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Ramage BS, Johnson DJ, Chan DM. Effects of drought, disturbance, and biotic neighborhood on experimental tree seedling performance. Ecol Evol 2023; 13:e10413. [PMID: 37593754 PMCID: PMC10427772 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10413] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2023] [Revised: 07/24/2023] [Accepted: 07/26/2023] [Indexed: 08/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Forest biodiversity is likely maintained by a complex suite of interacting drivers that vary in importance across both space and time. Contributing factors include disturbance, interannual variation in abiotic variables, and biotic neighborhood effects. To probe ongoing uncertainties and potential interactions, we investigated tree seedling performance in a temperate mid-Atlantic forest ecosystem. We planted seedlings of five native tree species in mapped study plots, half of which were subjected to disturbance, and then monitored seedling survival, height growth, and foliar condition. The final year of data collection encompassed a drought, enabling comparison between intervals varying in water availability. Seedling performance was analyzed as a function of canopy cover and biotic neighborhood (conspecific and heterospecific abundance), including interactions, with separate generalized linear mixed models fit for each interval. All species exhibited: (a) pronounced declines in height growth during the drought year, (b) detrimental effects of adult conspecifics, and (c) beneficial effects of canopy openness. However, despite these consistencies, there was considerable variation across species in terms of the relevant predictors for each response variable in each interval. Our results suggest that drought may strengthen or reveal conspecific inhibition in some instances while weakening it or obscuring it in others, and that some forms of conspecific inhibition may manifest only under particular canopy conditions (although given the inconsistency of our findings, we are not convinced that conspecific inhibition is critical for diversity maintenance in our study system). Overall, our work reveals a complex forest ecosystem that appears simultaneously and interactively governed by biotic neighborhood structure (e.g., conspecific and/or heterospecific abundance), local habitat conditions (e.g., canopy cover), and interannual variability (e.g., drought).
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Daniel J. Johnson
- School of Forest, Fisheries, & Geomatics sciencesUniversity of FloridaGainesvilleFloridaUSA
| | - David M. Chan
- Department of Mathematics and Applied MathematicsVirginia Commonwealth UniversityRichmondVirginiaUSA
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Li T, Zhong Z, Pearson DE, Ortega YK, Li W, Li Y, Zhu H, Risch AC, Wang D. Parasites as ecosystem modulators: foliar pathogens suppress top-down effects of large herbivores. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2023; 239:340-349. [PMID: 36978282 DOI: 10.1111/nph.18912] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2023] [Accepted: 03/21/2023] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
Parasites can catalyze or inhibit interactions between their hosts and other species, but the ecosystem-level effects of such interaction modifications are poorly understood. We conducted a large-scale field experiment in temperate grasslands of China to understand how foliar fungal pathogens influenced top-down effects of cattle on plant diversity and productivity. When foliar pathogens were suppressed, cattle grazing strongly reduced biomass of the dominant grass, Leymus chinensis, generating competitive release that significantly increased community-level species richness and evenness. In the absence of grazing, pathogen attack on L. chinensis had no measurable effect on host biomass. However, pathogens disrupted top-down effects of herbivory by inhibiting grazing effects on plant biomass and species richness. Mechanistically, fungal pathogens were linked to increased alkaloid and reduced nitrogen levels in leaf tissue, which appeared to deter cattle grazing on L. chinensis. In conclusion, foliar pathogens can suppress top-down effects of large herbivores on grassland community composition and ecosystem function by modifying the strength of their host's interactions with dominant consumers. Parasites may act as modulators of ecosystem function when their direct effects on host abundance are overshadowed by powerful influences on host traits that modify their interactions with competitors, herbivores, or predators.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianyun Li
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education/Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Zhiwei Zhong
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education/Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Dean E Pearson
- Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 800 E. Beckwith Avenue, Missoula, MT, 59801, USA
- Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT, 59812, USA
| | - Yvette K Ortega
- Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 800 E. Beckwith Avenue, Missoula, MT, 59801, USA
| | - Wenjun Li
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education/Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Yanan Li
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education/Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Hui Zhu
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education/Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Anita C Risch
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zuercherstrasse 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Deli Wang
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education/Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
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3
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Pessôa MB, Souza do Amaral T, De Marco Júnior P, Hortal J. Forest conversion into pasture selects dung beetle traits at different biological scales depending on species pool composition. Ecol Evol 2023; 13:e9950. [PMID: 37113519 PMCID: PMC10126313 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2022] [Revised: 03/07/2023] [Accepted: 03/12/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The conversion of forests into open areas has large effects on the diversity and structure of native communities. The intensity of these effects may vary between regions, depending on the existence of native species adapted to open habitats in the regional pool or the time since habitat change.We assess the differences in species richness and functional diversity of dung beetle communities (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) between native forests and novel pasturelands of the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado, two biomes with contrasting histories of human occupation in Brazil. We conducted standardized surveys in seven forest fragments and adjacent pastures in each region and measured 14 traits in individuals collected in each type of habitat at each particular site. We calculated functional richness, functional evenness, functional divergence, and community-weighted mean of traits for each area, and analyzed individual variation through nested variance decomposition and Trait Statistics.Communities were richer and more numerous at the Cerrado. We did not find any consistent relationship between functional diversity and forest conversion beyond the changes in species diversity. Although landscape changes were more recent at the Cerrado, the colonization of the new habitat by native species already adapted to open habitats lessens the functional loss in this biome. This indicates that habitat change's effects on trait diversity depend on the regional species pool rather than on time since land conversion.Forest conversion effects were primarily due to internal filtering. The effects of external filtering only appear at the intraspecific variance level, with contrasting differences between the Cerrado, where traits related to relocation behavior and size are selected, and the Atlantic Forest, where selection operates for traits related to relocation behavior and flight. These results evidence the importance of considering individual variance to address the responses of dung beetle communities to forest conversion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcelo Bruno Pessôa
- Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências BiológicasUniversidade Federal de GoiásAvenida Esperança s/n, Campus Samambaia, ICB 5CEP 74690‐900GoiâniaBrazil
- Laboratório de EntomologiaUniversidade Federal de Mato Grosso do SulCâmpus de Chapadão do Sul – Rod MS 306, Km 105CEP 79560‐000Chapadão do SulBrazil
| | - Tatiana Souza do Amaral
- Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências BiológicasUniversidade Federal de GoiásAvenida Esperança s/n, Campus Samambaia, ICB 5CEP 74690‐900GoiâniaBrazil
- Laboratório de EntomologiaUniversidade Federal de Mato Grosso do SulCâmpus de Chapadão do Sul – Rod MS 306, Km 105CEP 79560‐000Chapadão do SulBrazil
| | - Paulo De Marco Júnior
- Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências BiológicasUniversidade Federal de GoiásAvenida Esperança s/n, Campus Samambaia, ICB 5CEP 74690‐900GoiâniaBrazil
| | - Joaquín Hortal
- Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências BiológicasUniversidade Federal de GoiásAvenida Esperança s/n, Campus Samambaia, ICB 5CEP 74690‐900GoiâniaBrazil
- Department of Biogeography and Global ChangeMuseo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN‐CSIC)C/José Gutiérrez Abascal 228006MadridSpain
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4
