Biology subjects

White, E.

Publications and source records attributed to White, E..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

The Portal Project: a long-term study of a Chihuahuan desert ecosystem

This is a data paper for the Portal Project, a long-term ecological study of rodents, plants, and ants located in southeastern Arizona, U.S.A. This paper contains an overview of methods and information about the structure of the data files and the relational structure among the files. This is a living data paper and will be updated with new information as major changes or additions are made to the data. All data - along with more detailed data collection protocols and site information - is archived at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1215988.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2017

The prevalence and impact of transient species in ecological communities

Transient species occur infrequently in a community over time and do not maintain viable local populations. Because transient species interact differently than non-transients with their biotic and abiotic environment, it is important to characterize the prevalence of these species and how they impact our understanding of ecological systems. We quantified the prevalence and impact of transient species in communities using data on over 17,000 community time series spanning an array of ecosystems, taxonomic groups, and spatial scales. We found that transient species are a general feature of communities regardless of taxa or ecosystem. The proportion of these species decreases with spatial scale leading to a need to control for scale in comparative work. Removing transient species from analyses influences the form of a suite of commonly studied ecological patterns including species-abundance distributions, species-energy relationships, species-area relationships, and temporal turnover. Careful consideration should be given to whether transient species are included in analyses depending on the theoretical and practical relevance of these species for the question being studied.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2017

Direct Modulation Of Aberrant Brain Network Connectivity Through Real-Time NeuroFeedback

The existence of abnormal connectivity patterns between resting state networks in neuropsychiatric disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), has been well established. Traditional treatment methods in ASD are limited, and do not address the aberrant network structure. Using real-time fMRI neurofeedback, we directly trained 3 brain nodes in participants with ASD, in which the aberrant connectivity has been shown to correlate with symptom severity. 17 ASD participants and 10 control participants were scanned over multiple sessions (123 sessions in total). Desired network connectivity patterns were reinforced in real-time, without participants awareness of the training taking place. This training regimen produced large, significant long-term changes in correlations at the network level, and whole brain analysis revealed that the greatest changes were focused on the areas being trained. These changes were not found in the control group. Moreover, changes in ASD resting state connectivity following the training were correlated to changes in behavior, suggesting that neurofeedback can be used to directly alter complex, clinically relevant network connectivity patterns.\n\nSignificance StatementMany disorders are characterized by underlying abnormalities in network connectivity. These abnormalities are difficult to address with explicit training procedures (which are unlikely to target the specific abnormalities). Covert neurofeedback however, can directly target these networks, positively reinforcing the desired connections. We have developed a method for reinforcing correlations in real-time, and show that such training is effective, inducing significant, long-lasting changes in connectivity between aberrant networks in Autism Spectrum Disorder. This provides a potential mechanism for modulating aberrant correlation structures in other clinical groups as well.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

No general relationship between mass and temperature in endotherm species

Bergmanns rule is a widely-accepted biogeographic rule stating that individuals within a species are smaller in warmer environments. While there are many single-species studies and integrative reviews documenting this pattern, a data-intensive approach has not been used yet to determine the generality of this pattern. We assessed the strength and direction of the intraspecific relationship between temperature and individual mass for 952 bird and mammal species. For eighty-seven percent of species, temperature explained less than 10% of variation in mass, and for 79% of species the correlation was not statistically significant. These results suggest that Bergmanns rule is not general and temperature is not a dominant driver of biogeographic variation in mass. Further understanding of size variation will require integrating multiple processes that influence size. The lack of dominant temperature forcing weakens the justification for the hypothesis that global warming could result in widespread decreases in body size.

ecology↗