Abstract Nakagawa experimental forest of Hokkaido University is located in the middle Teshio River and some tributaries flow through the forest. The construction of Otoineppu bypass route started in 2007. This bypass route will pass through the forest. In order to evaluate the impacts of the road construction on stream ecosystem, a long‐term monitoring of fish community and stream environmental characteristics have been conducted including before, during and after the road construction. The survey has been implemented on five streams in Teshio River (three streams inside the bypass construction zone and two streams outside the zone). Here, we report the data of species, body size and weight of fish sampled using an electrofishing unit and the data of stream environmental characteristics such as water temperature, water surface area, pH and EC. The three‐pass removal method for fish sampling and measurement of stream environmental characteristics was conducted three times a year (mainly June, August and October) from 1999 to 2018. A total of 57,203 individuals were observed, belonging to 11 species in seven families. After bypass road construction started (2007), the number of fishes gradually increased at both bypass road construction and control sites. Occasionally, the number of fishes at the bypass construction site tended to be lower than at the control site, but there was not always noticeable difference between them. The complete data set for this abstract published in the Data Paper section of the journal is available in electronic format in MetaCat in JaLTER at http://db.cger.nies.go.jp/JaLTER/metacat/metacat/ERDP-2020-09.1/jalter-en .

Even though individual life history is the focus of much ecological research, its importance for the dynamics and structure of ecological communities is unclear, or is it a topic of much ongoing research. In this paper I highlight the key life history traits that may lead to effects of life history or ontogeny on ecological communities. I show that asymmetries in the extent of food limitation between individuals in different life stage can give rise to an increase in efficiency with which resources are used for population growth when conditions change. This change in efficiency may result in a positive relationship between stage‐specific density and mortality. The positive relationship between density and mortality in turn leads to predictions about community structure that are not only diametrically opposite to the expectations based on theory that ignores population structure but are also intuitively hard to accept. I provide a few examples that illustrate how taking into account intraspecific differences due to ontogeny radically changes the theoretical expectations regarding the possible outcomes of community dynamics. As the most compelling example I show how a so‐called double‐handicapped looser, that is, a consumer species that is both competitively inferior in the absence of predators and experiences higher mortality when predators are present, can nonetheless oust its opponent that it competes with for the same resource and is exposed to the same predator.

Abstract Microbial decomposers absorb nitrogen (N) to sustain growth during litter decomposition releasing surplus N into the soil. The balance between N release (mineralization) and absorption (immobilization) can alter nutrient cycling based mostly on the functional diversity in microbial communities. We examined the effects of soil microbes and litter quality on N cycling in an artificial grassland and two seminatural grasslands through a microcosm study. The artificial grassland soil had a higher respiration rate and a lower N mineralization rate, irrespective of the litter identity during incubation, when compared with the seminatural grassland soil. The release of mineralized nitrogen from litter was small for the artificial grassland because the soil microbes absorbed most of the mineralized N during decomposition. The artificial grassland soil had a low fungi:bacteria ratio (i.e., a high abundance of bacteria) and showed a clear separation of bacterial and fungal communities from the seminatural grassland soil. Our results suggested that stoichiometric constraint, not the biomass turnover rate, of microbial decomposers plays a key role in N cycling between aboveground and belowground communities in grasslands.

Capture–recapture methods have been a cornerstone of field-based dispersal ecology. However, obtaining unbiased estimates of dispersal parameters from capture–recapture data is challenging because it is impossible to survey all possible range of dispersal in the field. Here, I compared the performance of three dispersal models using test datasets simulated under various sampling designs.

