This dataset contains data on insects observed visiting flowers of three crops (apples, field beans and oilseed rape) and responses by recorders to a questionnaire asking about their experience carrying out pollinator surveys. Data from thirteen flowering crop fields was collected by teams based at the University of Reading and the James Hutton Institute in Scotland. Data was collected by different recorders, some of whom were novice data collectors, experienced researchers or farmers and agronomists....

The dataset comprises the surface stability of sediments as determined by a Cohesive Strength Meter (CSM). Between 3 and 5 replicate measurements were taken from each of the 22 designated experiment quadrats at each of the Coastal Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (CBESS) sites. At each CBESS site, a salt marsh site and a mud flat site was examined and three locations were selected in Morecambe Bay, North West England and three locations in Essex,...

Warming of the Arctic has resulted in earlier snowmelt and green-up of plants in spring, potentially disrupting the synchrony between plant phenology and breeding phenology in herbivores. A negative relationship between offspring survival in West-Greenland caribou and the timing of vegetation emergence was the first finding of such a mismatch in Arctic mammals. However, other studies indicate that the energy for foetal growth and early lactation is predominantly drawn from stored energy reserves typical of...

Environmental conditions experienced during early growth and development markedly shape phenotypic traits. Consequently, individuals of the same cohort may show similar life-history tactics throughout life. Conditions experienced later in life, however, could fine-tune these initial differences, either increasing (cumulative effect) or decreasing (compensatory effect) the magnitude of cohort variation with increasing age. Our novel comparative analysis that quantifies cohort variation in individual body size trajectories shows that initial cohort variation dissipates throughout life, and that...

Background: The Rhynchosporium species complex consists of hemibiotrophic fungal pathogens specialized to different sweet grass species including the cereal crops barley and rye. A sexual stage has not been described, but several lines of evidence suggest the occurrence of sexual reproduction. Therefore, a comparative genomics approach was carried out to disclose the evolutionary relationship of the species and to identify genes demonstrating the potential for a sexual cycle. Furthermore, due to the evolutionary very young...

Data comprise results of a soil survey in England, Scotland and Wales carried out during 2013 and 2014 as part of the NERC Macronutrient Cycles project: LTLS : Analysing and simulating long-term and large-scale interactions of carbon nitrogen and phosphorus in UK land, freshwater and atmosphere. The data include bulk density measurements, charcoal and coal determinations, site locations and sampling dates, site vegetation data, soil chemistry and isotope data, soil classifications, information on soil cores...

Sedentary plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs) induce and maintain an intimate relationship with their host, stimulating cells adjacent to root vascular tissue to re-differentiate into unique and metabolically active ‘feeding sites’. The interaction between PPNs and their host is mediated by nematode effectors. We describe the discovery of a large and diverse family of effector genes, encoding C-TERMINALLY ENCODED PEPTIDE (CEP) plant hormone mimics (RrCEPs), in the syncytia-forming plant parasite Rotylenchulus reniformis. The particular attributes of RrCEPs...

The potato aphid, Macrosiphum euphorbiae Thomas (Hemiptera: Aphididae: Macrosiphini), is a common polyphagous aphid in Europe and North America. However, the factors influencing potato aphid dynamics and susceptibility to natural enemies are largely undescribed, particularly in relation to facultative endosymbiotic bacteria, which can provide protection against parasitism and disease in some aphid species. This study investigated whether potato aphid susceptibility to one of its principal natural enemies, the parasitoid Aphidius ervi Haliday (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae),...

Baseline Vegetation data from the UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) terrestrial sites. These data are collected at all of ECN's terrestrial sites using a standard protocol (see supporting documentation). This was a one-off whole site baseline vegetation survey (though given the intensive nature of this survey, some sites did it over successive years) to generate a vegetation map and identify the areas within the site to be monitored. In this protocol up to 500 systemic...

Fine Grain Vegetation data from the UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) terrestrial sites. These data are collected at all of ECN's terrestrial sites using a standard protocol (see supporting documentation). In this protocol, 10m x 10m plots are randomly selected within each vegetation type on the site - species presence is recorded in 40cm x 40 cm cells randomly selected within these plots. They represent continuous records every three years (some sites record data annually)...

Data comprise bulk density, loss on ignition, carbon content of peat, nitrogen content of peat, total phosphorus content of peat, soil 13 carbon content and soil 14 carbon content from samples collected during a peat survey in England, Scotland and Wales during 2014. The study was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council under the Macronutrient Cycling Research Programme, as part of the Long-Term, Large-Scale (LTLS) project (Grant no. NE/J011533/1).

Background: The yellow potato cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis is a devastating plant pathogen of global economic importance. This biotrophic parasite secretes effectors from pharyngeal glands, some of which were acquired by horizontal gene transfer, to manipulate host processes and promote parasitism. G. rostochiensis is classified into pathotypes with different plant resistance-breaking phenotypes. Results: We generate a high-quality genome assembly for G. rostochiensis pathotype Ro1, identify putative effectors and horizontal gene transfer events, map gene expression...

Within the phylum Nematoda, plant-parasitism is hypothesized to have arisen independently on at least four occasions. The most economically damaging plant-parasitic nematode species, and consequently the most widely studied, are those that feed as they migrate destructively through host roots causing necrotic lesions (migratory endoparasites) and those that modify host root tissue to create a nutrient sink from which they feed (sedentary endoparasites). The false root-knot nematode Nacobbus aberrans is the only known species to...

Woodland vegetation data from the UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) terrestrial sites. These data are collected at all of ECN's terrestrial sites using a standard protocol (see Supporting documentation). This survey is conducted when plots surveyed during the coarse-grain survey fall in woodland. Seedlings, diameter at breast height (dbh), height and species dominance are recorded within a surrounding 10m x 10m plot. ECN is the UK's long-term environmental monitoring programme. It is a multi-agency programme...

1. Understanding how soil microbial communities influence plant interactions with other organisms, and how this varies with characteristics of the interacting organisms, is important for multiple systems. Solanum spp. are a suitable model for trophic interactions in studies of agricultural and natural systems and can also provide useful corollaries in invaded systems. This study examined the influence of soil mutualist arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi on growth of different Solanum types fed on by the potato...

The internal predictive adaptive response (internal PAR) hypothesis predicts that individuals born in poor conditions should start to reproduce earlier if they are likely to have reduced performance in later life. However, whether this is the case remains unexplored in wild populations. Here, we use longitudinal data from a long-term study of Svalbard reindeer to examine age-related changes in adult female life-history responses to environmental conditions experienced in utero as indexed by rain-on-snow (ROSutero). We...

Coarse grain vegetation data from the UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) terrestrial sites. These data are collected at all of ECN's terrestrial sites using a standard protocol (see supporting documentation). In this protocol, 50 2m x 2m plots are randomly selected within each vegetation type on the site - species presence is recorded in 40cm x 40 cm cells randomly selected within these plots. They represent continuous records every nine years from 1993 to 2012....