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27 results for “human-modified landscapes”
Top-down interactions in streams draining human-modified landscapes at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory from 1997 to 1998: Gradient algae data
Spatial and temporal variability of consumer-controlled forces have been the subject of much debate in ecology. To date, most studies considering variability of these top-down interactions have focused on systems minimally impacted by human activities. However, human modification of the landscape is prevalent, and it can significantly affect the strength and outcome of species interactions. The objective of this study was to examine how top-down interactions vary among streams with differing amounts of human disturbance in their watersheds. To address this issue, we experimentally excluded macroconsumers (fishes and crayfishes) from benthic areas of five southern Appalachian streams. These sites represented a range of human watershed development, from 100% to < 50% forested; macroconsumer assemblages at low development sites were dominated by benthic insectivores (Cottus bairdi) and crayfishes, whereas algivores (Campostoma anomalum) and general insectivores (e.g., Notropis leuciodus) were common at more developed sites. Using ceramic tiles as sampling substrates, we compared sediment, algal assemblages (chlorophyll a, AFDM, abundance, biovolume, and composition), and insect assemblages (abundance, biomass, and composition) in macroconsumer exclusion and control areas.
Effective dispersal patterns in prairie plant species across human-modified landscapes
<p>Effective dispersal among plant populations is dependent on vector behavior, landscape features, and availability of adequate habitats. To capture landscape feature effects on dispersal, studies must be conducted at scales reflecting single-generation dispersal events (meso-scale). Many studies are conducted at large-scales where genetic differentiation is due to dispersal occurring over multiple generations, making it difficult to interpret the effects of specific landscape features on vector behavior. Genetic structure at the meso-scale may be determined by ecological and evolutionary processes, such as the consequences of vector behavior on patterns of gene flow. We used chloroplast haplotypes and nuclear genome SNP surveys to identify landscape features influencing seed and pollen dispersal at a meso-scale within the Rogue River Valley in southern Oregon. We evaluated biotic and abiotic vector behavior by contrasting two annual species with differing dispersal mechanisms; <em>Achyrachaena mollis</em> (Asteraceae) is a self-pollinating and anemochoric species, and <em>Plectritis congesta</em> (Caprifoliaceae) is biotically pollinated with barochoric seeds. Using landscape genetics methods, we identified features of the study region that conduct or restrict dispersal. We found chloroplast haplotypes were indicative of historic patterns of gene flow prior to human modification of landscapes. Seed dispersal of <em>A. mollis</em> was best supported by models of isolation-by-distance, while seed-driven gene flow of <em>P. congesta</em> was determined by the distribution of preserved natural spaces and quality habitat. Whole-genome genetic structure was driven by both pollen and seed dispersal, and both species responded to contemporary landscape changes, such as urban and agricultural conversion, and habitat availability.</p>
Data from: The role of non-natural foods in the nutritional strategies of monkeys in a human-modified mosaic landscape
<p>Many tropical animals inhabit mosaic landscapes including human-modified habitat. In such landscapes, animals commonly adjust feeding behavior, and may incorporate non-natural foods. These behavioral shifts can influence consumers' nutritional states, with implications for population persistence. However, few studies have addressed the nutritional role of non-natural food. We examined nutritional ecology of wild blue monkeys to understand how dietary habits related to non-natural foods might support population persistence in a mosaic landscape. We documented prevalence and nutritional composition of non-natural foods in monkey diets to assess how habitat use influenced their consumption and their contribution to nutritional strategies. While most energy and macronutrients came from natural foods, subjects focused non-natural feeding activity on five exotic plants and averaged about a third of daily calories from non-natural foods. Most non-natural food calories came from non-structural carbohydrates and least from protein. Consumption of non-natural foods related to time in human-modified habitats, which two groups used non-randomly. Non-natural and natural foods were similar in nutrients, and the amount of non-natural food consumed drove variation in nutritional strategy. When more daily calories came from non-natural foods, females consumed a higher ratio of non-protein energy to protein (NPE:P). Females also prioritized protein while allowing NPE:P to vary, increasing NPE while capitalizing on non-natural foods. Overall, these tropical mammals achieved a similar nutrient balance regardless of their intake of non-natural foods. Forest and forest-adjacent areas with non-natural vegetation may provide adequate nutrient access for consumers, and thus contribute to wildlife conservation in mosaic tropical landscapes.</p>
Data from: Tracking shifts in forest structural complexity through space and time in human-modified tropical landscapes
