LifeWatch ERIC has embarked on its new destination towards upgrading and (co-)constructing its Infrastructure as a response to the needs of its target communities and stakeholders. Through an ...industrialisation process, all independent data, software components, publications and other types of research products contributed by the Member Countries will be consolidated and integrated to enable collaborative development. The Technology Readiness Level of LifeWatch ERIC will be raised to level 9. This process is described in its new Strategic Working Plan on its second implementation period (2022-2026). Accordingly, this topical collection of papers includes articles which describe the main outcomes, that is the deliverables of this new Strategic Working Plan. The deliverables published in this topical collection are not of a confidential nature and are developed in the form of a standard, structured template.
Body size is a major phenotypic trait of individuals that commonly differentiates co-occurring species. We analyzed inter-specific competitive interactions between a large consumer and smaller ...competitors, whose energetics, selection and giving-up behaviour on identical resource patches scaled with individual body size. The aim was to investigate whether pure metabolic constraints on patch behaviour of vagile species can determine coexistence conditions consistent with existing theoretical and experimental evidence. We used an individual-based spatially explicit simulation model at a spatial scale defined by the home range of the large consumer, which was assumed to be parthenogenic and semelparous. Under exploitative conditions, competitive coexistence occurred in a range of body size ratios between 2 and 10. Asymmetrical competition and the mechanism underlying asymmetry, determined by the scaling of energetics and patch behaviour with consumer body size, were the proximate determinant of inter-specific coexistence. The small consumer exploited patches more efficiently, but searched for profitable patches less effectively than the larger competitor. Therefore, body-size related constraints induced niche partitioning, allowing competitive coexistence within a set of conditions where the large consumer maintained control over the small consumer and resource dynamics. The model summarises and extends the existing evidence of species coexistence on a limiting resource, and provides a mechanistic explanation for decoding the size-abundance distribution patterns commonly observed at guild and community levels.
Biological invasions are one of the major threats to the ecosystem structure and functioning. After the initial introduction, frequently mediated by human activities, alien species can overcome ...different biogeographical and ecological barriers and determine severe impacts on native biodiversity and socio-economic activities. The Italian peninsula is located at the intersection of large trade routes within the Mediterranean Sea. Such position, along with the intense commercial activity and the high population density of the Italian coast, are considered important drivers of alien species in Italian marine and transitional ecosystems. The Italian peninsula, however, is also one of the regions with the highest native species richness within the Mediterranean Sea and, therefore, it is crucial to account for both alien and native species diversity when estimating the impact of biological invasion. Yet, such comprehensive information is frequently scattered across several biodiversity information systems and databases.
Here, two datasets with alien and native species records in Italian marine and transitional waters are described. These datasets, created for the LifeWatch Italy case study on alien species, are the result of a large-scale collaboration involving experts working across the whole range of taxonomic diversity. The marine dataset includes a total of 12,219 records belonging to 3,772 species gathered from 91 investigated sites and seven EUNIS habitats. The dataset on transitional waters biodiversity includes 3,838 records belonging to 2,019 species found in 23 locations and four EUNIS habitats. Alien species were recorded in both marine and transitional waters, accounting respectively for 140 and 171 biological records belonging to 59 and 97 species. These occurrence data can be used for further research studies or management purposes, including the evaluation of the invasion risk and the formulation of alien species control and management plans. Furthermore, these compiled datasets can be used as input data for the Biotope vulnerability case study of LifeWatch ERIC, which offers a number of ICT services for the calculation of the incidence and of the impact of alien species on European biotopes.
LifeWatch ERIC, the e-Science European infrastructure for biodiversity and ecosystem research, launched an Internal Joint Initiative on Non-indigenous Species and Invasive Alien Species (NIS-IAS) as ...they are considered one of the major drivers of biodiversity and ecosystem change. Here, the case study focused on the trophic biogeography of invasive crustaceans is presented, describing the procedures, resources, and analytical web services implemented to investigate the trophic habits of these taxa by using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data. The case study offers a number of analytical tools to determine the variability of the trophic position of invasive crustaceans in a spatially-explicit context and to model it as a function of relevant environmental predictors. Literature-based stable isotope data of the Atlantic blue crab
Callinectes sapidus
and of the Louisiana crayfish
Procambarus clarkii
have been used to evaluate the functionalities and outcomes of the workflow
.
