Water deficiency induces evolutionary tradeoff between stress tolerance and chemical defense allocation that may help explain range limits in plants

What causes range limits is a central question in evolutionary ecology. Transplant studies indicate that areas just across range boundaries are often stressful. The recent Defense constraint (DC) hypothesis for plants states that the evolution of tolerance to stressful environments across a range boundary is constrained by allocation to chemical defense because of antagonistic crosstalk between abiotic and biotic stress signaling pathways that otherwise could be co‐opted for range expansion. Abscisic acid (ABA) drought stress tolerance and jasmonic acid/ethylene (JA/ET) defense signaling pathways, for example, are known to be antagonistic to one another in Arabidopsis and other species. To test the DC hypothesis, we examined quantitative genetic variation and co‐variation among marker‐inferred inbred lines and sib‐families of Boechera stricta, a close wild relative of Arabidopsis. The dynamics of the defense‐stress tolerance tradeoff was examined across 1) years that differed in precipitation, 2) drought and ABA treatments, and 3) a NPK nutrient supply gradient. In support of the DC hypothesis, we observed the tradeoff a) in the dry year, and b) in response to water deficiency, which c) was affected by ABA treatments, but the interaction between ABA and glucosinolate (GS) toxin levels was not significant. In contrast to the effects of water deficiency, d) the effect of lower NPK supply to cause the tradeoff was only marginally significant. Because an ABA‐mediated stress response is intrinsic to water deficient conditions and because of the known involvement of JA/ET in GS regulation, we suggest that these results provide circumstantial evidence implicating both of these pathways in the tradeoff and thus in the development of range limits.     

Impact of host plant quality on geometrid moth expansion on environmental and local population scales

The warming climate has enabled a rapid expansion of many forest pests. The adaptation potential of the invaders affects largely on how well the invasive species can spread to new areas and in what extent can they have an impact on the invaded ecosystem. To measure the adaptation potential of an invasive (winter moth) and a potentially invasive defoliating moth species (scarce umber moth), we examined life history parameters in two environments on a set of genetically diverse host trees and compared the traits with those of a resident moth species (autumnal moth). In addition, variations in life history parameters due to host genotype were calculated and compared. The bioassay was executed by rearing moth larvae on 11 half‐sib families of the host tree in two large tree line gardens. The use of half‐sib families allowed us to calculate the variances due to tree genotype and also to examine if the new arrivals can affect the selection pressure on the genetic population structure of the host. According to our results, the natural genetic variation in host plant quality and small environmental differences are not sufficiently effective to restrict the spread of the already established invasive species. The invading moth species may even be better at adapting to variation in food quality than the resident moth species. The overall effect of the natural variation in tree quality was similar for all three moth species. Therefore, the newcomers are likely to only inflict a quantitative rather than qualitative change in the selection pressure on the host.     

三江平原残存湿地斑块特征及其对物种多样性的影响

景观破碎化是当前一个突出的生态学问题,破碎斑块的大小和形状特征对物种多样性具有重要影响。选取三江平原别拉洪河流域为研究区,通过调查残存湿地斑块的面积、形状和植物物种丰富度,利用相关分析和回归分析等方法研究了残存湿地斑块特征及其对物种多样性的影响。研究结果表明:在强烈的人为活动干扰下,三江平原湿地破碎化严重,残存湿地斑块面积较小,斑块形状规则、边界简单。斑块形状指数、分维数、形状特征点数和斑块面积、物种丰富度均没有显著相关关系,而斑块面积、周长和周长面积比对物种丰富度具有显著影响。但是斑块周长和周长面积比均受面积的直接影响,所以斑块面积是决定物种丰富度的主要因素,这点需在湿地生物多样性保护中予以重视。虽然斑块形状特征点数是农业景观物种丰富度的一个很好预测指标,但是该指标不适用于形状规则的残存湿地斑块物种丰富度预测。另外,对于残存湿地斑块种-面积关系的机理还有待进一步研究。     

