Ecological Indicators

Mixed-species forest stands may provide suitable habitats for a greater number of bird species than tree monocultures by increasing the number of niches and resources available. However, assessing the effects of forest diversity on birds over time and across multiple sites using traditional survey methods can be expensive, time-consuming and impractical. We used passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) and acoustic indices to investigate how tree species diversity, relative density, and other plot characteristics affect the species richness of avian communities in temperate forests. Acoustic surveys were conducted in the Hainich National Park, Germany, using plots which differed in tree species diversity and relative species density. Of the five acoustic indices assessed, the normalised difference soundscape index (NDSI), the acoustic complexity index (ACI) and bioacoustic index (BI) performed best in separating biophony from other soundscape elements whereas the acoustic evenness index (AEI) and temporal entropy (Ht) were biased towards geophony, anthrophony and silence. NDSI, ACI and BI displayed significant positive relationships with bird species richness but NDSI plateaued at 5 bird species. Plot tree species diversity had significant positive effects on ACI and BI during dawn, dusk and daytime periods. Increased basal area of sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) and, to a lesser degree, beech (Fagus sylvatica), had a negative effect on acoustic indices. These results could potentially be due to the earlier leaf out timings of these tree species in relation to the dates when surveys were performed. While the use of PAM and acoustic indices enabled surveys across multiple sites over longer time periods than would previously have been achievable, our results show that care should be taken when selecting the indices and interpreting acoustic index results. Article data: This folder contains data files associated with the published article and appendices. Excel files contain ACI and BI values that were calculated for the individual audio files recorded in each plot that were used in analyses. Median values for each time period are also included. Audio files provided were used to assess acoustic index bias towards soundscape elements other than bird vocalizations, relationships between acoustic index values and bird species richness (Appendix B), and the effect that distance between source and receiver had on acoustic index values (Appendix C).

They are the basis of the indicators.

Tables for rarefaction curves analysis calculation using iNEXT package ver 2.0.20 in R. Data of several acoustic indices and anuran diversity calculated from our recordings.

5011-BC-2016GRz-MSITS3_R1.fastq & 5011-BC-2016GRz-MSITS3_R2.fastq TA-2016 ‘Technician A’ – 2016 community sampling for lichen community metabarcoding. ca. 1.2 g Quick-DNA Fungal/Bacterial Kit (Zymo) 5011-BC-2016BWz-MSITS3_R1.fastq & 5011-BC-2016BWz-MSITS3_R2.fastq TB-2016 ‘Technician B’ – 2016 community sampling for lichen community metabarcoding. ca. 0.85 g Quick-DNA Fungal/Bacterial Kit (Zymo) 5011-BC-2016SLz-MSITS3_R1.fastq & 5011-BC-2016SLz-MSITS3_R2.fastq P2016-Zymo Professional lichenologist – 2016 community sampling for lichen community metabarcoding.* ca. 0.75 g* Quick-DNA Fungal/Bacterial Kit (Zymo) 5011-BC-2016SLpm-MSITS3_R1.fastq & 5011-BC-2016SLpm-MSITS3_R2.fastq P2016-PowerMax Professional lichenologist – 2016 community sampling for lichen community metabarcoding.* ca. 7.9 g* PowerMax Soil DNA Isolation Kit (Qiagen) 5011-BC-2011pm-MSITS3_R1.fastq & 5011-BC-2011pm-MSITS3_R2.fastq V2011 2011 vouchered collection from the initial morphology-based lichen inventory. ca. 1.2 g PowerMax Soil DNA Isolation Kit (Qiagen)

Principal Component Analysis Data,Based on the this analysis, the impacts of various factors on the vulnerability of social ecosystems are analyzed.

Physical Geographic and Socio-Economic Data of Funiu Mountain Area

Results of the Acute toxicity test. Artemia nauplii were exposed to different concentrations of Hg and of Zn for 24h.

Co-located lichen and throughfall samples in Utah and New Mexico, USA. Lichen N and S concentrations are in %. Deposition is reported in kg/ha over the time periods from 2014-2018. There are open and throughfall collectors with N and S deposition as well as oxidized and reduced N.

All supplementary material described in the ms with the title “Trait-based indices to assess benthic vulnerability to trawling and model potential loss of ecosystem functions” submitted to Ecological Indicators.

Samples of T. recurvata were collected in 5 and 4 sites of Santa Clara and Cienfuegos, respectively. Four sampling campaigns were carried out between 2015 and 2016: in Santa Clara, samples were collected in November 2015 and March, June and September 2016; while in Cienfuegos sampling campaigns took place in June and December 2015, and June and September 2016. The monitoring sites at both cities were located in roads or highways with high level of vehicular traffic (sites 1 and 3 in Cienfuegos and 2, 3 and 4 in Santa Clara) and in parks surrounded by busy roads (sites 2 and 4 in Cienfuegos and 1 and 5 in Santa Clara). At each sampling site, composite samples, made up of 3 to 6 plants from the same tree or nearby trees, were taken at a height of 2 m or higher in order to minimize resuspension of soils and particles from roads. Top soils samples (0-5 cm of roadside or parks soils) were collected in the same sampling places at the same time. Additionally, three composite samples of T. recurvata were collected in the Botanic Garden of Cienfuegos (site 5 in Figure 1) in September 2016 and considered as the control site (no soil samples were taken at this site). All samples were stored and labeled in self-sealed polyethylene bags and immediately taken to the laboratory for preparation. Unwashed samples of T. recurvata and top soils were oven-dried at 45˚C to constant weight, grounded and passed through a 250 µm sieve. The fraction <250 µm was stored in polyethylene bags until further analysis. Concentrations of 46 major and trace elements were determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS, Agilent 7500a). About 0.25 g (dry weight) of epiphytic plant and top soils samples were digested in a closed microwave digestion system (CEM Co., Mars X press) using 9 mL of concentrated nitric acid and 12 ml aqua regia, respectively. A multi-element solution (Li, Sc, Y, In, Bi) was added to each sample and used as internal standards for further analysis by ICP-MS. Mercury concentrations were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry using a Mercury Analyzer (MA-2000 Series, Nippon) on 50 mg of sample. Soil samples from the 4th sampling campaign were not measured by ICP-MS due to technical issues. For the quality control of the analytical procedure, a pine needle sample from the 15th ICP Forests ring test and the interlaboratory reference material M2-Pleurozium Schreberi were used for T. recurvata. For top soils, the certified reference materials Soil 0217-CM-73007 and 0217-CM-7003 (Silty Clay Loam) were used. In both cases, these QC samples, one blank (only reagents) and one duplicated sample were measured every ten samples. Elemental recovery from reference materials were in the range 76-101% with a relative standard deviation (RSD) <7% for epiphytic plants and 74-115% with RSD<9% for top soils. Here, the heavier lanthanoids (Dy to Lu) showed lower recoveries in the range 47-63% (RSD<6%). The RSD from duplicated samples were <10%.