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29 results for “university of Michigan Biological Station”
Data from the Forest Resilience Threshold Experiment, University of Michigan Biological Station, 2024
During the 2024 field season, data collection efforts led by the FoRTE crew centered on understanding forest ecosystem dynamics and carbon cycling processes in a temperate forest landscape. Comprehensive datasets were gathered to evaluate structural and functional responses across multiple forest strata. Measurements included diameter at breast height (DBH) for canopy, subcanopy, and seedling layers, alongside a detailed subcanopy census to assess understory composition and diversity. Soil respiration (Rs) was monitored to quantify carbon fluxes, while fern density and distribution were documented to explore their role in forest microclimates and nutrient cycling. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) readings provided insights into light availability and its impact on primary production. Advanced remote sensing tools, including LiDAR and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), were employed to characterize canopy structure, vegetation health, and spatial heterogeneity. These diverse datasets collectively contribute to a robust framework for analyzing forest resilience, recovery, and carbon sequestration potential following disturbance, advancing our understanding of ecosystem processes in the face of environmental change.
Landscape of fear and safety summer 2025 data from University of Michigan Biological Station stream research facilities
Predator prey interactions are often driven by sensory cues and these cues play a role in non-consumptive effects. We are interested in the role that chemical cues (from predators) play in resource use by one of fish common prey, crayfish. We created flow through mesocosms and populated them with crayfish and various configurations of shelters and food. Then we presented to the crayfish predator cues (from large mouth bass) and measured behavioral responses from midnight to 4 am.
Forest tree, woody debris, root ingrowth, soil respiration and characterization data from long-term research plots for LTREB at the University of Michigan Biological Station
The NSF-funded project "LTREB: Drivers of temperate forest carbon storage from canopy closure through successional time" (2014-2024) supports research to meet the following goals: 1) elucidate mechanisms responsible for changes in C storage over decades to centuries; 2) link processes leading to persistence and resilience of forest C storage following disturbance; 3) quantify the effects of potential drivers such as forest structure, N availability, climate change, and atmospheric deposition on decadal and longer-term trajectories of C storage. Field activities for this research are conducted at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) on a pair of chronosequences and several old reference forests. Synthesis activities utilize data collected from these field sites in support of the LTREB project, as well as data synthesized from other sources (e.g., long-term UMBS plot data, AmeriFlux data, FIA data) all intended to address the core questions of the LTREB project. This dataset has been compiled and expanded over a series of versions, with new data types and observations appended periodically. Presently, the dataset includes observations from tree inventory censuses, woody debris sampling, fine root ingrowth cores, soil respiration measurements, and two sets of soil collections aimed at quantifying a range of physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil.
US_UMB and US_UMd Ameriflux towers biometric plot data at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI (1997 to 2024)
These are the annual leaf litterfall carbon fluxes and average soil respiration measurements for the two flux towers (reference, aka 'AmeriFlux' and treatment, aka 'FASET') at UMBS.
Landscape Ecosystem Classification Soils and Vegetation Plots Data at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, Michigan from 1987 to 2015 remeasurements
Landscape ecosystems are a means of understanding the spatial patterns of and the functional interrelationships in forest ecosystems. Landscape ecosystem research is a multifactor, holistic approach to identifying, classifying, describing, and mapping terrain ecosystems. Abiotic and biotic factors are integrated in the field to distinguish repeating units similar in ecological structure and function. Landscape ecosystems are identified by simultaneous integration of physiographic, soil, and vegetation information. The more stable components--physiography and soil--largely determine local climate, and water and nutrient relations, and thus the interrelationships of physiography and soil form the foundation of a landscape ecosystem classification. Vegetation is seen as a phytometer that integrates the many abiotic factors and their interactions, and therefore reflects differences in ecosystem structure and function. When the three main ecosystem factors are analyzed simultaneously, one can perceive interrelationships that result in ecologically meaningful differences among segments of the ecosphere. Landscape ecosystems are spatial; they are volumetric, multi-dimensional segments of earth, whose components include soil, water, atmosphere, solar radiation, and biota. These segments can be identified, classified, described, and mapped at various scales. From the years of 1988 to 2001, various graduate students of Burton V. Barnes completed their masters thesis and dissertations in this pursuit. The attached data set is a culmination of these individual work. Each plot has measurements at various scales within the 10 by 30 meet plot. A stratified random design was used to locate plot locations. The random design was stratified by major and minor landforms in the region. All trees within the plot where identified and dbh was measured. All individual shrubs where identified and abundance was counted within the entire plot. Soils pits locations for each plot where selected
warmXtrophic: plant community responses to the individual and interactive effects of climate warming and herbivory across multiple years at Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research Sites (KBS LTER), Michigan, USA, and University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS), Michigan, USA.
