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229 results for “plant species richness”
Species cover, community biomass, and richness in global grasslands from NutNet (2007–2023): Dominant species predict plant richness and biomass in global grasslands
The Nutrient Network (NutNet) is a globally coordinated research initiative designed to investigate the impacts of human-driven alterations in nutrient availability and consumer presence on grassland ecosystems. Data were collected from over 130 herbaceous-dominated sites worldwide, spanning diverse environmental conditions from desert grasslands to arctic tundra. Standardized methodologies were employed across all sites to enable direct comparisons of productivity, diversity, and ecosystem responses. Experimental treatments included nutrient additions to assess co-limitation of plant growth by multiple nutrients, as well as grazer manipulations to examine their role in regulating biomass, species diversity, and community composition. By compiling these cross-site data, NutNet aims to enhance our understanding of productivity-diversity relationships and provide new insights into the ecological consequences of anthropogenic changes to nutrient cycles and food webs at a global scale.
Species richness of vascular plants and bryophytes in nine grassland sites (Europe and California collected in 2013-2016)
We sampled vascular plants (VP) and bryophytes (non-vascular plant; NVP) 1×1 m experimental plots in nine sites belonging to the Nutrient Network. Three sites were in California, two in Finland and UK and one in Germany and Switzerland. The data were collected to compare the responses of NVPs and VPs to nutrient addition and grazing exclusion treatments. The NVP and VP cover sampling was conducted in March-August 2016, except for heron.uk and rook.uk, which had been sampled for VPs in 2013. NVPs were mostly identified to species, but in absence of necessary diagnostic characters (capsules, other reproductive organs, distinctive gametophytic features), some specimens were identified at morphospecies group, subgenus, or genus level. We calculated three plant diversity indices for NVPs, VPs and total (NVPs and VPs combined) in each plot. First, species richness (S) is the number of species per 1 m2 for NVPs and VPs. For plots having no NVPs, NVP richness is zero. Second, for plots having at least one NVP, we calculated Inverse Simpson’s index of diversity (referred to as species diversity), which is equivalent to the Probability of Interspecific Encounter or Effective Number of Species (ENSPIE). Third, we calculated Simpson’s evenness (E = ENSPIE/S; referred to as evenness), which was expected to reflect changes in species’ dominance. We also sampled aboveground plant biomass at peak biomass of vascular plants (in May- August, depending on local site level characteristics) by clipping at ground level and removing all aboveground vegetation (live and dead) from two 0.1 × 1 m strips, sorting the current year’s VP and NVP biomass from the previous year’s biomass (dead litter), drying the biomass to a constant mass at 60 °C, and weighing it to the nearest 0.01 g. Except for two sites (heron.uk and rook.uk), we also measured photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) at the ground surface and above grassland canopy at time of peak biomass and calculated the proportion of tra
PRP02 Plant diversity, richness, and plant species cover in konza prairie restoration heterogeneity plots, since 1998
The experiment is a randomized complete block design with four whole plot hetereogeneity treatments replicated within each of four blocks (n=16 whole plots). The whole plot treatments were created using different combinations of soil depth and nutrient manipulations. The control plots contained no depth or nutrient manipulations. The maximum hetereogeneity plots contained three 2 m x 8 m vertical strips assigned to ambient, enriched and reduced N treatments and four 2 m x 6 m horizontal strips assigned to deep and shallow soil to result in six treatment combinations. The maximum heterogeneity plots are a split-block design. Every plot contained 12 subplots (2 m x 2 m) for sampling. Prior to sowing, all of the plots were excavatedto a depth of approximately 25 cm. Natural limestone slabs were laid in strips assigned to the shallow soil treatment. The soil from all plots was then replaced, leveled, and disked (2-3 cm deep). In February 1998, we incorporated sawdust (49% C; C:N ratio=122) into the strips assigned to the reduced-N treatment. The average C concentration and bulk density in the surface 15 cm following long-term cultivation was 1.5% and 1.2 g cm-3, respectively. Sawdust was tilled into the soil at a rate of 5.5 kg dry wt./m2 to achieve a C concentration representative of native prairie soil (approx. 3% C). Surface applications of granular sugar were initiated in 2004 at a rate of 200 g sucrose m-2 (84.22 g C/m2) 3-4 times each growing season. Strips assigned to the enriched-N treatment were fertilized with 5 g N m2/y (applied as ammonium-nitrate) in July of the first growing season and early June of each subsequent years.