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Chozas S, Chefaoui RM, Correia O, Santos AMC, Hortal J. Geographical shifts in the successional dynamics of inland dune shrub communities. Ecol Evol 2023; 13:e9828. [PMID: 36818530 PMCID: PMC9935296 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9828] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2022] [Revised: 01/21/2023] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Species' environmental requirements and large-scale spatial and evolutionary processes determine the structure and composition of local communities. However, ecological interactions also have major effects on community assembly at landscape and local scales. We evaluate whether two xerophytic shrub communities occurring in SW Portugal follow constrained ecological assembly dynamics throughout large geographical extents, or their composition is rather driven by species' individualistic responses to environmental and macroecological constraints. Inland dune xerophytic shrub communities were characterized in 95 plots. Then, we described the main gradients of vegetation composition and assessed the relevance of biotic interactions. We also characterized the habitat suitability of the dominant species, Stauracanthus genistoides, and Ulex australis, to map the potential distribution of the xerophytic shrub communities. Finally, we examined the relationships between the vegetation gradients and a broad set of explanatory variables to identify the relative importance of each factor driving changes in community composition. We found that xerophytic shrubs follow uniform successional patterns throughout the whole geographical area studied, but each community responds differently to the main environmental gradients in each region. Soil organic matter is the main determinant of community variations in the northern region, Setúbal Peninsula, whereas aridity is so in the South/South-Western region. In contrast, in the central region, Comporta, the variation between S. genistoides and U. australis communities is explained mainly by aridity and temperature seasonality, followed by the individualistic responses of the dominant species and soil organic matter. Overall, these results indicate that, the relative importance of the main factors causing community-level responses varies according to regional processes and the suitability of the environmental conditions for the dominant species in these communities. These responses are also determined by intrinsic community mechanisms that result in a high degree of similarity in the gradient-driven community stages in different regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergio Chozas
- cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes and cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes & CHANGE – Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculdade de CiênciasUniversidade de LisboaLisbonPortugal
| | - Rosa M. Chefaoui
- Área de Biodiversidad y ConservaciónUniversidad Rey Juan CarlosMóstolesSpain
| | - Otília Correia
- cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes and cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes & CHANGE – Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculdade de CiênciasUniversidade de LisboaLisbonPortugal
| | - Ana M. C. Santos
- Terrestrial Ecology Group (TEG‐UAM), Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de CienciasUniversidad Autónoma de MadridMadridSpain,Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global (CIBC‐UAM)Universidad Autónoma de MadridMadridSpain
| | - Joaquín Hortal
- cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes and cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes & CHANGE – Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculdade de CiênciasUniversidade de LisboaLisbonPortugal,Department of Biogeography and Global Change, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN‐CSIC)MadridSpain
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5
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Zhang Y, Xin X, Matthew C, Christensen MJ, Nan Z. Pathogen Identification and Factors Influencing Infection Frequency and Severity of Fungal Rust in Four Native Grasses in Hulunber Grassland, China. PLANT DISEASE 2022; 106:3040-3049. [PMID: 35596246 DOI: 10.1094/pdis-08-21-1802-re] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
A serious rust infection present in 2014 and 2015 on the dominant grass species (Leymus chinensis) in the Hulunber grassland of Inner Mongolia, China, and also present on three other grass species (Agropyron cristatum [wheat grass], Bromus inermis, and Festuca ovina) was investigated. Field surveys, laboratory determination of morphological characteristics, pathogenicity tests, and molecular identification methods were integrated to identify two rust-causing pathogens on L. chinensis. It was found that Puccinia elymi was the major pathogen of L. chinensis, and also infected A. cristatum and F. ovina. This is the first report of P. elymi on A. cristatum in China. P. striiformis caused stripe rust on L. chinensis and B. inermis. The incidence and severity of rust infection increased through the growing season, presumably from asexual spread by urediniospores, and was higher on grass species phylogenetically more closely related to common crop hosts of the pathogens. High host grass density and presence of a potential alternate host for P. elymi, Thalictrum squarrosum, were two further factors promoting rust incidence. These results provide insight into ecological factors linked to the rust epidemic and provide a theoretical basis for the formulation of control strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yawen Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems; Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; College of Pastoral Agricultural Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, P.R. China
- School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, P.R. China
| | - Xiaoping Xin
- National Hulunber Grassland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning; Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Beijing 10081, P.R. China
| | - Cory Matthew
- School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand
| | - Michael J Christensen
- AgResearch, Grasslands Research Centre, Private Bag 11-008, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand (Retired)
| | - Zhibiao Nan
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems; Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; College of Pastoral Agricultural Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, P.R. China
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6
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Dong F, Zhang Q, Chen YL, Lei FM, Li SH, Wu F, Yang XJ. Potential millennial-scale avian declines by humans in southern China. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2022; 28:5505-5513. [PMID: 35665575 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16289] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2022] [Accepted: 05/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Mounting observational records demonstrate human-caused faunal decline in recent decades, while accumulating archaeological evidence suggests an early biodiversity impact of human activities during the Holocene. A fundamental question arises concerning whether modern wildlife population declines began during early human disturbance. Here, we performed a population genomic analysis of six common forest birds in East Asia to address this question. For five of them, demographic history inference based on 25-33 genomes of each species revealed dramatic population declines by 4- to 48-fold over millennia (e.g. 2000-5000 thousand years ago). Nevertheless, summary statistics detected nonsignificant correlations between these population size trajectories and Holocene temperature variations, and ecological niche models explicitly predicted extensive range persistence during the Holocene, implying limited demographic consequence of Holocene climate change. Further analyses suggest high negative correlations between the reconstructed population declines and human disturbance intensities and indicate a potential driver of human activities. These findings provide a deep-time and large-scale insight into the recently recognized avifaunal decline and support an early origin hypothesis of human effects on biodiversity. Overall, our study sheds light on the current biodiversity crisis in the context of long-term human-environment interactions and offers a multi-evidential framework for quantitatively assessing the ecological consequences of human disturbance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Feng Dong
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution & Yunnan Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecological Security of Gaoligong Mountain, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
| | - Qiang Zhang
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Institute of Zoology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yi-Lin Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution & Yunnan Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecological Security of Gaoligong Mountain, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Fu-Min Lei
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Shou-Hsien Li
- Department of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Fei Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution & Yunnan Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecological Security of Gaoligong Mountain, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
| | - Xiao-Jun Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution & Yunnan Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecological Security of Gaoligong Mountain, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
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7
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Xi N, Crawford KM, De Long JR. Plant landscape abundance and soil fungi modulate drought effects on plant–soil feedbacks. OIKOS 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.08836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Nianxun Xi
- Key Laboratory of Genetics and Germplasm Innovation of Tropical Special Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants, Ministry of Education, College of Forestry, Hainan Univ. Haikou China
- School of Ecology, Sun Yat‐sen Univ. Guangzhou China
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8
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Wang M, Yan C, Luo A, Li Y, Chesters D, Qiao H, Chen J, Zhou Q, Ma K, Bruelheide H, Schuldt A, Zhang Z, Zhu C. Phylogenetic relatedness, functional traits, and spatial scale determine herbivore co‐occurrence in a subtropical forest. ECOL MONOGR 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/ecm.1492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ming‐Qiang Wang
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 Beichen West Road Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101 China
- College of Biological Sciences University of Chinese Academy of Sciences No. 19A Yuquan Road Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049 China
| | - Chuan Yan
- Institute of Innovation Ecology Lanzhou University Lanzhou Gansu 730013 China
| | - Arong Luo
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 Beichen West Road Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101 China
| | - Yi Li
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 Beichen West Road Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101 China
- College of Biological Sciences University of Chinese Academy of Sciences No. 19A Yuquan Road Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049 China