The effect of plant litter on ecosystem properties in a Mediterranean semi‐arid shrubland

Abstract. We studied the distribution of litter in a shrubland of the Negev with a semi‐arid Mediterranean climate of less than 200 mm of rainfall per year. Our focus was on the effects of litter on properties of landscape patches relevant to ecosystem processes (water runoff and soil erosion), annual plant community responses (seedling density, biomass production and species richness), and animal activity (soil disturbance by termites). Three 60‐m transects, extending across a pair of opposing north‐ and south‐facing slopes and their drainage channel, showed that litter accumulates not only under shrubs, but to a lesser extent also on the crusted inter‐shrub open areas. We used 35 experimental units (‘cells’, 0.5m × 1 m), each containing a crust and a shrub patch. Because runoff flows from crusted patches and is intercepted by shrub patches, the latter were in the lower third of the cells. Leaf litter was added in single and double amounts providing ca. 0.5 and 1.0 cm litter depth, to either, both, or none of the patches. Litter addition significantly decreased the amount of runoff, regardless of the location and amount of litter applied. Litter on the crust increased species number and seedling density of species with low abundance. Adding a double litter layer increased annual plant biomass production, while a single amount had no effect. Litter addition to the shrub patch affected neither biomass nor species richness. Litter addition to both patches at both quantities caused a large increase in termite activity. Termites caused disturbance by disrupting the crust, which may contribute to the reduction in runoff amounts. In the open, flat crust patches, annual plant communities are limited in their productivity and species richness, as there are few structures stopping the outflow of water, soil and seeds. Litter adds such structures, but affects the plant communities only when added to litter‐free crust. Litter accumulation and its patchy distribution have large impacts on landscape patch properties affecting resource distribution, plant productivity and diversity, and animal activity. Therefore, understanding litter distribution in relation to the patchy structure of the landscape of semi‐arid shrubland should be viewed as an important component of shrubland management.     

Plant-mediated effects in the Brassicaceae on the performance and behaviour of parasitoids

Direct and indirect plant defences are well studied, particularly in the Brassicaceae. Glucosinolates (GS) are secondary plant compounds characteristic in this plant family. They play an important role in defence against herbivores and pathogens. Insect herbivores that are specialists on brassicaceous plant species have evolved adaptations to excrete or detoxify GS. Other insect herbivores may even sequester GS and employ them as defence against their own antagonists, such as predators. Moreover, high levels of GS in the food plants of non-sequestering herbivores can negatively affect the growth and survival of their parasitoids. In addition to allelochemicals, plants produce volatile chemicals when damaged by herbivores. These herbivore induced plant volatiles (HIPV) have been demonstrated to play an important role in foraging behaviour of insect parasitoids. In addition, biosynthetic pathways involved in the production of HIPV are being unraveled using the model plant Arabidopsis thialiana. However, the majority of studies investigating the attractiveness of HIPV to parasitoids are based on experiments mainly using crop plant species in which defence traits may have changed through artificial selection. Field studies with both cultivated and wild crucifers, the latter in which defence traits are intact, are necessary to reveal the relative importance of direct and indirect plant defence strategies on parasitoid and plant fitness. Future research should also consider the potential conflict between direct and indirect plant defences when studying the evolution of plant defences against insect herbivory.     

Observational evidence that maladaptive gene flow reduces patch occupancy in a wild insect metapopulation

Theory predicts that dispersal throughout metapopulations has a variety of consequences for the abundance and distribution of species. Immigration is predicted to increase abundance and habitat patch occupancy, but gene flow can have both positive and negative demographic consequences. Here, we address the eco‐evolutionary effects of dispersal in a wild metapopulation of the stick insect Timema cristinae, which exhibits variable degrees of local adaptation throughout a heterogeneous habitat patch network of two host‐plant species. To disentangle the ecological and evolutionary contributions of dispersal to habitat patch occupancy and abundance, we contrasted the effects of connectivity to populations inhabiting conspecific host plants and those inhabiting the alternate host plant. Both types of connectivity should increase patch occupancy and abundance through increased immigration and sharing of beneficial alleles through gene flow. However, connectivity to populations inhabiting the alternate host‐plant species may uniquely cause maladaptive gene flow that counters the positive demographic effects of immigration. Supporting these predictions, we find the relationship between patch occupancy and alternate‐host connectivity to be significantly smaller in slope than the relationship between patch occupancy and conspecific‐host connectivity. Our findings illustrate the ecological and evolutionary roles of dispersal in driving the distribution and abundance of species.     

