reconstruction, further supports the North American origin hypothesis for Picea, and indicates that this genus experienced multiple out-of-North America dispersals by the Bering Land Bridge. We also found that spruces in the Japanese Archipelago have multiple origins, and P. morrisonicola from the Taiwan Island has a close relationship with species from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and adjacent regions. Our study provides the first complete phylogeny of Picea at the genomic level, which is important for future studies of this genus.

Data from: Decreasing predation rates and shifting predator compositions along a land-use gradient in Madagascar's vanilla landscapes

1. Land-use change is the main driver of deforestation and land degradation resulting in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in north-eastern Madagascar. Vanilla, the region's main cash crop, is grown in agroforestry systems and may provide an opportunity for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. 2. We used dummy caterpillars to assess predation rates and predator communities along a land-use gradient including unburned old-growth and forest fragments, herbaceous and woody fallows after shifting cultivation with fire usage, as well as rice paddies. The studied vanilla agroforests were either forest-derived or fallow-derived. Besides land-use type, we considered the effects of land-use history (unburned/burned), plot-level parameters and the landscape composition to conclude on management recommendations. 3. Old-growth forest and forest fragments exhibited highest predation rates, which decreased with land-use intensity. Overall, predation was higher in unburned land-use types than in more open, previously burned habitats and rice paddies. High stem and vegetation densities were positively related to predation rates, but decreased with land-use intensity. High forest cover in the surrounding landscape led to higher predation rates, while local structural parameters remained more important. 4. The predator community was arthropod-dominated across all land-use types with ants responsible for between 33 % and 69 % of all predation events. Overall predator composition in old-growth and forest fragments differed from all other land-use types. Predation by Gryllacrididae (Orthoptera) was lower in all land-use types, including forest-derived vanilla, than in old-growth forest and forest fragments, where they were important contributors to total predation. Vertebrate predation was low throughout. Synthesis and applications: Forested habitats feature higher predation rates and different predator compositions than other land-use systems. Maintaining or restoring tree- and understory-rich vanilla agroforestry represents a viable tool in landscape conservation programmes as it has the potential to contribute to the conservation of predation as an important ecosystem function in both forest- and fallow-derived agroforests. However, vanilla agroforestry has limited value in conserving forest-specialised predator communities. While the establishment of tree-rich agroforests on former fallow land is favourable for conservation ecosystem functioning, further forest transformation should be <a>avoided</a>.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2019View details →

Copernicus Global Land Service: Land Cover 100m: collection 3: epoch 2016: Globe

Consolidated epoch 2016 from the Collection 3 of annual, global 100m land cover maps. Other available epochs: <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3939038">2015</a>  <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3518036">2017</a>  <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3518038">2018</a>  <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3939050">2019</a> Produced by the global component of the Copernicus Land Service, derived from PROBA-V satellite observations and ancillary datasets. The maps include <ul> <li>a main discrete classification with 23 classes aligned with UN-FAO's Land Cover Classification System,</li> <li>a set of versatile cover fractions: percentage (%) of ground cover for the 10 main classes</li> <li>a forest type layer</li> <li>quality layers on input data density and on the confidence of the detected land cover change</li> </ul> <a href="https://land.copernicus.eu/global/lcviewer">Click here to view the maps</a> <a href="https://land.copernicus.eu/global/lcviewer">More information about the land cover maps</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3606295">Product User Manual</a>

opencc-by-4.0Feb 2020View details →

ICECAP-2 consortium bed elevation model for Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica

We present a new topographic digital elevation model (DEM) for Princess Elizabeth Land (PEL) – the last remaining region in Antarctica to be surveyed. The DEM covers an area of 899,730 km2 and was established from new aero geophysical data collected by the ICECAP-2 consortium, led by the Polar Research Institute of China, from four different surveys since 2015. Two products are available; (1) 500 m bed elevation model; and (2) 500 m ice thickness model. The mass conservation (MC) method is used to infer ice thickness DEM across faster-flowing (>30 m yr-1) regions of the ice sheet, and streamline diffusion at slower-flowing areas. The ice thickness DEM is then integrated with the ice surface DEM from the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (Howat, et al., 2019) to generate the bed elevation model. Together with BedMachine Antarctica, and Bedmap2, this new bed DEM for PEL completes the first-order measurement of subglacial Antarctica – an international mission that began 70 years ago.

opencc-by-4.0May 2020View details →

ICECAP-2 consortium processed airborne ice thickness data from the Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica

