Browsing by Author "Kusch, Erik"

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    NetworkExtinction: An R package to simulate extinction propagation and rewiring potential in ecological networks
    (2023) Ávila Thieme, María Isidora; Kusch, Erik; Corcoran, Derek; Castillo, Simón P.; Valdovinos, Fernanda S.; Navarrete C., Sergio; Marquet, P. A.
    Earth's biosphere is undergoing drastic reorganization due to the sixth mass extinction brought on by the Anthropocene. Impacts of local and regional extirpation of species have been demonstrated to propagate through the complex interaction networks they are part of, leading to secondary extinctions and exacerbating biodiversity loss. Contemporary ecological theory has developed several measures to analyse the structure and robustness of ecological networks under biodiversity loss. However, a toolbox for directly simulating and quantifying extinction cascades and creating novel interactions (i.e. rewiring) remains absent. Here, we present NetworkExtinction—a novel R package which we have developed to explore the propagation of species extinction sequences through ecological networks and quantify the effects of rewiring potential in response to primary species extinctions. With NetworkExtinction, we integrate ecological theory and computational simulations to develop functionality with which users may analyse and visualize the structure and robustness of ecological networks. The core functions introduced with NetworkExtinction focus on simulations of sequential primary extinctions and associated secondary extinctions, allowing user-specified secondary extinction thresholds and realization of rewiring potential. With the package NetworkExtinction, users can estimate the robustness of ecological networks after performing species extinction routines based on several algorithms. Moreover, users can compare the number of simulated secondary extinctions against a null model of random extinctions. In-built visualizations enable graphing topological indices calculated by the deletion sequence functions after each simulation step. Finally, the user can estimate the network's degree distribution by fitting different common distributions. Here, we illustrate the use of the package and its outputs by analysing a Chilean coastal marine food web. NetworkExtinction is a compact and easy-to-use R package with which users can quantify changes in ecological network structure in response to different patterns of species loss, thresholds and rewiring potential. Therefore, this package is particularly useful for evaluating ecosystem responses to anthropogenic and environmental perturbations that produce nonrandom and sometimes targeted, species extinctions.
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    Plant trait and vegetation data along a 1314 m elevation gradient with fire history in Puna grasslands, Perú
    (2024) Halbritter, Aud H.; Vandvik, Vigdis; Cotner, Sehoya H.; Farfan-Rios, William; Maitner, Brian S.; Michaletz, Sean T.; Menor, Imma Oliveras; Telford, Richard J.; Ccahuana, Adam; Cruz, Rudi; Sallo-Bravo, Jhonatan; Santos-Andrade, Paul Efren; Vilca-Bustamante, Lucely L.; Castorena, Matiss; Chacon-Labella, Julia; Christiansen, Casper Tai; Duran, Sandra M.; Egelkraut, Dagmar D.; Gya, Ragnhild; Haugum, Siri Vatso; Seltzer, Lorah; Silman, Miles R.; Strydom, Tanya; Spiegel, Marcus P.; Barros, Agustina; Birkeli, Kristine; Boakye, Mickey; Chiappero, Fernanda; Chmurzynski, Adam; Garen, Josef C.; Gaudard, Joseph; Gauthier, Tasha-Leigh J.; Geange, Sonya R.; Gonzales, Fiorella N.; Henn, Jonathan J.; Hoskova, Kristyna; Isaksen, Anders; Jessup, Laura H.; Johnson, Will; Kusch, Erik; Lepley, Kai; Lift, Mackenzie; Martyn, Trace E.; Mazon, Miguel Munoz; Middleton, Sara L.; Casaverde, Natalia L. Quinteros; Navarro, Jocelyn; Zepeda, Veronica; Ocampo-Zuleta, Korina; Palomino-Cardenas, Andrea Carmeli; Pastor Ploskonka, Samuel; Pierfederici, Maria Elisa; Pinelli, Veronica; Rickenback, Jess; Roos, Ruben E.; Rui, Hilde Stokland; Diaz, Eugenia Sanchez; Sanchez-Tapia, Andrea; Smith, Alyssa; Urquiaga-Flores, Erickson; von Oppen, Jonathan; Enquist, Brian J.
    Alpine grassland vegetation supports globally important biodiversity and ecosystems that are increasingly threatened by climate warming and other environmental changes. Trait-based approaches can support understanding of vegetation responses to global change drivers and consequences for ecosystem functioning. In six sites along a 1314 m elevational gradient in Puna grasslands in the Peruvian Andes, we collected datasets on vascular plant composition, plant functional traits, biomass, ecosystem fluxes, and climate data over three years. The data were collected in the wet and dry season and from plots with different fire histories. We selected traits associated with plant resource use, growth, and life history strategies (leaf area, leaf dry/wet mass, leaf thickness, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf C, N, P content, C and N isotopes). The trait dataset contains 3,665 plant records from 145 taxa, 54,036 trait measurements (increasing the trait data coverage of the regional flora by 420%) covering 14 traits and 121 plant taxa (ca. 40% of which have no previous publicly available trait data) across 33 families.