Climate change has both direct and indirect effects on ecological communities. Whereas most climate change ecology experiments manipulate abiotic drivers to measure direct effects of climate on species or communities, fewer quantify the indirect effects through biotic interactions, especially over multiple sites and years. In this factorial experiment we manipulate temperature through open-top chambers, and the level of insect herbivory through insecticide. At two early successional field sites separated by 3 degrees of latitude and 3°C of mean annual temperature (University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI and Kellogg Biological Station, Hickory Corners, MI), 6 replicate 1-m2 plots per treatment were installed in May 2015. 12 plots per site are at ambient temperature, 12 are warmed with year-round non-UV filtering polycarbonate and wood frame construction OTCs for tall-stature plants (Welshofer et al. 2018 MEE). Insecticide reduces insect herbivory in half the plots (Welshofer et al. 2018 Oecologia). Over the course of the experiment, OTCs warmed the plant communities by 1.9°C-3.0°C on average over the growing season. Each year, through 2021, plant traits and community responses were measured at the species level: plant phenology (green-up, flowering, flowering duration, seed set); plant percent cover (aerial % cover of the 1m2 plot); plant traits (specific leaf area, C and N content), herbivory damage to leaves, and plant species biomass (only in 2021). Further methodological details are found within each response variable metadata. This experiment is ongoing and further data package updates are planned. L0 data is available upon request. R scripts can be found here: https://github.com/SpaCE-Lab-MSU/warmXtrophic. The biotic and abiotic community context and relative strengths of direct vs. indirect effects may yield ecological surprises under climate change unless addressed together. Large-scale experiments like this one can improve our ability to unde
Tree recruitment from sites across Southern Michigan including the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI (2022)
As a result of current climate change, flooding events are becoming more frequent and lasting longer, resulting in temporal floods in areas that have not historically experienced this disturbance. One critical aspect of forest dynamics that could be significantly impacted by increasing flooding is tree species recruitment. While adult trees may be able to survive temporary flooding, establishing seedlings with shallow root systems may not. A single flooding event could jeopardize decades of recruitment if seedlings are unable to survive the anaerobic conditions imposed by higher water levels. Despite the potential impact of flooding on forest dynamics, there is little information on seedling recruitment patterns after exposure to flooding. To understand how flooding conditions could possibly be impacting forest recruitment, we conducted a field observational study across seven temperate forests. We gathered data on seedling abundance and diversity in areas with signs of recent flooding, as well as in nearby control (dry) areas. Our results document the adverse effects flooding conditions have on temperate forest recruitment dynamics, providing insights into how tree recruitment might be impacted by shifts in flooding patterns.
Douglas Lake Ice Cover at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI 1931 to 2025
This dataset represent the ice on and ice off dates for Douglas Lake in Pellston, Michigan. The first observations are from the 1930 and were intermittently documented until the mid 1970s. The observations are complete since then to current.