| | - Douglas Chesters
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 Beichen West Road Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101 China
| | - Hui‐Jie Qiao
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 Beichen West Road Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101 China
| | - Jing‐Ting Chen
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 Beichen West Road Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101 China
- College of Biological Sciences University of Chinese Academy of Sciences No. 19A Yuquan Road Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049 China
| | - Qing‐Song Zhou
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 Beichen West Road Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101 China
| | - Keping Ma
- Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100093 China
| | - Helge Bruelheide
- Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden Martin Luther University Halle‐Wittenberg Am Kirchtor 1 Halle 06108 Germany
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Puschstr. 4 Leipzig 04103 Germany
| | - Andreas Schuldt
- Forest Nature Conservation Georg‐August‐University Goettingen Buesgenweg 3 Goettingen 37077 Germany
| | - Zhibin Zhang
- College of Biological Sciences University of Chinese Academy of Sciences No. 19A Yuquan Road Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049 China
- State Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 Beichen West Road Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101 China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Biotic Interactions University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100049 China
| | - Chao‐Dong Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 Beichen West Road Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101 China
- College of Biological Sciences University of Chinese Academy of Sciences No. 19A Yuquan Road Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049 China
- State Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 Beichen West Road Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101 China
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9
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Capitán JA, Cuenda S, Ordóñez A, Alonso D. A signal of competitive dominance in mid-latitude herbaceous plant communities. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2021; 8:201361. [PMID: 34567583 PMCID: PMC8456147 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.201361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2020] [Accepted: 08/18/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the main determinants of species coexistence across space and time is a central question in ecology. However, ecologists still know little about the scales and conditions at which biotic interactions matter and how these interact with the environment to structure species assemblages. Here we use recent theoretical developments to analyse plant distribution and trait data across Europe and find that plant height clustering is related to both evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary productivity. This clustering is a signal of interspecies competition between plants, which is most evident in mid-latitude ecoregions, where conditions for growth (reflected in actual ET rates and gross primary productivities) are optimal. Away from this optimum, climate severity probably overrides the effect of competition, or other interactions become increasingly important. Our approach bridges the gap between species-rich competition theories and large-scale species distribution data analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- José A. Capitán
- Complex Systems Group, Department of Applied Mathematics, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Av. Juan de Herrera, 6, 28040 Madrid, Spain
- Theoretical and Computational Ecology, Center for Advanced Studies (CEAB-CSIC), C. Accés Cala St. Francesc 14, 17300 Blanes, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Sara Cuenda
- Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Depto. Análisis Económico: Economía Cuantitativa, C. Francisco Tomás y Valiente 5, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
| | - Alejandro Ordóñez
- Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Ny Munkegade 114, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - David Alonso
- Theoretical and Computational Ecology, Center for Advanced Studies (CEAB-CSIC), C. Accés Cala St. Francesc 14, 17300 Blanes, Catalonia, Spain
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10
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Walton W, Stone GN, Lohse K. Discordant Pleistocene population size histories in a guild of hymenopteran parasitoids. Mol Ecol 2021; 30:4538-4550. [PMID: 34252238 DOI: 10.1111/mec.16074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2019] [Revised: 06/23/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Signatures of past changes in population size have been detected in genome-wide variation in many species. However, the causes of such demographic changes and the extent to which they are shared across co-distributed species remain poorly understood. During Pleistocene glacial maxima, many temperate European species were confined to southern refugia. While vicariance and range expansion processes associated with glacial cycles have been widely documented, it is unclear whether refugial populations of co-distributed species have experienced shared histories of population size change. We analyse whole-genome sequence data to reconstruct and compare demographic histories during the Quaternary for Iberian refuge populations in a single ecological guild (seven species of chalcid parasitoid wasps associated with oak cynipid galls). For four of these species, we find support for large changes in effective population size (Ne ) through the Pleistocene that coincide with major climate events. However, there is little evidence that the timing, direction and magnitude of demographic change are shared across species, suggesting that demographic histories in this guild are largely idiosyncratic, even at the scale of a single glacial refugium.
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Affiliation(s)
- William Walton
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Graham N Stone
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Konrad Lohse
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
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11
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Williams KA, Slater HD, Gillingham P, Korstjens AH. Environmental Factors Are Stronger Predictors of Primate Species’ Distributions Than Basic Biological Traits. INT J PRIMATOL 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s10764-021-00208-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
AbstractUnderstanding the neutral, biological, and environmental processes driving species distributions is valuable in informing conservation efforts because it will help us predict how species will respond to changes in environmental conditions. Environmental processes affect species differently according to their biological traits, which determine how they interact with their environment. Therefore, functional, trait-based modeling approaches are considered important for predicting distributions and species responses to change but even for data-rich primate communities our understanding of the relationships between traits and environmental conditions is limited. Here we use a large-scale, high-resolution data set of African diurnal primate distributions, biological traits, and environmental conditions to investigate the role of biological traits and environmental trait filtering in primate distributions. We collected data from published sources for 354 sites and 14 genera with 57 species across sub-Saharan Africa. We then combined a three-table ordination method, RLQ, with the fourth-corner approach to test relationships between environmental variables and biological traits and used a mapping approach to visually assess patterning in primate genus and species’ distributions. We found no significant relationships between any groups of environmental variables and biological traits, despite a clear role of environmental filtering in driving genus and species’ distributions. The most important environmental driver of species distributions was temperature seasonality, followed by rainfall. We conclude that the relative flexibility of many primate genera means that not any one particular set of traits drives their species–environment associations, despite the clear role of such associations in their distribution patterns.
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12
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Unveiling African rainforest composition and vulnerability to global change. Nature 2021; 593:90-94. [PMID: 33883743 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03483-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2019] [Accepted: 03/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Africa is forecasted to experience large and rapid climate change1 and population growth2 during the twenty-first century, which threatens the world's second largest rainforest. Protecting and sustainably managing these African forests requires an increased understanding of their compositional heterogeneity, the environmental drivers of forest composition and their vulnerability to ongoing changes. Here, using a very large dataset of 6 million trees in more than 180,000 field plots, we jointly model the distribution in abundance of the most dominant tree taxa in central Africa, and produce continuous maps of the floristic and functional composition of central African forests. Our results show that the uncertainty in taxon-specific distributions averages out at the community level, and reveal highly deterministic assemblages. We uncover contrasting floristic and functional compositions across climates, soil types and anthropogenic gradients, with functional convergence among types of forest that are floristically dissimilar. Combining these spatial predictions with scenarios of climatic and anthropogenic global change suggests a high vulnerability of the northern and southern forest margins, the Atlantic forests and most forests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where both climate and anthropogenic threats are expected to increase sharply by 2085. These results constitute key quantitative benchmarks for scientists and policymakers to shape transnational conservation and management strategies that aim to provide a sustainable future for central African forests.