Airborne ice thickness data from the Princess Elizabeth Land (PEL), East Antarctica was collected in four separate seasons. During the first ICECAP2 season (2015/16), a survey acquiring exploratory ‘fan-shaped’ radial profiles to maximize range and data return on each flight was completed across the broadly unknown region of PEL. These flight lines extend from the coastal Progress Station to the interior ice-sheet divide at Ridge B. In the second and third seasons (2016/17 and 2017/18), a survey ‘grid’ was completed, targeting enhanced resolution over a proposed subglacial lake and a series of basal canyons (Jamieson et al., 2016). In the fourth season (2018/19), a few additional transects were completed to fill the largest data gaps within aircraft range. Field data acquisition was achieved using the “Snow Eagle 601” aero geophysical platform; a BT-67 airplane operated by the Polar Research Institute of China for the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) program. The suite of instruments configured on the airplane include a phase-coherent radio-echo sounder system, operating at a central frequency of 60 MHz and a peak power of 8 kW, making it capable of penetrating deep (>3 km) ice in Antarctica. After applying coherent integration and pulse compression at a bandwidth of 15 MHz, which gave an along-track spatial sampling rate and a vertical resolution of ~10 m and ~5.6 m, respectively.

Data from: Strangers in a strange land: Ecological dissimilarity to metatherian carnivores may partly explain early colonization of South America by Cyonasua-group procyonids

It was once thought that the endemic carnivorous mammals of South America, the metatherian sparassodonts, were driven extinct by North American carnivores through competitive exclusion. However, sparassodonts went extinct before most groups of carnivorans entered South America; only the endemic Cyonasua-group procyonids (Cyonasua and Chapalmalania), which immigrated to South America nearly four million years earlier than other carnivorans, significantly overlapped with sparassodonts in time. In this study, we examine the functional morphology of the dentition of Cyonasua and Chapalmalania through quantitative analysis to determine the dietary habits of these taxa and the degree to which they may have ecologically overlapped sparassodonts and large predatory Neogene didelphimorphians. We find Cyonasua and Chapalmalania to be more carnivorous than extant procyonids other than Bassariscus, in agreement with previous studies, but more omnivorous than most other carnivorans and all meat-eating South American metatherians, including sparassodonts. The extreme ecological dissimilarity between Cyonasua-group procyonids and members of the endemic South American predator guild may explain why procyonids were able to successfully establish themselves in South America several million years earlier than most other northern mammals (including all other carnivorans): they moved into a previously unoccupied ecological niche (large omnivore) and avoided direct competition with incumbent native species, a situation similar to that documented in historical cases of biological invasion. The omnivorous diets and climbing/swimming abilities of procyonids may have increased their chances for a successful over-water dispersal relative to other carnivorans, further favoring their successful establishment in South America.

opencc-zeroOct 2020View details →

Data for: High-resolution land value maps reveal underestimation of conservation costs in the United States

The justification and targeting of conservation policy rests on reliable measures of public and private benefits from competing land uses. Advances in Earth system observation and modeling permit the mapping of public ecosystem services at unprecedented scales and resolutions, prompting new proposals for land protection policies and priorities. Data on private benefits from land use are not available at similar scales and resolutions, resulting in a data mismatch with unknown consequences. Here I show that private benefits from land can be quantified at large scales and high resolutions, and that doing so can have important implications for conservation policy models. I develop the first high-resolution estimates of fair market value of private lands in the contiguous United States by training tree-based ensemble models on 6 million land sales. The resulting estimates predict conservation cost with up to 8.5 times greater accuracy than earlier proxies. Studies using coarser cost proxies underestimated conservation costs, especially at the expensive tail of the distribution. This might have led to underestimations of policy budgets by factors of up to 37.5 in recent work. More accurate cost accounting will help policy makers acknowledge the full magnitude of contemporary conservation challenges, and can assist with the targeting of public ecosystem service investments.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2020View details →

Transfer Learning Models and Datasets for a Reliable Emergency Landing Field Identification

