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90 results for “Ecological correlates”
Ecological and Morphological Correlates of Acuity in Birds
<p><span>Birds use their visual systems for a variety of important tasks, such as foraging and predator detection, that require them to resolve an image. However, visual acuity (the ability to perceive spatial detail) varies by two orders of magnitude across birds. Prior studies indicate that eye size and aspects of a species' ecology may drive variation in acuity, but these studies have been restricted to small numbers of species. We used a literature review to gather data on acuity measured either behaviorally or anatomically for 94 species from 38 families. We then examined how acuity varies in relation to (1) eye size, (2) habitat spatial complexity, (3) habitat light level, (4) diet composition, (5) prey mobility, and (6) foraging mode. A phylogenetically-controlled model including all of the above factors as predictors indicated that eye size, habitat spatial complexity, light level, and diet composition are significant predictors of acuity. Examining each ecological variable in turn revealed that acuity is lower in species that inhabit spatially complex, vegetative habitats, and higher in species whose diet comprises vertebrates or scavenged food. Together, our results suggest that the need to detect important objects from far away—such as predators for species that live in open habitats, and food items for species that forage on vertebrate and scavenged prey—has likely been a key driver of higher acuity in some species, helping to elucidate how visual capabilities may be adapted to an animal's visual needs. </span></p>
It is good to be average: Ecological correlates of breeding phenology in an Arctic seabird, Alle alle (Dovekie)
<p>Recognising importance of deviation from a population mean in an animal's behavior is not only necessary to understand the evolution and stability of the whole system but also to predict the future of a population in an altering environment. Arctic seabirds are expected to exhibit high synchronization in timing of breeding at the population level, due to highly seasonal and harsh environmental conditions. Nevertheless, even in such a highly synchronized system, there are always some earlier and later breeders, and what causes this inter-pair variation remains an intriguing question. Using a set of eight years of data on the dovekie (<em>Alle alle</em>), a small Arctic seabird, we examined potential drivers of the observed distribution of breeding phenology. We found that dovekie pairs were quite repeatable in their phenology, and preserved their phenological status, with their chicks hatching consistently before, during, or after the population median date for hatching, despite that calendar position of the median shifted between years. This would suggest that the timing of breeding is associated with some pair characteristics, either via properties of the nest or/and some partners traits. However, breeding phenology of the pair was not dependent on nest location, neither pair bond duration nor morphological similarity of the partners. Importantly, timing of breeding was negatively associated with chick growth rate, indicating fitness consequences of phenology. Our simulation further suggests that chance of fledgling survival in the context of predation may be the highest for the chicks that hatched during the peak of hatching period. While our results suggest that the timing of the breeding is important for the reproductive outcome, further research is required to determine the drivers of the repeatability within the dovekie pairs.</p>
Fig. 1 in Ecological correlates of ectoparasite load in a rodent: Complex roles of seasonality
Fig. 1. Interactive effects of season and body weight (centralized) on tick load in S. dauricus (A); and interactive effects of season and trappability on tick load in S. dauricus (B).
It is good to be average: Ecological correlates of breeding phenology in an Arctic seabird, Alle alle (Dovekie)
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Ecological and Morphological Correlates of Acuity in Birds
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Environmental correlates of phenotypic evolution in ecologically diverse Liolaemus lizards
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Phylogenetic and ecological correlates of pollen morphological diversity in a neotropical rainforest
Morphology varies enormously across clades, and the morphology of a trait may reflect ecological function or the retention of ancestral features. We examine the tension between ecological and phylogenetic correlates of morphological diversity through a case study of pollen grains produced by angiosperms in Barro Colorado Island, Panama (BCI). Using a molecular phylogeny of 730 taxa we demonstrate a statistically significant association between morphological and genetic distance for these plants. However, the relationship is non-linear, and while close relatives share more morphological features than distant relatives, above a genetic distance of ~0.7 increasingly distant relatives are not more divergent in phenotype. The pollen grains of biotically pollinated and abiotically pollinated plants overlap in morphological space, but certain pollen morphotypes and individual morphological traits are unique to these pollination ecologies. Our data show that the pollen grains of biotically pollinated plants are significantly more morphologically diverse than those of abiotically pollinated plants.
