The impact of a fox‐ and cat‐free safe haven on the bird fauna of remnant vegetation in southwestern Australia

Introduced predators are a serious threat to Australian vertebrates. However, the consequences of predation for an area's avifauna have rarely been quantified. We took advantage of the establishment of a 7,832 ha fox‐ and cat‐free safe haven at Mt Gibson, in Western Australia, to assess the consequences of excluding introduced mammal predators on the bird fauna. Bird surveys were conducted over 6 years, before and after the establishment of the introduced predator‐free safe haven. After 3 years, half the sites were enclosed by the fence that excluded introduced predators, while the remainder of sites remained outside the fence and were exposed to fox and cat activity. The sites were stratified by four major vegetation types. A total of 91 bird species were variously detectable with the survey approach, but were typically more detectable during morning surveys. Site occupancy varied considerably among species, but overall, occupancy by all species was most likely to be either not impacted or positively impacted by the safe haven. The most notable change was that avifaunal richness appeared to increase in woodland and shrubland habitats within, as compared to outside, the safe haven. We conclude that: (1) the safe haven had an overall positive impact on bird occupancy; and (2) there were no consistent trends with respect to the kinds of species whose occupancy was positively impacted, beyond them all being small‐ to medium‐sized birds and mostly insectivorous. However, these conclusions must be tempered by the poor detection probability of many species.     

Mosquito community composition and abundance at contrasting sites in northern South Africa, 2014–2017

Most data on species associations and vector potential of mosquitoes in relation to arboviral infections in South Africa date back from the 1940s to late 1990s. Contextual information crucial for disease risk management and control, such as the sampling effort, diversity, abundance, and distribution of mosquitoes in large parts of South Africa still remains limited. Adult mosquitoes were collected routinely from two horse farms in Gauteng Province; two wildlife reserves in Limpopo Province, at Orpen Gate in Kruger National Park (KNP) and Mnisi Area in Mpumalanga Province between 2014–2017, using carbon dioxide‐baited light and tent traps. Mosquito diversity and richness are greater in untransformed natural and mixed rural settings. In untransformed wilderness areas, the most dominant species were Culex poicilipes, Anopheles coustani, and Aedes mcintoshi, while in mixed rural settings such as the Mnisi area, the two most abundant species were Cx. poicilipes and Mansonia uniformis. However, in peri‐urban areas, Cx. theileri, Cx. univittatus, and Cx. pipiens sensu lato were the most dominant. Aedes aegypti, Ae. mcintoshi, Ae. metallicus, Ae. vittatus, Cx. pipiens s.l., Cx. theileri, and Cx. univittatus had the widest geographical distribution in northern South Africa. Also collected were Anopheles arabiensis and An. vaneedeni, both known malaria vectors in South Africa. Arbovirus surveillance and vector control programs should be augmented in mixed rural and peri‐urban areas where the risk for mosquito‐borne disease transmission to humans and domestic stock is greater.     

Soil fauna diversity increases CO2 but suppresses N2O emissions from soil

Soil faunal activity can be a major control of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from soil. Effects of single faunal species, genera or families have been investigated, but it is unknown how soil fauna diversity may influence emissions of both carbon dioxide (CO₂, end product of decomposition of organic matter) and nitrous oxide (N₂O, an intermediate product of N transformation processes, in particular denitrification). Here, we studied how CO₂ and N₂O emissions are affected by species and species mixtures of up to eight species of detritivorous/fungivorous soil fauna from four different taxonomic groups (earthworms, potworms, mites, springtails) using a microcosm set‐up. We found that higher species richness and increased functional dissimilarity of species mixtures led to increased faunal‐induced CO₂ emission (up to 10%), but decreased N₂O emission (up to 62%). Large ecosystem engineers such as earthworms were key drivers of both CO₂ and N₂O emissions. Interestingly, increased biodiversity of other soil fauna in the presence of earthworms decreased faunal‐induced N₂O emission despite enhanced C cycling. We conclude that higher soil fauna functional diversity enhanced the intensity of belowground processes, leading to more complete litter decomposition and increased CO₂ emission, but concurrently also resulting in more complete denitrification and reduced N₂O emission. Our results suggest that increased soil fauna species diversity has the potential to mitigate emissions of N₂O from soil ecosystems. Given the loss of soil biodiversity in managed soils, our findings call for adoption of management practices that enhance soil biodiversity and stimulate a functionally diverse faunal community to reduce N₂O emissions from managed soils.     

Heterogeneity–diversity relationships in sessile organisms: a unified framework

The hypothesis that environmental heterogeneity promotes species richness by increasing opportunities for niche partitioning is a fundamental paradigm in ecology. However, recent studies suggest that heterogeneity–diversity relationships (HDR) are more complex than expected from this niche‐based perspective, and often show a decrease in richness at high levels of heterogeneity. These findings have motivated ecologists to propose new mechanisms that may explain such deviations. Here we provide an overview of currently recognised mechanisms affecting the shape of HDRs and present a conceptual model that integrates all previously proposed mechanisms within a unified framework. We also translate the proposed framework into an explicit community dynamic model and use the model as a tool for generating testable predictions concerning how landscape properties interact with species traits in determining the shape of HDRs. Our main finding is that, despite the enormous complexity of such interactions, the predicted HDRs are rather simple, ranging from positive to unimodal patterns in a highly consistent and predictable manner.     