The file data.tar.gz compromises three HDF5 datasets. This file has been split into 100 files. The files can be merged, decompressed and unpacked with the following commands: <pre><code class="language-bash">cat data* > data.tar.gz tar -xzf data.tar.gz</code></pre> Afterwards, the three files: train_test_data_ss8_supervised_new.hdf5, train_test_data_ss16_supervised_new.hdf5, train_test_data_ss32_supervised_new.hdf5 are ready to get processed.  Internal structure of the datasets: Search Window (SW) 8 m^2: HDF5 "train_test_data_ss8_supervised_new.hdf5" { GROUP "/" {    GROUP "test" {       DATASET "fus_data" {          DATATYPE  H5T_IEEE_F32LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 76288, 40, 40, 8 ) / ( 76382, 40, 40, 8 ) }       }       DATASET "labels" {          DATATYPE  H5T_STD_I64LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 76382, 1 ) / ( 76382, 1 ) }       }    }    GROUP "train" {       DATASET "fus_data" {          DATATYPE  H5T_IEEE_F32LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 380928, 40, 40, 8 ) / ( 380998, 40, 40, 8 ) }       }       DATASET "labels" {          DATATYPE  H5T_STD_I64LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 380998, 1 ) / ( 380998, 1 ) }       }    } }} SW 16 m^2: HDF5 "train_test_data_ss16_supervised_new.hdf5" { GROUP "/" {    GROUP "test" {       DATASET "fus_data" {          DATATYPE  H5T_IEEE_F32LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 17024, 80, 80, 8 ) / ( 17054, 80, 80, 8 ) }       }       DATASET "labels" {          DATATYPE  H5T_STD_I64LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 17054, 1 ) / ( 17054, 1 ) }       }    }    GROUP "train" {       DATASET "fus_data" {          DATATYPE  H5T_IEEE_F32LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 84992, 80, 80, 8 ) / ( 85068, 80, 80, 8 ) }       }       DATASET "labels" {          DATATYPE  H5T_STD_I64LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 85068, 1 ) / ( 85068, 1 ) }       }    } }} SW 32 m^2: HDF5 "train_test_data_ss32_supervised_new.hdf5" { GROUP "/" {    GROUP "test" {       DATASET "fus_data" {          DATATYPE  H5T_IEEE_F32LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 3328, 160, 160, 8 ) / ( 3359, 160, 160, 8 ) }       }       DATASET "labels" {          DATATYPE  H5T_STD_I64LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 3359, 1 ) / ( 3359, 1 ) }       }    }    GROUP "train" {       DATASET "fus_data" {          DATATYPE  H5T_IEEE_F32LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 16768, 160, 160, 8 ) / ( 16793, 160, 160, 8 ) }       }       DATASET "labels" {          DATATYPE  H5T_STD_I64LE          DATASPACE  SIMPLE { ( 16793, 1 ) / ( 16793, 1 ) }       }    } }} The sample count of the various generated dataset is as follows:  SW 8 m^2: {train: 380,928 with {0: 190,464, 1: 190,464}, test: 76,288 with {0: 38,152, 1: 38,136}} SW 16 m^2: {train: 84,992 with {0: 42,498, 1: 42,494}, test: 17,024 with {0: 8,516, 1: 8,508}} SW 32 m^2: {train: 16,768 with {0: 8,424, 1: 8,344}, test: 3,328 with {0: 1,672, 1: 1,656}} Each sample is composed as follows: RGB = sample[:,:,:3]; Theoretically: [0, 1] per color channel NIR = sample[:,:,3]; Theoretically: [0, 1] Slope = sample[:,:,4]; Theoretically: [0, 90] Roughness = sample[:,:,5]; Theoretically: [0, 78.78] NDVI = sample[:,:,6]; Theoretically: [-1, 1] DOM = sample[:,:,7]; Theoretically: [0, 429.90] ==================================================================================================== The following three files compromise the model and optimizer state variable of our PyTorch models trained on the aforementioned datasets: best_alexnet_final.pth, best_resnet18_final.pth, best_wide_resnet50_2_final.pth Below find a more precise description of each model: best_resnet18_final.pth <ul> <li>Model: ResNet-18</li> <li>Dataset: SW 8</li> <li>Input: RGB-NIR-Slope -> R: [0,224,224], G: [1,224,224], B: [2,224,224], NIR: [3,224,224], Slope: [4,224,224]</li> </ul> best_wide_resnet50_2_final.pth <ul> <li>Model: Wide-ResNet-50-2</li> <li>Dataset: SW 16</li> <li>Input: NDVI-Slope -> NDVI: [0,224,224], Slope: [1,224,224]</li> </ul> best_alexnet_final.pth <ul> <li>Model: AlexNet</li> <li>Dataset: SW 32</li> <li>Input: RGB-Slope -> R: [0,224,224], G: [1,224,224], B: [2,224,224], Slope: [3,224,224]</li> </ul> Each model is capable of performing a binary classification, distinguishing between landable and unlandable samples

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2020View details →

Dynamic evolution and scenario simulation of habitat quality under the impact of land-use change in the Huaihe River Economic Belt, China

