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6 results for “niche-based processes”
Data from: Invertebrate diversity in groundwater filled lava caves is influenced by both neutral and niche-based processes
<p><strong>Aim</strong>: Understanding which factors shape and maintain biodiversity is essential to understand how ecosystems respond to crises. Biodiversity in ecological communities is a result of the interaction of various factors which can be classified as neutral or niche-based. The importance of these processes has been debated, but many scientists believe that both processes are important. Here we examined the importance of neutral vs. niche-based factors for shaping invertebrate communities. We hypothesized that if neutral processes are the main drivers of community structure we would not see any clear relationship between the structure of community and ecological factors. If niche-based processes are important we should see clear relationships between community structure and variation in ecological variables.</p> <p><strong>Location</strong>: Groundwater-filled lava caves near Lake Mývatn, Iceland.</p> <p><strong>Methods</strong>: We collected various ecological variables from these caves. Invertebrate communities were collected on the hard bottom using stone scrubbing and from epibenthic traps. Results: Both communities were species-poor, with low densities of invertebrates, showing the resource-limited and oligotrophic nature of these systems. Unusually for Icelandic freshwater ecosystems, the benthic communities were not dominated by Chironomidae (Diptera) larvae, but rather by crustaceans, mainly Cladocera. The epibenthic communities were not shaped by environmental variables, suggesting that they may be structured primarily by neutral processes. The benthic communities were shaped by the availability of energy, and to some extent pH, suggesting that niche-based processes were important drivers of community structure, although neutral processes may still be relevant. </p> <p><strong>Main conclusions</strong>: The results suggest that both processes are important for invertebrate communities in freshwater, and research should focus on understanding both of these processes. The ponds we studied are representative of a number of freshwater ecosystems that are extremely vulnerable to human disturbance, making it even more important to understand how their biodiversity is shaped and maintained.</p>
Data from: Invertebrate diversity in groundwater filled lava caves is influenced by both neutral and niche-based processes
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Scale-dependent species-area relationship: niche-based versus stochastic processes in a typical subtropical forest
<p><span>Determining the patterns and drivers of the small-scale species-area relationship (SAR) is crucial for improving our understanding of community assembly and biodiversity patterns. Niche-based and stochastic processes are two principal categories of mechanisms potentially driving SARs. However, their relative importance has rarely been quantified rigorously owing to scale-dependence and the simplified niche volumes often used. </span></p> <p><span>In a fully mapped, 24-ha plot of a typical subtropical forest, we built the SARs and well-defined niche-hyper-volumes of a broad range of environmental variables at scales of 10 - 70 m (cell sizes). We then simulated passive sampling and partitioned the variances of the SAR slopes to disentangle the two contrasting mechanisms.</span></p> <p><span>We found that the small-scale SAR best followed a power-law relationship, consistent with large-scale SARs. The SAR slope declined with increasing scale; it was lower than expected under passive sampling at scales below 30 m and higher at larger scales. Environmental niches explained more (39%-64%) of the slope at larger scales, exceeding 50% at scales > 30 m, and these niches always captured the majority of the structured slopes. Environmental position (environmental mean values) effects were steady in absolute strength across scales and explained most (98%-68%) of the niche effect, but this proportion decreased with increasing scale. The effect of environmental heterogeneity increased with spatial scales, starting to rise at the 30 m scale after controlling for environmental position. Excluding soil properties from analyses strongly reduced these niche effects, highlighting the importance of soils for structuring the small-scale SAR. There was also substantial stochasticity in the SAR slopes, which was only partially explained by passive sampling.</span></p> <p><span>Synthesis: Our results show that the small-scale SAR in the studied subtropical forest follows a power-law, exhibits a scale shift in slope at 30 m, and is strongly shaped by niche effects that are dominated by environmental position relative to heterogeneity. However, soil heterogeneity controls the increase of niche effect and shift in the SAR slope with increasing spatial scales. Hence, edaphic factors can be responsible for scale-dependence in small-scale SARs, thereby linking small-scale and large-scale SARs. </span></p>
Scale-dependent species-area relationship: niche-based versus stochastic processes in a typical subtropical forest
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Data from: Community assembly in Lake Tanganyika cichlid fish: quantifying the contributions of both niche-based and neutral processes
The cichlid family features some of the most spectacular examples of adaptive radiation. Evolutionary studies have highlighted the importance of both trophic adaptation and sexual selection in cichlid speciation. However, it is poorly understood what processes drive the composition and diversity of local cichlid species assemblages on relatively short, ecological timescales. Here, we investigate the relative importance of niche-based and neutral processes in determining the composition and diversity of cichlid communities inhabiting various environmental conditions in the littoral zone of Lake Tanganyika, Zambia. We collected data on cichlid abundance, morphometrics, and local environments. We analyzed relationships between mean trait values, community composition, and environmental variation, and used a recently developed modeling technique (STEPCAM) to estimate the contributions of niche-based and neutral processes to community assembly. Contrary to our expectations, our results show that stochastic processes, and not niche-based processes, were responsible for the majority of cichlid community assembly. We also found that the relative importance of niche-based and neutral processes was constant across environments. However, we found significant relationships between environmental variation, community trait means, and community composition. These relationships were caused by niche-based processes, as they disappeared in simulated, purely neutrally assembled communities. Importantly, these results can potentially reconcile seemingly contrasting findings in the literature about the importance of either niche-based or neutral-based processes in community assembly, as we show that significant trait relationships can already be found in nearly (but not completely) neutrally assembled communities; that is, even a small deviation from neutrality can have major effects on community patterns.
Data from: Community assembly in Lake Tanganyika cichlid fish: quantifying the contributions of both niche-based and neutral processes
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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.