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22 results for “novel ecosystems”
Data and R Code from "A novel approach to sustainability assessment of food supply chains using networks of ecosystem services"
<p>Data and R code from this paper applying network analysis (iGraph) to two case studies pre and post agroecological transitions in Central America and Tanzania, Africa from the IPES-Food report. Further descriptions of this data and code can be found within the extended manuscript. R Code relies on the data from the scenarios (e.g., Nodes and Relations CSVs) and creates the output network metrics (e.g., Node Metric CSVs). </p>
Data from: Pop‐off data storage tags reveal niche partitioning between native and non‐native predators in a novel ecosystem
1. Niche partitioning might be predicted to be particularly dynamic in 'novel ecosystems' characterized by human-altered environmental conditions and biological invasions. Restoration efforts for native species in such systems can be informed by detailed characterization of niche partitioning. 2. In Lake Ontario, fishery management agencies have been engaged in a long-term struggle to restore native top predators including lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Meanwhile, management agencies continue to stock non-native species like Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) into the lake to support a recreational fishery and to help control the abundance of a non-native forage fish, the alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus). 3. We used pop-off data storage tags to study fine scale (9.1M lines of data from 22 animals) behaviour and habitat use by lake trout (native) and Chinook salmon (non-native) in Lake Ontario in terms of depth and temperature, recorded at ≤70 s intervals for periods of up to 12 months. 4. Chinook salmon occupied warmer and shallower waters during summer than did lake trout, and their niche breadth was wider. They achieved greater niche breadth in part because they were much more active vertically, cumulatively traveling 103±1 m hour-1 during summer (model-estimated median), whereas most lake trout were relatively inactive vertically (7±1 m hour-1). In each of our analyses, there was more inter-individual variation among lake trout than among Chinook salmon, driven by some lake trout that spent considerable time making forays into warmer, shallower waters. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our results illustrate the different foraging tactics used by two species in the Great Lakes and reflect their distinct life histories. Vertical and thermal niche partitioning between Chinook salmon and lake trout helps to explain how these species can co-exist in a multi-species fishery even while having substantial overlap in diet. The diversity of behaviours exhibited here by native lake trout have likely helped them persist during dramatic changes to the forage base in recent decades; that flexibility could help underlie their long-term prospects for restoration during future changes to the ecosystem.
Structural diversity as a reliable and novel predictor for ecosystem productivity
<p>Data and code for LaRue et al. (2023) Structural diversity as a reliable and novel predictor for ecosystem productivity.<br> Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment: Accepted.</p>
Data from: Pop‐off data storage tags reveal niche partitioning between native and non‐native predators in a novel ecosystem
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A novel hybrid beachgrass is invading U.S. Pacific Northwest dunes with potential ecosystem consequences
<p>Invasive plants formed via hybridization, especially those that modify the structure and function of their ecosystems, are of particular concern given the potential for hybrid vigor. In the U.S. Pacific Northwest, two invasive, dune-building beachgrasses, <em>Ammophila arenaria</em> (European beachgrass) and <em>A. breviligulata</em> (American beachgrass) have hybridized and formed a new beachgrass taxa (<em>Ammophila arenaria</em> × <em>A. breviligulata</em>) but little is known about its distribution, spread, and ecological consequences. Here we report on surveys of the hybrid beachgrass conducted across a 250-km range from Moclips, Washington to Pacific City, Oregon in 2021 and 2022. We detected nearly 300 hybrid individuals, or an average of 8–14 hybrid individuals per km of surveyed foredune. The hybrid was more common at sites within southern Washington and northern Oregon where <em>A. breviligulata</em> is abundant (75–90% cover) and <em>A. arenaria</em> is sparse and patchy. The hybrid displayed morphological traits such as shoot density and height that typically exceeded its parent species suggesting hybrid vigor. We measured an average growth rate of 30% over one year, with individuals growing faster at the leading edge of the foredune, nearest the beach. We also found a positive relationship between hybrid abundance and that of <em>A. arenaria</em>, suggesting that <em>A. arenaria</em> density may be a controlling factor for hybridization rate. The hybrid showed similar sand deposition and associated plant species richness patterns compared to its parent species, although longer-term studies are needed. Finally, we found hybrid individuals within and near conservation habitat of two Endangered Species Act-listed, threatened bird species, the western snowy plover (<em>Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus</em>) and the streaked horned lark (<em>Eremophila alpestris strigata</em>), a concern for conservation management. Documenting this emerging hybrid beachgrass provides insights into how hybridization affects the spread of novel species and the consequences for communities in which they invade.</p>
A novel hybrid beachgrass is invading U.S. Pacific Northwest dunes with potential ecosystem consequences
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Data from: Can novel pest outbreaks drive ecosystem transitions in northern-boreal birch forest?