<p>Habitat structural complexity is an emergent property of ecosystems that directly shapes their biodiversity, functioning and resilience to disturbance. Yet despite its importance, we continue to lack consensus on how best to define structural complexity, nor do we have a generalised approach to measure habitat complexity across ecosystems. To bridge this gap, here we adapt a geometric framework developed to quantify the surface complexity of coral reefs and apply it to the canopies of tropical rainforests. Using high-resolution, repeat-acquisition airborne laser scanning data collected over 450 km2 of human-modified tropical landscapes in Borneo, we generated 3D canopy height models of forests at varying stages of recovery from logging. We then tested whether the geometric framework of habitat complexity – which characterises 3D surfaces according to their height range, rugosity and fractal dimension – was able to detect how both human and natural disturbances drive variation in canopy structure through space and time across these landscapes. We found that together, these three metrics of surface complexity captured major differences in canopy 3D structure between highly-degraded, selectively logged and old-growth forests. Moreover, the three metrics were able to track distinct temporal patterns of structural recovery following logging and wind disturbance. However, in the process we also uncovered several important conceptual and methodological limitations with the geometric framework of habitat complexity. We found that fractal dimension was highly sensitive to small variations in data inputs and was ecologically counteractive (e.g., higher fractal dimension in oil palms than old-growth forests), while rugosity and height range were tightly correlated (r=0.75) due to their strong dependency on maximum tree height. Our results suggest that forest structural complexity cannot be summarised using these three descriptors alone, as they overlook key features of canopy vertical and horizontal structure that arise from the way trees fill 3D space.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
Testing the links between bird diversity, alien species and disturbance within a human-modified landscape
<p>Introduced alien species are associated with lower taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of native communities and negative impacts on ecosystem functioning. This is particularly evident in habitats where human disturbance may favour alien species, posing an additional stressor on native communities. Following the community resistance hypothesis (higher diversity promotes higher resistance to invasion), we predicted: i) higher taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity (TD, FD and PD respectively) in non-invaded bird communities (i.e. no alien bird species); and, ii) higher diversity and resistance to invasion in less human-disturbed areas. We surveyed bird communities in a modified Mediterranean landscape subject to varying levels of human disturbance. We tested whether TD, FD and PD were significantly different between non-invaded and invaded bird communities, and assessed the effect of land classes (forest, agriculture, urban), landscape composition and heterogeneity on these metrics. We found that non-invaded communities retained higher TD and FD, but not PD, than invaded communities. Alien birds occupied marginal niches in invaded communities, and did not fully compensate for the taxonomic and functional diversity loss caused by the absence of native species. These results were consistent across different land classes, suggesting weak environmental filtering of communities. Generally, less human-modified and more heterogeneous areas supported higher TD regardless of the presence of alien species. FD and PD of invaded communities decreased with increases in human-modified areas, whereas non-invaded communities were not affected. Our results suggest that even within a human-modified landscape, invaded community diversity is more affected by, and thus has a lower resilience to, disturbance. Restoring and protecting natural habitats within human-modified landscapes is likely to increase the resilience of native species.</p>
Effects of large mammal exclusion on seedling communities depend on plant species traits and landscape protection in human-modified Costa Rican forests
<ol> <li>Large terrestrial herbivorous mammals (LTH-mammals) influence plant community structure by affecting seedling establishment in mature tropical forests. Many of these LTH-mammals frequent secondary forests, but their effects on seedling establishment in them are understudied, hindering our understanding of how LTH-mammals influence forest regeneration in human-modified landscapes.</li> <li>We tested the hypothesis that the strength of LTH-mammals' effects on seedling establishment depends on landscape protection, forest successional stage, and plant species' traits using a manipulative field experiment in six 1-ha sites with varying successional age and landscape protection. In each site, we established forty seedling plot-pairs, with one plot excluding LTH-mammals and one not, and monitored seedlings of 116 woody species for 26 months.</li> <li>We found significant effects of LTH-mammal exclusion on seedling survival contingent upon the protection of forests at the landscape level and forest stage. After 26 months, survival differences between LTH-mammal exclusion and non-exclusion treatments were greater in protected than unprotected landscapes. Additionally, plant species' traits were related to the LTH-mammals' differential effects, as LTH-mammals reduced the survival of seedlings of larger-seeded species the most. Overall, LTH-mammals' effects translated into significant shifts in community composition as seedling communities inside and outside the exclosures diverged. Moreover, lower density and higher species diversity were found as early as 12 and 18 months outside than inside exclosures.</li> <li> <em>Synthesis and applications</em>. Insight into the interactions between LTH-mammals and seedling communities in forest regeneration can be instrumental in planning effective restoration efforts. We highlight the importance of landscape protection in seedling survival and the role of LTH-mammals in promoting seedling diversity in mature forests but also in secondary successional forests. The findings suggest that conservation efforts and possibly trophic rewilding can be important approaches for preserving diversity and influencing the trajectory of secondary tropical forest succession. However, we also caution that an overabundance of LTH-mammals may adversely impact the pace of forest succession due to their preference for large-seeded species. Therefore, a comprehensive wildlife management plan is indispensable. Additionally, longer-term studies on LTH-mammals are necessary to understand the effects of temporal fluctuations that are undetected in short-term studies.</li> </ol>