Snail Shell Strength and Total Crush Force of a Northern Michigan Snail as a Function of Predation Risk at the University of Michigan Biological Station Stream Research Facility (5/31/23-8/1/23)
Many prey organisms respond to the non-consumptive effects of predators by altering their physiology, morphology, and behavior. These inducible defenses can create refuges for prey by decreasing the likelihood of consumption by predators. Some prey, as in marine mollusks, have been shown to alter their morphology in response to the presence of size-limited predation. To extend this work into the freshwater realm, we presented pointed campeloma snails (Campeloma decisum) to chemical cues from a natural predator, the rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus), to better understand how snail morphology changes under the threat of predation. The total force needed to crush shells, total shell length, aperture width, and total weight, along with changes to these three body measurements were recorded for each individual and used to quantify morphological changes as a function of risk. Snails exposed to crayfish chemical cues needed significantly more force to crush their shells than controls (p = 0.002). Total shell length was greater in crayfish exposed snails than control snails (p = 0.002), and snails in the crayfish treatment also showed significantly more change in shell length than control snails (p = 0.003). Similarly, aperture width was significantly greater in exposed snails (p = 0.002). However, exposed snails exhibited significantly less change in aperture width than controls (p = 0.017). Finally, we found that snails exposed to crayfish weighed significantly more than snails in the control (p = 0.0009). Thus, the results of this study show that morphology of gastropods is altered in the presence of predators, and this may be an antipredator tactic directly related to risk.
Protist Dispersal Detection: University of Michigan Biological Station, July 2024
This dataset contains the results of a field dispersal array assembled in Gates Bog, Pellston, Michigan. The data were collected by a graduate student, and consist of measurements of protist presence or absence in 1mL fluid samples taken from pitcher plants and centrifuge tubes in the array. The dataset contains both initial protist detection from the fluid samples, as well as detection after a 24 hour incubation period. The dataset also contains the positions of each plant and tube used for sample collection and their distances from the established source population at the center of the array. We used the purple pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, as a model system to explore questions of specialist protist dispersal. Newly opened pitchers are sterile, providing virgin habitat open to community assembly of highly specialized protist species (Peterson 2008). The placement of a known community of protists at the center of an uncolonized array of habitat patches allows us to identify both sources and destinations of dispersing microbes in the array. The purpose of this study is to measure dispersal rates for a subset of pitcher plant protist species.
Understory percent cover, plant traits, canopy LAI, PAR, temperature, and soil moisture data at multiple time points for sites in the burn chronosequence and Indian Point forest at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI (2022-2023)
Community ecology has sought to understand the mechanisms by which plant communities are assembled through time and space. One prominent way to address how communities are assembled is by quantifying functional traits. While there is a tremendous body of literature on functional traits, debate persists about how to account for variation in measured traits. For example, intraspecific trait variation (ITV) can be equal to or greater than interspecific trait variation and ITV has also been found to vary greatly across years. Therefore, there is a need to account for variability in functional trait measures among and within species and through time to improve our understanding of community assembly. Chronosequences are a powerful tool to address temporal changes in community dynamics, however, the inclusion of understory plants in forest chronosequence studies is still relatively uncommon. Previous chronosequence studies have been primarily performed in grasslands or in a limited subset of forest types, so further work is needed in understory plant traits across other ecosystems and climates to improve trait-based understanding of understory plant communities through time. Additionally, because plant traits change as ecosystems age, community interactions are likely to change with ecosystem age. Interactions of particular interest are herbivory, arthropod predation, and the influence of plant traits on arthropod diversity.
Pitcher plant herbivory experimental data at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI 2024-2025
Coping with low-nutrient environments has led to the repeated evolution of plant carnivory. Given the repeated evolution of carnivory as well as the facultative nature of this otherwise costly trait, why are carnivorous plants not more speciose in wet, sunny, nutrient-poor sites? Recent evidence suggests herbivores may play an important role in limiting the success of plants with specialized nutrient acquisition strategies (e.g. nitrogen-fixing bacterial associates), as herbivores are drawn to more nutrient-rich plant tissue. To test this hypothesis in carnivorous plants, we conducted a factorial herbivore exclusion and prey addition experiment on Sarracenia purpurea, the purple pitcher plant. Specifically, we examined whether 1) plant growth rate is maximized at intermediate levels of prey intake, and 2) if this pattern is caused by preferential consumption by herbivores of plants with high nutrient intake. To test these hypotheses, we measured plant growth and herbivore damage on 110 pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) growing at Mud Lake Bog near UMBS from June to August 2024. To measure effects of stored nutrients on plant growth and herbivory, we plan to collect 2nd year early season growth data in June of 2025.
