MotivationThe BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community‐led open‐source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene.Main types of variables includedThe database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains metadata relating to sampling methodology and contextual information about each record.Spatial location and grainBioTIME is a global database of 547,161 unique sampling locations spanning the marine, freshwater and terrestrial realms. Grain size varies across datasets from 0.0000000158 km2 (158 cm2) to 100 km2 (1,000,000,000,000 cm2).Time period and grainBioTIME records span from 1874 to 2016. The minimal temporal grain across all datasets in BioTIME is a year.Major taxa and level of measurementBioTIME includes data from 44,440 species across the plant and animal kingdoms, ranging from plants, plankton and terrestrial invertebrates to small and large vertebrates.Software format.csv and .SQL.

We examined the genetic diversity and structure of wolf populations in northwestern Russia. Populations in Republic of Karelia and Arkhangelsk Oblast were sampled during 1995-2000, and 43 individuals were genotyped with 10 microsatellite markers. Moreover, 118 previously genotyped wolves from the neighbouring Finnish population were used as a reference population. A relatively large amount of genetic variation was found in the Russian populations, and the Karelian wolf population tended to be slightly more polymorphic than the Arkhangelsk population. We found significant inbreeding (F = 0.094) in the Karelian, but not in the Arkhangelsk population. The effective size estimates of the Karelian wolf population based on the approximate Bayesian computation and linkage disequilibrium methods were 39.9 and 46.7 individuals, respectively. AMOVA-analysis and exact test of population differentiation suggested clear differentiation between the Karelian, Arkhangelsk and Finnish wolf populations. Indirect estimates of gene flow based on the level of population differentiation (/ ST = 0.152) and frequency of private alleles (0.029) both suggested a low level of gene flow between the populations (Nm = 1.4 and Nm = 3.7, respectively). Assignment analysis of Karelian and Finnish populations suggested an even lower number of recent migrants (less than 0.03) between populations, with a larger amount of migration from Finland to Karelia than vice versa. Our findings emphasise the role of physical obstacles and territorial behaviour in creating barriers to gene flow between populations in relatively limited geographical areas, even in large-bodied mammalian species with long-distance dispersal capabilities and an apparently continuous population structure.

. 1995. Influence of food availability and reproductive status on the diet and body condition of the European lynx in Finland. Acta Theriologica 40: 181-196.The carcasses of the 497 European lynx Lynx lynx (Linnaeus, 1758) killed in two areas in Finland in the 1980s were sexed, the nutritional status and diet of the lynx determined and the breeding stage of the females checked. There was no significant deviation in the sex ratio from 50:50 in any of ten hunting seasons. Fifty-three percent of the females over 1 year of age had given birth the previous spring, the mean litter size from the last pregnancy being 2.33 ± 0.73 (x ± SD, n = 82). In E Finland 86.2% of the winter diet consisted of hares, whereas in SW Finland the lynx consumed hares and white-tailed deer equally. There was no difference in diet between the sexes or age categories in E Finland, but in the white-tailed deer area of SW Finland the male lynx consumed more deer and hares less frequently than the females (p < 0.05). The lynx in SW Finland were on average, in a much better nutritional condition than those of E Finland. The male lynx in both areas had gained more depot fat than the females, on average a difference arising primarily from the smaller amount of fat in the female lynx which had given birth the previous spring. There were positive correlations in E Finland in all the age and sex categories between hare density and mesentery-omentum fat whereas snow depth produced negative correlation coefficients with the mesentery-omentum fat showing a significance of 90% in the adult females.

A long-term study of the winter food niche of the pine marten Martes martes in northern boreal Finland Erkki PULLIAINEN and Paivi OLLINMAKI Pulliainen E. and Ollinmáki P. 1996. A long-term study of the winter food niche of the pine marten Martes martes in northern boreal Finland. Acta Theriologica 41: 337-352.The diet of the pine marten Martes martes (Linnaeus, 1758) was studied during 16 successive winters in an uninhabited area in northern boreal Finland. The results are based on 5677 scats analyzed. The present data support earlier findings that the pine marten is an opportunistic generalist, its most favoured food apparently being small rodents, especially Clethrionomys spp. The significant year-to-year variation in the frequency of occurrence of this favoured prey in the diet of the marten correlated positively with summer trapping numbers for these species. Snow cover decreased the martens' consumption of Microtus spp. but not Clethrionomys spp. or the wood lemming Myopus schisticolor. The first real alternative in the absence of small rodents appeared to be the red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris, and in its absence carcasses of reindeer Rangifer tarandus tarandus and eggs. Other food items included birds, the mountain hare Lepus timidus, the common frog Rana temporaria, berries and mushrooms. There was some evidence that the occurrence of red squirrels in the diet was dependent on the abundance of both squirrels and small rodents. We suggest that in northern boreal Finland martens primarily forage for small rodents, and larger prey, which is less available and more difficult to catch, is captured incidentally.

Changes in climate are influencing the distribution and abundance of the world's biota, with significant consequences for biological diversity and ecosystem processes. Recent work has raised concern that populations of moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera) may be particularly susceptible to population declines under environmental change. Moreover, effects of climate change may be especially pronounced in high latitude ecosystems. Here, we examine population dynamics in an assemblage of subarctic forest moths in Finnish Lapland to assess current trajectories of population change. Moth counts were made continuously over a period of 32 years using light traps. From 456 species recorded, 80 were sufficiently abundant for detailed analyses of their population dynamics. Climate records indicated rapid increases in temperature and winter precipitation at our study site during the sampling period. However, 90% of moth populations were stable (57%) or increasing (33%) over the same period of study. Nonetheless, current population trends do not appear to reflect positive responses to climate change. Rather, time-series models illustrated that the per capita rates of change of moth species were more frequently associated negatively than positively with climate change variables, even as their populations were increasing. For example, the per capita rates of change of 35% of microlepidoptera were associated negatively with climate change variables. Moth life-history traits were not generally strong predictors of current population change or associations with climate change variables. However, 60% of moth species that fed as larvae on resources other than living vascular plants (e.g. litter, lichen, mosses) were associated negatively with climate change variables in time-series models, suggesting that such species may be particularly vulnerable to climate change. Overall, populations of subarctic forest moths in Finland are performing better than expected, and their populations appear buffered at present from potential deleterious effects of climate change by other ecological forces.