1. At broad spatial scales, the factors regulating litter decomposition remain ambiguous, with the understanding of these factors largely based on studies investigating site-specific single litter species, whereas studies using multi litter species mixtures across sites are rare. 2. We exposed in microcosms containing single species and all possible mixtures of four leaf litter species differing widely in initial chemical and physical characteristics from a temperate forest to the climatic conditions of four different forests...

1. Herbivores play a key role in shaping ecosystem structure and functions by influencing plant and microbial community composition and nutrient cycling. 2. This study investigated the long-term effects of herbivores on plant resource acquisition. We explored differences in the natural δ15N signatures in plant, microbial and soil N pools, and examined mycorrhizal colonization in two tundra sites that have been either lightly or heavily grazed by reindeer for more than 50 years. The study...

This dataset contains all the raw data belonging to the research article 'Reindeer trampling promotes vegetation changes in tundra heathlands: results from a simulation experiment', by Egelkraut, Barthelemy and Olofsson, published in Journal of Vegetation Science. The experiment experimentally simulated various herbivore activities (Defoliation, Moss removal, Fertilization, Trampling, FDT, FDTM) on lightly grazed tundra heath vegetation, in order to determine in what way each of these activities cntributed to change in vegetation community and structure....

1. River regulation affects riparian systems worldwide and conservation and restoration efforts are essential to retain biodiversity, and the functioning and services of riverine ecosystems. Effects of regulation on plant species richness have been widely addressed, but the filtering effect of regulation on guilds has received less attention. 2. We used a functional trait approach to identify adaptive plant strategies through regulation-tolerant traits and predict shifts of riparian vegetation communities in response to regulation. We...

Western New Guinea remains one of the last biologically underexplored regions of the world, and much remains to be learned regarding the diversity and evolutionary history of its fauna and flora. During a recent ornithological expedition to the Kumawa Mountains in West Papua, we encountered an undescribed species of Melanocharis berrypecker (Melanocharitidae) in cloud forest at an elevation of 1200 m asl. Its main characteristics are iridescent blue-black upperparts, satin-white underparts washed lemon yellow, and...

Updating of working memory has been associated with striato-frontal brain regions and phasic dopaminergic neurotransmission. We assessed raclopride binding to striatal dopamine (DA) D2 receptors during a letter-updating task and a control condition before and after 5 weeks of updating training. Results showed that updating affected DA activity before training and that training further increased striatal DA release during updating. These findings highlight the pivotal role of transient neural processes associated with D2 receptor activity...

This dataset is grids of peatland extent, peat depth, peatland organic carbon storage, peatland total nitrogen storage and approximate extent of ombrotrophic/minerotrophic peatlands. The grids are geotiff files in 10 km pixel resolution projected in the World Azimuthal Equidistant projection. Note that the peat depth grid shows potential peat depth everywhere,also where there is no peatland cover. For files on peatland organic carbon, total nitrogen extent and extent of ombrotrophic/minerotrophic peatlands, there are separate files...

1. Community responses to and recovery from disturbances depend on local (e.g. presence of refuges) and regional (connectivity to recolonization sources) factors. Droughts are becoming more frequent in boreal regions, and are likely to constitute a severe disturbance for boreal stream communities where organisms largely lack adaptations to such hydrological extremes. 2. We conducted an experiment in 24 seminatural stream flumes to assess the effects of local and regional factors on the responses of benthic...

Alpine and Arctic treeline expansion depends on establishment of tree seedlings beyond the current treeline, which is expected to occur with climate warming. However, treelines often fail to respond to higher temperatures, and it is therefore likely that other environmental factors are important for seedling establishment. We aimed to analyse our current understanding of how temperature and a range of other environmental drivers affect tree seedling establishment at the alpine and Arctic treelines worldwide, and...

Many plant and algal communities respond to warming with shifts towards more carbon-rich species and growth forms, thus diluting essential elements in their biomass and intensifying the stoichiometric mismatch with herbivore nutrient requirements. The dataset is from a 95-day mesocosm experiment on the spring succession of an assembled plankton community in which we manipulated temperature (ambient vs. +3.6°C) and presence vs. absence of two types of grazers (ciliates and Daphnia) in a 2x2x2 factorial design...