Dataset Changes in structure and assembly of a species-rich soil natural community with contrasting nutrient availability upon establishment of a plant-beneficial Pseudomonas in the wheat rhizosphere
<p>This dataset is related to the paper "<strong>Changes in structure and assembly of a species-rich soil natural community with contrasting nutrient availability upon establishment of a plant-beneficial <em>Pseudomonas </em>in the wheat rhizosphere</strong>" (Garrido-Sanz et al., 2023, doi: 10.1186/s40168-023-01660-5) and contains the data obtained from bacterial competition asays and plant-growth measurements.</p> <p>Sequencing data used in this study has been deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (RSA) under the BioProject accession number <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA948847">PRJNA948847</a>.</p> <p>The R script used to analyze the data generated in the paper is available at <a href="https://github.com/dgarrs/Pprotegens_proliferation_NatComs">GitHub </a>and <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8322086">Zenodo</a>.</p>
Projected climate and canopy change lead to thermophilization and homogenization of forest floor vegetation in a hotspot of plant species richness, Berchtesgaden National Park, Bavaria, Germany
Mountain forests are plant diversity hotspots, but changing climate and increasing forest disturbances will likely lead to far-reaching plant community change. Projecting future change, however, is challenging for forest understory plants, which respond to forest structure and composition as well as climate. Here, we jointly assessed effects of both climate and forest change, including wind and bark beetle disturbances, using the process-based simulation model iLand in a protected landscape in the northern Alps (Berchtesgaden National Park, Germany), asking: (1) How do understory plant communities respond to 21st-century change in a topographically complex mountain landscape, representing a hotspot of plant species richness? (2) How important are climatic changes (i.e., direct climate effects) versus forest structure and composition changes (i.e., indirect climate effects and recovery from past land use) in driving understory responses at landscape scales? Stacked individual species distribution models fit with climate, forest, and soil predictors (248 species currently present in the landscape, derived from 150 field plots stratified by elevation and forest development, overall AUC = 0.86) were driven with projected climate (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) and modeled forest variables to predict plant community change. Nearly all species persisted in the landscape in 2050, but on average 8% of the species pool was lost by the end of the century. By 2100, landscape mean species richness and understory cover declined (-13% and -8%, respectively), warm-adapted species increasingly dominated plant communities (i.e., thermophilization, +12%), and plot-level turnover was high (62%). Subalpine forests experienced the greatest richness declines (-16%), most thermophilization (+17%), and highest turnover (67%), resulting in plant community homogenization across elevation zones. Climate rather than forest change was the dominant driver of understory responses. The magnitude of unabated 2
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.
Data and code from: Functional rarity of plants in German hay meadows - patterns on the species level and mismatches with community species richness
<p>Functional rarity (FR) - a feature combining a species' rarity with the distinctiveness of its traits - represents a promising tool to better understand the ecological importance of rare species and consequently to protect functional diversity more efficiently. Yet, we lack a systematic understanding of FR on both the species level (which species are functionally rare and why) and the community level (how is FR associated with biodiversity and environmental conditions). Here, we quantify FR for 218 plant species from German hay meadows on a local, regional, and national scale by combining data from 6500 vegetation relevés and 15 ecologically relevant traits. We investigate the association between rarity and trait distinctiveness on different spatial scales via correlation measures and show which traits lead to low or high trait distinctiveness via distance-based redundancy analysis. We test how species richness and FR are correlated and use boosted regression trees to determine environmental conditions driving species richness and FR. On the local scale, only rare species showed high trait distinctiveness while on larger spatial scales rare and common species showed high trait distinctiveness. As infrequent trait attributes (e.g., legumes, low clonality) led to higher trait distinctiveness, we argue that functionally rare species are either specialists or transients. While specialists occupy a particular niche in hay meadows leading to lower rarity on larger spatial scales, transients display distinct but maladaptive traits resulting in high rarity across all spatial scales. More functionally rare species than expected by chance occurred in species-poor communities indicating that they prefer environmental conditions differing from characteristic conditions of species-rich hay meadows. Finally, we argue that functionally rare species are not necessarily relevant for nature conservation, since many were transients from surrounding habitats. Yet, FR can facilitate our understanding of why species are rare in a habitat and under which conditions these species occur.</p>
Supplementary data from: Current and past climate co-shape community-level plant species richness in the Western Siberian Arctic