Testing the links between bird diversity, alien species and disturbance within a human-modified landscape
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Effects of large mammal exclusion on seedling communities depend on plant species traits and landscape protection in human-modified Costa Rican forests
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Data from: Spatial genetic structure of two conifers in a highly human-modified landscape of central Mexico
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Effective dispersal patterns in prairie plant species across human-modified landscapes
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The diel niche of brown bears: constraints on adaptive capacity in human-modified landscapes
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Data from: The role of non-natural foods in the nutritional strategies of monkeys in a human-modified mosaic landscape
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Data from: Tracking shifts in forest structural complexity through space and time in human-modified tropical landscapes
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Data from: Seasonal dynamics of flock interaction networks across a human-modified landscape in lowland Amazonian rainforest
<p><span>Although lowland tropical rainforests were once widely believed to be the archetype of stability, seasonal variation exists. In these environments, seasonality is defined by rainfall, leading to a predictable pattern of biotic and abiotic changes. Only the full annual cycle reveals niche breadth, yet most studies of tropical organisms ignore seasonality, thereby underestimating realized conditions. If human-modified habitats display more seasonal stress than intact habitats, then ignoring seasonality will have particularly important repercussions for conservation. We examined the seasonal dynamics of Amazonian mixed-species flocks—an important species interaction network—across three habitats with increasing human disturbance. We quantified seasonal space use, species richness and attendance, and four ecological network metrics for flocks in primary forest, small forest fragments, and regenerating secondary forest in central Amazonia. Our results indicate that, even in intact, lowland rainforest, mixed-species flocks exhibit seasonal differences. </span>During the dry season, flocks included more species, generally ranged over larger areas, and displayed network structures that were less complex and less cohesive. We speculate that because most flocking species nest during the dry season—a time of reduced arthropod abundance—flocks are simultaneously constrained by these two competing pressures. Moreover, these seasonal differences were most pronounced in forest fragments and secondary forest, habitats that are less buffered from the changing seasons. <span>Our results suggest that seasonality influences the conservation value of human-modified habitats, raising important questions about how rainforest organisms will cope with an increasingly unstable climate.</span></p>
Data from: Forest fragmentation alters winter microclimates and microrefugia in human-modified landscapes
With over half of earth's terrestrial biota living beneath forest canopies, our ability to accurately capture organism-climate relationships in forested ecosystems is imperative for predicting species' vulnerability to future climate change. Assessing the vulnerability of forest dependent species, however, hinges on quantifying microclimates that exist below the forest canopy and might be influenced by varying levels of disturbance in human-modified landscapes. The goal of our study was to examine the multi-scaled predictors of subcanopy microclimate variability across a heterogeneous landscape in Midwestern USA during winter, and to further evaluate whether a widely available interpolated climate model accurately captures this variability. By deploying a network of temperature sensors along a fragmentation gradient, we found that forests in more fragmented landscapes experienced colder minimum and average daily temperatures throughout the winter than forests in less fragmented landscapes. We found that greater tree densities and higher elevations led to warmer microclimates while increasing distances from urban centers led to colder microclimates. The negative effect of forest edge on minimum temperatures was lessened by the effect of increasing basal area, highlighting the importance of local- and landscape-scale features on microclimate heterogeneity. Temperature discrepancies between subcanopy microclimates and climate interpolations were influenced by many of the same features, and could be of a similar magnitude as those predicted by future climate change scenarios. Using a biological threshold based on metabolic and demographic constraints for winter birds, we found that the variability in microclimates along our forest fragmentation gradient (50 km) was comparable to the magnitude captured by weather stations across a latitudinal gradient spanning more than 650 km. Our results suggest that biophysical properties of landscapes can alter spatial gradients of microclimates and should be considered when assessing species' vulnerabilities to future climate change.
