Climatic seasonality, resource bottlenecks, and abundance of rainforest birds: implications for global climate change

We demonstrate that within-year climatic variability, particularly rainfall seasonality, is the most significant variable explaining spatial patterns of bird abundance in Australian tropical rainforest. The likely mechanism causing this pattern is a resource bottleneck (insects, nectar, and fruit) during the dry season that limits the population size of many species. The patterns support both the diversity–climatic–stability hypothesis and the species–energy hypothesis but clearly show that seasonality in energy availability may be a more significant factor than annual totals or means. An index of dry season severity is proposed that quantifies the combined effect of the degree of dryness and the duration of the dry season. We suggest that the predicted increases in seasonality due to global climate change could produce significant declines in bird abundance, further exacerbating the impacts of decreased range size, increased fragmentation, and decreased population size likely to occur as a result of increasing temperature. We suggest that increasing climatic seasonality due to global climate change has the potential to have significant negative impacts on tropical biodiversity.     

气候变化下中国八种梧桐属树种潜在适生区模拟

中国梧桐属（Firmiana）在世界梧桐属中占比较大，且除梧桐外其余种均为中国特有且分布范围狭窄的植物种，灭绝风险大，研究气候变化对中国梧桐属树种的影响对于维护生物多样性具有重要的意义。结合多时期第六次国际气候耦合模式比较计划（CMIP6）气候变量数据和中国八种梧桐属树种的分布数据，基于R语言kuenm程序包优化的最大熵（Maxent）模型模拟分析中国八种梧桐属树种在多尺度下的潜在适生区，得出梧桐属最适宜的模拟尺度、潜在适生区的面积变化和迁移方向、梧桐属多样性保护关键区域及保护空缺。结果表明：（1）梧桐属最适宜的模拟尺度为亚洲；（2） Maxent模型的接收者操作特征曲线下面积（AUC）值均大于0.9，表明模型对梧桐属潜在适生区预测结果具有较高准确度；（3）气候变化影响下除云南梧桐（Firmiana major）外其它树种的潜在适生区都将在未来有所扩大；（4）中国八种梧桐属树种潜在适生区迁移方向主要为东西向，南北向大跨度迁移较少，纬度变化不大；（5）丹霞梧桐（Firmiana danxiaensis）的稳定潜在适生区最小；（6）中国梧桐属多样性保护关键区域主要分布于广西壮族自治区及云南、广东、海南等省区；（7）中国梧桐属多样性保护空缺区域主要分布于广西壮族自治区中部及海南省北部；（8）梧桐属多样性保护关键区域正在为人造地表所侵蚀。研究分析气候变化对中国八种梧桐属树种的影响及其潜在适生区变化、中国梧桐属多样性保护状态，可为中国梧桐属建立多样性保护廊道提供相关建议，为制定多样性保护规划及相应措施提供参考。     

Coping with drought: diapause plasticity in katydid eggs at high,mid-, and low elevations

1. Semi-arid rangeland productivity is limited by precipitation, and yet droughts are projected to increase in frequency and duration with unknown impacts on insect populations. As some katydids prolong diapause and remain in an egg bank as a blastoderm for multiple growing seasons, is it possible that drought could prolong diapause and promote outbreaks by synchronising embryonic development and hatching of Mormon crickets, Anabrus simplex, after moisture is restored? 2. In this study, a high-elevation Wyoming population (WY) was compared with a mid-elevation Idaho (ID) and a low-elevation Oregon population (OR). It was predicted that eggs from the drier ID and OR habitats would be more tolerant of desiccation. Developmental state and water loss of eggs were measured after drought treatments, and when moisture was restored. 3. The two drier treatments had significantly more WY eggs prolonging diapause until after drought ended compared with the two wetter treatments. Whether WY eggs developed in the second or subsequent warm periods was independent of drought treatments. Significantly fewer OR embryos developed in the driest treatment compared with the others, whereas almost all ID eggs developed irrespective of the drought treatment. 4. In conclusion, Mormon crickets can delay embryonic development to improve drought tolerance. Although drought did not synchronise development and hatching, diapause plasticity allowed insects to cope and await more favourable conditions. 5. Unexpectedly, eggs from WY (the highest, wettest site) were more tolerant, because postponing development resulted in less water loss than in developed embryos. OR egg loss was also reduced by prolonging diapause, relative to ID, which developed in even the driest conditions.     