1. The boreal biome exhibits distinct alternative ecosystem states with high and low levels of tree-cover. Insect outbreaks facilitated by climate warming could potentially drive transitions from high to low tree-cover states. We investigated whether two key premises for such outbreak-induced transitions – critical thresholds (tipping points) and positive feedbacks that could maintain alternative states – are present in the northern-boreal mountain birch forest of Fennoscandia. Here, climate warming has promoted range expansions of defoliating geometrid moths, resulting in novel, severe multispecies outbreaks, most recently during 2002-2010. 2. We conducted regional-scale field surveys of forest damage and recovery in 280 mountain birch stands in a northeast Norway immediately after the outbreak (2010) and six years later (2016). Satellite-derived time series of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) provided an index of stand defoliation during the outbreak period. 3. The proportion of dead stems per stand displayed a bimodal distribution, with stands generally being either lightly or severely damaged. This was due to a critical threshold in the relationship between defoliation and stem mortality, with mortality rates increasing abruptly in stands experiencing a mean drop in NDVI of more than 4 % during the outbreak. The two key forest regenerative pathways – basal sprouting and sapling production – both displayed positive feedbacks with surviving stems and trees, so that regeneration success declined with increasing damage to the mature tree layer. These feedbacks imply that stands which have been forced across critical defoliation thresholds and suffered collapses of living tree cover may struggle to recover, especially if the loss of positive regenerative feedbacks is compounded by ungulate browsing on birch recruits. 4. Synthesis. The north Fennoscandian mountain birch forest displays critical thresholds and positive feedbacks that conform to theoretical expectations for a system that could be vulnerable to abrupt and persistent changes of state in the face of novel, climatically facilitated insect outbreaks. These findings deepen the understanding of the persistent losses of tree-cover that have occasionally been observed after outbreaks in this system in the past, and adds to the list of mechanisms that could help explain the bistability of tree-cover across the boreal biome.
Data from: Contrasting ecological roles of non-native ungulates in a novel ecosystem
Conservation has long focused on preserving or restoring pristine ecosystems. However, understanding and managing novel ecosystems has grown in importance as they outnumber pristine ecosystems worldwide. While non-native species may be neutral or detrimental in pristine ecosystems, it is possible that even notorious invaders could play beneficial or mixed roles in novel ecosystems. We examined the effects of two long-established non-native species – Philippine deer (Rusa marianna) and feral pigs (Sus scrofa) – in Guam, Micronesia, where native vertebrate frugivores are functionally absent leaving forests devoid of seed dispersers. We compared the roles of deer and pigs on seedling survival, seed dispersal, and plant community structure in limestone karst forests. Deer, even at low abundances, had pronounced negative impacts on forest communities by decreasing seedling and vine abundance. In contrast, pigs showed no such relationship, and more seeds were found in pig scats than deer scats, suggesting that pigs provide an ecosystem function – seed dispersal – that has been lost from Guam. Our study presents a surprising discrepancy between the roles of two non-native species that are traditionally managed as a single entity, suggesting that ecological function, rather than identity as a non-native, may be more important to consider in managing novel systems.