1. Land-use data Meaning of the value in the layers: 11: Paddy field  12: Dry land 21: Forestland 22: Shrubland 23: Sparse woodland 24: Other woodland 31: High coverage grassland 32: Medium coverage grassland 33: Low coverage grassland 41: River canal 42: Lake 43: Reservoir and pond 44: Permanent glacial snow 45: Coastal mud flat  46: Inland tidal flat 51: Urban land 52: Rural residential land 53: Industrial and traffic land 61: Dene 62: Gobi Desert 63: Saline and alkaline land 64: Marshland 65: Bare land 66: Bare rock 67: Other unused land 2. GDP data (Meaning of the value in the layer: yuan/km2) 3. Population density data (Meaning of the value in the layer: person/km2) 4. Meteorological data temperature data (unit: ℃) perception data(unit:mm) 5. Terrain data including elevation, slope and aspect 6. Vector data including railways, highways, national roads, provincial roads and county roads

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2020View details →

AERA5-Asia: A long-term Asian precipitation dataset (0.1°, 1 hourly, 1951–2015, Asia) anchoring the ERA5-Land under the total volume control by APHRODITE (1999–2015)

AERA5-Asia: A long-term Asian precipitation dataset (0.1°, 1 hourly, 1951–2015, Asia) is developed by organically combining the ERA5-Land dataset with high spatiotemporal resolutions and continuity and the APHRODITE dataset with high quality. How to cite: Ma, Z., Xu, J., Ma, Y., Zhu, S., He, K., Zhang, S., Ma, W., Xu, X., 2022. AERA5-Asia: A long-term Asian precipitation dataset (0.1°, 1 hourly, 1951–2015, Asia) anchoring the ERA5-Land under the total volume control by APHRODITE. Bulletin of American Meteorological Society, 103 (4)., DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0328.1. Data Format: GeoTIFF Spatial Coverage: 60°E–150°E, 15°S–55°N, land. AERA5-Asia (0.1°/ hourly, 1951–1966, Asia) is available at  <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3609352">https://doi.org/</a><a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4266081">10.5281/zenodo.6367463</a> AERA5-Asia (0.1°/ hourly, 1962–1981, Asia) is available at  <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3609352">https://doi.org/</a><a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4266081">10.5281/zenodo.6369796</a> AERA5-Asia (0.1°/ hourly, 1982–1998, Asia) is available at  <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3609352">https://doi.org/</a><a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4266081">10.5281/zenodo.4266081</a>

opennotspecifiedDec 2020View details →

FIGURE 186 in GEORGE D.F. WILSON & CHRISTOPHER L. HUMPHREY (2020) The Eophreatoicus Nicholls 1926 species flock from Kakadu and Arnhem Land, with a description of a new genus of Amphisopidae (Crustacea: Isopoda: Phreatoicidea). Zootaxa, 4854: 001-303.

FIGURE 186. Eophreatoicus balbun sp. nov., pereopod I. Paratype male, AM P.76453: A–D, pereopod I entire, enlargement of distal articles, palm setae lateral and palm medial. Paratype female, AM P.76454: E–H, pereopod I entire, enlargement of palm and proximal dactylus, palm setae lateral and palm setae medial. Scales 1 mm.

opencc-zeroDec 2020View details →

Protected area, easement, and rental contract data reveal five communities of land protection in the United States

Land protection efforts represent large societal investments and are critical to biodiversity conservation. Land protection involves a complex mosaic of areas managed by multiple organizations, using a variety of mechanisms to achieve different levels of protection. We develop an approach to synthesize, describe, and map this land protection diversity over large spatial scales. We use cluster analysis to find distinct "communities" of land protection based on the organizations involved, the strictness of land protection, and the protection mechanisms used. We also associate identified land protection communities with socioenvironmental variables. Applying these methods to describe land protection communities in counties across the coterminous United States (US), we recognize five different land protection communities. Two land protection communities occur in areas with low human population size at higher elevations and include a large amount of protected land primarily under federal management. These two community types are differentiated from one another by the particular federal agencies involved, the relative contributions of smaller actors, and the amount of protection by designations vs. conservation easements or covenants. Three remaining land protection communities have less overall protection. Land in one community is primarily protected by federally managed rental contracts and government managed easements; another is managed by a diversity of non-federal actors through fee-ownership and easements; and the third stands out for having the lowest amount of formally recorded protection overall. High elevation and poor quality soils are over-represented in US protected lands. Rental contracts help fill in gaps in counties with high productivity soil while the US Fish and Wildlife Service fills in gaps in low-elevation counties. Counties with large numbers of threatened species have more and stricter protection, particularly by regional entities like water management districts. The ability to synthesize and map land protection communities can help conservation planners tailor interventions to local contexts, position local agencies to approach collaborations more strategically, and suggest new hypotheses for researchers regarding interactions among different protection mechanisms.

opencc-zeroDec 2020View details →

Data from: How do habitat amount and habitat fragmentation drive time-delayed responses of biodiversity to land-use change?