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Diniz FC, Ramos MB, Almeida HAD, Pinto AS, Lopes SDF. Effects of topographic factors on distribution of cacti along an elevation gradient in Brazilian Caatinga. RODRIGUÉSIA 2021. [DOI: 10.1590/2175-7860202172129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Abstract The Cactacea family comprises 128 genera and 1450 species with predominantly neotropical distribution. Cacti are commonly found in arid and semi-arid regions and have great ecological relevance due to their interactions with animals and other groups of plants. Abiotic interactions, such as topography, altitude, rainfall, temperature and soils, also influence the composition and distribution of cacti. The objective of the present study was to assess patterns of species composition and distribution for cacti along an elevation gradient in Brazilian Caatinga vegetation. Four transects (composed by 25 plots of 100 m² each) were established at each of two mountain sites. The topographic variables of elevation, slope, rockiness and soil depth were evaluated to determine if they affect the distribution of richness and abundance of cacti along the elevation gradient using Spearman's (rs) correlation coefficient. A total of 554 individuals of five cacti species (Pilosocereus gounellei, Pilosocereus pachycladus, Tacinga palmadora, Tacinga inamoena and Melocactus zehntneri) were sampled. Cacti richness and abundance were found to be negatively correlated with elevation, slope and rockiness, and positively correlated with soil depth (p<0.05). All species exhibited aggregate spatial distribution patterns, which may be related to different environmental conditions produced by interactions among topographic variables (slopes, rockiness and soil depth), that synergistically influence the patterns of species richness and abundance along the elevation gradient.
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14
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The role of edaphic factors on plant species richness and diversity along altitudinal gradients in the Brazilian semi-arid region. JOURNAL OF TROPICAL ECOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1017/s0266467420000115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
AbstractUnlike well-known global patterns of plant species richness along altitudinal gradients, in the mountainous areas of the Brazilian Caatinga, species richness and diversity reach their maxima near mountain tops. The causes of this unusual pattern are not well understood, and in particular the role of edaphic factors on plant community assembly along these gradients has not been investigated. Our goal was to assess the role of edaphic factors (fertility and soil texture) on plant community composition and structure on two mountains of the Brazilian semi-arid region. In 71 plots (Bodocongó site, twenty-one 200-m2 plots, 401–680 m asl; Arara site, fifty 100-m2 plots, 487–660 m asl) we recorded 3114 individuals representing 61 plant species; in addition, at each plot we collected composite soil samples from 0–20 cm depth. Significant altitude-related changes were observed both for community structure and composition, and edaphic variables. A canonical correspondence analysis allowed the distinction of two groups of plots according to species abundances, indicating a preferential habitat distribution of species depending both on altitude and soil variables. Although soil fertility was lowest at the highest altitudes, these areas had high richness and diversity. Conversely, the more fertile foothills were characterized by the dominance of generalist pioneer species. Despite the relatively short altitudinal range that characterizes the studied mountains, this study elucidates the role of edaphic factors on the floristic composition and species richness patterns on the mountains of the Brazilian semi-arid region.
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15
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Bodawatta KH, Synek P, Bos N, Garcia-Del-Rey E, Koane B, Marki PZ, Albrecht T, Lifjeld J, Poulsen M, Munclinger P, Sam K, Jønsson KA. Spatiotemporal patterns of avian host-parasite interactions in the face of biogeographical range expansions. Mol Ecol 2020; 29:2431-2448. [PMID: 32470165 DOI: 10.1111/mec.15486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2019] [Revised: 05/06/2020] [Accepted: 05/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Exploration of interactions between hosts and parasitic symbionts is important for our understanding of the temporal and spatial distribution of organisms. For example, host colonization of new geographical regions may alter levels of infections and parasite specificity, and even allow hosts to escape from co-evolved parasites, consequently shaping spatial distributions and community structure of both host and parasite. Here we investigate the effect of host colonization of new regions and the elevational distribution of host-parasite associations between birds and their vector-transmitted haemosporidian blood parasites in two geological and geographical settings: mountains of New Guinea and the Canary Islands. Our results demonstrate that bird communities in younger regions have significantly lower levels of parasitism compared to those of older regions. Furthermore, host-parasite network analyses demonstrate that blood parasites may respond differently after arriving to a new region, through adaptations that allow for either expanding (Canary Islands) or retaining (New Guinea) their host niches. The spatial prevalence patterns along elevational gradients differed in the two regions, suggesting that region-specific biotic (e.g., host community) and abiotic factors (e.g., temperature) govern prevalence patterns. Our findings suggest that the spatiotemporal range dynamics in host-parasite systems are driven by multiple factors, but that host and parasite community compositions and colonization histories are of particular importance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kasun H Bodawatta
- Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Petr Synek
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Nick Bos
- Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Eduardo Garcia-Del-Rey
- Macaronesian Institute of Field Ornithology, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
| | - Bonny Koane
- The New Guinea Binatang Research Centre, Madang, Papua New Guinea
| | - Petter Z Marki
- Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Tomáš Albrecht
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.,Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Lifjeld
- Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Michael Poulsen
- Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Pavel Munclinger
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Katerina Sam
- Biology Centre of Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.,Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Knud A Jønsson
- Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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16
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May F, Wiegand T, Huth A, Chase JM. Scale‐dependent effects of conspecific negative density dependence and immigration on biodiversity maintenance. OIKOS 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.06785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Felix May
- Leuphana Univ. Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1 DE‐21335 Lüneburg
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
| | - Thorsten Wiegand
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
- Dept of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz‐Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Leipzig Germany
| | - Andreas Huth
- Dept of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz‐Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Leipzig Germany
- Inst. for Environmental Systems Research, Univ. of Osnabrück Osnabrück Germany
| | - Jonathan M. Chase
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig Leipzig Germany
- Inst. of Computer Science, Martin‐Luther Univ. Halle‐Wittenberg Halle (Saale) Germany
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17
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Dissecting macroecological and macroevolutionary patterns of forest biodiversity across the Hawaiian archipelago. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:16436-16441. [PMID: 31358626 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1901954116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Biodiversity patterns emerge as a consequence of evolutionary and ecological processes. Their relative importance is frequently tested on model ecosystems such as oceanic islands that vary in both. However, the coarse-scale data typically used in biogeographic studies have limited inferential power to separate the effects of historical biogeographic factors (e.g., island age) from the effects of ecological ones (e.g., island area and habitat heterogeneity). Here, we describe local-scale biodiversity patterns of woody plants using a database of more than 500 forest plots from across the Hawaiian archipelago, where these volcanic islands differ in age by several million years. We show that, after controlling for factors such as island area and heterogeneity, the oldest islands (Kaua'i and O'ahu) have greater native species diversity per unit area than younger islands (Maui and Hawai'i), indicating an important role for macroevolutionary processes in driving not just whole-island differences in species diversity, but also local community assembly. Further, we find that older islands have a greater number of rare species that are more spatially clumped (i.e., higher within-island β-diversity) than younger islands. When we included alien species in our analyses, we found that the signal of macroevolutionary processes via island age was diluted. Our approach allows a more explicit test of the question of how macroevolutionary factors shape not just regional-scale biodiversity, but also local-scale community assembly patterns and processes in a model archipelago ecosystem, and it can be applied to disentangle biodiversity drivers in other systems.