<p>The Arctic ecosystems and their species are exposed to amplified climate warming and, in some regions, to rapidly developing economic activities. We used macroecological modeling to estimate the community-level species richness across the Western Siberian tundra, with climate variables and anthropogenic influence identified as main explanatory factors. Our results reveal complex spatial patterns of community-level species richness in the Western Siberian Arctic. We show that climatic factors such as temperature (including paleotemperature) and precipitation are the main drivers of plant species richness in this area, and the role of relief is clearly secondary.</p> <p>Here we present a supplementing dataset to the analysis of our paper "Current and past climate co-shape community-level plant species richness in the Western Siberian Arctic"<strong> </strong>(<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11140">https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11140</a>). Our research is based on the Western Siberian part of the Russian Arctic Vegetation Archive (AVA-RUS, <a href="http://avarus.space">http://avarus.space</a>), with 1483 Braun-Blanquet plots observed from 2005-2018.</p> <p>The dataset contains geolocated species richness data along with sampled raster data on environmental and anthropogenic predictors used for modeling. The scripts are used for paleoclimatic data sampling; testing univariate predictive performance and limited collinearity for all predictors; fitting four different modes: random forest, gradient boosting machine, generalized linear model, and generalized additive model; their validation and projection. Detailed information regarding the data structure and the applied methods could be found in the paper.</p>
Midpoint attractor models resolve the mid-elevation peak in Himalayan plant species richness
<p>The midpoint attractor models (MPA) of species richness integrate a unimodal environmental favourability gradient and neutral effects forced by geometric constraints and thus extend ecologically neutral mid-domain model. However, both alternative MPA algorithms assume that underlying environmental favourability peaks within the modeling domain. Here, we used elevational distribution data for 1054 plant species occurring in NW Himalaya to explore species richness gradients and MPA performance in species groups defined by biogeography, taxonomy and life form. MPA models achieved an excellent fit, but the two MPA algorithms produced contrasting estimates of midpoint attractor location, especially for species groups with richness originating in lowlands. Therefore, we propose a modification of the MPA model accounting for the environmental favourability peak outside the study domain to reflect these situations. Biogeographic origin was more decisive for midpoint attractor location than taxonomic or life-form classification, indicating relatively low climatic niche conservatism in plants.</p>
Midpoint attractor models resolve the mid-elevation peak in Himalayan plant species richness
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Environmental heterogeneity explains contrasting plant species richness between the South African Cape and southwestern Australia
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Supplementary data from: Current and past climate co-shape community-level plant species richness in the Western Siberian Arctic
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Data and code from: The overlooked link between different resource partitioning strategies and plant species richness in tropical alpine ecosystems
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Data from: Plant diversity loss has limited effects on belowground biomass and traits but alters community short-term root production in a species-rich grassland
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Data from: Genetic diversity in widespread species is not congruent with species richness in alpine plant communities
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Data and code from: Functional rarity of plants in German hay meadows - patterns on the species level and mismatches with community species richness
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Data from: Shading enhances plant species richness and diversity on an extensive green roof
<p>Green roofs can promote biodiversity in urban areas. The extent to which green roofs stimulate plant diversity can depend on roof characteristics such as roof age, substrate depth and shading. We exploratively studied the vegetation on a Dutch green roof in 50 permanent plots (1 m<sup>2</sup>) over eight years (2012–2019) following roof construction. Plots were situated either on low substrate depth (6 cm light-weight extensive substrate) or high substrate depth (6 cm light-weight extensive substrate topped with 14 cm native soil) and differed in the amount of shading received from a higher building floor. Increased substrate depth and shading additively increased plant species richness and plant diversity, with high shaded plots supporting on average 6.4 more plant species than low unshaded plots. Shading likely acts via reducing drought stress, whereas increasing substrate depth with native soil may also enhance plant diversity via addition of nutrients and native seeds. The vegetation composition on the roof was dynamic and changed over the years. Sedum acre was initially dominant but disappeared within the first years, whereas Sedum kamtschaticum increased and became dominant in the last years. Trifolium arvense was the most abundant forb species and was especially dominant three years after roof construction. We conclude that increased substrate depth and shading can promote plant species richness and diversity and recommend that both aspects are considered when green roofs are designed. Shading can be achieved by a stepped building architecture and by placing structures on the roof itself, such as solar panels on standards.</p>
Data from: Multiple facets of diversity effects on plant productivity: species richness, functional diversity, species identity and intraspecific competition
