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Losapio G. Contextualizing the ecology of plant-plant interactions and constructive networks. AOB PLANTS 2023; 15:plad035. [PMID: 37576876 PMCID: PMC10414809 DOI: 10.1093/aobpla/plad035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 08/15/2023]
Abstract
Botanical concepts have traditionally viewed the environment as a static box containing plants. In this box, plants compete with one another and act as passive resource consumers subjected to the environment in a top-down manner. This entails that plants have only negative effects on other plants and have no influence on the environment. By contrast, there is increasing evidence that plants have positive, bottom-up engineering effects and diversity effects on other plants and on the environment. Here, to overcome the limitations of top-down environmental control, antagonistic-only and pairwise interactions, I propose the concept of constructive networks. Constructive networks unify niche construction and network theory recognizing that (i) plants have manifold ecological functions and impacts on their neighbours, and (ii) the environment shapes and is shaped by diverse organisms, primarily plants. Constructive networks integrate both plant-environment and plant-plant interactions in a relational context. They address how plants influence the environment and support or inhibit other plant species by physically, biochemically and ecologically shaping environmental conditions. Constructive networks acknowledge the fact that diverse plants change and create novel environmental conditions and co-produce, share and transform resources, thereby influencing biological communities and the environment in constructive ways. Different interaction types are considered simultaneously in constructive networks. Yet, the main limitation to understanding constructive networks is the identification of plant links. This barrier may be overcome by applying complexity theory and statistical mechanics to comparative data and experimental field botany. Considering multiple interaction types and feedback between plants and the environment may improve our understanding of mechanisms responsible for biodiversity maintenance and help us to better anticipate the response of plant systems to global change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gianalberto Losapio
- Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, UNIL Mouline, 1015, VD, Switzerland
- Department of Biosciences, University of Milan, Via Celoria 26, 20133, Milan, Italy
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Li L, Wang T, Ning Z, Zhang X, Butcher J, Serrana JM, Simopoulos CMA, Mayne J, Stintzi A, Mack DR, Liu YY, Figeys D. Revealing proteome-level functional redundancy in the human gut microbiome using ultra-deep metaproteomics. Nat Commun 2023; 14:3428. [PMID: 37301875 PMCID: PMC10257714 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39149-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2022] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Functional redundancy is a key ecosystem property representing the fact that different taxa contribute to an ecosystem in similar ways through the expression of redundant functions. The redundancy of potential functions (or genome-level functional redundancy [Formula: see text]) of human microbiomes has been recently quantified using metagenomics data. Yet, the redundancy of expressed functions in the human microbiome has never been quantitatively explored. Here, we present an approach to quantify the proteome-level functional redundancy [Formula: see text] in the human gut microbiome using metaproteomics. Ultra-deep metaproteomics reveals high proteome-level functional redundancy and high nestedness in the human gut proteomic content networks (i.e., the bipartite graphs connecting taxa to functions). We find that the nested topology of proteomic content networks and relatively small functional distances between proteomes of certain pairs of taxa together contribute to high [Formula: see text] in the human gut microbiome. As a metric comprehensively incorporating the factors of presence/absence of each function, protein abundances of each function and biomass of each taxon, [Formula: see text] outcompetes diversity indices in detecting significant microbiome responses to environmental factors, including individuality, biogeography, xenobiotics, and disease. We show that gut inflammation and exposure to specific xenobiotics can significantly diminish the [Formula: see text] with no significant change in taxonomic diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leyuan Li
- State Key Laboratory of Proteomics, Beijing Proteome Research Center, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), Beijing Institute of Lifeomics, 102206, Beijing, China
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Tong Wang
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Zhibin Ning
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Xu Zhang
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - James Butcher
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Joeselle M Serrana
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Caitlin M A Simopoulos
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Janice Mayne
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Alain Stintzi
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - David R Mack
- Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa and Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre and Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8L1, Canada
| | - Yang-Yu Liu
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
- Center for Artificial Intelligence and Modeling, The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
| | - Daniel Figeys
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada.
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Caputo JG, Girardin V, Knippel A, Nguyen MH, Niquil N, Noguès Q. Analysis of trophic networks: an optimisation approach. J Math Biol 2021; 83:53. [PMID: 34713380 DOI: 10.1007/s00285-021-01682-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2021] [Revised: 07/20/2021] [Accepted: 10/13/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
We introduce a methodology to study the possible matter flows of an ecosystem defined by observational biomass data and realistic biological constraints. The flows belong to a polyhedron in a multi dimensional space that may make statistical exploration difficult in practice; instead, we propose to solve a convex optimization problem. Seven criteria based on ecological network indices have been selected to be used as convex goal functions. Numerical results show that the method is fast and can be used for large systems. Minimum flow solutions are analyzed using flow decomposition in paths and circuits. Their consistency is also tested by introducing a system of differential equations for the biomasses and examining the stability of the biomass fixed point. The method is illustrated and explained throughout the text on an ecosystem toy model. It is also applied to realistic food models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Guy Caputo
- INSA Rouen Normandie, Laboratoire de Mathematiques, Normandie Université, Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, 76801, France.