Glutamine synthetase isoforms in Trientalis europaea: a biochemical and molecular approach

Ion-exchange chromatography of extracts from Trientalis europaea L. leaf tissue have been shown to contain two distinct isoforms of glutamine synthetase (GS). However, analysis by Western blotting has shown that the first peak to elute contains a mixture of large and small GS subunits, whilst the second peak is comprised entirely of a smaller subunit. This is contrary to the widespread assumptions concerning plant GS biochemistry. Isolation of intact chloroplasts and subsequent extraction of GS, followed by ion-exchange chromatography, has shown that the first peak to elute contains a large subunit, and the second chloroplastic peak is composed entirely of the small subunit. This smaller subunit may be present due to it being encoded by a separate chloroplastic GS gene, or it may be present as a product of post-translational modification. DNA sequencing has been used to try and determine which of these may be occurring. The three partial DNA sequences (505 nucleotides) we have obtained from T. europaea have been compared with 64 other sequences available on the NCBI database, which have mainly been obtained from crop species. Neighbour joining and parsimony analysis (1000 bootstrap) has shown support (_∼30%) for the separation of plant GS from all other phyla. Within the plant phylum, there is total support for the separation of chloroplastic and cytosolic GS (100%), whilst the cytosolic sequences divide further into monocot and dicot species (77% support by NJ). Further subgroups of plants from the same families is also suggested. This is consistent with previous work containing fewer, but longer (_∼1000 nucleotides) GS sequences. The addition of GS sequences obtained from wild plant species, such as T. europaea, to the large amount of information already available on the database, will permit a better understanding of the evolution of this important enzyme. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Patch configuration affects alpine plant distribution

The relative importance of niche requirements and dispersal limitation in controlling the landscape‐scale distribution of plants is still contentious. Local occurrence and abundance of alpine plants are commonly thought to be driven by abiotic site conditions due to pronounced environmental gradients over short distances. However, explicit tests of the additional role of dispersal‐related processes for alpine plant distribution patterns are lacking. Here, we combine niche‐based species distribution models with variables describing patch size and connectivity to evaluate if, besides abiotic limitations, spatial habitat configuration affects the occurrence and abundance of six plant species inhabiting patchy snowbed mosaics of the northeastern Calcareous Alps in Austria. Moreover, we assess if eventual effects of spatial patch configuration are more clearly detectable when calculating connectivity based on parameterized mechanistic dispersal kernels for both wind and animal vectors instead of using nearest neighbour metrics. We show that patch size and connectivity are significantly correlated to the occurrence of all and to the abundance of four out of six study species, although the relative importance of these variables, as compared to niche constraints, varies among species. In addition, connectivity measures derived from parameterized dispersal kernels were more closely related to occupancy, and in particular to abundance patterns than a simple nearest neighbour metric. The fitted kernels also suggest that dispersal by alpine chamois plays an important role for inter‐patch seed exchange. We conclude that, despite evident abiotic limitations, recurrent local extinctions and delayed re‐colonizations indeed play a role for the distribution of our study species, and that alpine plants may hence be less in equilibrium with their abiotic environment than commonly thought. Moreover, the relatively high long‐distance dispersal probabilities of animal kernels indicate that the ability of alpine plants to adapt their ranges to a rapidly warming climate may, among other factors, depend on the availability of dispersal services by large mammals.     

Biotic filtering and mass effects in small shrub patches: is arthropod community structure predictable based on the quality of the vegetation?

