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Modern microbial and ecosystem sciences require diverse interdisciplinary teams that are often challenged in “speaking” to one another due to different languages and data product types. Here we introduce the IsoGenie Database (IsoGenieDB; https://isogenie-db.asc.ohio-state.edu/), a de novo developed data management and exploration platform, as a solution to this challenge of accurately representing and integrating heterogenous environmental and microbial data across ecosystem scales. The IsoGenieDB is a public and private data infrastructure designed to store and query data generated by the IsoGenie Project, a ~10 year DOE-funded project focused on discovering ecosystem climate feedbacks in a thawing permafrost landscape. The IsoGenieDB provides (i) a platform for IsoGenie Project members to explore the project’s interdisciplinary datasets across scales through the inherent relationships among data entities, (ii) a framework to consolidate and harmonize the datasets needed by the team’s modelers, and (iii) a public venue that leverages the same spatially explicit, disciplinarily integrated data structure to share published datasets. The IsoGenieDB is also being expanded to cover the NASA-funded Archaea to Atmosphere (A2A) project, which scales the findings of IsoGenie to a broader suite of Arctic peatlands, via the umbrella A2A Database (A2A-DB). The IsoGenieDB’s expandability and flexible architecture allow it to serve as an example ecosystems database.

Females of the golden egg bug (Phyllomorpha laciniata) lay eggs on the backs of male and female conspecifics, and surprisingly, individuals commonly carry unrelated eggs. Here, we investigate predation risk from the ant Formica rufa during two reproductive stages of the golden egg bug: egg carrying and mating. Ants and an egg-loaded bug were enclosed with an unloaded bug, with a mating pair, or with a mating pair and an unloaded bug. Both mating and egg carrying increased predation risk. Mating increased predation risk because mating pairs were attacked more often than single egg-loaded bugs. When a mating pair was enclosed with an egg-loaded bug and an unloaded bug, the pair was attacked significantly more often than the two single individuals together, even though ant visitation rates did not differ among prey items. Ants attacked egg-loaded bugs significantly more often than unloaded bugs. Egg-loaded individuals suffered lower predation risks when in the presence of a mating pair than when in the presence of a single unloaded bug. Thus, predation risk depends on the mating status of nearby individuals. In the field, single individuals are often found with mating pairs; this observation could be explained if individuals decrease their predation risk by associating with preferred prey.

If a mutualistic relationship entails providing services at a cost, selection will favor individuals that maximize the net benefits of the interaction and minimi^ the costs. Larvae of many species of lycaenid butterflies secrete nutritious food rewards to attending ants and, in return, receive protection against predators and parasitoids. Because ants typically recruit more workers to larger resources, by forming groups the larvae may ensure more reliable access to ants and thereby gain better protection. A further consequence of aggregating should be a change of the cost-benefit relationship for individual larvae. The larger the group, the smaller a single larva's influence will be on total ant density, which could lead to a smaller investment in secretion, thus reducing the per capita cost of cooperation. In this study, die influence of ant attendance, group size, and companion quality on larval investment was investigated. The interaction between the obligately ant-dependent lycaenid, Jcdmtnus evagoras, and its attendant hidomyrmtx ants was manipulated and the effect on larval secretion measured. As the level of ant attendance increased, the delivery of food rewards increased, bodi for solitary and for aggregated larvae. When aggregated, larvae provided less food rewards to ants dun when solitary, and secretion rate decreased with increasing group size. Furthermore, larvae had lower secretion rates when paired with a bigger, more attractive larva than when paired with a smaller one. The considerable reduction in secretion rates for larvae in groups suggests that gaining protection at a lower secretion cost could be one factor that promotes aggregation in myrmecophilous lycaenids.

The costs and benefits for partners in interspecific, mutualistic relationships can vary from one interaction to the next, or change with time during an interaction, which might influence the mutualistic contributions. Such flexible behavioural responses could be important in regulating the interaction. Partners could also have special adaptations for the purpose of influencing each other. An individual might, for instance, signal its need for the services provided by the partner. In interactions between lycaenid butterfly larvae and ants, the larvae deliver nutritious droplets from a specialized gland and, in return, are protected from enemy attacks by the ants. Lycaenid larvae have several ant-related adaptations, one being a pair of eversible tentacular organs. In this study, the relationships between tentacle display, the delivery of droplets and ant attendance were investigated in a number of experiments, where the interaction between larvae ofPolyommatus icarusand eitherLasius nigerorL. flavusants was manipulated. High rates of both droplet delivery and tentacle display were found at the first contact with ants, after an interruption in attendance and, for low levels of attendance, after a simulated enemy attack. Under steady state conditions, displays were most frequent at low levels of attendance, but droplet delivery had a maximum at intermediate levels. Manipulation of a larva's ability to use its tentacles also showed that ants respond to tentacle display by increasing their attendance. Larval behaviour was interpreted as aimed at regulating the number of attending ants.

Interspecific mutualism often involves partners trading different services. If it is costly to provide a service, there is a conflict of interest, and mutualism cannot be evolutionarily stable unless partners react to each other's contributions. An individual might also be influenced by its need for the services offered, being more willing to contribute when the need is greater. In mutualistic interactions between lycaenid butterfly larvae and ants, the larvae secrete nutritious droplets from a specialized gland and, in return, the ants protect the larvae from attacks by parasitoids and predators. Here, two aspects of the interactions between larvae of the common blue, Polyommatus icarus, and ants were studied experimentally. First, larval reaction to ant attendance was investigated by giving varying numbers of ants, Lasius flavus, access to a larva. The amount of larval secretion increased with the level of ant attendance, but at high levels no further increase occurred. Second, the effect of variation in a larva's need for protection was studied in an experiment where ants, Tetramorium caespitum, had free access to a larva. Exposing the larva to a simulated attack resulted in increased secretion and increased ant attendance. The effect on secretion was stronger; the number of droplets per attending ant was higher after an attack, making the interaction more favourable for the ants.

We assessed the quality of different ant species as partners of the facultatively myrmecophilous lycaenid butterfly Glaucopsyche lygdamus. We compared disappearance and parasitism rates of G. lygdamus larvae in the field, and development of non-feeding prepupae in the laboratory, when individuals were untended or tended by one of four ant species. Formica podzolica was the only ant species to provide a clear benefit to G. lygdamus, in the form of reduced larval parasitism relative to untended larvae. F. 'neogagates' (F. neogagates + F. lasioides) and Tapinoma sessile were essentially neutral partners, providing no significant cost or benefit for any of the parameters measured. Relative to untended individuals, association with F. obscuripes significantly increased larval disappearance and significantly decreased pupal mass. Thus, F. obscuripes may act as a parasite of the general association between G. lygdamus and ants under certain conditions. Ant species also differed in their persistence as tenders of G. lygdamus larvae once an interaction was established. Over the lifetime of a larva, F. podzolica and F. obscuripes usually remained as the attendant ant species on plants over consecutive census dates, while F. 'neogagates' and T. sessile were frequently replaced, most commonly by F. obscuripes. It remains to be determined if disappearance and developmental outcomes reported here reflect true fitness costs (i.e. reduced survivorship and lower reproductive success) for G. lygdamus. The potential and limitations for specialization in association between G. lygdamus and high quality ant partners are discussed.