<p>1. Deciphering the mechanisms that drive variation in biomass production across plant communities of contrasting species composition and diversity is a main challenge of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research. Niche complementarity and selection effect have been widely investigated to address biodiversity-productivity relationships. However, the overlooking of the specific role played by key species have limited so far our capacity to comprehensively assess the relative importance of other potential drivers of biodiversity effects.</p> <p>2. Here, we conducted a grassland diversity-productivity experiment to test how four potential facets of biodiversity effects, namely species richness, functional diversity, species identity and the relaxation of intraspecific competition, account for variations in above and root biomass production.</p> <p>3. We grew six plant species in monoculture, as well as in every combinations of two, three and six species. Plant density was kept constant across the richness gradient but we additionally grew each species in half-density monoculture to estimate the strength of intraspecific competition for each studied species. We characterized eight functional traits, including root traits, related to nutrient and light acquisition and computed both the functional dissimilarity and the community weighted mean (CWM) of each trait. We further partitioned aboveground biodiversity effect into complementarity and selection effects.</p> <p>4. We observed strong positive biodiversity effects on both aboveground and root biomass as well as strong positive complementarity effect. These arose largely from the presence of a particular species (<i>Plantago lanceolata</i>) and from CWM trait values more than from a higher functional dissimilarity in plant mixtures. <i>P. lanceolata</i> displayed the highest intraspecific competition, which was strongly relaxed in species mixtures. By contrast, the presence of <i>Sanguisorba minor</i> negatively affected the productivity of plant mixtures, this species suffering more from interspecific than intraspecific competition.</p> <p>5. This study provides strong evidences that the search for key species is critical to understand the role of species diversity on ecosystem functioning and demonstrates the major role that the balance between intraspecific and interspecific competition plays in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships. Developing more integrative approaches in community and ecosystem ecology can offer opportunities to better understand the role that species diversity plays on ecosystem functioning.</p>
Raster and original working data for the paper Holocene matters: landscape history accounts for current species richness of vascular plants in forests and grasslands of eastern Central Europe
<p>Aim: Current species-richness patterns are sometimes interpreted as a legacy of landscape history, but historical processes shaping the distribution of species during the Holocene are frequently omitted in biodiversity models. Here, we test their importance in modelling current species richness of vascular plants in forest and grassland vegetation.<br> Location: Western Carpathians and adjacent regions.<br> Taxon: Vascular plants.<br> Methods: Numbers of all species and of habitat specialists were extracted from plot records of forest and grassland vegetation. For each plot, environmental and historical data were derived from thematic maps. Historical data related to the persistence of (i) temperate taxa during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene, (ii) open-landscape taxa during the Middle Holocene, and (iii) taiga species during the Late Holocene were based on 112 fossil pollen profiles. Boosted regression trees were used to model spatial patterns in species richness.<br> Results: Historical variables always appeared among the best predictors of current species richness. In light forests, species richness highly mirrored both the Late Glacial (12.5% contribution) and Middle-Holocene (8.6%) landscape history. The latter factor became an important predictor also for species richness of steppe grasslands (8.3%) along with temperature seasonality (11.9%). Species richness of dark coniferous forests was best predicted by the Late-Holocene occurrence of taiga forests (14.8%), which had an even stronger effect on the richness of habitat specialists (20.5%). <br> Main conclusions: Landscape changes since the Last Glacial Maximum are important predictors of current plant species richness. The historical effects were found to be habitat-specific and, because they may interact with recent environmental conditions and anthropogenic pressures, they often show a non-linear relationship with species richness. We provide one possible direction of incorporating past landscape changes into the models of species richness.</p>
Data from: Species abundance fluctuations over 31 years are associated with plant-soil feedback in a species-rich mountain meadow
<p>1. Increasing evidence suggest that plant-soil interactions play an essential role in plant community assembly processes. Empirical investigations show that plant species abundance in the field is often related to plant-soil biota interactions, however, the direction of these relations have yielded inconsistent results.</p> <p>2. We combined unique 31-year long field data on species abundances from a species-rich mountain meadow with single time point plant-soil feedback greenhouse experiments of 24 co-occurring plant species. We tested whether these relations were dynamic in time, whether coupled increases and decreases in abundance between years were related to plant-soil feedback and whether these changes were underlain by years in which manuring was applied.</p> <p>3. The prevailingly negative relationship between plant-soil feedback and plant relative abundance in the field was significantly time-dependent, which may reconcile the contrasting results in literature. Furthermore, significant coupled oscillations appeared between species relative abundance changes and plant-soil feedback, which were likely moderated by years in which manuring was applied. Our results are consistent with the notion that the more abundant species are stabilised by negative plant-soil feedback, and the less abundant species co-vary with the fluctuations of these more competitive species.</p> <p>4. Synthesis: Our results project plant-soil feedback as an important regulatory mechanism in plant communities, operating in conjunction with a species' competitive ability and soil nutrient availability. We suggest that negative feedback is particularly prominent in more abundant plant species that profit from more readily available soil nutrients than less abundant species with positive feedback. Negative plant-soil feedback may thus prevent more abundant plant species from outcompeting less abundant plant species, facilitating stable species co-existence.</p>
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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.