1. Community assembly is affected by four processes: dispersal, filtering effects (selection), ecological drift and evolution. The role of filtering relative to dispersal and drift should decline with patch size, hampering possibilities to predict which organisms will be observed within small‐sized patches. However, vegetation structure is known to have a marked impact on species assemblages, and plant quality may act as a biotic filter. This challenges the assumption of unpredictable species assemblages in small‐sized vegetation patches. 2. Using 32 stands of five shrub species in south‐west Finland, this study investigated whether biotic filtering effects caused by patch‐forming plants are strong enough to overcome the mixing of mobile arthropod assemblages across small patches. 3. Stochastic variation did not hide the signals of biotic filtering and dispersal in the small shrub patches. Habitat richness around the patches explained a three times larger share of variation in the species composition than did the identity of the patch‐forming plant, but it had less effect on the abundance of arthropods. A radius of 50–100 m around a patch explained the species composition best. 4. Abundance patterns varied between the feeding guilds; the patch‐forming shrub influenced the abundances of detritivores and leaf‐feeding herbivores, whereas the abundances of flower‐visiting herbivores appeared to track the flowering phenology of the plants. Shrub identity had little effect on omnivores or predators. Predator abundances were correlated with the abundance of potential prey. 5. The results of this study suggest that community composition within a vegetation patch may be predictable even if dispersal overrides local filtering effects, as suggested by the mass‐effects paradigm.     

Disentangling and ranking the influences of multiple environmental factors on plant and soil-dwelling arthropod assemblages in a river Rhine floodplain area

Floodplains of large rivers are among the most dynamic and diverse, yet most threatened ecosystems on earth. For a solid underpinning of river conservation and rehabilitation measures, it is critical to unravel the influences of the multiple stressors affecting floodplain ecosystems. Using canonical correspondence analysis with variance partitioning, we disentangled and ranked the influences of three floodplain ecosystem stressors (land use, flooding and soil contamination) on terrestrial plant and soil-dwelling arthropod assemblages in a floodplain area along the river Rhine in The Netherlands. We included five biotic assemblages: plant species (73 taxa), ground beetle species (57 taxa), ground beetle genera (29 taxa), beetle families (32 taxa) and arthropod groups at taxonomic levels from family to class (10 taxa). Plant and arthropod assemblages were primarily related to land use, which explained 19–30% of the variation in taxonomic composition. For plant species composition, flooding characteristics were nearly as important as land use. Soil metal contamination constituted a subordinate explanatory factor for the plant assemblages only (3% of variation explained). We conclude that the taxonomic composition of terrestrial plant and arthropod assemblages in our study area is related to land use and flooding rather than soil metal contamination.     

Effects of population,family, and diet on craniofacial morphology of Icelandic Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus)

We evaluated hypotheses of intralacustrine diversification and plastic responses to two diet environments in Icelandic Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus). Full‐sib families of progeny of wild polymorphic charr from two lakes where morphs vary in their degree of phenotypic and ecological divergence were split, with half of the offspring reared on a benthic and half on a limnetic type of diet to estimate family norms of reaction. We focused on variation in craniofacial traits because they are probably functionally related to diet and complement a previous study of body shape in these charr. A hierarchical analysis of phenotypic variation between lakes, pairs of morphs within each lake, and two families within each morph found that phenotypic variation partitioned between families relative to morphs was reduced in the more ecologically diversified population, which is consistent with adaptive diversification. The effect size of plastic responses between lake populations was similar, suggesting little difference in the degree of canalization in contrast to a previous analysis of body form plasticity. Thus, the role that plastic morphological responses play in the adaptive diversification of morphs and different lake populations of Arctic charr may depend on the trait. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London     

Evaluation of designs for reference families for livestock linkage mapping experiments