The fate of a plant defense mutualism in a warming world at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI (2024-2026)
Mutualisms are vital to plant survival and reproduction, but climate warming has the potential to alter these interactions. One such mutualism involves foliar mites, which provide plants with defense by consuming harmful fungi. In exchange, plants offer protective structures on their leaves called domatia. Both mite and fungal communities are potentially temperature-sensitive, and warming may shift community composition, potentially altering trophic interactions between botch groups. However, the specific changes in mite and fungal community composition and their implications for plant-mite mutualism and plant performance remain unclear. To investigate the responses of both of these communities to warming, and the effects these changes will have on plants, I conducted a nested factorial field experiment with 96 P. serotina seedlings at the University of Michigan Biological Station. Plants were warmed using open top chambers, nested within which were fully factorial manipulations of the mite and fungal communities. Each group was manipulated using either pruning tar to exclude mites or Quilt fungicide to exclude fungi.
Floral Censuses and Surveys of Insect Visitors to Flowers, University of Michigan Biological Station, Summers 1984-1986
I investigated within- and between-year patterns of flowering phenology of plants and the insects that visited them in an isolated old field in northern Michigan, USA. The project goal was to document the dynamics of resource availabilty (each floral species produced nectar and/or pollen) and assess the implications of its temporal variation on the composition of the community of insects that exploited those resources. I censued the number of open flowers for each species in 50 4-m2 quadrats at 3- 5-day intervals from June-September 1984-1986, and in separate but contemporaneous surveys of the same quadrats recorded each insect species observed on any open flower. Census and survey details noted below.
GM Snow Study at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI (1982-1987)
Wet and dry deposition were monitored at the University of Michigan Biological Station, which is located near the northern tip of Michigan's lower peninsula, for three winters. Dry deposition was measured by both conventional bucket method and by measuring increases in concentration in snow samples. Average results of the two methods were in reasonable agreement. The cumulative wet and dry deposition quantities are in good agreement with snowpack accumulations until the first thaw period. Dry deposition to snow accounts for less than 15% of the total H+, SO4-2, NO-3, NH4+, and approximately 25% of the Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, J+, and Cl-, during an average precipitation year. Snowpack measurements were also made under deciduous and red pine canopies. Decreases in H+ and NO-3 were observed under the red pine canopy. Snowmelt and runoff were studied during the 1986-87, 1983-84, and the 1982-83 winters at the University of Michigan Biological Station. For the 1982-83 and 1983-84 winters the first 50% of snowpack acidity was released in melt and rain water equal to 25% of the original snowpack water content. Interaction between the meltwater and the litter layer produced large changes in the concentrations of most species. Runoff to two streams had high SO4-2 and very low NO-3 concentrations. It is concluded that most of the NO-3 is either biologically utilized or retained in the ecosystem, even during the early snowmelt period at this site.
Aspen Forest Stem Map and Tree Census at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI 1974-2018
In 1974, a one hectare plot was established at the University of Michigan Biological Station to further understand successional trajectories of birch and aspen forests in northern Michigan. Trees with a DBH greater than 5 cm were inventoried and later, the location of the tree within the plot was documented by the UMBS resident biologist. Plots were remeasured 5 additional times by different groups at the station.
University of Michigan Biological Station Weather Observations 1980 to Present
This data set includes daily year-round weather measurements and observations recorded at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) from 1980-present. Data primarily serves the purpose of benefitting UMBS researchers needing access to weather data as a confounding variable. Parameters include maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation, snowfall, snowpack, and estimated cloud cover and type recorded daily at approximately 08:00. Maximum and minimum temperatures were measured at the Biological Station campus with National Weather Service liquid-in-glass thermometers housed in a Weather Service (a.k.a., Cotton Region) shelter located on State Road. Precipitation was measured with either a Belfort Rainfall Transmitter 5915 or an ETI NOAH IV Total Precipitation Gauge in the “UV Field” located immediately northwest of the Biological Station campus. Snowfall and snowpack were also measured in the UV Field on snowboards using National Weather Service according to National Weather Service snow measurement guidelines. Cloud cover was estimated in oktas and classified into one of the ten basic cloud types.
