Amyloplast displacement is necessary for gravisensing in Arabidopsis shoots as revealed by a centrifuge microscope

The starch‐statolith hypothesis proposes that starch‐filled amyloplasts act as statoliths in plant gravisensing, moving in response to the gravity vector and signaling its direction. However, recent studies suggest that amyloplasts show continuous, complex movements in Arabidopsis shoots, contradicting the idea of a so‐called ‘static’ or ‘settled’ statolith. Here, we show that amyloplast movement underlies shoot gravisensing by using a custom‐designed centrifuge microscope in combination with analysis of gravitropic mutants. The centrifuge microscope revealed that sedimentary movements of amyloplasts under hypergravity conditions are linearly correlated with gravitropic curvature in wild‐type stems. We next analyzed the hypergravity response in the shoot gravitropism 2 (sgr2) mutant, which exhibits neither a shoot gravitropic response nor amyloplast sedimentation at 1  g . sgr2 mutants were able to sense and respond to gravity under 30  g conditions, during which the amyloplasts sedimented. These findings are consistent with amyloplast redistribution resulting from gravity‐driven movements triggering shoot gravisensing. To further support this idea, we examined two additional gravitropic mutants, phosphoglucomutase (pgm) and sgr9, which show abnormal amyloplast distribution and reduced gravitropism at 1  g . We found that the correlation between hypergravity‐induced amyloplast sedimentation and gravitropic curvature of these mutants was identical to that of wild‐type plants. These observations suggest that Arabidopsis shoots have a gravisensing mechanism that linearly converts the number of amyloplasts that settle to the ‘bottom’ of the cell into gravitropic signals. Further, the restoration of the gravitropic response by hypergravity in the gravitropic mutants that we tested indicates that these lines probably have a functional gravisensing mechanism that is not triggered at 1  g .     

Testing of divergent patterns of butterfly niche breadth in a peninsula

The butterfly fauna on the Korean peninsula are comprised of both the Palearctic and Oriental species. We hypothesized that the Oriental species (immigrated across the sea) tend to have a wider niche breadth compared with the Palearctic species (immigrated from the continent) since the former migrates long distances across the sea and has to adapt to new environments. We tested this hypothesis using Korean butterfly data on distribution, habitat, food and life history traits. The distribution and ecological traits such as habitat breadth, overwintering stage, and voltinism of the Oriental species were found to be significantly different from the Palearctic species. However, the diet breadth and food plant type were not different. These results partly confirm the peninsula niche breadth hypothesis, which predicted that Oriental species have a broader niche breadth than Palearctic species.     

Within species support for the expensive tissue hypothesis: a negative association between brain size and visceral fat storage in females of the Pacific seaweed pipefish

The brain is one of the most energetically expensive organs in the vertebrate body. Consequently, the high cost of brain development and maintenance is predicted to constrain adaptive brain size evolution (the expensive tissue hypothesis, ETH). Here, we test the ETH in a teleost fish with predominant female mating competition (reversed sex roles) and male pregnancy, the pacific seaweed pipefish Syngnathus schlegeli. The relative size of the brain and other energetically expensive organs (kidney, liver, heart, gut, visceral fat, and ovary/testis) was compared among three groups: pregnant males, nonpregnant males and egg producing females. Brood size in pregnant males was unrelated to brain size or the size of any other organ, whereas positive relationships were found between ovary size, kidney size, and liver size in females. Moreover, we found that the size of energetically expensive organs (brain, heart, gut, kidney, and liver) as well as the amount of visceral fat did not differ between pregnant and nonpregnant males. However, we found marked differences in relative size of the expensive organs between sexes. Females had larger liver and kidney than males, whereas males stored more visceral fat than females. Furthermore, in females we found a negative correlation between brain size and the amount of visceral fat, whereas in males, a positive trend between brain size and both liver and heart size was found. These results suggest that, while the majority of variation in the size of various expensive organs in this species likely reflects that individuals in good condition can afford to allocate resources to several organs, the cost of the expensive brain was visible in the visceral fat content of females, possibly due to the high costs associated with female egg production.     

Plant functional diversity enhances associations of soil fungal diversity with vegetation and soil in the restoration of semiarid sandy grassland

The trait‐based approach shows that plant functional diversity strongly affects ecosystem properties. However, few empirical studies show the relationship between soil fungal diversity and plant functional diversity in natural ecosystems. We investigated soil fungal diversity along a restoration gradient of sandy grassland (mobile dune, semifixed dune, fixed dune, and grassland) in Horqin Sand Land, northern China, using the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 18S rRNA and gene sequencing. We also examined associations of soil fungal diversity with plant functional diversity reflected by the dominant species' traits in community (community‐weighted mean, CWM) and the dispersion of functional trait values (FD_is). We further used the structure equation model (SEM) to evaluate how plant richness, biomass, functional diversity, and soil properties affect soil fungal diversity in sandy grassland restoration. Soil fungal richness in mobile dune and semifixed dune was markedly lower than those of fixed dune and grassland (P < 0.05). Soil fungal richness was positively associated with plant richness, biomass, CWM plant height, and soil gradient aggregated from the principal component analysis, but SEM results showed that plant richness and CWM plant height determined by soil properties were the main factors exerting direct effects. Soil gradient increased fungal richness through indirect effect on vegetation rather than direct effect. The negative indirect effect of FDis on soil fungal richness was through its effect on plant biomass. Our final SEM model based on plant functional diversity explained nearly 70% variances of soil fungal richness. Strong association of soil fungal richness with the dominant species in the community supported the mass ratio hypothesis. Our results clearly highlight the role of plant functional diversity in enhancing associations of soil fungal diversity with community structure and soil properties in sandy grassland ecosystems.     