Abstract Revealing how species assemblages are structured is one of the themes in community ecology and macroecology. The information of species traits as well as geographic occurrence would help analyze the pattern and process of species interactions and community assembly. Butterfly species are one of the best‐studied groups about their distribution and tons of their occurrence data exist. Also, life history traits, especially interaction with host plants are well‐described. However, the body size information is still poor although this is one of the most important characters affecting their distribution and life history traits. Here, we constructed a data set of the forewing length of butterflies by extracting the information from five Japanese and Taiwanese picture books. We measured 6,211 forewing lengths for a total of 524 species. Scientific, family and common names of the butterflies distributed in Japan were based on a Japanese picture book, and the other species distributed in Taiwan were based on Taiwanese picture books. Also, we added the information of butterfly names based on Binran database. Each record of butterflies is linked with the corresponding taxonomic names in the other two books to easily identify the species even when the names used in the three books and the Binran database are not the same. The dataset will be useful for basic and applied biological studies of butterflies because their forewing length is a proxy of their body size and dispersal ability, which could be important determinants of their physiology, distribution, ecosystem functioning and evolution. The complete data set for this abstract published in the Data Paper section of the journal is available in electronic format in MetaCat in JaLTER at http://db.cger.nies.go.jp/JaLTER/metacat/metacat/ERDP-2020-11.1/jalter-en .

Abstract To validate and to improve ecological products obtained from satellites, such as a leaf area index (LAI), above‐ground biomass (AGB), and a fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR), in‐situ accurate data are indispensable. They must be not a single point‐data but an areal data representing the satellite footprint. Their accuracy needs to be much higher than the required accuracy for the satellite products. The quantitative assessment of their error is necessary for evaluating the satellite products' error from the discrepancy between the satellite products and the in‐situ data. However, such data had not been available. In particular, there had been few data of LAI in a sparse evergreen needle‐leaved forest, because of difficulty of accuracy control of in‐situ observation in such a forest. To overcome the difficulty and to obtain the representative LAI, we made an allometric equation to estimate the leaf mass of Picea glehnii in northern Hokkaido. We report the allometric equations of leaf mass and AGB of P. glehnii , its leaf mass per area (LMA), its leaf life span, its leaf distribution, its crown shapes, its wood specific gravity, and tree locations. We also report LAI, AGB, and fAPAR within the 500 m × 500 m area, which is the footprint scale of the Global Change Observation Mission‐Climate satellite, in a pure and sparse forest of P. glehnii in northern Hokkaido. These precise data are useful for validation of other satellite data, especially with higher spatial resolution, and forest structure modeling. The complete data set for this abstract published in the Data Paper section of the journal is available in electronic format in MetaCat in JaLTER at http://db.cger.nies.go.jp/JaLTER/metacat/metacat/ERDP-2020-06.1/jalter-en . [Correction added on 7 September 2020, after first online publication: JaLTER URL has been updated.]

Abstract Arctic terrestrial ecosystems near the treeline in river lowlands are vulnerable to the changing climate and seasonal extreme events, including flooding. We set up a simple camera monitoring system to record the timings and durations of the leafy period and the spring flush of river water at three observation sites (Boydom [B]: 70.64°N, 148.15°E; Kodac [K]:70.56°N, 148.26°E; Verkhny‐Khatistakh [VK]:70.25°N,147.47°E) in the Indigirka lowland, in Northeastern Siberia. Time‐lapse digital cameras were located at seven points across the three sites. The time intervals were 1–4 or 24 hours. The minimum and maximum monitoring periods were 2 years (July 2016 to August 2018) at B and 5 years (August 2013 to July 2018) at K. One camera documented the timings of river ice melt and open water periods from the riverbank of the Kryvaya River, one of the small tributaries of the Indigirka River. The other six cameras recorded several types of ground cover typical of the area, including larch trees ( Larix cajanderi ), shrubs (including Salix spp. and Betula nana ), forbs, mosses and graminoids in an ecosystem of sparsely forested shrublands, wetlands and riversides. The data consists of 45,617 JPEG‐format images. This dataset can be used to detect the onset and offset of the growing season and to capture the ice melt timing and water cover periods in wetlands and riversides. It may be useful in validating satellite data such as the vegetation remote sensing index for remote and little‐known areas. These data may contribute to the study of the role of high‐latitude ecosystems in global climate changes. The complete data set for this abstract published in the Data Paper section of the journal is available in electronic format in MetaCat in JaLTER at http://db.cger.nies.go.jp/JaLTER/metacat/metacat/ERDP-2020-02.1/jalter-en . [Correction added on 7 September 2020, after first online publication: JaLTER URL has been updated.]