Data from: Correlated divergence of female and male genitalia in replicated lineages with ongoing ecological speciation
Divergence of genital traits among lineages has the potential to serve as a reproductive isolating barrier when copulation, insemination, or fertilization are inhibited by incompatibilities between female and male genitalia. Despite widespread evidence for genital trait diversity among closely related lineages and coevolution of female and male genitalia within lineages, few studies have investigated genital evolution during the early stages of speciation. We quantified genital variation in replicated population pairs of Poecilia mexicana with ongoing ecological speciation between sulfidic (H2S-containing) and nearby non-sulfidic habitats. These analyses revealed rapid and correlated divergence of female and male genitalia across evolutionarily independent population pairs exposed to divergent selection regimes. Both sexes exhibited convergent evolution of genital traits among populations inhabiting similar habitat types. Our results demonstrate that genital evolution can occur during the early stages of speciation-with-gene-flow, potentially as a result of variation in the intensity of sexual conflict among populations. Our results suggest genitalia may contribute to early stages of divergence, and challenge the generality of previously suggested mechanisms of genital evolution in poeciliids.
Data from: Comparative analysis of the shape and size of the middle ear cavity of turtles reveals no correlation with habitat ecology
<p>The middle ear of turtles differs from other reptiles in being separated into two distinct compartments. Several ideas have been proposed as to why the middle ear is compartmentalized in turtles, most suggesting a relationship with underwater hearing. Extant turtle species span fully marine to strictly terrestrial habitats, and ecomorphological hypotheses of turtle hearing predict that this should correlate with variation in the structure of the middle ear due to differences in the fluid properties of water and air. We investigate the shape and size of the air-filled middle ear cavity of 56 extant turtles using 3D data and phylogenetic comparative analysis to test for correlations between habitat preferences and the shape and size of the middle ear cavity. Only weak correlations are found between middle ear cavity size and ecology, with aquatic taxa having proportionally smaller cavity volumes. The middle ear cavity of turtles exhibits high shape diversity among species, but we found no relationship between this shape variation and ecology. Surprisingly, the estimated acoustic transformer ratio, a key functional parameter of impedance-matching ears in vertebrates, also shows no relation to habitat preferences (aquatic/terrestrial) in turtles. We suggest that middle ear cavity shape may be controlled by factors unrelated to hearing, such as the spatial demands of surrounding cranial structures. A review of the fossil record suggests that the modern turtle ear evolved during the Early to Middle Jurassic in stem turtles broadly adapted to freshwater and terrestrial settings. This, combined with our finding that evolutionary transitions between habitats caused only weak evolutionary changes in middle ear structure, suggests that tympanic hearing in turtles evolved as a compromise between subaerial and underwater hearing.</p>
Data from: Historical field records reveal habitat as an ecological correlate of locomotor phenotypic diversity in the radiation of Neotropical Geophagini fishes
<p>Phenotypic macroevolutionary studies provide insight into how ecological processes shape biodiversity. However, the complexity of phenotype-ecology relationships underscores the importance of also validating phenotype-based ecological inference with direct evidence of resource use. Unfortunately, macroevolutionary scale ecological studies are often hindered by the challenges of acquiring taxonomically and spatially representative ecological data for large and widely distributed clades. The South American cichlid fish tribe Geophagini represents a continentally distributed radiation whose early locomotor morphological divergence suggests habitat as one ecological correlate of diversification, but an association between locomotor traits and habitat preference has not been corroborated. Field notes accumulated over decades of collecting across South America provide first-hand environmental records that can be mined for habitat data in support of macroevolutionary ecological research. In this study, we applied a newly developed method to transform descriptive field note information into quantitative habitat data, and used it to assess habitat preference and its relationship to locomotor morphology in Geophagini. Field note-derived data shed light on geophagine habitat use patterns and reinforced habitat as an ecological correlate of locomotor morphological diversity. Our work emphasizes the rich data potential of museum collections, including often overlooked material such as field notes, for evolutionary and ecological research.</p>
Ecological correlates of cranial evolution in the megaradiation of dipsadine snakes
