Find research datasets worth reusing
Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.
29
datasets available to search
ShareScore release 0.9.0
Dataset results
29 results for “alpine plant species”
DCA and GNMDS output for 4640 subplots and 95 vascular plant species in four alpine grasslands
<p>Ordination output from detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and global non-metric multidimensional scaling (GNMDS).</p> <p>Analyses were performed in R with the <em>vegan</em> package (Oksanen 2022) for the entire data set of 4630 subplots and 95 species' occurrences ('global', indicated by global or missing site name in file names), and for each of four sites: Skjellingahaugen (skj), Gudmedalen (gud), Låvisdalen (lav), and Ulvehaugen (ulv). Access .Rds files with readRDS in R/RStudio.</p> <p>For GNMDS files, k indicates the chosen number of dimensions. See GitHub repository for scripts to produce and perform further analysis with the files in this archive.</p> <p>Analyses performed by EL with scripts based on originals by RH.</p>
Data from: Genetic diversity in widespread species is not congruent with species richness in alpine plant communities
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aims at the conservation of all three levels of biodiversity, i.e. ecosystems, species and genes. Genetic diversity represents evolutionary potential and is important for ecosystem functioning. Unfortunately, genetic diversity in natural populations is hardly considered in conservation strategies because it is difficult to measure and has been hypothesized to co-vary with species richness. This means that species richness is taken as a surrogate of genetic diversity in conservation planning, though their relationship has not been properly evaluated. We tested whether the genetic and species levels of biodiversity co-vary, using a large-scale and multi-species approach. We chose the high-mountain flora of the Alps and the Carpathians as study systems and demonstrate that species richness and genetic diversity are not correlated. Species richness thus cannot act as a surrogate for genetic diversity. Our results have important consequences for implementing the CBD when designing conservation strategies.
Alpine butterflies want to fly high: Species and communities shift upwards faster than their host plants
<p>Despite sometimes strong co-dependencies of insect herbivores and plants, responses of individual taxa to accelerating climate change are typically studied in isolation. Thereby, biotic interactions that potentially limit species in tracking their preferred climatic niches are ignored. Here, we chose butterflies as a prominent representative of herbivorous insects to investigate the impacts of temperature changes and their larval host plant distributions along a 1.4 km elevational gradient in the German Alps. Following a sampling protocol of 2009, we re-visited 33 grassland plots in 2019 over an entire growing season. We quantified changes in butterfly abundance and richness by repeated transect walks on each plot and disentangled the direct and indirect effects of locally assessed temperature, site management, and larval and adult food resource availability on these patterns. Additionally, we determined elevational range shifts of butterflies and host plants at both the community and species level. Comparing the two sampled years (2009, 2019), we found a severe decline in butterfly abundance and a clear upward shift of butterflies along the elevational gradient. We detected shifts in the peak of species richness, community composition and at the species level, whereby mountainous species shifted particularly strongly. In contrast, host plants showed barely any change, neither concerning species richness, nor individual species shifts. Further, temperature and host plant richness were the main drivers of butterfly richness, with change in temperature explaining best the change of richness over time. We conclude that host plants are not yet hindering butterfly species and communities from shifting upwards. However, the mismatch between butterfly and host plant shifts might become a problem for this very close plant-herbivore relationship, especially towards higher elevations, if butterflies fail to adapt to new host plants. Further, our results support the value of conserving traditional extensive pasture use as a promoter of host plants and thereby butterfly richness.</p>
Contrasting effects of two phenotypes of an alpine cushion plant on understory species drive community assembly
<p><span>In alpine systems, cushion plants act as foundation species by ameliorating local environmental conditions. Empirical studies indicate that contrasting phenotypes of alpine cushion species have different effects on understory plant species, either facilitative or competitive. Furthermore, dependent species within each community type might also exhibit different responses to each cushion phenotype, which can be clustered into several "response groups". Additionally, these species-groups specific responses to alpine cushion species phenotypes could alter community assembly. However, very few studies have assessed responses of dependent communities at species-group levels, in particular for both above- and below-ground communities. Here, we selected a loose and a tight phenotype of the alpine cushion species <em>Thylacospermum</em> <em>caespitosum</em> in two sites in northwest China, and use the relative intensity of interactions index to quantify cushion plant effects on subordinate communities of plants and soil fungi and bacteria. We assessed variations in responses of both above- and below-ground organisms to cushion plant effects at species-group level. Species-group level analyses showed that the effects of the phenotype varied among groups of each of the three community types, and different species-groups were composed of unique taxa. Additionally, we found that loose cushions enhanced stochastic processes in community assembly, for plants and soil fungi but not for soil bacteria. These variations of phenotypic effects on different species-group induced contrasting taxonomic composition between groups and altered community assembly thereby. Our study highlights the occurrence of contrasting effects of two phenotypes of a foundation cushion plant on understory plants, soil fungi and bacteria community composition, but not necessarily on their richness. We also showed that assessing responses of understory species at the species-group level allows a more realistic and mechanistic understanding of biotic interactions both for above- and below-ground communities.</span></p>