Advanced phenology of intraguild predators shifts herbivore host plant preference and performance

1. The abundance of insect herbivores is mediated by interactions with higher and lower trophic levels. This research asks (i) how phenological change across trophic levels affects host plant quality and selection for aphids, and (ii) what higher trophic level mechanisms drive aphid abundance. 2. Ligusticum porteri is a perennial host for the sap-feeding aphid Aphis asclepiadis and intraguild mirid predators (chiefly Lygus hesperus) in Colorado. We used long-term observational data to discover that aphids and mirids respond differently to phenological cues. These unique responses can impact aphid abundance through changes to host plant selection and quality. 3. We used behavioural choice assays to assess how advanced mirid phenology influences aphid host plant selection. More alates landed and reproduced on mirid-free control plants relative to host plants with prior mirid feeding. However, this preference did not correlate with aphid performance when we compared aphid relative growth rates between treatments. This suggests that advanced mirid phenology would impact aphid populations more through host plant choice, rather than reductions in host quality. The addition of mirids to experimental aphid colonies also demonstrated reduced aphid colony growth via predation. 4. We measured plant cues involved in host selection and found differences in volatile composition between plants with prior mirid feeding compared to control plants, providing the potential for aphids to detect enemy-free space using volatile cues.     

Continental mapping of forest ecosystem functions reveals a high but unrealised potential for forest multifunctionality

Humans require multiple services from ecosystems, but it is largely unknown whether trade‐offs between ecosystem functions prevent the realisation of high ecosystem multifunctionality across spatial scales. Here, we combined a comprehensive dataset (28 ecosystem functions measured on 209 forest plots) with a forest inventory dataset (105,316 plots) to extrapolate and map relationships between various ecosystem multifunctionality measures across Europe. These multifunctionality measures reflected different management objectives, related to timber production, climate regulation and biodiversity conservation/recreation. We found that trade‐offs among them were rare across Europe, at both local and continental scales. This suggests a high potential for ‘win‐win’ forest management strategies, where overall multifunctionality is maximised. However, across sites, multifunctionality was on average 45.8‐49.8% below maximum levels and not necessarily highest in protected areas. Therefore, using one of the most comprehensive assessments so far, our study suggests a high but largely unrealised potential for management to promote multifunctional forests.     

Vitrification of one-cell mouse embryos in cryotubes

Preventing intracellular ice formation is essential to cryopreserve cells. Prevention can be achieved by converting cell water into a non-crystalline glass, that is, to vitrify. The prevailing belief is that to achieve vitrification, cells must be suspended in a solution containing a high concentration of glass-inducing solutes and cooled rapidly. In this study, we vitrified 1-cell mouse embryos and examined the effect of the cooling rate, the warming rate, and the concentration of cryoprotectant on cell survival. Embryos were vitrified in cryotubes. The vitrification solutions used were EFS20, EFS30, and EFS40, which contained ethylene glycol (20, 30 and 40% v/v, respectively), Ficoll (24%, 21%, and 18% w/v, respectively) and sucrose (0.4 0.35, and 0.3 M, respectively). A 5-μl EFS solution suspended with 1-cell embryos was placed in a cryotube. After 2 min in an EFS solution at 23 °C, embryos were vitrified by direct immersion into liquid nitrogen. The sample was warmed at 34 °C/min, 4,600 °C/min and 6,600 °C/min. With EFS40, the survival was low regardless of the warming rate. With EFS30 and EFS20, survival was also low when the warming rate was low, but increased with higher warming rates, likely due to prevention of intracellular ice formation. When 1-cell embryos were vitrified with EFS20 and warmed rapidly, almost all of the embryos developed to blastocysts in vitro. Moreover, when vitrified 1-cell embryos were transferred to recipients at the 2-cell stage, 43% of them developed to term. In conclusion, we developed a vitrification method for 1-cell mouse embryos by rapid warming using cryotubes.