Bird species recorded in an untrained observer survey (UOS) and an expert observer survey (EOS) in 2011 in SE Peru

To evaluate the potential of community-based bird surveys in the tropics, we compared the species richness and abundances of bird functional groups that would be detected by a basic untrained observer (untrained observer survey, UOS) to a comprehensive bird species list compiled by a professional bird guide, in a coffee agroforestry landscape in the Peruvian East Andean foothills and compared functional signatures to global functional signatures of tropical bird assemblages. The submitted data comprises the transect counts of the UOS, the comprehensive bird list, ecological data of the recorded birds and information regarding the conservation status of the recorded birds from the IUCN Red List.

Drivers of multi-scale plant community structure in agricultural field margins of South Korea

This data set describes the distribution of a total of 90 plant species growing on field margins of an agricultural landscape in the Haean-myun catchment in South Korea. We conducted our survey between July and August 2011 in 100 sampling plots, covering the whole catchment. In each plot we measured three environmental variables: slope, width of the field margin, and management type (i.e. "managed" for field margins that had signs of management activities from the ongoing season such as cutting or spraying herbicides and "unmanaged" for field margins that had been left untouched in the season). For the botanical survey each plot was sampled using three subplots of one square meter per subplot; subplots were 4 m apart from each other. In each subplot, we estimated three different vegetation characteristics: vegetation cover (i.e. the percentage of ground covered by vegetation), species richness (i.e. the number of observed species) and species abundance (i.e. the number of observed individuals / species). We calculated the percentage of the non-farmed habitats by creating buffer zones of 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 m radii around each plot using data provided by (Seo et al. 2014). Non-farmed habitats included field margins, fallows, forest, riparian areas, pasture and grassland.

Discharge measurements and storm event chemistry at the San Francisco River station (Planta) in 2007-2008

To improve our knowledge of the influence of land-use on solute behaviour and export rates in neotropical montane catchments we investigated total organic carbon (TOC), Ca, Mg, Na, K, NO3 and SO4 concentrations during April 2007-May 2008 at different flow conditions and over time in six forested and pasture-dominated headwaters (0.7-76 km2) in Ecuador. NO3 and SO4 concentrations decreased during the study period, with a continual decrease in NO3 and an abrupt decrease in February 2008 for SO4. We attribute this to changing weather regimes connected to a weakening La Niña event. Stream Na concentration decreased in all catchments, and Mg and Ca concentration decreased in all but the forested catchments during storm flow. Under all land-uses TOC increased at high flows. The differences in solute behaviour during storm flow might be attributed to largely shallow subsurface and surface flow paths in pasture streams on the one hand, and a predominant origin of storm flow from the organic layer in the forested streams on the other hand. Nutrient export rates in the forested streams were comparable to the values found in literature for tropical streams. They amounted to 6-8 kg/ha/y for Ca, 7-8 kg/ha/y for K, 4-5 kg/ha/y for Mg, 11-14 kg/ha/y for Na, 19-22 kg/ha/y for NO3 (i.e. 4.3-5.0 kg/ha/y NO3-N) and 17 kg/ha/y for SO4. Our data contradict the assumption that nutrient export increases with the loss of forest cover. For NO3 we observed a positive correlation of export value and percentage forest cover.

Pollen record from a swamp in Ukraine

(1967): In 1956-1962 investigations of swamps from the forest-steppe and steppe of Ukraine were carried out. They were followed by spore-pollen studies of swamp deposits. These materials are partially published in papers devoted to the history of vegetation in the south of Ukraine and re-vegetation of landscape in different phases of Holocene (Artyushenko, Bachurina, 1958; Artyushenko, 1959, 1960; Artyushenko, Kucheryava, 1964). Peat area in the investigated region is very small. In the forest-steppe peat occupies 1.1%, and in the steppe - 0.03% of the whole area (Peat Reserve of the Ukrainian SSR, 1959).