A mast‐seeding desert shrub regulates population dynamics and behavior of its heteromyid dispersers

Granivorous rodent populations in deserts are primarily regulated through precipitation‐driven resource pulses rather than pulses associated with mast‐seeding, a pattern more common in mesic habitats. We studied heteromyid responses to mast‐seeding in the desert shrub blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima), a regionally dominant species in the Mojave–Great Basin Desert transition zone. In a 5‐year study at Arches National Park, Utah, USA, we quantified spatiotemporal variation in seed resources in mast and intermast years in blackbrush‐dominated and mixed desert vegetation and measured responses of Dipodomys ordii (Ord's kangaroo rat) and Perognathus flavescens (plains pocket mouse). In blackbrush‐dominated vegetation, blackbrush seeds comprised >79% of seed production in a mast year, but 0% in the first postmast year. Kangaroo rat abundance in blackbrush‐dominated vegetation was highest in the mast year, declined sharply at the end of the first postmast summer, and then remained at low levels for 3 years. Pocket mouse abundance was not as strongly associated with blackbrush seed production. In mixed desert vegetation, kangaroo rat abundance was higher and more uniform through time. Kangaroo rats excluded the smaller pocket mice from resource‐rich patches including a pipeline disturbance and also moved their home range centers closer to this disturbance in a year of low blackbrush seed production. Home range size for kangaroo rats was unrelated to seed resource density in the mast year, but resource‐poor home ranges were larger (P < 0.001) in the first postmast year, when resources were limiting. Blackbrush seeds are higher in protein and fat but lower in carbohydrates than the more highly preferred seeds of Indian ricegrass (Achnatherum hymenoides) and have similar energy value per unit of handling time. Kangaroo rats cached seeds of these two species in similar spatial configurations, implying that they were equally valued as stored food resources. Blackbrush mast is a key resource regulating populations of kangaroo rats in this ecosystem.     

Structural (UV) and carotenoid‐based plumage coloration – signals for parental investment?

Parental care increases parental fitness through improved offspring condition and survival but comes at a cost for the caretaker(s). To increase life‐time fitness, caring parents are, therefore, expected to adjust their reproductive investment to current environmental conditions and parental capacities. The latter is thought to be signaled via ornamental traits of the bearer. We here investigated whether pre‐ and/or posthatching investment of blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) parents was related to ornamental plumage traits (UV crown coloration and carotenoid‐based plumage coloration) expressed by either the individual itself (i.e. “good parent hypothesis”) or its partner (i.e. “differential allocation hypothesis”). Our results show that neither prehatching (that is clutch size and offspring begging intensity) nor posthatching parental investment (provisioning rate, offspring body condition at fledging) was related to an individual's UV crown coloration or to that of its partner. Similar observations were made for carotenoid‐based plumage coloration, except for a consistent positive relationship between offspring begging intensity and maternal carotenoid‐based plumage coloration. This sex‐specific pattern likely reflects a maternal effect mediated via maternally derived egg substances, given that the relationship persisted when offspring were cross‐fostered. This suggests that females adjust their offspring's phenotype toward own phenotype, which may facilitate in particular mother‐offspring co‐adaptation. Overall, our results contribute to the current state of evidence that structural or pigment‐based plumage coloration of blue tits are inconsistently correlated with central life‐history traits.     

Paleodistribution modeling suggests glacial refugia in Scandinavia and out‐of‐Tibet range expansion of the Arctic fox

Quaternary glacial cycles have shaped the geographic distributions and evolution of numerous species in the Arctic. Ancient DNA suggests that the Arctic fox went extinct in Europe at the end of the Pleistocene and that Scandinavia was subsequently recolonized from Siberia, indicating inability to track its habitat through space as climate changed. Using ecological niche modeling, we found that climatically suitable conditions for Arctic fox were found in Scandinavia both during the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the mid‐Holocene. Our results are supported by fossil occurrences from the last glacial. Furthermore, the model projection for the LGM, validated with fossil records, suggested an approximate distance of 2000 km between suitable Arctic conditions and the Tibetan Plateau well within the dispersal distance of the species, supporting the recently proposed hypothesis of range expansion from an origin on the Tibetan Plateau to the rest of Eurasia. The fact that the Arctic fox disappeared from Scandinavia despite suitable conditions suggests that extant populations may be more sensitive to climate change than previously thought.     

Disentangling Relations among Repertoire Size,Song Rate,Signal Redundancy and Ambient Noise Level in European Songbird

The majority of male songbirds have small repertoires and sing with eventual variety; that is, they present one song type several times before switching to the next one. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this phenomenon. The antiexhaustion hypothesis argues that song‐type switching prevents muscle fatigue in the syrinx. The signal redundancy hypothesis suggests that repeating the same signal increases transmission success. Here, we have studied the song behaviour of the chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs, a common Eurasian species in which the males sing a few different song types and provide eventual variety. We tested different hypotheses to explain the temporal organisation of song output (repertoire size, song rate, bout duration, etc.) as a function of ambient noise by comparing birds from the same macrogeographic region in which the birds live either in a noisy town (n = 71) or in a quieter forest habitat (n = 68). Contrary to the prediction of the signal redundancy hypothesis and the results of earlier work on chaffinches living close to noisy streams, we found no significant differences in song characteristics between the town and forest populations. Our results support the antiexhaustion hypothesis because males with larger repertoires were able to sing with a significantly higher rate due to faster switching between different song types and producing shorter bouts. Sample size or population differences between our study and earlier investigations of the same species may explain the inconsistency with previous findings. Future studies should focus on determining the relations between song organisation and the directly measured quality of males and females' choice using, preferably, a longitudinal approach.