Data from: Can ecosystem functioning be maintained despite climate-driven shifts in species composition? Insights from novel marine forests
1. Climate change is driving a redistribution of species and reconfiguration of ecological communities at a global scale. Persistent warming in many regions has caused species to extend their geographical ranges into new habitats, with thermally-tolerant species often becoming competitively dominant over species with colder affinities. Although these climate-driven changes in species abundance and diversity are well documented, their ecosystem-level implications are poorly understood, and resolving whether reconfigured communities can maintain fundamental ecosystem functions represents a pressing challenge in an increasingly warmer world. 2. Here, we investigated how climate-driven substitutions of foundation species influence processes associated with carbon and nutrient cycling (biomass production, detritus flow, herbivory, decomposition) by comparing two habitat-forming kelp species with contrasting thermal affinities. We examined the wider consequences of the observed (and predicted) emergence of novel marine forests in the NE Atlantic, which are expected to become more dominated by range-expanding, warm-temperate kelps. 3. Warm-temperate kelps both accumulated and released 80% more biomass than the cold-temperate species despite being taxonomically closely-related and morphologically similar. Furthermore, the warm-temperate species accumulated biomass and released detritus year-round, whereas the cold-temperate species did so during short, discrete periods. The warm-temperate kelps supported higher densities of invertebrate grazers and were a preferred food source. Finally, their detritus decomposed 6.5 times faster, despite supporting comparable numbers of detritivores. Overall, our results indicate an important shift in the cycling of organic matter in kelp forests along parts of the NE Atlantic coastline following climate-driven expansion of a warm-affinity kelp, with novel forests supplying large amounts of temporally-continuous—yet highly labile—organic matter. 4. Synthesis. Collectively, our results show that, like species invasions, climate-driven range expansions and consequent shifts in the identity of dominant species can modify a wide range of important ecosystem processes. However, alterations in overall ecosystem functioning may be relatively limited where foundation species share similar ecological and functional traits.
Data from: The assembly and importance of a novel ecosystem: the ant community of coffee farms in Puerto Rico
<p>Agricultural ecosystems are, by their very nature novel, and, by definition, the more general biodiversity associated with them must likewise constitute a novel community. Here we examine the community of arboreally foraging ants in the coffee agroecosystem of Puerto Rico. We surveyed 20 coffee plants in 25 farms three times in a period of one year. We also conducted a more spatially explicit sampling in two of the farms and conducted a species interaction study between the two most abundant species, Wasmannia auropunctata and Solenopsis invicta in the laboratory. We find that the majority of the most common species are well-known invasive ants and that there is a highly variable pattern of dominance that varies considerably over the main coffee producing region of Puerto Rico, suggesting an unusual modality of community structure. The distribution pattern of the two most common species, W. auropunctata and S. invicta, suggests strong competitive exclusion. However, they also have opposite relationships with the percent of shade cover, with W. auropunctata showing a positive relationship with shade, while S. invicta has a negative relationship. The spatial distribution of these two dominant species in the two more intensively studied farms suggests that young colonies of S. invicta can displace W. auropunctata. Laboratory experiments confirm this. These results suggest the existence of a spatially explicit intransitive loop that includes these two species and is mediated by a phorid fly parasitoid that attack the larger workers of S. invicta. In addition to the elaboration of the nature and extent of this novel ant community, we speculate on the possibilities of its active inclusion as part of a biological control system dealing with several coffee pests, including one of the ants itself, W. auropunctata.</p>
Data from: Can ecosystem functioning be maintained despite climate-driven shifts in species composition? Insights from novel marine forests
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Data from: Can novel pest outbreaks drive ecosystem transitions in northern-boreal birch forest?
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Data from: The assembly and importance of a novel ecosystem: the ant community of coffee farms in Puerto Rico
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Data from: Contrasting ecological roles of non-native ungulates in a novel ecosystem
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Offshore platforms as novel ecosystems: a case study from Australia's Northwest Shelf
<p>The decommissioning of offshore oil and gas platforms typically involves removing some or all of the associated infrastructure and the consequent destruction of the associated marine ecosystem that has developed over decades. There is increasing evidence of the important ecological role played by offshore platforms. Concepts such as novel ecosystems allow stakeholders to consider the ecological role played by each platform in the decommissioning process. This study focused on the Wandoo field in Northwest Australia as a case study for the application of the novel ecosystem concept to the decommissioning of offshore platforms. Stereo-baited remote underwater video systems were used to assess the habitat composition and fish communities at Wandoo, as well as two control sites: a sandy one that resembled the Wandoo site pre-installation, and one characterised by a natural reef as a control for natural hard substrate and vertical relief. We found denser macrobenthos habitat at the Wandoo site than at either of the control sites, which we attributed to the exclusion of seabed trawling around the Wandoo infrastructure. We also found that the demersal and pelagic taxonomic assemblages at Wandoo more closely resemble those at a natural reef than those which would likely have been present pre-installation, but these assemblages are still unique in a regional context. The demersal assemblage is characterised by reef-associated species with higher diversity than those at the sand control and natural reef control sites, with the pelagic community characterised by species associated with oil platforms in other regions. These findings suggest that a novel ecosystem has emerged in the Wandoo field. It is likely that many of the novel qualities of this ecosystem would be lost under decommissioning scenarios that involve partial or complete removal. This study provides an example for classifying offshore platforms as novel ecosystems.</p>