<p><strong>Background</strong></p> <p>Dipsadine snakes represent one of the most spectacular vertebrate radiations that have occurred in any continental setting, with over 800 species in South and Central America. Their species richness is paralleled by stunning ecological diversity, ranging from arboreal snail-eating and aquatic eel-eating specialists to terrestrial generalists. Despite the ecological importance of this clade, little is known about the extent to which ecological specialization shapes broader patterns of phenotypic diversity within the group. Here, we test how habitat use and diet have influenced morphological diversification in skull shape across 160 dipsadine species using micro-CT and 3-D geometric morphometrics, and we use a phylogenetic comparative approach to test the contributions of habitat use and diet composition to variation in skull shape among species.</p> <p><strong>Results</strong></p> <p>We demonstrate that while both habitat use and diet are significant predictors of shape in many regions of the skull, habitat use significantly predicts shape in a greater number of skull regions when compared to diet. We also find that across ecological groupings, fossorial and aquatic behaviors result in the strongest deviations in morphospace for several skull regions. We use simulations to address the robustness of our results and describe statistical anomalies that can arise from the application of phylogenetic generalized least squares to complex shape data.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions</strong></p> <p>Both habitat and dietary ecology are significantly correlated with skull shape in dipsadines; the strongest relationships involved skull shape in snakes with aquatic and fossorial lifestyles. This association between skull morphology and multiple ecological axes is consistent with a classic model of adaptive radiation and suggests that ecological factors were an important component in driving morphological diversification in the dipsadine megaradiation.</p>
Data from: Comparative analysis of the shape and size of the middle ear cavity of turtles reveals no correlation with habitat ecology
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Data from: Correlated divergence of female and male genitalia in replicated lineages with ongoing ecological speciation
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Phylogenetic and ecological correlates of pollen morphological diversity in a neotropical rainforest
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Ecological correlates of cranial evolution in the megaradiation of dipsadine snakes
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An ecological-evolutionary investigation of phenotypic, genetic, and environmental variation and correlations among reproductive traits of tall goldenrod (<em>Solidago altissima</em>)
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Data from: Historical field records reveal habitat as an ecological correlate of locomotor phenotypic diversity in the radiation of Neotropical Geophagini fishes
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Data from: Correlated divergence of ecology, morphology, and fine-scale vocal motor performance among sparrow subspecies
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Data from: On the correlated evolution of ecological lifestyle and thermal tolerance
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Data from: Species-habitat relationships and ecological correlates of butterfly abundance in a transformed tropical landscape
Tropical butterfly conservation strategies often focus on total and/or common species richness to assess the conservation value of a patch or habitat. However, such a strategy overlooks the unique dynamics of rare species. We evaluated the species-habitat relationships of 209 common, intermediate, and rare butterfly species (including morphospecies) across four habitat types (mature, degraded, or fragmented forest, and urban parks) and two patch sizes (<400 ha, ≥400 ha) in Singapore. Common species richness was consistent across habitat types. Intermediate species richness declined by more than 50 percent in urban parks (relative to all forest habitats), and rare species richness was reduced by 50 percent in degraded and fragmented forest and by 90 percent in urban parks (relative to mature forest). Large patches had comparable overall richness to small patches, but they supported more rare species and three times as many habitat-restricted species over a similar area. Importantly, a number of rare species were confined to single small patches. Mixed-effects regression models were constructed to identify habitat and ecological/life history variables associated with butterfly abundance. These models revealed that species with greater habitat specialization, rare larval host plants, few larval host plant genera, and narrow global geographic ranges were more likely to be rare species. Overall, these results demonstrate that the richness of habitat-restricted and rare species do not follow the same spatial distribution patterns as common species. Therefore, while conserving mature forests is key, effective butterfly conservation in a transformed landscape should take into account rare and habitat-restricted species.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.