Land-use change is a root cause of the extinction crisis, but links between habitat change and biodiversity loss are not fully understood. While there is evidence that habitat loss is an important extinction driver, the relevance of habitat fragmentation remains debated. Moreover, while time-delays of biodiversity responses to habitat transformation are well-documented, time-delayed effects have been ignored in the habitat loss vs. fragmentation debate. Here, using a hierarchical Bayesian multi- species occupancy framework, we systematically tested for time-delayed responses of bird and mammal communities to habitat loss and to habitat fragmentation. We focused on the Argentine Chaco, where deforestation has been widespread recently. We used an extensive field dataset on birds and mammals, along with a time series of annual woodland maps from 1985-2016 covering recent and historical habitat transformations. Contemporary habitat amount explained bird and mammal occupancy better than past habitat amount. However, occupancy was affected more by past rather than recent fragmentation, indicating a time-delayed response to fragmentation. Considering past landscape patterns is therefore crucial for understanding current biodiversity patterns. Not accounting for land-use history ignores the possibility of extinction debt and can thus obscure impacts of fragmentation, potentially explaining contrasting findings of habitat loss vs. fragmentation studies.

opencc-zeroDec 2020View details →

Human mediated land use change drives intraspecific plant trait variation

In the Anthropocene, more than three quarters of ice-free land has experienced some form of human driven habitat modification, with agriculture dominating 40% of the Earth's surface. This land use change alters the quality, availability, and configuration of habitat resources, affecting the community composition of plants and insects, as well as their interactions with each other. Landscapes dominated by agriculture are known to support a lower abundance and diversity of pollinators and frequently larger populations of key herbivore pests. In turn, insect communities subsidized by agriculture may spill into remaining natural habitats with consequences for wild plants persisting in (semi) natural habitats. Adaptive responses by wild plants may allow them to persist in highly modified landscapes; yet how landscape-mediated variation in insect communities affects wild plant traits related to reproduction and defense remains largely unknown. We synthesize the evidence for plant trait changes across land use gradients and propose potential mechanisms by which landscape-mediated changes in insect communities may be driving these trait changes. Further, we present results from a common garden experiment on three wild Brassica species demonstrating variation in both defensive and reproductive traits along an agricultural land use gradient. Our framework illustrates the potential for plant adaptation under land use change and predicts how defense and reproduction trait expression may shift in low diversity landscapes. We highlight areas of future research into plant population and community effects of land use change.

opennotspecifiedOct 2020View details →

PLATE 7. Species not from New Zealand. Neocyclotidae. A. Cyclotus charmian Hutton, 1883 in Catalogue of New Zealand land, freshwater and estuarine molluscan taxa named by Frederick Wollaston Hutton between 1879 and 1904

PLATE 7. Species not from New Zealand. Neocyclotidae. A. Cyclotus charmian Hutton, 1883, lectotype, CMNZ M48. Rhytididae. B. Amphidoxa lavinia Hutton, 1883, syntype, NMNZ M.1754; C. Helix sinclairi Pfeiffer, 1846, Tasmania, lectotype, NHMUK 1842.11.2.23. Microcystinae. D. Trochomorpha hermia Hutton, 1883, lectotype, CMNZ M353; E. Helix campbellii Gray, 1834, Philip Island, syntype, NHMUK 1982239. Scale bars 5 mm.

opennotspecifiedOct 2020View details →

PLATE 6. Punctidae. A. Phrixgnathus titania Hutton, 1883 in Catalogue of New Zealand land, freshwater and estuarine molluscan taxa named by Frederick Wollaston Hutton between 1879 and 1904

PLATE 6. Punctidae. A. Phrixgnathus titania Hutton, 1883, Dunedin, lectotype, CMNZ M1388. Rhytididae. B. Gerontia cordelia Hutton, 1883, 'Titirangi, Auckland', lectotype, CMNZ M274; C. Rhytida australis Hutton, 1882, Stewart Island, lectotype, CMNZ M1406; D. Rhytida citrina Hutton, 1882, Greymouth, neotype, NMNZ M.329343; E. Rhytida patula Hutton, 1882, Greymouth, paralectotype, CMNZ M121.3 [= R. citrina Hutton, 1882]; F. Rhytida patula Hutton, 1882, Greymouth, lectotype, CMNZ M122. Testacellidae. G. Testacella vagans Hutton, 1882, Auckland, lectotype, CMNZ M352. Scale bars 2 mm (A–C, G) and 5 mm (others).