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18
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Bernardo‐Madrid R, Calatayud J, González‐Suárez M, Rosvall M, Lucas PM, Rueda M, Antonelli A, Revilla E. Human activity is altering the world’s zoogeographical regions. Ecol Lett 2019; 22:1297-1305. [DOI: 10.1111/ele.13321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2018] [Revised: 04/10/2019] [Accepted: 05/11/2019] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Rubén Bernardo‐Madrid
- Department of Conservation Biology Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD‐CSIC) Sevilla Spain
| | - Joaquín Calatayud
- Department of Life Science Universidad de Alcalá Alcalá de Henares Spain
- Department of Biogeography and Global Change Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN‐CSIC) Madrid Spain
- Integrated Science Lab, Department of Physics Umeå University 901 87Umeå Sweden
| | - Manuela González‐Suárez
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences University of Reading Reading UK
| | - Martin Rosvall
- Integrated Science Lab, Department of Physics Umeå University 901 87Umeå Sweden
| | - Pablo M. Lucas
- Department of Conservation Biology Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD‐CSIC) Sevilla Spain
- Department of Wildlife Conservation Institute of Nature Conservation (IOP‐PAS) Kraków Poland
| | - Marta Rueda
- Department of Conservation Biology Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD‐CSIC) Sevilla Spain
| | - Alexandre Antonelli
- Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre Box 461 SE‐405 30 Göteborg Sweden
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Gothenburg Box 461405 30Göteborg Sweden
- Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, RichmondTW9 3ABUK
| | - Eloy Revilla
- Department of Conservation Biology Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD‐CSIC) Sevilla Spain
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19
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Keil P, Chase JM. Global patterns and drivers of tree diversity integrated across a continuum of spatial grains. Nat Ecol Evol 2019; 3:390-399. [DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-0799-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2018] [Accepted: 01/07/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
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20
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Liu X, Ma Z, Cadotte MW, Chen F, He JS, Zhou S. Warming affects foliar fungal diseases more than precipitation in a Tibetan alpine meadow. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2019; 221:1574-1584. [PMID: 30325035 DOI: 10.1111/nph.15460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2018] [Accepted: 08/28/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
The effects of global change on semi-natural and agro-ecosystem functioning have been studied extensively. However, less well understood is how global change will influence fungal diseases, especially in a natural ecosystem. We use data from a 6-yr factorial experiment with warming (simulated using infrared heaters) and altered precipitation treatments in a natural Tibetan alpine meadow ecosystem, from which we tested global change effects on foliar fungal diseases at the population and community levels, and evaluated the importance of direct effects of the treatments and community-mediated (indirect) effects (through changes in plant community composition and competence) of global change on community pathogen load. At the population level, we found warming significantly increased fungal diseases for nine plant species. At the community level, we found that warming significantly increased pathogen load of entire host communities, whereas no significant effect of altered precipitation on community pathogen load was detected. We concluded that warming influences fungal disease prevalence more than precipitation does in a Tibetan alpine meadow. Moreover, our study provides new experimental evidence that increases in disease burden on some plant species and for entire host communities is primarily the direct effects of warming, rather than community-mediated (indirect) effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiang Liu
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, 2005 Songhu Road, Shanghai, 200438, China
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto-Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada
| | - Zhiyuan Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, 768 Jiayuguan Road West, Lanzhou, 730020, China
- Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Marc W Cadotte
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto-Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Wilcocks Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada
| | - Fei Chen
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, 2005 Songhu Road, Shanghai, 200438, China
| | - Jin-Sheng He
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, 768 Jiayuguan Road West, Lanzhou, 730020, China
- Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Shurong Zhou
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, 2005 Songhu Road, Shanghai, 200438, China
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21
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Osazuwa-Peters OL, Stevens WD, Jiménez I. Using museum specimens to estimate broad-scale species richness: Exploring the performance of individual-based and spatially explicit rarefaction. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0204484. [PMID: 30379842 PMCID: PMC6209151 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2017] [Accepted: 09/10/2018] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Estimates of spatial patterns of broad-scale species richness are central to major questions in ecology, evolution and conservation. Yet, they are scarce due to incomplete information on species distributions. Often the only germane data derives from museum specimens collected during non-standardized sampling. Rarefaction, a promising approach to estimate broad-scale richness with these data, estimates the expected number of species represented in subsets of n specimens drawn from N specimens collected in a sampling unit. One version of rarefaction, known as individual-based rarefaction, assumes that the N specimens collected in a sampling unit constitute a random sample of individuals in that sampling unit. Another version, known as spatially explicit rarefaction, assumes that the N specimens collected in a sampling unit are spatially aggregated. We examined the working hypothesis that, when applied to museum specimen data, spatially explicit rarefaction is less biased than individual-based rarefaction because it reduces overestimation due to spatially aggregated sampling. We derived five predictions from this working hypothesis and tested them using computer simulation experiments based on a database of 129,782 plant specimens from Nicaragua, and sampling units of 5 x 5, 50 x 50, and 100 x 100 km. One experiment was a negative control, whereby we simulated collection of randomly chosen individuals from each sampling unit. In contrast, three other experiments included spatially aggregated sampling. In all experiments we applied individual-based and spatially explicit rarefaction to estimate richness, with n = 200 and n = 500 specimens. As expected, the experiment designed as a negative control did not support the working hypothesis. The other three experiments supported the working hypothesis in analyses of larger sampling units, but not in 5 x 5 km sampling units. The predictions we derived from the working hypothesis can be used to assess which rarefaction version is best in particular systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oyomoare L. Osazuwa-Peters
- Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO United States of America
- Science and Conservation Division, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - W. D. Stevens
- Science and Conservation Division, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO United States of America
| | - Iván Jiménez
- Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO United States of America
- Science and Conservation Division, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO United States of America
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22
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Karvonen A, Wagner CE, Selz OM, Seehausen O. Divergent parasite infections in sympatric cichlid species in Lake Victoria. J Evol Biol 2018; 31:1313-1329. [PMID: 29944770 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2018] [Revised: 05/21/2018] [Accepted: 05/28/2018] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Parasitism has been proposed as a factor in host speciation, as an agent affecting coexistence of host species in species-rich communities and as a driver of post-speciation diversification. Young adaptive radiations of closely related host species of varying ecological and genomic differentiation provide interesting opportunities to explore interactions between patterns of parasitism, divergence and coexistence of sympatric host species. Here, we explored patterns in ectoparasitism in a community of 16 fully sympatric cichlid species at Makobe Island in Lake Victoria, a model system of vertebrate adaptive radiation. We asked whether host niche, host abundance or host genetic differentiation explains variation in infection patterns. We found significant differences in infections, the magnitude of which was weakly correlated with the extent of genomic divergence between the host species, but more strongly with the main ecological gradient, water depth. These effects were most evident with infections of Cichlidogyrus monogeneans, whereas the only host species with a strictly crevice-dwelling niche, Pundamilia pundamilia, deviated from the general negative relationship between depth and parasitism. In accordance with the Janzen-Connell hypothesis, we also found that host abundance tended to be positively associated with infections in some parasite taxa. Data on the Pundamilia sister species pairs from three other islands with variable degrees of habitat (crevice) specialization suggested that the lower parasite abundance of P. pundamilia at Makobe could result from both habitat specialization and the evolution of specific resistance. Our results support influences of host genetic differentiation and host ecology in determining infections in this diverse community of sympatric cichlid species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anssi Karvonen
- Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland.,Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Centre of Ecology, Evolution and Biogeochemistry, Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.,Division of Aquatic Ecology & Evolution, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Catherine E Wagner
- Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Centre of Ecology, Evolution and Biogeochemistry, Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.,Division of Aquatic Ecology & Evolution, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,Department of Botany and Biodiversity Institute, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA
| | - Oliver M Selz
- Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Centre of Ecology, Evolution and Biogeochemistry, Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.,Division of Aquatic Ecology & Evolution, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Ole Seehausen
- Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Centre of Ecology, Evolution and Biogeochemistry, Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.,Division of Aquatic Ecology & Evolution, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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23
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Korstjens AH, Lehmann J, Dunbar RIM. Time Constraints Do Not Limit Group Size in Arboreal Guenons but Do Explain Community Size and Distribution Patterns. INT J PRIMATOL 2018; 39:511-531. [PMID: 30369685 PMCID: PMC6182722 DOI: 10.1007/s10764-018-0048-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2017] [Accepted: 04/03/2018] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
To understand how species will respond to environmental changes, it is important to know how those changes will affect the ecological stress that animals experience. Time constraints can be used as indicators of ecological stress. Here we test whether time constraints can help us understand group sizes, distribution patterns, and community sizes of forest guenons (Cercopithecus/Allochrocebus). Forest guenons typically live in small to medium sized one-male-multifemale groups and often live in communities with multiple forest guenon species. We developed a time-budget model using published data on time budgets, diets, body sizes, climate, and group sizes to predict maximum ecologically tolerable group and community sizes of forest guenons across 202 sub-Saharan African locations. The model correctly predicted presence/absence at 83% of these locations. Feeding-foraging time (an indicator of competition) limited group sizes, while resting and moving time constraints shaped guenon biogeography. Predicted group sizes were greater than observed group sizes but comparable to community sizes, suggesting community sizes are set by competition among guenon individuals irrespective of species. We conclude that time constraints and intraspecific competition are unlikely to be the main determinants of relatively small group sizes in forest guenons. Body mass was negatively correlated with moving time, which may give larger bodied species an advantage over smaller bodied species under future conditions when greater fragmentation of forests is likely to lead to increased moving time. Resting time heavily depended on leaf consumption and is likely to increase under future climatic conditions when leaf quality is expected to decrease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda H. Korstjens
- Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Bournemouth University, Poole, BH14 5BB UK
| | - Julia Lehmann
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Roehampton, London, SW15 5PJ UK
| | - R. I. M. Dunbar
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UD UK
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24
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Bunnefeld L, Hearn J, Stone GN, Lohse K. Whole-genome data reveal the complex history of a diverse ecological community. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:E6507-E6515. [PMID: 29946026 PMCID: PMC6048486 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1800334115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
How widespread ecological communities assemble remains a key question in ecology. Trophic interactions between widespread species may reflect a shared population history or ecological fitting of local pools of species with very different population histories. Which scenario applies is central to the stability of trophic associations and the potential for coevolution between species. Here we show how alternative community assembly hypotheses can be discriminated using whole-genome data for component species and provide a likelihood framework that overcomes current limitations in formal comparison of multispecies histories. We illustrate our approach by inferring the assembly history of a Western Palearctic community of insect herbivores and parasitoid natural enemies, trophic groups that together comprise 50% of terrestrial species. We reject models of codispersal from a shared origin and of delayed enemy pursuit of their herbivore hosts, arguing against herbivore attainment of "enemy-free space." The community-wide distribution of species expansion times is also incompatible with a random, neutral model of assembly. Instead, we reveal a complex assembly history of single- and multispecies range expansions through the Pleistocene from different directions and over a range of timescales. Our results suggest substantial turnover in species associations and argue against tight coevolution in this system. The approach we illustrate is widely applicable to natural communities of nonmodel species and makes it possible to reveal the historical backdrop against which natural selection acts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lynsey Bunnefeld
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, Scotland;
- Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland
| | - Jack Hearn
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, Scotland
| | - Graham N Stone
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, Scotland
| | - Konrad Lohse
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, Scotland
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25
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Blowes SA, Belmaker J, Chase JM. Global reef fish richness gradients emerge from divergent and scale-dependent component changes. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 284:rspb.2017.0947. [PMID: 29142110 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0947] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2017] [Accepted: 10/17/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Biodiversity varies from place to place due to environmental and historical factors. To improve our understanding of how history and the environment influence observed patterns, we need to address the limitations of the most commonly used biodiversity metric, species richness. Here, we show that scale-dependent dissections of species richness into components of total abundance, species relative abundances and spatial aggregations of species reveal that two well-known biogeographic reef fish species richness gradients emerge from very different underlying component patterns. Latitudinal richness is underpinned by scale-independent patterns of total and relative abundances, suggesting ecological constraints scale up to determine abundances within communities. In contrast, the longitudinal gradient of species richness typically attributed to historical biogeography only emerges at the largest scale and is accompanied by a similar pattern of relative abundances, suggesting that site-to-site compositional variation leading to species aggregation (i.e. a component of β-diversity) underlies this gradient. Examining relationships among the components that underpin biodiversity gradients reveals new patterns that can better identify processes influencing patterns of biodiversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shane A Blowes
- School of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel .,German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Jonathan Belmaker
- School of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.,The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - Jonathan M Chase
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, Leipzig 04103, Germany.,Department of Computer Science, Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Halle 06099, Germany
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26
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Specific parasites indirectly influence niche occupation of non-hosts community members. Oecologia 2018; 188:343-353. [PMID: 29785698 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-018-4163-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2017] [Accepted: 05/08/2018] [Indexed: 10/16/2022]
Abstract
The coexistence of phylogenetically related species is an attractive topic because of the potentially intense interspecific competition. The most often investigated mechanisms mediating coexistence of these species are environmental filtering and niche partitioning. However, the role of other factors, such as species-specific parasites, is still poorly understood. Along the riparian understory of a tropical forest, we explored niche occupation and coexistence between Chrysso intervales and Helvibis longicauda, two related syntopic web-building spiders. We also investigated the effect of H. longicauda mortality induced by a specific fungus parasite, Gibellula pulchra, on the dynamic of C. intervales spatial distribution. Coexistence was mediated mainly by a fine-scale horizontal spatial segregation. H. longicauda built webs almost exclusively close to the river, while C. intervales occupied adjacent areas (10-20 m away from margins). We also found differentiation in other niche dimensions that might allow coexistence, such as in plants occupied, height of web placement, width of leaves used for thread attachment and phenology. H. longicauda mortality caused by fungi was higher during winter than in summer. Consequently, the abundance of C. intervales increased at distances close to the river, indicating competitive release through a density-mediated indirect effect. This demonstrates how non-competitive specific-antagonists can indirectly affect other non-hosts competing community members and influence their spatial distribution in fine-scale ranges. We suggest that environmental filtering restricts H. longicauda to cooler regions; niche partitioning leads populations to occupy different vertical strata and competitive exclusion precludes C. intervales to reach river margins, generating an unusual horizontal zonation pattern.
