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Corso AJ, Pina-Amargós F, Rodriguez-Viera L. Cleaning symbiosis in coral reefs of Jardines de la Reina National Park. PeerJ 2023; 11:e16524. [PMID: 38077429 PMCID: PMC10710127 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2023] [Accepted: 11/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Cleaning symbiotic interactions are an important component of coral reef biodiversity and the study of the characteristics of these interacting species networks allows to assess the health of communities. The coral reefs of Jardines de la Reina National Park (JRNP) are subject to a protection gradient and there is a lack of knowledge about the effect of different levels of protection on the cleaning mutualistic networks in the area. The present study aims to characterize the mutualistic cleaning networks in the reefs of JRNP and to assess the potential effect of the protection gradient on their characteristics. Methods We visited 26 reef sites distributed along the National Park and performed 96 band transects (50 m × 4 m). Low, medium and highly protected regions were compared according to the number of cleaning stations and the abundance and number of species of clients and cleaners associated with them. Additionally, we built interaction networks for the three regions and the entire archipelago based on a total of 150 minutes' video records of active cleaning stations. We assessed ecological networks characteristics (specialization, nestedness) using network topological metrics. Results We found a high diversity and complex cleaning interaction network with 6 cleaner species and 39 client species, among them, the threatened grouper Epinephelus striatus was one of the most common clients. No clear effect of the protection level on the density, abundance or diversity of cleaners and clients was detected during this study. However, we found that the network structure varied among regions, with the highly protected region being more specialized and less nested than the other regions. Our research reveals some patterns that suggest the effect of fishing pressure on cleaning symbiosis, as fishing may reduce the abundance and composition of client species, especially those that are targeted by fishers. However, fishing pressure may not be the main factor influencing cleaning symbiosis inside of the National Park, as other factors, such as habitat quality or environmental conditions may have stronger effects on the demand for cleaning services and the interactions between cleaners and clients. Our research provides insights into the factors that influence cleaning symbiosis and its implications for coral reef conservation and management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andy Joel Corso
- Center for Marine Research, University of Havana, Havana, Cuba
| | | | - Leandro Rodriguez-Viera
- Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar (CEIMAR), University of Cadiz, Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain
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Rodríguez‐Hernández K, Álvarez‐Mendizábal P, Chapa‐Vargas L, Escobar F, Dáttilo W, Santiago‐Alarcon D. Infection intensity shapes specialization and beta diversity of haemosporidian–bird networks across elevations. Ecosphere 2023. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.4481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/30/2023] Open
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Paniw M, García-Callejas D, Lloret F, Bassar RD, Travis J, Godoy O. Pathways to global-change effects on biodiversity: new opportunities for dynamically forecasting demography and species interactions. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20221494. [PMID: 36809806 PMCID: PMC9943645 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1494] [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] [Indexed: 02/23/2023] Open
Abstract
In structured populations, persistence under environmental change may be particularly threatened when abiotic factors simultaneously negatively affect survival and reproduction of several life cycle stages, as opposed to a single stage. Such effects can then be exacerbated when species interactions generate reciprocal feedbacks between the demographic rates of the different species. Despite the importance of such demographic feedbacks, forecasts that account for them are limited as individual-based data on interacting species are perceived to be essential for such mechanistic forecasting-but are rarely available. Here, we first review the current shortcomings in assessing demographic feedbacks in population and community dynamics. We then present an overview of advances in statistical tools that provide an opportunity to leverage population-level data on abundances of multiple species to infer stage-specific demography. Lastly, we showcase a state-of-the-art Bayesian method to infer and project stage-specific survival and reproduction for several interacting species in a Mediterranean shrub community. This case study shows that climate change threatens populations most strongly by changing the interaction effects of conspecific and heterospecific neighbours on both juvenile and adult survival. Thus, the repurposing of multi-species abundance data for mechanistic forecasting can substantially improve our understanding of emerging threats on biodiversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Paniw
- Department of Conservation Biology and Global Change, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Seville, 41001 Spain.,Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland
| | - David García-Callejas
- Department of Integrative Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Seville, 41001 Spain.,Instituto Universitario de Investigación Marina (INMAR), Departamento de Biología, Universidad de Cádiz, Campus Río San Pedro, 11510 Puerto Real, Spain
| | - Francisco Lloret
- Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), Cerdanyola del Vallès 08193, Spain.,Department Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology, Universitat Autònoma Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès 08193, Spain
| | - Ronald D Bassar
- Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
| | - Joseph Travis
- Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
| | - Oscar Godoy
- Instituto Universitario de Investigación Marina (INMAR), Departamento de Biología, Universidad de Cádiz, Campus Río San Pedro, 11510 Puerto Real, Spain
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Minachilis K, Kantsa A, Devalez J, Vujic A, Pauly A, Petanidou T. High species turnover and unique plant-pollinator interactions make a hyperdiverse mountain. J Anim Ecol 2023; 92:1001-1015. [PMID: 36754546 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/10/2023]
Abstract