Variation in the methods leads to variation in the interpretation of biodiversity–ecosystem multifunctionality relationships

生物多样性常常和生态系统多功能性(生态系统同时提供多个生态系统功能的能力)正相关。然而,生物多样性与生态系统多功能性的关系是否依赖于生态系统功能的数目有诸多争议。其中,生物多样性对生态系统多功能性的影响或许不随生态系统功能数目的变化而变化,或者随生态系统功能数目的增多而增强。我们期望通过研究不同生态系统多功能性指数的统计原理来解决这些争议。 我们使用了模型模拟和一系列来自不同空间尺度(从局域到全球)和不同生物群系(温带和高寒草地、森林和干旱地)的经验数据。我们回顾了量化生态系统多功能性的三种方法,包括平均值法、加和法和阈值法。我们发现随着生态系统功能数目的增加,生物多样性与生态系统多功能性的关系要么不变,要么增强。这些结果可由平均和加和的多功能性指数的统计原理来解释。具体来讲,当利用生态系统功能的平均值计算多功能性指数时,由于多样性对多功能性的效应等于多样性对单个生态系统功能效应的平均值,所以不会随生态系统功能数目的变化而变化。同样的道理,当利用单个生态系统的加和值计算多功能性指数时,多样性的效应会随着生态系统功能数目的增加而增强。我们提出了一个改进的多功能性指数,将平均或加和多功能性指数转化为标准化的多功能性指数, 以便于对不同研究的结果进行比较。此外,我们提出了基于变量数值范围的标准化方法来解决阈值法的数学假象问题(多样性效应随生态系统功能数目的增加而增强)。我们的研究结果表明,量化多功能性指数的方法不同,结果也不同。因此,有必要加深对不同方法数理基础的理解。而标准化的多功能性指数为比较不同研究中的生物多样性与生态系统多功能性的关系提供了有效的方法。     

A comparison of diversity estimators applied to a database of host–parasite associations

Understanding the drivers of biodiversity is important for forecasting changes in the distribution of life on earth. However, most studies of biodiversity are limited by uneven sampling effort, with some regions or taxa better sampled than others. Numerous methods have been developed to account for differences in sampling effort, but most methods were developed for systematic surveys in which all study units are sampled using the same design and assemblages are sampled randomly. Databases compiled from multiple sources, such as from the literature, often violate these assumptions because they are composed of studies that vary widely in their goals and methods. Here, we compared the performance of several popular methods for estimating parasite diversity based on a large and widely used parasite database, the Global Mammal Parasite Database (GMPD). We created artificial datasets of host–parasite interactions based on the structure of the GMPD, then used these datasets to evaluate which methods best control for differential sampling effort. We evaluated the precision and bias of seven methods, including species accumulation and nonparametric diversity estimators, compared to analyzing the raw data without controlling for sampling variation. We find that nonparametric estimators, and particularly the Chao2 and second-order jackknife estimators, perform better than other methods. However, these estimators still perform poorly relative to systematic sampling, and effect sizes should be interpreted with caution because they tend to be lower than actual effect sizes. Overall, these estimators are more effective in comparative studies than for producing true estimates of diversity. We make recommendations for future sampling strategies and statistical methods that would improve estimates of global parasite diversity.     

Species richness promotes ecosystem carbon storage: evidence from biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments

Plant diversity has a strong impact on a plethora of ecosystem functions and services, especially ecosystem carbon (C) storage. However, the potential context-dependency of biodiversity effects across ecosystem types, environmental conditions and carbon pools remains largely unknown. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis by collecting data from 95 biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) studies across 60 sites to explore the effects of plant diversity on different C pools, including aboveground and belowground plant biomass, soil microbial biomass C and soil C content across different ecosystem types. The results showed that ecosystem C storage was significantly enhanced by plant diversity, with stronger effects on aboveground biomass than on soil C content. Moreover, the response magnitudes of ecosystem C storage increased with the level of species richness and experimental duration across all ecosystems. The effects of plant diversity were more pronounced in grasslands than in forests. Furthermore, the effects of plant diversity on belowground plant biomass increased with aridity index in grasslands and forests, suggesting that climate change might modulate biodiversity effects, which are stronger under wetter conditions but weaker under more arid conditions. Taken together, these results provide novel insights into the important role of plant diversity in ecosystem C storage across critical C pools, ecosystem types and environmental contexts.     

河西走廊水生植物多样性格局、群落特征及影响因素

水生植物是湿地生态系统重要组成部分,研究水生植物多样性分布格局及其影响因素对地区水生植物资源保护具有重要意义。通过野外调查并结合气候等环境因素,研究了河西走廊主要水生植物群落类型、数量特征、水生植物多样性分布格局及影响因素,并对中域效应假说进行了验证。研究结果表明:(1)河西走廊地区共有水生植物29科42属84种,群落的聚类分析可将河西走廊水生植物群落划分为15个主要群落类型;(2)河西走廊水生植物群落类型主要受到水温、海拔、经纬度等环境因子影响,群落物种多样性指数与盐度以及溶解性固体总量呈显著性相关;(3)河西走廊水生植物多样性空间格局呈现出"∩"型的单峰格局,中域效应模型能较好地解释该地区水生植物多样性水平的纬度格局及海拔垂直分布格局,对该区域水生植物物种丰富度在纬度和海拔梯度上的变异解释率分别为57.56%、63.5%。分析表明,河西走廊水生植物物种丰富度格局由几何(边界)限制和随机过程及其他未知因素共同控制,且几何(边界)限制和随机过程贡献率较大;同时本研究中未考虑的环境异质性、气候、人为干扰等因素也对河西走廊水生植物多样性空间分布产生重要影响。