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27
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Zhang JQ, Zhong DL, Song WJ, Zhu RW, Sun WY. Climate Is Not All: Evidence From Phylogeography of Rhodiola fastigiata (Crassulaceae) and Comparison to Its Closest Relatives. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2018; 9:462. [PMID: 29713330 PMCID: PMC5912201 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2018.00462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2018] [Accepted: 03/23/2018] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
How geological events and climate oscillations in the Pleistocene glaciation shaped the geographic distribution of genetic variation of species on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and its adjacent areas has been extensively studied. However, little studies have investigated whether closely related species in the same genus with similar physiological and life history traits responded similarly to the glacial climatic oscillations. If this is not the case, we would expect that the population histories of studied species were not driven by extrinsic environmental changes alone. Here we conducted a phylogeographic study of a succulent alpine plant Rhodiola fastigiata, using sequences from chloroplast genome and nrITS region, as well as ecological niche modeling. The results of R. fastigiata were compared to other congeneric species that have been studied, especially to R. alsia and R. crenulata. We found that for both markers, two geographic groups could be revealed, corresponding to the QTP plateau and the Hengduan Mountains, respectively, indicating isolated refugia in those two areas. The two groups diverged 1.23 Mya during the Pleistocene. We detected no significant population expansion by mismatch distribution analysis and Bayesian Skyline Plot. We found that even these similar species with similar physiological and life history traits have had different demographic histories in the Quaternary glacial periods. Our comparative phylogeographic study sheds new lights into phylogeographic research that extrinsic environmental changes are not the only factor that can drive population demography, and other factors, such as coevolved interactions between plants and their specialized pathogens, that probably played a role need to be examined with more case studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian-Qiang Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China
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28
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Bai WN, Yan PC, Zhang BW, Woeste KE, Lin K, Zhang DY. Demographically idiosyncratic responses to climate change and rapid Pleistocene diversification of the walnut genus Juglans (Juglandaceae) revealed by whole-genome sequences. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2018; 217:1726-1736. [PMID: 29178135 DOI: 10.1111/nph.14917] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2017] [Accepted: 10/24/2017] [Indexed: 05/18/2023]
Abstract
Whether species demography and diversification are driven primarily by extrinsic environmental changes such as climatic oscillations in the Quaternary or by intrinsic biological interactions like coevolution between antagonists is a matter of active debate. In fact, their relative importance can be assessed by tracking past population fluctuations over considerable time periods. We applied the pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent approach on the genomes of 11 temperate Juglans species to estimate trajectories of changes in effective population size (Ne ) and used a Bayesian-coalescent based approach that simultaneously considers multiple genomes (G-PhoCS) to estimate divergence times between lineages. Ne curves of all study species converged 1.0 million yr ago, probably reflecting the time when the walnut genus last shared a common ancestor. This estimate was confirmed by the G-PhoCS estimates of divergence times. But all species did not react similarly to the dramatic climatic oscillations following early Pleistocene cooling, so the timing and amplitude of changes in Ne differed among species and even among conspecific lineages. The population histories of temperate walnut species were not driven by extrinsic environmental changes alone, and a key role was probably played by species-specific factors such as coevolutionary interactions with specialized pathogens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei-Ning Bai
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology and Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China
| | - Peng-Cheng Yan
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology and Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Cloud Computing Key Technology and Application, Beijing Computing Center, Beijing, 100094, China
| | - Bo-Wen Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology and Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China
| | - Keith E Woeste
- USDA Forest Service Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center (HTIRC), Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA
| | - Kui Lin
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology and Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China
| | - Da-Yong Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology and Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China
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29
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Huang S, Eronen JT, Janis CM, Saarinen JJ, Silvestro D, Fritz SA. Mammal body size evolution in North America and Europe over 20 Myr: similar trends generated by different processes. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 284:rspb.2016.2361. [PMID: 28202809 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.2361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2016] [Accepted: 01/25/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Because body size interacts with many fundamental biological properties of a species, body size evolution can be an essential component of the generation and maintenance of biodiversity. Here we investigate how body size evolution can be linked to the clade-specific diversification dynamics in different geographical regions. We analyse an extensive body size dataset of Neogene large herbivores (covering approx. 50% of the 970 species in the orders Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla) in Europe and North America in a Bayesian framework. We reconstruct the temporal patterns of body size in each order on each continent independently, and find significant increases of minimum size in three of the continental assemblages (except European perissodactyls), suggesting an active selection for larger bodies. Assessment of trait-correlated birth-death models indicates that the common trend of body size increase is generated by different processes in different clades and regions. Larger-bodied artiodactyl species on both continents tend to have higher origination rates, and both clades in North America show strong links between large bodies and low extinction rate. Collectively, our results suggest a strong role of species selection and perhaps of higher-taxon sorting in driving body size evolution, and highlight the value of investigating evolutionary processes in a biogeographic context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shan Huang
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Jussi T Eronen
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,BIOS Research Unit, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Christine M Janis
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Juha J Saarinen
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | - Daniele Silvestro
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Susanne A Fritz
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt am Main, Germany.,Institute of Ecology, Evolution and Diversity, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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30
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Abstract
Most species have one or more natural enemies, e.g., predators, parasites, pathogens, and herbivores, among others. These species in turn typically attack multiple victim species. This leads to the possibility of indirect interactions among those victims, both positive and negative. The term apparent competition commonly denotes negative indirect interactions between victim species that arise because they share a natural enemy. This indirect interaction, which in principle can be reflected in many facets of the distribution and abundance of individual species and more broadly govern the structure of ecological communities in time and space, pervades many natural ecosystems. It also is a central theme in many applied ecological problems, including the control of agricultural pests, harvesting, the conservation of endangered species, and the dynamics of emerging diseases. At one end of the scale of life, apparent competition characterizes intriguing aspects of dynamics within individual organisms—for example, the immune system is akin in many ways to a predator that can induce negative indirect interactions among different pathogens. At intermediate scales of biological organization, the existence and strength of apparent competition depend upon many contingent details of individual behavior and life history, as well as the community and spatial context within which indirect interactions play out. At the broadest scale of macroecology and macroevolution, apparent competition may play a major, if poorly understood, role in the evolution of species’ geographical ranges and adaptive radiations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert D. Holt
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA
| | - Michael B. Bonsall
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom
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31
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LaManna JA, Belote RT, Burkle LA, Catano CP, Myers JA. Negative density dependence mediates biodiversity-productivity relationships across scales. Nat Ecol Evol 2017; 1:1107-1115. [PMID: 29046568 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0225-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2016] [Accepted: 05/23/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Regional species diversity generally increases with primary productivity whereas local diversity-productivity relationships are highly variable. This scale-dependence of the biodiversity-productivity relationship highlights the importance of understanding the mechanisms that govern variation in species composition among local communities, which is known as β-diversity. Hypotheses to explain changes in β-diversity with productivity invoke multiple mechanisms operating at local and regional scales, but the relative importance of these mechanisms is unknown. Here we show that changes in the strength of local density-dependent interactions within and among tree species explain changes in β-diversity across a subcontinental-productivity gradient. Stronger conspecific relative to heterospecific negative density dependence in more productive regions was associated with higher local diversity, weaker habitat partitioning (less species sorting), and homogenization of community composition among sites (lower β-diversity). Regional processes associated with changes in species pools had limited effects on β-diversity. Our study suggests that systematic shifts in the strength of local interactions within and among species might generally contribute to some of the most prominent but poorly understood gradients in global biodiversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph A LaManna
- Department of Biology & Tyson Research Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA.