Stem maps of eight 1 ha forest plots distributed around Ann Arbor, MI and around the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS)
In this project we established a network of forest inventory plots to gather the data needed to forecast future forest performance under global change. Data collected from forest inventory plots, i.e., size and location of individual trees from all ages and species, have been shown to be particularly useful to link tree species demographic rates (survival, growth, age at maturity, fecundity) with community characteristics (assemblages and species turnovers), and are also widely used to estimate biomass removal (logging) and biomass production (carbon sequestration).
University of Michigan Biological Station cumulative food web data for terrestrial habitats, 1909-2023.
Here, we present species and interaction lists for a food web of the aboveground terrestrial habitats at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS). The site is composed predominantly of dry-mesic, northern hardwood forests with patches of wooded wetlands (hardwood conifer swamp). Taxa were sourced from lists provided by UMBS, from resident biologists’ personal observations, museum specimens, online databases, historical censuses, and BioBlitz events. Only those that could be resolved to species-level or were genera with < 20 species in the Nearctic were included. We also excluded species that do not have a significant lifestage or feeding behavior in aboveground terrestrial habitats. Our focal taxonomic groups include vascular plants, arthropods, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians. The majority of arthropods are insects; non-insect arthropods were highly underrepresented in our lists. Interactions were sourced from online databases, naturalist observations, and field guides and accumulated into a “metaweb” of all potential interactions between local species. Interactions were checked by experts to plausibly occur in the aboveground terrestrial environments at UMBS, given species’ phenology, traits, and habitat usage. Interactions at any taxonomic level were included, so long as they were approved to potentially occur between all species by our experts. To study the effect of taxonomic resolution on food web structure, in this dataset, we retained records at coarser taxonomic groupings even if more highly resolved records were also approved. We included all direct interactions among species in our system with a bioenergetic flow (i.e., one species consuming another), differentiated by their focal resource. We broadly categorized the resources as animal tissues, either (1) live tissues and as prey, or (2) scavenged as carrion, carcasses, or other decaying animal remains, or as plant tissues, grouped as (3) leaves and stems, including grasses, exudates, et
2023 Forest Composition Data at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI
In many forests worldwide, insect disturbances are increasing, impacting plant community composition and forest structure. However, the extent to which these changes in community composition and structure influence the amount of C stored annually in plant biomass, or net primary production (NPP), remains poorly understood. We examined whether plant community composition, structural change, and NPP respond similarly to increasing disturbance severity and to the treatment types preferentially affecting large and small diameter trees. This knowledge is vital to management and modeling when trying to make inferences about the structural and functional response of forested ecosystems to various levels of disturbance caused by insects. The Forest Resilience Threshold Experiment (FoRTE) is a replicated study of disturbance type and severity using stem-girdling to achieve four levels of gross defoliation from 0% (control) to 85%. Utilizing five years of leaf litter, seedling, and portable canopy LiDAR data, we analyzed relationships between community composition, structure and NPP across disturbance severity. Our results 5-years after the initiation of the girdling disturbance shows that mid-successional Fagus and Acer species dominate seedling and sapling composition, irrespective of disturbance severities. In contrast, the canopy was predominantly occupied by Acer and Populus species, surpassing Quercus and Fagus. Despite the prediction that high canopy mortality would foster an environment favorable to early successional species, their expected dominance didn’t manifest in any of the plots. NPP exhibited high resistance to disturbance across the gradient of disturbance severity, regardless of compositional changes and level of tree mortality. This suggests a decoupling between composition and production following altered functional responses to disturbance. As we manage forests for greater stability in the face of increasing disturbance and intensifying climate change, o
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Allen Brain Atlas
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Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
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DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
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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.