Data and code from: The overlooked link between different resource partitioning strategies and plant species richness in tropical alpine ecosystems
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Contrasting effects of two phenotypes of an alpine cushion plant on understory species drive community assembly
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Genetic diversity in widespread species is not congruent with species richness in alpine plant communities
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Alpine butterflies want to fly high: Species and communities shift upwards faster than their host plants
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Linking microenvironment modification to species interactions and demography in an alpine plant community
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Insect root feeders incur negative density-dependent damage across plant species in an alpine meadow
<p>Although herbivores are well known to incur positive density-dependent damage and mortality, thereby likely shaping plant community assembly, the response of belowground root feeders to changes in plant density has seldom been addressed. Locally rare plant species (with lower plant biomass per area) are often smaller with shallower roots than common species (with higher plant biomass per area) in competition-intensive grasslands. Likewise, root feeders are often distributed in the upper soil layers. We hypothesized therefore that root feeders would incur a negative density (biomass) dependent damage across plant species. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the diversity and abundance of plant and root feeder species in an alpine meadow, and determined the diet of the root feeders using metabarcoding. Across all species, root feeder load decreased with increasing aboveground plant biomass, root biomass, and total plant biomass per area, indicating negative density dependence of damage across plant species. Aboveground plant biomass per area increased with increasing individual plant biomass and root depth per area across species, suggesting that rare plant species were smaller in size and had shallower root systems compared to common plant species. Both root biomass per area and root feeder biomass per area decreased with soil depth, but the root feeder biomass decreased disproportionally faster compared to root biomass with increasing root depth. Root feeder load decreased with increasing root depth, but was not correlated with the feeding preference of root feeder species. Moreover, the prediction derived from a random process incorporating vertical distributions of root biomass and root feeder biomass significantly accounted for interspecific variation in root feeder load. In conclusion, the data indicate that root feeders incur negative density-dependent damage across plant species. On this basis, we suggest that manipulative experiments should be conducted to determine the effect of the negative density-dependent damage on plant community structure, and that different types of plant-animal interactions should be concurrently examined to fully understand the effect of plant density on overall herbivore damage across plant species.</p>
The functioning of alpine grassland ecosystems: climate outweighs plant species richness
<ol> <li><span>The biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationship has received significant attention in recent decades. It has been widely demonstrated that plant diversity plays a crucial role in enhancing the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. However, few studies have tested the influence of plant species richness in mediating the impacts of climate on ecosystem functions at large spatial scales. </span></li> <li><span>To address this gap, we utilized data from field surveys across broad climatic gradients at the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China. Our goal was to examine the importance of plant species richness for the functioning of alpine grassland ecosystems, specifically productivity and soil carbon sequestration. </span></li> <li><span>Our results showed strong positive correlations between ecosystem functioning and growing season precipitation as well as species richness. In contrast, there was a negative correlation with growing season temperature. Notably, the positive effect of growing season precipitation on ecosystem functioning outweighed the negative effect of growing season temperature. The indirect effects of growing season precipitation and temperature on ecosystem functioning through changes in species richness were weak. Furthermore, the inclusion of climate factors in the model weakened the relationships between species richness and ecosystem functioning.</span></li> <li><span><em>Synthesis</em>. Our findings demonstrate that climate factors are more important than species richness for the provisioning of ecosystem functions at large spatial scales. In summary, our study underscores the importance of considering climate factors alongside species richness when assessing ecosystem functioning across extensive geographical areas.</span></li> </ol>
Insect root feeders incur negative density-dependent damage across plant species in an alpine meadow
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Phylogeny does not predict the outcome of heterospecific pollen-pistil interactions in a species-rich alpine plant community
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Rare plant species are at a disadvantage when both herbivory and pollination interactions are considered in an alpine meadow
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
The functioning of alpine grassland ecosystems: climate outweighs plant species richness
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
The responses of microbial necromass carbon accumulation to climate aridity in alpine meadow soils are dominated by plant species richness
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Thermal niche traits of high alpine plant species and communities across the tropical Andes and their vulnerability to global warming