Data from: Toucans (Ramphastos ambiguus) facilitate resilience against seed dispersal limitation to a large-seeded tree (Virola surinamensis) in a human-modified landscape
Large-seeded plants may suffer seed dispersal limitation in human-modified landscapes if seed dispersers are absent or unable to disperse their seeds. We investigated dispersal limitation for the large-seeded tree Virola surinamensis in a human-modified landscape in southern Costa Rica. During two fruiting seasons, we monitored crop size, seed removal rates, the number of fruiting conspecifics within 100 m, and feeding visitation rates by frugivores at trees located in high and low forest disturbance conditions. Seed removal rates and the total number of seeds removed were high regardless of the disturbance level, but these parameters increased with tree crop size and decreased with the number of fruiting V. surinamensis trees within a 100 m radius. Trees at low disturbance levels were more likely to be visited by seed dispersers. Black mandibled toucans (Ramphastos ambiguus) and spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) were the most important seed dispersers, based on visitation patterns and seed removal rates. Spider monkey feeding visits were more frequent at high disturbance levels, but the monkeys preferentially visited isolated trees with large yields and surrounded by a low number of fruiting Virola trees within 100 m. Toucan visitation patterns were not constrained by any of the predictors and they visited trees equally across the landscape. We suggest that isolated and highly fecund Virola trees are an important food resource for spider monkeys in human-modified landscapes and that toucans can provide resilience against seed dispersal limitations for large-seeded plants in human-modified landscapes in the absence of hunting.
Human-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: the grey-headed flying-fox
<p>Urban expansion is a major threat to natural ecosystems but also creates novel opportunities that adaptable species can exploit. The grey-headed flying-fox (<em>Pteropus poliocephalus</em>) is a threatened, highly mobile species of bat that is increasingly found in human-dominated landscapes, leading to many management and conservation challenges. Flying-fox urbanisation is thought to be a result of diminishing natural foraging habitat or increasing urban food resources, or both. However, little is known about landscape utilisation of flying-foxes in human-modified areas, and how this may differ in natural areas. Here we examine positional data from 98 satellite-tracked <em>P. poliocephalus</em> for up to 5 years in urban and non-urban environments, in relation to vegetation data and published indices of foraging habitat quality. Our findings indicate that human-modified foraging landscapes sustain a large proportion of the <em>P. poliocephalus</em> population year-round. When individuals roosted in non-urban and minor-urban areas, they relied primarily on wet and dry sclerophyll forest, forested wetlands, and rainforest for foraging, and preferentially visited foraging habitat designated as high-quality. However, our results highlight the importance of human-modified foraging habitats throughout the species' range, and particularly for individuals that roosted in major-urban environments. The exact plant species that exist in human-modified habitats are largely undocumented; however, where this information was available, foraging by <em>P. poliocephalus </em>was associated with different dominant plant species depending on whether individuals roosted in 'urban' or 'non-urban' areas. Overall, our results demonstrate clear differences in urban- and non-urban landscape utilisation by foraging <em>P. poliocephalus</em>. However, further research is needed to understand the exact foraging resources used, particularly in human-modified habitats, and hence what attracts flying-foxes to urban areas. Such information could be used to modify the urban foraging landscape, to assist long-term habitat management programs aimed at minimising human-wildlife conflict and maximising resource availability within and outside of urban environments.</p>
Data from: Seasonal dynamics of flock interaction networks across a human-modified landscape in lowland Amazonian rainforest
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Data from: Toucans (Ramphastos ambiguus) facilitate resilience against seed dispersal limitation to a large-seeded tree (Virola surinamensis) in a human-modified landscape
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Optimising bat bioacoustic surveys in human-modified neotropical landscapes
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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.
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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
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