Abstract

The development of dense linkage maps consisting of highly polymorphic loci for livestock species is technically feasible. However, linkage mapping experiments are expensive as they involve many animals and marker typings per animal. To minimize costs of developing linkage maps for livestock species, optimizing designs for mapping studies is necessary. This study provides a general framework for evaluating the efficiency of designs for reference families consisting of two‐ or three‐ generation full‐sib or half‐sib families selected from a segregating population. The influence of number of families, number of offspring per family, family structure (either half‐sib or full‐sib) and marker polymorphism is determined. Evaluation is done for two markers with a recombination rate of .20 and for a marker and a dominant single gene with a recombination rate of .20. Two evaluation criteria are used: expected maximum lod score for detection of linkage and accuracy of an estimated recombination rate defined as probability that the true recombination rate is in an interval around the estimated recombination rate. First, for several designs the contribution of reference families to expected maximum lod score and accuracy is given. Second, the required number of families in a design to obtain a certain value for the evaluation criteria is calculated when number of offspring per family, family structure and marker polymorphism are specified. The required numbers increase when designs are optimized not only for expected maximum lod score but also for accuracy. The required number of animals to map a dominant single gene is very large. Therefore, a set of reference families should be designed for strictly mapping marker loci. Examples illustrate how tabulated results can be generalized to determine the values for a wide range of designs containing two‐ or three‐generation full‐sib or half‐sib families.     

Tolerance to multiple climate stressors: a case study of Douglas‐fir drought and cold hardiness

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Patch occupancy of North American mammals: is patchiness in the eye of the beholder?

Aim Intraspecific variation in patch occupancy often is related to physical features of a landscape, such as the amount and distribution of habitat. However, communities occupying patchy environments typically exhibit non‐random distributions in which local assemblages of species‐poor patches are nested subsets of assemblages occupying more species‐rich patches. Nestedness of local communities implies interspecific differences in sensitivity to patchiness. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain interspecific variation in responses to patchiness within a community, including differences in (1) colonization ability, (2) extinction proneness, (3) tolerance to disturbance, (4) sociality and (5) level of adaptation to prevailing environmental conditions. We used data on North American mammals to compare the performance of these ‘ecological’ hypotheses and the ‘physical landscape’ hypothesis. We then compared the best of these models against models that scaled landscape structure to ecologically relevant attributes of individual species. Location North America. Methods We analysed data on prevalence (i.e. proportion of patches occupied in a network of patches) and occupancy for 137 species of non‐volant mammals and twenty networks consisting of four to seventy‐five patches. Insular and terrestrial networks exhibited significantly different mean levels of prevalence and occupancy and thus were analysed separately. Indicator variables at ordinal and family levels were included in models to correct for effects caused by phylogeny. Akaike's information criterion was used in conjunction with ordinary least squares and logistic regression to compare hypotheses. Results A patch network's physical structure, indexed using patch area and isolation, received the greatest support among models predicting the prevalence of species on insular networks. Niche breadth (diet and habitat) received the greatest support for predicting prevalence of species occupying terrestrial networks. For both insular and terrestrial systems, physical features (patch area and isolation) received greater support than any of the ecological hypotheses for predicting species occupancy of individual patches. For terrestrial systems, scaling patch area by its suitability to a focal species and by individual area requirements of the species, and scaling patch isolation by species‐specific dispersal ability and niche breadth, resulted in models of patch occupancy that were superior to models relying solely on physical landscape features. For all selected models, unexplained levels of variation were high. Main conclusions Stochasticity dominated the systems we studied, indicating that random events are probably quite important in shaping local communities. With respect to deterministic factors, our results suggest that forces affecting species prevalence and occupancy may differ between insular and terrestrial systems. Physical features of insular systems appeared to swamp ecological differences among species in determining prevalence and occupancy, whereas species with broad niches were disproportionately represented in terrestrial networks. We hypothesize that differential extinction over long time periods in highly variable networks has driven nestedness of mammalian communities on islands, whereas differential colonization over shorter time‐scales in more homogeneous networks probably governed the local structure of terrestrial communities. Our results also demonstrate that integration of a species' ecological traits with physical features of a patch network is superior to reliance on either factor separately when attempting to predict the species' probability of patch occupancy in terrestrial systems.     

