ABSTRACT
Cooperative breeding decreases the direct reproductive output of subordinate individuals, but cooperation can be evolutionarily favored when there are challenges or constraints to breeding independently. Environmental factors, including temperature, precipitation, latitude, high seasonality, and environmental harshness have been hypothesized to correlate with the presence of cooperative breeding. However, to test the relationship between cooperation and ecological constraints requires comparative data on the frequency and variation of cooperative breeding across differing environments, ideally replicated across multiple species. Paper wasps are primitively social species, forming colonies composed of reproductively active dominants and foraging subordinates. Adult female wasps, referred to as foundresses, initiate new colonies. Nests can be formed by a single solitary foundress (noncooperative) or by multiple foundress associations (cooperative). Cooperative behavior varies within and among species, making paper wasps species well suited to disentangling ecological correlates of variation in cooperative behavior. This data set reports the frequency and extent of cooperative nest founding for 87 paper wasp species. Data were assembled from more than 170 published sources, previously unpublished field observations, and photographs contributed by citizen scientists to online natural history repositories. The data set includes 25,872 nest observations and reports the cooperative behavioral decisions for 45,297 foundresses. Species names were updated to reflect modern taxonomic revisions. The type of substrate on which the nest was built is also included, when available. A smaller population-level version of this data set found that the presence or absence of cooperative nesting in paper wasps was correlated with temperature stability and environmental harshness, but these variables did not predict the extent of cooperation within species. This expanded data set contains details about individual nests and further increases the power to address the relationship between the environment and the presence and extent of cooperative breeding. Beyond the ecological drivers of cooperation, these high-resolution data will be useful for future studies examining the evolutionary consequences of variation in social behavior. This data set may be used for research or educational purposes provided that this data paper is cited.
ABSTRACT
One of the most impacted watersheds in the US in terms of pesticide usage is South Florida, which drains through a series of canals into the Florida Everglades and Florida Bay. Single species responses to pesticide exposure are well documented; however, little is known about community level responses to pesticides, especially at lower trophic levels. Microbial assemblages at two sites along the C-111 canal in the Dade County agricultural area in October 1999 (wet season, limited pesticide application) and in February 2000 (dry season, heavy pesticide application) were colonized onto artificial substrates, transported to the laboratory and exposed to atrazine (20 and 200 microg/l), chlorothalonil (2 and 20 microg/l), or endosulfan (1 and 10 microg/l). Structural and functional responses were measured at 24 h and 168 h post-dose. Regardless of site, season or exposure time, the highest atrazine dose (200 microg/l) significantly reduced chlorophyll a, phototrophic carbon assimilation and bacterial biomass, but stimulated heterotrophic bacterial productivity. Chlorophyll a was also significantly reduced by 20 microg/l atrazine (October only). The lowest endosulfan dose (1 microg/l) significantly increased phototrophic carbon assimilation. The highest chlorothalonil dose (20 microg/l) stimulated heterotrophic bacterial productivity (October only). An overall decrease in the number of protist taxa was observed with all pesticide treatments. Atrazine significantly decreased the relative abundance of chlorophytes and chrysophytes and increased the number of diatom and heterotrophic protist taxa. Chlorothalonil significantly increased the relative abundance of diatoms and chlorophytes, while chrysophytes and heterotrophic protists decreased. Endosulfan also significantly reduced diatom abundance, as well as decreasing the number of chrysophyte, cryptophyte and dinoflagellate taxa. Although previous agricultural pesticide exposure was greater at site C than at site E, the microbial assemblages at site C did not exhibit increased resistance to a subsequent dose of the pesticides.