The messenger matters: Pollinator functional group influences mating system dynamics

The incredible diversity of plant mating systems has fuelled research in evolutionary biology for over a century. Currently, there is broad concern about the impact of rapidly changing pollinator communities on plant populations. Very few studies, however, examine patterns and mechanisms associated with multiple paternity from cross‐pollen loads. Often, foraging pollinators collect a mixed pollen load that may result in the deposition of pollen from different sires to receptive stigmas. Coincident deposition of self‐ and cross‐pollen leads to interesting mating system dynamics and has been investigated in numerous species. But, mixed pollen loads often consist of a diversity of cross‐pollen and result in multiple sires of seeds within a fruit. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Rhodes, Fant, and Skogen ( 2017 ) examine how pollinator identity and spatial isolation influence multiple paternity within fruits of a self‐incompatible evening primrose. The authors demonstrate that pollen pool diversity varies between two pollinator types, hawkmoths and diurnal solitary bees. Further, progeny from more isolated plants were less likely to have multiple sires regardless of the pollinator type. Moving forward, studies of mating system dynamics should consider the implications of multiple paternity and move beyond the self‐ and cross‐pollination paradigm. Rhodes et al. ( 2017 ) demonstrate the importance of understanding the roles that functionally diverse pollinators play in mating system dynamics.     

Área de Conservación Guanacaste,northwestern Costa Rica: Converting a tropical national park to conservation via biodevelopment

The ~30,000 hectare classical Costa Rican Parque Nacional Santa Rosa has used about 35 years and $107 million to be converted to the 169,000 ha government-NGO hybrid Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG). This semi-decentralized conservation entity has today a staff of ~150 paraprofessional resident Costa Ricans, biodeveloping at least 650,000 multicellular species (Eucaryotes) into perpetuity for ACG survival through being integrated with its local, regional, national, and international society. ACG began in 1985 as an ongoing exercise of landscape-level ecosystem rescue and restoration of a continuous swath from 6 km out in the Pacific ocean, across dry forested lowlands, up and over the volcanic Cordillera Guanacaste, and down into the rain-forested Caribbean lowlands. It is being impacted by climate change, yet its diverse ecosystems hold hope for major biodiversity survival, albeit in new community assemblages. It quickly became simultaneously a biophysical challenge and an administratively novel challenge in decentralized conservation in a democratic tropical country. ACG specializes at being managed by on-the-job stimulated and trained residents with minimal formal education, searching for ways to involve ACG in its society without damaging its wildness, and pioneering ways to render wild biodiversity to being a welcome member at society's negotiating table. It continues to pay its bills through government subsidy, generous donors, payments for services, project grants, and huge in-kind contributions from mutualisms. ACG hopes that the concept will spread south–south to other tropical countries while they still have some of their wild biodiversity with which to integrate.     

喀斯特地区农村劳动力转移对生态恢复的影响及其区域差异——基于酉阳和沿河的农户调查数据

喀斯特地区的生态恢复对于促进国土空间的生态修复、实现区域生态安全具有重要意义。基于酉阳县和沿河县的383份农户调查数据，从微观的农户尺度运用Tobit模型分析喀斯特地区农村劳动力转移对生态恢复的影响，并关注其对酉阳县和沿河县生态恢复的影响差异。研究结果表明：①研究区劳动力转移现象明显，47.67%的农村劳动力发生了转移；②研究区生态恢复情况总体较好，酉阳县的生态恢复好于沿河县；③农村劳动力转移通过农业劳动力的流失效应和非农收入的替代效应促进了喀斯特地区的生态恢复；④劳动力转移的程度不同，对生态恢复的作用强度也不同。沿河相对滞后的劳动力转移程度，使得其生态恢复稍弱于酉阳。为促进喀斯特地区生态恢复，政府应有序引导农村劳动力向非农就业转移，提高转移农户的非农化程度。     

长江安庆新洲水域鱼类群落结构及多样性

沙洲水域环境良好,饵料资源丰富,栖息生境多样,为鱼类的生长繁殖提供了优良的生存环境。为了解长江安庆新洲水域鱼类群落结构特征,于2017年4月、7月、10月和12月对安庆江段新洲水域鱼类群落进行季节性调查。共采集鱼类64种,分属5目11科48属,其中62.5%为鲤科鱼类。以物种数和多样性指数分析群落多样性特征,结果表明新洲水域鱼类种类多样性水平较高。单因素方差分析表明,该群落多样性季节差异显著(P0.05),空间差异不明显。新洲水域鱼类群落优势种为鳊(Parabramis pekinensis Basilewsky, 1855)、鲤(Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus, 1758)、贝氏■(Hemiculter bleekeri Warpachowsky, 1887)、银鮈(Squalidus argentatus Sauvage et Dabry, 1874)和似鳊(Pseudobrama simoni Bleeker, 1864)。4种摄食功能群中,杂食性(42.19%)和肉食性(35.94%)鱼类物种数比例较高;3种生态类群中,淡水定居性鱼类占绝对优势(84.37%);3种栖息水层类型中,底层鱼类物种数比例较高,占37.50%。大型经济鱼类占总渔获物比例低(0.01%),但个体较大,因而相对重要性指数(IRI)高。总体上,新洲鱼类群落多样性和丰富度指数较高,均匀度指数偏低,个体小型化趋势明显。捕捞强度过大、水利工程建设导致的江湖阻隔及外来物种入侵是新洲水域渔业资源衰退的主要因素。由此,建议持续开展长江渔业资源监测,加强长江干流沙洲水域渔业资源保护。