Frugivory and spatial patterns of seed deposition by carnivorous mammals in anthropogenic landscapes: a multi-scale approach

Background

Knowledge about how frugivory and seed deposition are spatially distributed is valuable to understand the role of dispersers on the structure and dynamics of plant populations. This may be particularly important within anthropogenic areas, where either the patchy distribution of wild plants or the presence of cultivated fleshy-fruits may influence plant-disperser interactions.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We investigated frugivory and spatial patterns of seed deposition by carnivorous mammals in anthropogenic landscapes considering two spatial scales: ‘landscape’ (∼10 km²) and ‘habitat type’ (∼1–2 km²). We sampled carnivore faeces and plant abundance at three contrasting habitats (chestnut woods, mosaics and scrublands), each replicated within three different landscapes. Sixty-five percent of faeces collected (n = 1077) contained seeds, among which wild and cultivated seeds appeared in similar proportions (58% and 53%) despite that cultivated fruiting plants were much less abundant. Seed deposition was spatially structured among both spatial scales being different between fruit types. Whereas the most important source of spatial variation in deposition of wild seeds was the landscape scale, it was the habitat scale for cultivated seeds. At the habitat scale, seeds of wild species were mostly deposited within mosaics while seeds of cultivated species were within chestnut woods and scrublands. Spatial concordance between seed deposition and plant abundance was found only for wild species.

Conclusions/Significance

Spatial patterns of seed deposition by carnivores differed between fruit types and seemed to be modulated by the fleshy-fruited plant assemblages and the behaviour of dispersers. Our results suggest that a strong preference for cultivated fruits by carnivores may influence their spatial foraging behaviour and lower their dispersal services to wild species. However, the high amount of seeds removed within and between habitats suggests that carnivores must play an important role – often overlooked – as ‘restorers’ and ‘habitat shapers’ in anthropogenic areas.     

Expanding on Watson's framework for classifying patches: when is an island not an island?

Aim The aims were: (1) evaluate the potential of Watson's framework for studying species composition in fragments and islands for a specific landscape type: cryptobiotic crust systems in the arid south‐western US; (2) expand Watson's original model to include ephemeral/non‐equilibrium systems by revising his categories of patch age and matrix contrast; and (3) examine the interplay between patch dynamics and species autecology, demonstrating the need for more work on ephemeral patchy systems. Location Cryptobiotic crust systems in two piñon‐juniper sites in Central New Mexico, western North America. Results Watson's patch age designation was not applicable to our system because of its ephemeral or non‐equilibrial nature. Based on this result, we constructed what we refer to as a ‘speed key’ that includes equilibrium and non‐equilibrium patches of all kinds. For this model we maintained one of Watson's original traits: patch origin, and amended two others to describe persistence and permeability across the matrix. Importantly, persistence and matrix permeability must be evaluated as functions of the organisms under consideration. Systems that may be in equilibrium for one taxon may well be non‐equilibrial (ephemeral) for another. A patch that appears to be in high contrast with its intervening matrix may actually be in low contrast, depending on the dispersal ability of the organism through that matrix. Main conclusions To improve substantially on our understanding of patchy systems (whether islands or fragments) it is important to account explicitly for relevant organismal life‐history traits in the designation of those systems. Too often, patches are defined by how the researcher views them from his/her own spatio‐temporal viewpoint. Once we move to an organism‐centred understanding of these patches we may find surprising and novel comparisons that allow us to move across scales and inform our view of ecological patterns and processes. By incorporating non‐equilibrium systems into a model of insularity, this work has general implications that go beyond the scope of cryptobiotic crusts to add to the current dialogue in biogeography.     