Many species that undergo long breeding migrations, such as anadromous fishes, face highly heterogeneous environments along their migration corridors and at their spawning sites. These environmental challenges encountered at different life stages may act as strong selective pressures and drive local adaptation. However, the relative influence of environmental conditions along the migration corridor compared to the conditions at spawning sites on driving selection is still unknown. In this study, we performed genome-environment associations (GEA) to...

Daily activity in herbivores reflects a balance between finding food and safety. The safety-in-numbers theory predicts that living in higher population densities increases safety, which should affect this balance. High-density populations are thus expected to show a more even distribution of activity – i.e. spread – and higher activity levels across the day. We tested these predictions for three ungulate species; red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and wild boar (Sus scrofa). We...

The most frequently recurring cancer-associated DNA polymerase ε (Pol ε) mutation is a P286R substitution in the exonuclease domain. While originally proposed to increase genome instability by disrupting exonucleolytic proofreading, the P286R variant was later found to be significantly more pathogenic than Pol ε proofreading deficiency per se. The mechanisms underlying its stronger impact remained unclear. Here we report the crystal structure of the yeast orthologue, Pol ε−P301R, complexed with DNA and an incoming dNTP....

1. Today, anthropogenic impacts are causing a serious crisis for global biodiversity, with rates of extinction increasing at an unprecedented rate. Extinctions typically occur after a certain delay and understanding the mechanisms causing delays is a key challenge for both fundamental and applied perspectives. 2. Here, we make use of natural experiments, the isolation of lakes by land up-lift in Northern Scandinavia, to examine how yearly extinction rates are affected by time since isolation and...

1. The potential of large mammalian herbivores to shift plant communities between nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) limitation has received little attention so far. However, herbivores can influence the cycling of these growth-limiting nutrients, and thereby affect plant nutrient limitation and productivity. Tundra ecosystems are nutrient-poor and commonly grazed by large herbivores like reindeer and may thus be responsive to such changes. 2. Here we examined the effect of long-term light and heavy reindeer grazing...

Root phenology influences the timing of plant resource acquisition and carbon fluxes into the soil. This is particularly important in fen peatlands, in which peat is primarily formed by roots and rhizomes of vascular plants. However, most fens in Central Europe are drained for agriculture, leading to large carbon losses, and further threatened by increasing frequency and intensity of droughts. Rewetting fens aims to restore the original carbon sink, but how root phenology is affected...

The Permo-Triassic vertebrate assemblage zones (AZs) of South Africa’s Karoo Basin are a standard for local and global correlations. However, temporal, geographical, and methodological limitations challenge the AZs reliability. We analyze a unique fossil dataset comprising 1408 occurrences of 115 species grouped into 19 stratigraphic bin intervals from the Cistecephalus, Daptocephalus, Lystrosaurus declivis, and Cynognathus AZs. Using network science tools we compare six frameworks: Broom, Rubidge, Viglietti, Member, Formation, including a framework suggesting diachroneity of...

Abstract Background The importance of stroma for tumor progression is recognized for many cancer types. In this study, we aim to evaluate the expression of types I (Col1) and IV (Col4) collagens, alpha-smooth muscle actin (a-SMA), and matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP-9) in the tumor stroma of small papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Material and methods Twenty-five non-metastatic small PTCs (pT1N0) and nineteen metastatic small PTCs (pT1N1b) including corresponding metastatic lateral lymph nodes were selected and paraffinized...

Additional file 1: Supplementary Table 1. Gender comparison of the mean values of the distribution and total scores of the different stromal biomarkers (Col1, Col4, a-SMA and MMP-9) regarding the different tumour groups (N0T and N1T). No significant differences were found between males and females regarding the expression of stromal biomarkers.

Abstract Background The importance of stroma for tumor progression is recognized for many cancer types. In this study, we aim to evaluate the expression of types I (Col1) and IV (Col4) collagens, alpha-smooth muscle actin (a-SMA), and matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP-9) in the tumor stroma of small papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Material and methods Twenty-five non-metastatic small PTCs (pT1N0) and nineteen metastatic small PTCs (pT1N1b) including corresponding metastatic lateral lymph nodes were selected and paraffinized...

Additional file 5: Authorship contributions and acknowledgements mapped to NORMAN-SLE lists (XLSX format).

Additional file 3: Summary of Zenodo view and download statistics, plus citations (CSV format) as of 28 April 2022 [235].