| | | | - Laura A Burkle
- Department of Ecology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, 59717, USA
| | - Christopher P Catano
- Department of Biology & Tyson Research Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA
| | - Jonathan A Myers
- Department of Biology & Tyson Research Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA
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32
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Lischke H, Löffler TJ. Finding all multiple stable fixpoints of n-species Lotka-Volterra competition models. Theor Popul Biol 2017; 115:24-34. [PMID: 28232111 DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2017.02.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2016] [Revised: 01/23/2017] [Accepted: 02/09/2017] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
One way to explore assembly of extant and novel communities from species pools, and by that biodiversity and species ranges, is to study the equilibrium behavior of dynamic competition models such as the Lotka-Volterra competition (LVC) model. We present a novel method (COMMUSTIX) to determine all stable fixpoints of the general LVC model with abundances x from a given pool of n species. To that purpose, we split the species in potentially surviving species (xi>0) and in others going extinct (xi=0). We derived criteria for the stability of xi=0 and for the equilibrium of xi>0 to determine possible combinations of extinct and surviving species by iteratively applying a mixed binary linear optimization algorithm. We tested this new method against (a) the numerical solution at equilibrium of the LVC ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and (b) the fixpoints of all combinations of surviving and extinct species (possible only for small n), tested for stability and non-negativity. The tests revealed that COMMUSTIX is reliable, it detects all multiple stable fixpoints (SFPs), which is not guaranteed by solving the ODEs, and more efficient than the combinations method. With COMMUSTIX, we studied the dependence of the fixpoint behavior on the competition strengths relative to the intra-specific competition. If inter-specific competition was considerably lower than intra-specific competition, only globally SFPs occurred. In contrast, if all inter-specific was higher than intra-specific competition, multiple SFPs consisting of only one species occurred. If competition strengths in the species pool ranged from below to above the intra-specific competition, either global or multiple SFPs strongly differing in species composition occurred. The species richness over all SFPs was high for pools of species with similar, either weak or strong competition, and lower for species with dissimilar or close to intra-specific competition strengths. The new approach is a reliable and efficient tool for further extensive examinations of the dependence of community compositions on parameter settings of the LVC model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heike Lischke
- Dynamic Macroecology, Landscape Dynamics, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstr.111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
| | - Thomas J Löffler
- Geological Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETHZ, Sonneggstr. 5, Zürich, Switzerland
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33
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Weber MG, Strauss SY. Coexistence in Close Relatives: Beyond Competition and Reproductive Isolation in Sister Taxa. ANNUAL REVIEW OF ECOLOGY EVOLUTION AND SYSTEMATICS 2016. [DOI: 10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Marjorie G. Weber
- Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, California 95616; ,
| | - Sharon Y. Strauss
- Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, California 95616; ,
- Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, California 95616
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34
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Burbrink FT, Chan YL, Myers EA, Ruane S, Smith BT, Hickerson MJ. Asynchronous demographic responses to Pleistocene climate change in Eastern Nearctic vertebrates. Ecol Lett 2016; 19:1457-1467. [DOI: 10.1111/ele.12695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2016] [Revised: 07/27/2016] [Accepted: 09/15/2016] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Frank T. Burbrink
- Department of Herpetology The American Museum of Natural History Central Park West and 79th Street New York NY10024 USA
| | - Yvonne L. Chan
- iDepartment ’Iolani School 563 Kamoku Street Honolulu HI96826 USA
| | - Edward A. Myers
- Department of Biology 6S‐143 College of Staten Island 2800 Victory Boulevard Staten Island NY10314 USA
- Department of Biology The Graduate School and University Center The City University of New York 365 Fifth Ave. NY10016 USA
| | - Sara Ruane
- Museum of Natural Science Louisiana State University 119 Foster Hall Baton Rouge LA70803 USA
| | - Brian Tilston Smith
- Department of Ornithology The American Museum of Natural History Central Park West and 79th Street New York NY10024 USA
| | - Michael J. Hickerson
- Department of Biology The Graduate School and University Center The City University of New York 365 Fifth Ave. NY10016 USA
- Biology Department City College of New York New York NY10016 USA
- Division of Invertebrate Zoology The American Museum of Natural History Central Park West and 79th Street New York NY10024 USA
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35
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Ellis VA, Medeiros MCI, Collins MD, Sari EHR, Coffey ED, Dickerson RC, Lugarini C, Stratford JA, Henry DR, Merrill L, Matthews AE, Hanson AA, Roberts JR, Joyce M, Kunkel MR, Ricklefs RE. Prevalence of avian haemosporidian parasites is positively related to the abundance of host species at multiple sites within a region. Parasitol Res 2016; 116:73-80. [PMID: 27709356 DOI: 10.1007/s00436-016-5263-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2016] [Accepted: 09/14/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Parasite prevalence is thought to be positively related to host population density owing to enhanced contagion. However, the relationship between prevalence and local abundance of multiple host species is underexplored. We surveyed birds and their haemosporidian parasites (genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) at multiple sites across eastern North America to test whether the prevalence of these parasites in a host species at a particular site is related to that host's local abundance. Prevalence was positively related to host abundance within most sites, although the effect was stronger and more consistent for Plasmodium than for Haemoproteus. In contrast, prevalence was not related to variation in the abundance of most individual host species among sites across the region. These results suggest that parasite prevalence partly reflects the relative abundances of host species in local assemblages. However, three nonnative host species had low prevalence despite being relatively abundant at one site, as predicted by the enemy release hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vincenzo A Ellis
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63121, USA. .,Departamento de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
| | - Matthew C I Medeiros
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63121, USA.,Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | | | - Eloisa H R Sari
- Departamento de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Elyse D Coffey
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63121, USA
| | - Rebecca C Dickerson
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63121, USA.,College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA
| | - Camile Lugarini
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63121, USA.,Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil
| | - Jeffrey A Stratford
- Department of Biology and Health Sciences, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA, 18766, USA
| | - Donata R Henry
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA
| | - Loren Merrill
- Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA
| | - Alix E Matthews
- Department of Biology, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, 38112, USA.,Department of Biological Sciences, Arkansas State University, State University, Jonesboro, AR, 72467, USA
| | - Alison A Hanson
- Department of Biology, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, 38112, USA.,Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Jackson R Roberts
- Department of Biology, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, 38112, USA.,School of Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA
| | - Michael Joyce
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63121, USA
| | - Melanie R Kunkel
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63121, USA.,College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA
| | - Robert E Ricklefs
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63121, USA
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36
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Ladin ZS, D'Amico V, Baetens JM, Roth RR, Shriver WG. Long‐term dynamics in local host–parasite interactions linked to regional population trends. Ecosphere 2016. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.1420] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Zachary S. Ladin
- Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology University of Delaware 264 Townsend Hall Newark Delaware 19716 USA
| | - Vincent D'Amico
- US Forest Service, Northern Research Station 531 South College Avenue Townsend Hall Newark Delaware 19716 USA
| | - Jan M. Baetens
- Department of Mathematical Modeling, Statistics and Bioinformatics Ghent University Coupure links 653 9000 Ghent Belgium
| | - Roland R. Roth
- Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology University of Delaware 250 Townsend Hall Newark Delaware 19716 USA
| | - W. Gregory Shriver
- Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology University of Delaware 250 Townsend Hall Newark Delaware 19716 USA
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