The Tesseract Virtual Research Environment integrates all the analytical services offered by LifeWatch ERIC, including the ones developed for this case study, by means of a user-friendly interface. The analytical functions implemented for the crustacean workflow provide a proof of concept for future open e-science platforms focusing on NIS-IAS. The workflow conceptual structure can be adapted to a wide range of species, and can be further improved to support researchers in monitoring and predicting trophic-related impacts of NIS-IAS. In addition, it can support policymakers and stakeholders in the implementation of effective management and control measures to limit the negative effects of bioinvaders in recipient environments.
Papers including articles that are produced because of the activities of LifeWatch ERIC, in the context of its second implementation period (2022 - 2026) and through the implementation of its new ...Strategic Working Plan, are published in this special collection. The articles include data papers, papers describing the development and functioning of analytical services and papers describing any other research outcome, produced either by LifeWatch ERIC or by any collaboration with any other ERIC, Research Infrastructure, global aggregator or other legal entity.
Decomposition processes are a major source of energy in lagoon ecosystems, but compared to primary production, little quantitative information is available on their relative importance for energy ...pathways within lagoon food webs. Here, the ability of cross-community scaling relationships (CCSRs) to describe energy pathways in macroinvertebrate guilds from size-specific density estimates was tested in order to determine whether CCSRs distinguish between i. predators and prey guilds in energetic terms, ii. suspension and deposit feeders in terms of their energy sources, iii. deposit feeder sub-guilds (i.e. scrapers/shredders and gathering collectors), and iv. phyto-benthic habitats in terms of their influence on energy pathways. CCSRs differentiated predator from prey guilds, with the size-specific density of prey being one order of magnitude higher than that of predators, and deposit from suspension feeder guilds, to a similar degree. CCSRs differentiated vegetated from non-vegetated benthic habitats, with higher size-specific density in the former than in the latter, while they did not differentiate large- from small-particle feeders. Based on simple data collection and widely available data on 15 Mediterranean and Black Sea lagoons, CCSRs seem to be able to quantitatively describe energy pathways in benthic macroinvertebrate communities, expanding our knowledge of biodiversity drivers in lagoon ecosystems.
Marine ecosystems are vital for life on Earth. Global change is progressing rapidly, and geo-hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis, cause large losses of life and have massive ...worldwide socio-economic impacts. Enhancing our marine environmental monitoring and prediction capabilities will increase our ability to respond adequately to major challenges and efficiently operate early-warning systems. Research Infrastructures (RIs) are large-scale facilities encompassing instruments, resources, data and services used by the scientific community to conduct high-level research in their respective fields. The development and integration of marine environmental RIs as European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs) is the response of the European Commission (EC) to global marine challenges through research, technological development and innovation. These infrastructures (EMSO ERIC, Euro-Argo ERIC, ICOS-ERIC Marine, LifeWatch ERIC and EMBRC-ERIC) include specialized vessels, fixed-point monitoring systems, Lagrangian floating buoys, test facilities, genomics observatories, bio-sensing and Virtual Research Environments (VREs), among others.
Individual size is a major determinant of mobile organisms’ ecology and behavior. This study aims to explore whether allometric scaling principles can provide an underlying framework for general ...patterns of resource patch use. To this end, we used giving-up densities (GUDs), that is, the amount of resources remaining in a patch after a forager has quit feeding, as a comparative measure of the amount of resources exploited by a forager of any given size. We specifically tested the hypothesis that size-dependent responses to both internal (energy requirement) and external (risk management) forces may have an effect on GUDs. We addressed this topic by conducting an extensive meta-analysis of published data on granivorous rodents, including 292 GUD measurements reported in 25 papers. The data set includes data on 22 granivorous rodent species belonging to three taxonomic suborders (Castorimorpha, Myomorpha, and Sciuromorpha) and spans three habitat types (desert, grassland, and forest). The observations refer to both patches subject to predation risk and safe patches. Pooling all data, we observed positive allometric scaling of GUDs with average forager size (scaling exponent = 0.45), which explained 15% of overall variance in individual GUDs. Perceived predation risk during foraging led to an increase in GUDs independently of forager size and taxonomy and of habitat type, which explained an additional 12% of overall GUD variance. The size scaling exponent of GUDs is positive across habitat types and taxonomic suborders of rodents. Some variation was observed, however. The scaling coefficients in grassland and forest habitat types were significantly higher than in the desert habitat type. In addition, Sciuromorpha and Myomorpha exhibited a more pronounced size scaling of GUDs than Castorimorpha. This suggests that different adaptive behaviors may be used in different contexts and/or from different foragers. With body size being a fundamental ecological descriptor, research into size scaling of GUDs may help to place patch-use observations in a broader allometric framework.
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