On the importance of patch attributes, environmental factors and past human impacts as determinants of perennial plant species richness and diversity in Mediterranean semiarid steppes

Richness and diversity of perennial plant species were evaluated in 17 Stipa tenacissima steppes along a degradation gradient in semiarid SE Spain. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the relative importance of historical human impacts, small‐scale patch attributes and environmental factors as determinants of perennial plant species richness and diversity in S. tenacissima steppes, where vegetation is arranged as discrete plant patches inserted on a bare ground matrix. Partial least squares regression was used to determine the amount of variation in species richness and diversity that could be significantly explained by historical human impacts, patch attributes, and environmental factors together and separately. They explained up to 89% and 69% of the variation in species richness and diversity, respectively. In both cases, the predictive power of patch attributes models was higher than that of models consisting of abiotic characteristics and variables related to human impact, suggesting that patch attributes are the major determinants of species richness and diversity in semiarid S. tenacissima steppes. However, patch attributes alone are not enough to explain the observed variation in species richness and diversity. The area covered by late‐successional sprouting shrubs and the distance between consecutive patches were the most influencing individual variables on species richness and diversity, respectively. The implications of these results for the management of S. tenacissima steppes are discussed.     

Local variation in plant quality influences large‐scale population dynamics

Spatial variation in ecological systems can arise both as a consequence of variation in the quality and availability of resources and as an emergent property of spatially structured interactions. We used a spatially explicit model to simulate populations of herbivore hosts and their parasitoids in landscapes with different levels of variance in plant patch quality and different spatial arrangements of high‐ and low‐quality plant patches. We found that even small variation in patch quality at a fine spatial scale decreased overall herbivore populations, as parasitoid populations on low‐quality plant patches were subsidized by those from high‐quality neighbors. On landscapes with large, homogeneous regions of high‐ and low‐quality plant patches, herbivore populations increased with variation in patch quality. Overall, our results demonstrate that local variation in resource quality profoundly influences global population dynamics. In particular, fine‐scale variation in plant patch quality enhanced biological control of herbivores by parasitoids, suggesting that adding back plant genetic variation into perennial production systems may enhance the biological control of herbivores by their natural enemies.     

广东始兴南山自然保护区的植物资源及珍稀植物

对南山自然保护区的初步调查结果显示,区内有野生维管植物179科565属1039种,国家二级野生保护植物9种,其他珍稀濒危的种类7种。由此可见,南山自然保护区植物资源极其丰富,野生维管植物及珍稀保护植物是其重要组成部分。其中野生维管植物资源种类繁多,蕴藏量较大,而且不少种类具有开发和可持续利用的价值,具有巨大的经济价值和生态价值。     

Landscape structure influences tree density patterns in fragmented woodlands in semi‐arid eastern Australia

Landscape and local‐scale influences are important drivers of plant community structure. However, their relative contribution and the degree to which they interact remain unclear. We quantified the extent to which landscape structure, within‐patch habitat and their confounding effects determine post‐clearing tree densities and composition in agricultural landscapes in eastern subtropical Australia. Landscape structure (incorporating habitat fragmentation and loss) and within‐patch (site) features were quantified for 60 remnant patches of Eucalyptus populnea (Myrtaceae) woodland. Tree density and species for three ecological maturity classes (regeneration, early maturity, late maturity) and local site features were assessed in one 100 × 10 m plot per patch. All but one landscape characteristic was determined within a 1.3‐km radius of plots; Euclidean nearest neighbour distance was measured inside a 5‐km radius. Variation in tree density and composition for each maturity class was partitioned into independent landscape, independent site and joint effects of landscape and site features using redundancy analysis. Independent site effects explained more variation in regeneration density and composition than pure landscape effects; significant predictors were the proportion of early and late maturity trees at a site, rainfall and the associated interaction. Conversely, landscape structure explained greater variation in early and late maturity tree density and composition than site predictors. Area of remnant native vegetation within a landscape and patch characteristics (area, shape, edge contrast) were significant predictors of early maturity tree density. However, 31% of the explained variation in early mature tree differences represented confounding influences of landscape and local variables. We suggest that within‐patch characteristics are important in influencing semi‐arid woodland tree regeneration. However, independent and confounding effects of landscape structure resulting from previous vegetation clearing may have exerted a greater historical influence on older cohorts and should be accounted for when examining woodland dynamics across a broader range of environments.