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Nutrient Enrichment Increases Grassland Biomass Sensitivity to Interannual Precipitation VariationNARA Subscribed
Primary production underpins much of ecosystem functioning and is often limited by nutrient and water availability. Ongoing global increases in nutrient inputs and interannual precipitation variability are thus likely to impact primary production, with unclear consequences for interannual variability in plant biomass. We used data from 35 grasslands in the Nutrient Network coordinated fertilization experiment to test if nutrie...
Diversity and functional group composition drive biogeographic patterns in marine biogenic structural complexityNARA Subscribed
Biogenic structural complexity is a key driver of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, yet its ecological and environmental determinants remain poorly understood across broad biogeographic scales. Here, we conducted standardized 90‐day field experiments at 16 coastal sites, spanning a 41‐degree latitudinal gradient, using naturally assembled marine fouling communities on settlement panels. We measured rugosity as our metric...
SNAPSHOT USA 2024: Year 6 of the Coordinated National Camera Trap Survey of the United StatesNARA Subscribed
Motivation SNAPSHOT USA is an annual, multi‐contributor camera trap survey of mammals across the United States. The growing SNAPSHOT USA dataset is intended for tracking the spatial and temporal responses of mammal populations to changes in land use, land cover and climate. These data will be useful for exploring the drivers of spatial and temporal changes in relative abundance and distribution, as well as the impacts of speci...
Marine megafauna species are affected by a wide range of anthropogenic threats. To evaluate the risk of such threats, species’ vulnerability to each threat must first be determined. We build on the existing threats classification scheme and ranking system of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species by assessing the vulnerability of 256 marine megafauna species to 23 at‐sea threat...
Application of fin tissue for nonlethal stable isotope analysis of small-bodied fishesNARA Subscribed
Stable isotopes are commonly used to characterize food web structure and resource use by aquatic organisms. White muscle is generally preferred for stable isotope analysis of fishes. However, obtaining white muscle tissue typically requires lethal take or invasive sampling techniques, which are undesirable for small-bodied species or those of conservation concern. We assessed the use of fish fin as a nonlethal alternative to m...
Motivation Here, we make available a second version of the BioTIME database, which compiles records of abundance estimates for species in sample events of ecological assemblages through time. The updated version expands version 1.0 of the database by doubling the number of studies and includes substantial additional curation to the taxonomic accuracy of the records, as well as the metadata. Moreover, we now provide an R packag...
Supplemental Feeding as a Driver of Population Expansion and Morphological Change in Anna's HummingbirdsNARA Subscribed
Bird beaks are highly adaptable, with the potential to undergo rapid morphological shifts in response to environmental change such as climatic variation or food availability. Anna's Hummingbirds ( Calypte anna ) have undergone dramatic population range expansions over the last 160 years into novel climatic regimes, where supplemental feeders and introduced plant species are frequented. We used museum specimens to measure and c...
Carbon footprints of greenhouse gas mitigation measures for a grass-based beef cattle finishing system in the UKNARA Subscribed
Purpose Agri-food systems across the globe are faced with the challenge of reducing their supply-chain emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as nitrous oxide (N 2 O), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), and methane (CH 4 ). For instance, 10% of the UK’s GHG emissions are generated by agriculture, and ~ 56% of these are generated by livestock production. Numerous mitigation measures are being proposed to reduce GHG emissions from rumin...
Seagrass wasting disease prevalence and lesion area increase with invertebrate grazing across the northeastern PacificNARA Subscribed
Disease is a key driver of community and ecosystem structure, especially when it strikes foundation species. In the widespread marine foundation species eelgrass ( Zostera marina ), outbreaks of wasting disease have caused large‐scale meadow collapse in the past, and the causative pathogen, Labyrinthula zosterae , is commonly found in meadows globally. Research to date has mainly focused on abiotic environmental drivers of sea...
A Latitudinal Cline in the Taxonomic Structure of Eelgrass Epifaunal Communities is Associated With Plant Genetic DiversityNARA Subscribed
Aim Biogenic structural complexity increases mobile animal richness and abundance at local, regional and global scales, yet animal taxa vary in their response to complexity. When these taxa also vary functionally, habitat structures favouring certain taxa may have consequences for ecosystem function. We characterised global patterns of epifaunal invertebrates in eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) beds that varied in structural and ge...
Global mercury concentrations in biota: their use as a basis for a global biomonitoring frameworkNARA Subscribed
An important provision of the Minamata Convention on Mercury is to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the adopted measures and its implementation. Here, we describe for the first time currently available biotic mercury (Hg) data on a global scale to improve the understanding of global efforts to reduce the impact of Hg pollution on people and the environment. Data from the peer-reviewed literature were compiled in the G...
Monkeypox (Mpox) is a serious illness that affects both humans and animals. Two modelling approaches are considered here to understand the transmission dynamics of mpox. A deterministic model that incorporates the major factors that influence mpox is developed and analysed. However, as more than one group can be infected by mpox, humans and animals, the results of a deterministic model do not always hold when at the outset the...
Accounting for herbaceous communities in process‐based models will advance our understanding of “grassy” ecosystemsNARA Subscribed
Grassland and other herbaceous communities cover significant portions of Earth's terrestrial surface and provide many critical services, such as carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, and food production. Forecasts of global change impacts on these services will require predictive tools, such as process‐based dynamic vegetation models. Yet, model representation of herbaceous communities and ecosystems lags substantially behin...
Mammalian organ regeneration in spiny miceNARA Subscribed
Direct and indirect effects of agricultural land cover on avian biodiversity in eastern CanadaNARA Subscribed
Agriculture is one of the largest threats to global biodiversity. However, most studies have focused only on the direct effects of agriculture on biodiversity, and few have addressed the indirect effects, potentially over or under-estimating the overall impacts of agriculture on biodiversity. The indirect effect is the response not to the agricultural cover types or operations per se , but instead, to the way that agriculture...