Offshore platforms as novel ecosystems: a case study from Australia’s Northwest Shelf
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Data from: Simulating regimes of chemical disturbance and testing impacts in the ecosystem using a novel programmable dosing system
Pollution is a global issue at the frontier between ecology, environmental science, management, engineering and policy. Legislation requires experiments to determine how much contamination an ecosystem can absorb before there are structural or functional changes. Yet, existing methods cannot realistically simulate regimes of chemical disturbance and determine impacts to assemblages in ecosystems. This is because they lack ecologically relevant species and biotic interactions, are logistically difficult to set-up, and lack environmentally relevant regimes of chemical and abiotic disturbance that organisms experience in polluted areas. We solved these long-standing environmental, logistical, experimental and ecological problems by developing a programmable dosing-system. This dosing-system simulates, in situ, regimes of chemical disturbance to assemblages by manipulating the concentration, duration, timing and frequency of pollutants to which they are exposed. Experiments with priority pollutants (the metal copper and the biocide Chlorpyrifos) and mussel assemblages revealed consistent plumes of contamination within patches of mussel. Mussels at the sources of experimental plumes of copper created by the dosing-system, accumulated 670% more copper in their tissues compared to mussels 0.5-50 m away. In addition, when mussels were exposed to increasing concentrations of copper there was a concomitant increase in the amount of copper in the tissues of mussels. Combining the dosing-system with an established hierarchy of ecotoxicological assays revealed mussel assemblages exposed to copper and/or Chlorpyrifos had 40-70% fewer worms, whilst Chlorpyrifos alone caused an 81% reduction in the number of amphipods and caused mussels to filter 48% fewer particles from the water. Combinations of copper and/or Chlorpyrifos had no effects on the abundance of crabs, the respiratory functions of assemblages or the viability of molluscan haemocytes. As global contamination accelerates we discuss how this technological advance will enable a diverse array of ecologists, mangers and policy-makers to understand and reduce pollution.
Data from: Novel forests maintain ecosystem processes after the decline of native tree species
The positive relationship between species diversity (richness and evenness) and critical ecosystem functions, such as productivity, carbon storage, and nutrient cycling, is often used to predict the consequences of extinction. At regional scales, however, plant species richness is mostly increasing rather than decreasing because successful plant species introductions far outnumber extinctions. If these regional increases in richness lead to local increases in diversity, a reasonable prediction is that productivity, carbon storage, and nutrient cycling will increase following invasion, yet this prediction has rarely been tested empirically. We tested this prediction in novel forest communities dominated by introduced species (~ 90% basal area) in lowland Hawaiian rainforests by comparing their functionality to that of native forests. We conducted our comparison along a natural gradient of increasing nitrogen availability, allowing for a more detailed examination of the role of plant functional trait differences (specifically, N2-fixation) in driving possible changes to ecosystem function. Hawai'i is emblematic of regional patterns of species change; it has much higher regional plant richness than it did historically, due to > 1000 plant species introductions and only ~ 71 known plant extinctions--resulting in an approximately 100% increase in richness. At local scales, we found that novel forests had significantly higher tree species richness and higher diversity of dominant tree species. We further found that aboveground biomass, productivity, nutrient turnover (as measured by soil-available and litter-cycled nitrogen and phosphorus), and belowground carbon storage either did not differ significantly or were significantly greater in novel relative to native forests. We found that the addition of introduced N2-fixing tree species on N-limited substrates had the strongest effect on ecosystem function--a pattern found by previous empirical tests. Our results support empirical predictions of the functional effects of diversity, but they also suggest basic ecosystem processes will continue even after dramatic losses of native species diversity if simple functional roles are provided by introduced species. Because large portions of the Earth's surface are undergoing similar transitions from native to novel ecosystems, our results are likely to be broadly applicable.
Data from: An artificial habitat facilitates a climate-mediated range expansion into a suboptimal novel ecosystem
[No abstract entered]
Data from: Simulating regimes of chemical disturbance and testing impacts in the ecosystem using a novel programmable dosing system
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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)
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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.