| | - Valérie Girardin
- UNICAEN, CNRS, Laboratoire de Mathématiques Nicolas Oresme, Normandie Université, Caen, 14000, France
| | - Arnaud Knippel
- INSA Rouen Normandie, Laboratoire de Mathematiques, Normandie Université, Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, 76801, France
| | - Minh Hieu Nguyen
- INSA Rouen Normandie, Laboratoire de Mathematiques, Normandie Université, Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, 76801, France
| | - Nathalie Niquil
- UNICAEN, Laboratoire Biologie des ORganismes et Ecosystémes Aquatiques, UMR-8067 BOREA (MNHN, UPMC, UCBN, CNRS, IRD-207) CS 14032, Normandie Université, Caen, 14000, France
| | - Quentin Noguès
- UNICAEN, Laboratoire Biologie des ORganismes et Ecosystémes Aquatiques, UMR-8067 BOREA (MNHN, UPMC, UCBN, CNRS, IRD-207) CS 14032, Normandie Université, Caen, 14000, France
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Bradford TE, Astudillo JC, Lau ETC, Perkins MJ, Lo CC, Li TCH, Lam CS, Ng TPT, Strain EMA, Steinberg PD, Leung KMY. Provision of refugia and seeding with native bivalves can enhance biodiversity on vertical seawalls. MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 2020; 160:111578. [PMID: 32911113 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2020] [Revised: 08/12/2020] [Accepted: 08/14/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Recent studies have suggested that increasing habitat complexity of artificial seawalls by modifying surface heterogeneity could enhance exploitable habitat and therefore species richness and abundance. We tested the effects of adding complex tiles (with crevices/ledges) of different heterogeneity (i.e., flat tiles resembling the seawall vs. tiles with crevices of 2.5 cm or 5.0 cm depth) and seeding with native rock oysters, Saccostrea cuccullata (unseeded vs. seeded) on species richness and abundances of intertidal marine organisms on two vertical seawalls in Hong Kong. Tiles were affixed to the mid-intertidal zone of the seawalls for 12 months. The results showed that the tiles with crevices had greater species richness and cover of sessile epifauna than flat tiles. Seeding tiles with S. cuccullata also facilitated natural recruitment of the same species. Our results support the hypothesis that using eco-engineering to increase habitat complexity can enhance the biodiversity of intertidal marine organisms on seawalls.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thea E Bradford
- The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Cape d'Aguilar, Shek O, Hong Kong, China; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
| | - Juan C Astudillo
- The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Cape d'Aguilar, Shek O, Hong Kong, China; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China.
| | - Edward T C Lau
- The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Cape d'Aguilar, Shek O, Hong Kong, China; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
| | - Matthew J Perkins
- The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Cape d'Aguilar, Shek O, Hong Kong, China; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China; Department of Biosciences, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales, UK
| | - Chi C Lo
- The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Cape d'Aguilar, Shek O, Hong Kong, China; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
| | - Tom C H Li
- The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Cape d'Aguilar, Shek O, Hong Kong, China; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
| | - Chung S Lam
- The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Cape d'Aguilar, Shek O, Hong Kong, China; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
| | - Terence P T Ng
- The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Cape d'Aguilar, Shek O, Hong Kong, China; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
| | - Elisabeth M A Strain
- Institute for Antarctic and Marine Science, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7000, Australia
| | - Peter D Steinberg
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia; Centre for Marine Science and Innovation, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia; Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Mosman, New South Wales 2088, Australia; Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 637551, Singapore
| | - Kenneth M Y Leung
- The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Cape d'Aguilar, Shek O, Hong Kong, China; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China; State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China; Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
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Girardot B, Gauduchon M, Ménard F, Poggiale JC. Does evolution design robust food webs? Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20200747. [PMID: 32605512 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.0747] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Theoretical works that use a dynamical approach to study the ability of ecological communities to resist perturbations are largely based on randomly generated ecosystem structures. By contrast, we ask here whether the evolutionary history of food webs matters for their robustness. Using a community evolution model, we first generate trophic networks by varying the level of energy supply (richness) of the environment in which species adapt and diversify. After placing our simulation outputs in perspective with present-day food webs empirical data, we highlight the complex, structuring role of this environmental condition during the evolutionary setting up of trophic networks. We then assess the robustness of food webs by studying their short-term ecological responses to swift changes in their customary environmental richness. We reveal that the past conditions have a crucial effect on the robustness of current food webs. Moreover, directly focusing on connectance of evolved food webs, it turns out that the most connected ones appear to be the least robust to sharp depletion in the environmental energy supply. Finally, we appraise the 'adaptation' of food webs themselves: generally poor, except in relation to a diversity of flux property.
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Affiliation(s)
- B Girardot
- Aix Marseille University, Univ Toulon, CNRS, IRD, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, MIO, UM110 Marseille, France
| | - M Gauduchon
- Aix Marseille University, Univ Toulon, CNRS, IRD, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, MIO, UM110 Marseille, France
| | - F Ménard
- Aix Marseille University, Univ Toulon, CNRS, IRD, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, MIO, UM110 Marseille, France
| | - J C Poggiale
- Aix Marseille University, Univ Toulon, CNRS, IRD, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, MIO, UM110 Marseille, France
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Abstract
The ecosystem is a theatre upon which is presented, in various degrees and at differing scales, a drama of constraint and information vs. disorganization and entropy. Concerning biology, most think immediately of genomic information. It strongly constrains the form and behavior of individual species, but its influence upon community structure is indeterminate. At the community level, information acts as a formal cause behind regular patterns of development. Community structure is an amalgam of information and entropy, and the Gibbs–Boltzmann formula departs from the thermodynamic sense of entropy. It measures only the extreme that entropy might reach if the elements of the system were completely independent. A closer analogy to physical entropy in systems with interactions is the conditional entropy—the amount by which the Shannon measure is reduced after the information in the constraints among elements has been subtracted. Finally, at the whole ecosystem level, in communities that inhabit mostly fixed physical environments (e.g., landscapes or seabeds), the distributions of plants and animals appear to be independent both of causal mechanisms and trophic controls, and assume instead forms that maximize the overall entropy of dispersal.
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