We studied α- and β-diversity of pollinators, flowering plants and plant-pollinator interactions along the altitudinal gradient of Mt. Olympus, a legendary mountain and biodiversity hotspot in Central Greece. We explored 10 study sites located on the north-eastern slope of the mountain, from 327 to 2596 m a.s.l. Insect surveys were conducted once a month using hand netting (years 2013, 2014 and 2016), and they were combined with recordings of flowering plant diversity (species richness and flower cover). We then calculated α- and β-diversity of pollinators, plants in flower and plant-pollinator interactions, and explored their demographic response along the altitudinal gradient. Alpha diversity of pollinators, plants and plant-pollinator interactions were altitude dependent; α-diversity of all pollinators, bees, non-bumblebee bees, bee flies and butterflies showed linear declines with altitude, whereas those of hoverflies and bumblebees showed unimodal patterns. Beta diversity and its turnover component of all pollinators, hoverflies, bees, bumblebees, non-bumblebee bees, butterflies and plants showed linear increases, whereas those of bee flies and of plant-pollinator interactions varied independently from the pairwise altitudinal difference. The high dissimilarity and uniqueness of pollination networks, which is probably a result of the high biodiversity and endemism of Mt. Olympus, is driven by species turnover and the formation of new interactions between new species. Contrasting to the monotonic decline of the remaining groups, the unimodal patterns of hoverfly and bumblebee α-diversity are probably the effect of a higher tolerance of these groups to high-altitude environmental conditions. Our findings highlight that the high turnover of species and of pollination interactions along the altitudinal gradient are the mainstay of hyperdiverse mountains, a fact that conveys important historical, ecological and conservational implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Konstantinos Minachilis
- Laboratory of Biogeography and Ecology, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece
| | - Aphrodite Kantsa
- Laboratory of Biogeography and Ecology, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece.,Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Jelle Devalez
- Laboratory of Biogeography and Ecology, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece
| | - Ante Vujic
- Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
| | - Alain Pauly
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, O.D. Taxonomy and Phylogeny, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Theodora Petanidou
- Laboratory of Biogeography and Ecology, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece
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Lean CH. Invasive species increase biodiversity and, therefore, services: An argument of equivocations. CONSERVATION SCIENCE AND PRACTICE 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/csp2.553] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Hunter Lean
- Department of Philosophy University of Sydney Sydney New South Wales 2006 Australia
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Dalhousie University Halifax Nova Scotia Canada
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Zhu Z, Harris AJ, Nizamani MM, Thornhill AH, Scherson RA, Wang H. Spatial phylogenetics of the native woody plant species in Hainan, China. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:2100-2109. [PMID: 33717445 PMCID: PMC7920777 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2020] [Revised: 12/05/2020] [Accepted: 12/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
To better identify biodiversity hotspots for conservation on Hainan Island, a tropical island in southern China, we assessed spatial variation in phylogenetic diversity and species richness using 18,976 georeferenced specimen records and a newly reconstructed molecular phylogeny of 957 native woody plants. Within this framework, we delineated bioregions based on vegetation composition and mapped areas of neoendemism and paleoendemism to identify areas of priority for conservation. Our results reveal that the southwest of Hainan is the most important hot spot for endemism and plant diversity followed by the southeast area. The distribution of endemic species showed a scattered, rather than clustered, pattern on the island. Based on phylogenetic range-weighted turnover metrics, we delineated three major vegetational zones in Hainan. These largely correspond to natural secondary growth and managed forests (e.g., rubber and timber forests) in central Hainan, old-growth forests and natural secondary growth forest at the margins of Hainan, and nature reserves on the island (e.g., Jianfeng and Diaoluo National Nature Reserves). Our study helps to elucidate potential botanical conservation priorities for Hainan within an evolutionary, phylogenetic framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhi‐Xin Zhu
- Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical BioresourcesCollege of Tropical CropsHainan UniversityHaikouChina
| | - AJ Harris
- Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable UtilizationSouth China Botanical GardenChinese Academy of ScienceGuangzhouChina
| | - Mir Muhammad Nizamani
- Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical BioresourcesCollege of Tropical CropsHainan UniversityHaikouChina
| | - Andrew H. Thornhill
- Department for Environment and WaterState Herbarium of South AustraliaBotanic Gardens and State HerbariumAdelaideSAAustralia
| | - Rosa A. Scherson
- Departamento de Silvicultura y Conservación de la NaturalezaFacultad de Ciencias Forestales y Conservación de la NaturalezaUniversidad de ChileSantiagoChile
| | - Hua‐Feng Wang
- Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical BioresourcesCollege of Tropical CropsHainan UniversityHaikouChina
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Abstract
Water mites form one of the most biodiverse groups within the aquatic arachnid class. These freshwater macroinvertebrates are predators and parasites of the equally diverse nematocerous Dipterans, such as mosquitoes, and water mites are believed to have diversified as a result of these predatory and parasitic relationships. Through these two major biotic interactions, water mites have been found to greatly impact a variety of mosquito species. Although these predatory and parasitic interactions are important in aquatic ecology, very little is known about the diversity of water mites that interact with mosquitoes. In this paper, we review and update the past literature on the predatory and parasitic mite–mosquito relationships, update past records, discuss the biogeographic range of these interactions, and add our own recent findings on this topic conducted in habitats around the Laurentian Great Lakes. The possible impact on human health, along with the importance of water mite predator–prey dynamics in aquatic food webs, motivates an increase in future research on this aquatic predator and parasite and may reveal novel ecological functions that these parasitic and predator–prey relationships mediate.
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