<a name="_Hlk10643461">Aim</a> <p>The Climate Variability Hypothesis (CVH) predicts that locations with reduced seasonal temperature variation select for species with narrower thermal ranges. Here we (1) test the CVH by assessing the effect of latitude and elevation on the thermal ranges of Andean vascular plant species and communities, and (2) assess tropical alpine plants vulnerability to warming based on their thermal traits.</p> Location <p>Tropical Andes</p> Taxon <p>Vascular plants</p> Methods <p>Temperature data for 505 vascular plant species from alpine communities on 49 summits, were extracted from 29,627 geo-referenced occurrences. Species thermal niche traits (TNTs) were estimated using bootstrapping for: minimum temperature, optimum (mean) temperature, and breadth (maximum-minimum). Plant community-weighted scores were estimated using the TNTs of their constituent species. CVH was tested for species, biogeographic species groups and communities. Vulnerability to global warming was assessed for species, biogeographic species groups and communities.</p> Results <p>Species restricted to the equator showed narrower thermal niche breadth than species whose ranges stretch far from the equator, however, no difference in niche breadth was found across summits' elevation. Biogeographic species groups distributed close to the equator and restricted to alpine regions showed narrower niche breadth than those with broader ranges. Community weighted-scores of thermal niche breadth were positively related to distance from equator but not to elevation. Based on their TNTs, species restricted to equatorial latitudes and plant communities dominated by these species were identified as the most vulnerable to the projected 1.5 °C warming, due to a potentially higher risk of losing thermal niche space.</p> Main conclusions <p>Our study confirms that the CVH applies to high tropical Andean plant species and communities, where latitude had a strong effect on the thermal niche breadth. TNTs are identified as suitable indicators of species' vulnerability to warming and are suggested to be included in long-term biodiversity monitoring in the Andes.</p>
Data from: Nurse species and indirect facilitation through grazing drive plant community functional traits in tropical alpine peatlands
Facilitation among plants mediated by grazers occurs when an unpalatable plant extends its protection against grazing to another plant. This type of indirect facilitation impacts species coexistence and ecosystem functioning in a large array of ecosystems worldwide. It has nonetheless generally been understudied so far in comparison with the role played by direct facilitation among plants. We aimed at providing original data on indirect facilitation at the community scale to determine the extent to which indirect facilitation mediated by grazers can shape plant communities. Such experimental data are expected to contribute to refining the conceptual framework on plant–plant–herbivore interactions in stressful environments. We set up a 2-year grazing exclusion experiment in tropical alpine peatlands in Bolivia. Those ecosystems depend entirely on a few, structuring cushion-forming plants (hereafter referred to as "nurse" species), in which associated plant communities develop. Fences have been set over two nurse species with different strategies to cope with grazing (direct vs. indirect defenses), which are expected to lead to different intensities of indirect facilitation for the associated communities. We collected functional traits which are known to vary according to grazing pressure (LDMC, leaf thickness, and maximum height), on both the nurse and their associated plant communities in grazed (and therefore indirect facilitation as well) and ungrazed conditions. We found that the effect of indirectly facilitated on the associated plant communities depended on the functional trait considered. Indirect facilitation decreased the effects of grazing on species relative abundance, mean LDMC, and the convergence of the maximum height distribution of the associated communities, but did not affect mean height or cover. The identity of the nurse species and grazing jointly affected the structure of the associated plant community through indirect facilitation. Our results together with the existing literature suggest that the "grazer–nurse–beneficiary" interaction module can be more complex than expected when evaluated in the field.
Data from: Modelling plant species distribution in alpine grasslands using airborne imaging spectroscopy
Remote sensing using airborne imaging spectroscopy (AIS) is known to retrieve fundamental optical properties of ecosystems. However, the value of these properties for predicting plant species distribution remains unclear. Here, we assess whether such data can add value to topographic variables for predicting plant distributions in French and Swiss alpine grasslands. We fitted statistical models with high spectral and spatial resolution reflectance data and tested four optical indices sensitive to leaf chlorophyll content, leaf water content and leaf area index. We found moderate added-value of AIS data for predicting alpine plant species distribution. Contrary to expectations, differences between species distribution models (SDMs) were not linked to their local abundance or phylogenetic/functional similarity. Moreover, spectral signatures of species were found to be partly site-specific. We discuss current limits of AIS-based SDMs, highlighting issues of scale and informational content of AIS data.
FIGURE 1. Cardamine panatohea. A. Mature plant with prostrate inflorescences. B. Plant with rosette leaves. C. Rosette leaves. D in Cardamine panatohea (Brassicaceae), a new, threatened, alpine species from New Zealand
FIGURE 1. Cardamine panatohea. A. Mature plant with prostrate inflorescences. B. Plant with rosette leaves. C. Rosette leaves. D. Hairs on leaf adaxial surface. E. Flowers top view. F. Flowers side view. G. Inflorescence with axillary rosettes. H. Inflorescence with siliques. Scale bars: C, G = 10 mm; D = 5 mm.
ScienceDex guides
Understand access before you commit
These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
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.