Abstract Being pivotal to nutrient mobilization and conservation, microbial communities are indispensible for sustenance of forest ecosystem. The pattern and drivers of active soil microbial communities remain less explored in tropical dry deciduous forests. The present study was conducted during two annual cycles at three forest sites (hilltop, middle and hillbase) in the tropical dry deciduous forest of Vindhyan plateau, India. Chloroform fumigation‐extraction and phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) were used to investigate soil microbial biomass and microbial community, respectively. Our results showed significant (p < .05) topographical and seasonal shift in the soil microbial community wherein, microbial biomass and PLFA concentration (as total PLFA and specific biomarkers) were highest at hillbase site. The fungal PLFAs/bacterial PLFAs (F/B) and gram positive bacterial (G+)/gram negative bacterial (G−) (G+/G−) ratio also varied significantly with topography and season indicating specific changes in microbial communities. In general, bacteria dominated the overall scenario, and gram‐positive PLFAs biomarker dominated the total bacterial PLFAs. In the fungal counterpart, AM fungi showed prevalence. The soil organic carbon and nitrogen showed positive correlation with the microbial biomass, total bacterial PLFAs concentration and specific biomarker groups. The highest level of microbial biomass and PLFAs observed during summer indicated nutrients immobilization. The study has implications in understanding the microbial basis of nutrient turnover in the ecosystem perspective.

Abstract Foliicolous lichenized fungi (FLF) are widely distributed in tropical forests. The Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, one of the most diverse rainforest biomes, has multiple phyto‐physiognomies. Montane forest fragments or forest refuges, so‐called “Brejos,” are located within the semiarid Caatinga in Northeast Brazil. Our objective was to determine the FLF diversity within five Brejos and to analyze their biogeographic affinities within the Neotropics. The FLF biota of the Brejos was compared with that of 21 sites belonging to seven other rainforest biomes, ranging from the Atlantic rainforest in Argentina, to montane rainforests in Ecuador, to the Amazonia basin, and rainforests in Central America. One hundred and fifty‐six species were identified in the Brejos. This biota is most similar to that of the Atlantic rainforest and eastern Amazonia, while that of western Amazonia is more similar to that of the Andes and rainforests in Central America (Chocó). Multiple species identified in the Brejos have a wide distribution in tropical America, and only 11 are potentially endemic. Few other species have also a restricted distribution. The FLF biota of the Chocó and western Amazon is substantially richer than that of eastern Amazon, the Atlantic rainforest and the Brejos. This suggests that the biota of the latter areas is largely a depauperate subset of the Chocó and the western Amazon region. We argue that the major differences between the two large regions are related to the Pleistocene and Pliocene, when paleoclimatic and geological changes caused the isolation of the Brejos and the temporary fragmentation particularly of eastern Amazonia.

Abstract In this article, we discuss about the seasonal variations in the monoterpene emission rates and chemical composition of monoterpenes from selected tropical tree species of Central India. The highest normalized total average monoterpene emission rates (normalized at 30°C) from all the plant species were found in summer followed by rainy and winter seasons, respectively. The composition of individual monoterpene compounds emitted from all the tropical plant species showed significant seasonal variations. Nine monoterpene compounds were determined across three seasons from these selected plants: α‐pinene, β‐pinene, and limonene represented up to 72.6% of the total monoterpene emission. Although the main compounds emitted were α‐pinene, β‐pinene, and limonene, the other minor compounds were also found at varying emission rates. α‐Terpinene and carene were not observed in Eucalyptus globulus and Pongamia pinnata during winter and rainy seasons. Sabinene was only recorded from Azadirachta indica . We have thus observed clearly that the seasonal as well as monthly variations in chemical composition of monoterpene emission rate are species specific. Furthermore, the effect of environmental variables such as temperature (TEM), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), relative humidity, and carbon dioxide from plant species in distinct seasons revealed that the monoterpene emissions were mainly temperature (TEM) and PAR dependent.