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1.
Ernesto I. Badano Omar R. Samour-Nieva Joel Flores Jos L. Flores-Flores Jorge A. Flores-Cano Juan P. Rodas-Ortí z 《Journal of Plant Ecology》2016,9(5):485
Aims Facilitation by nurse plants is a common interaction in harsh environments and this positive plant–plant interaction may promote vegetation recovery in ecosystems affected by human activities. Determining the relevance of this process, however, requires assessing how nurse plants influence the establishment of other species, as well as the proportion of species in the regional species pool that would benefit from the presence of nurse plants in human-disturbed areas. Further, since vegetation recovery is a time-dependent process, the community-level consequences of facilitation are likely to vary among landscapes with different disturbance history. Thus, an integrative perspective of the relevance of nurse plants for vegetation recovery could be obtained by measuring their effects across different human-disturbed landscapes of the target region. This study focuses on these issues and uses a regional-scale approach to assess the community-level effects of a widespread nurse plant of American deserts, the creosotebush (Larrea tridentata).Methods This study was conducted in the southernmost portion of Chihuahuan Desert because most floodplain valleys of this region have been affected by human activities during the past centuries. For this study, we selected 10 floodplain valleys differing in their age (i.e. the time elapsed after human activities were ceased). At each landscape, we measured the cover of creosotebushes and the proportion of plant species positively associated with them, as well as the density of seeds in the soil beneath creosotebush canopies. All these data were regressed against the age of the landscapes. Further, to assess whether positive association patterns were due to facilitation or other processes, we conducted field experiments and measured the ecophysiological performance of plant species established beneath and outside creosotebush canopies.Important findings Most plant species from the target region were positively associated to creosotebushes, and our field experiments and ecophysiological measures indicated that these distribution patterns can be attributed to facilitative interactions. In most landscapes, the density of seeds was higher beneath creosotebushes than in the surrounding habitats, suggesting that these shrubs may also act as seed traps. The community-level effects of creosotebushes increased with landscape age and creosotebush cover, indicating that magnitude of these effects depends on the disturbance history of each site. These results highlight the relevance of performing large-scale assessments for identifying the consequences of facilitation on vegetation recovery across space and time. We then propose that this kind of large-scale approach should be taken into account in the development of conservation programs aimed at the recovery and preservation of plant biodiversity in harsh environments. 相似文献
2.
Large herbivores play crucial ecological roles, affecting the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems. Their effect, however, depend on how they select plants and vegetation patches for foraging. At the landscape scale, succession is one of the processes that should generate vegetation patches with different nutritional quality, affecting selection by herbivores. Earlier successional stages should be preferred as they are dominated by plants with nutritious and palatable leaves. Here, we investigate if the Lowland tapir prefers early compared to late successional forest patches, aiming at contributing to the understanding of the ecological role of the largest terrestrial South American herbivore, and to conservation strategies for this endangered species. We sampled 12 vegetation patches varying in successional stages across a 20.000-ha continuously-forested landscape in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, recording tapirs through standardized camera trap and track surveys, and quantifying vegetation structure and treefall gaps. Whereas the number of individuals using each patch was not influenced by successional stage, intensity of use was higher in patches in earlier successional stages, in particular patches with higher density of smaller trees and higher cover of treefall gaps. Although inferences on the effects of tapir on plant community depends on future, smaller-scale studies, our results suggest herbivory by tapirs affects forest regeneration, potentially contributing to the maintenance of plant diversity. Results also point out to the potential of mosaics encompassing old-growth and secondary forests for the conservation of the Lowland tapir. 相似文献
3.
植物功能性状是连接植物与环境的桥梁,可以反映植物对环境的适应能力.在地形复杂地区,研究不同水平上的植物功能性状随微地形的变化规律,对认识不同物种对复杂地形条件下多变环境的适应策略具有重要意义.以黄土丘陵区森林草原区自然植被为对象,分析土壤养分以及植物各功能性状值在科属和群落水平上微地形的响应关系.结果表明: 不同植物的功能性状差异较大,植物科属组成差异是影响植物功能性状的主要因素,其次是坡向,而坡位对其影响较小;群落水平的性状值在微地形上无显著差异;豆科和菊科植物的叶氮含量和根氮含量在不同坡位上均存在显著差异,禾本科只有根组织密度在不同坡位上存在显著差异;群落水平性状值的根组织密度与土壤氮含量和土壤有机质含量呈显著正相关;豆科植物的叶氮含量和根氮含量与土壤磷含量呈显著正相关,菊科和禾本科叶氮含量和根氮含量与土壤氮含量呈显著正相关.这表明不同科属植物在对环境变化响应上存在较大差异,不同科属物种对环境适应策略不同. 相似文献
4.
沙地生态系统修复是恢复生态学研究的热点问题,适生植物筛选是修复的关键。植物功能性状反映了植物在不同环境中的生存策略,探究沙地植物功能性状及其与环境之间的关系,有助于筛选用于植被恢复的物种,为保护沙地生态系统提供理论依据。以毛乌素沙地为研究区,分析了1983-2015年间沙地典型飞播样地群落演替特征及其对环境因子的响应,建立基于10个植物功能性状的毛乌素沙地潜在种库,进一步筛选飞播恢复下沙地不同演替阶段的适生植物。研究表明:(1)飞播恢复下的毛乌素沙地植物群落分为三个演替阶段:固沙先锋物种群落、沙生植物为主的杂类草群落、中生植物为主的杂类草群落。(2)土壤因子是群落演替的主要驱动力,其中土壤全氮、土壤总有机碳、土壤硝态氮是影响群落演替的关键因素。(3)基于功能性状筛选出29种适生物种用于植被恢复,演替第一阶段可用雾冰藜、猪毛菜等,演替第二阶段可用拂子茅、无芒隐子草等,演替第三阶段可用草地风毛菊、猪毛蒿等。通过物种功能性状特征可以快速选择适合沙地退化生态系统修复的候选物种,为植被恢复提供了一定的理论支持。 相似文献
5.
We develop and study two neural network models of perceptual alternations. Both models have a star-like architecture of connections
with a central element connected to a set of peripheral elements. A particular perception is simulated in terms of partial
synchronization between the central element and some sub-group of peripheral elements. The first model is constructed from
phase oscillators and the mechanism of perceptual alternations is based on chaotic intermittency under fixed parameter values.
Similar to experimental evidence, the distribution of times between perceptual alternations is represented by the gamma distribution.
The second model is built of spiking neurons of the Hodgkin–Huxley type. The mechanism of perceptual alternations is based
on plasticity of inhibitory synapses which increases the inhibition from the central unit to the neural assembly representing
the current percept. As a result another perception is formed. Simulations show that the second model is in good agreement
with behavioural data on switching times between percepts of ambiguous figures and with experimental results on binocular
rivalry of two and four percepts.
This article is part of a special issue on Neuronal Dynamics of Sensory Coding.
This special issue is in honour of Professor Pepe Segundo who is one of the pioneers in the study of neural coding. Pepe has
been an active participant in many Neural Coding Workshops sharing his great knowledge and experience of research in this
field. I (R. Borisyuk) was very happy to meet Pepe for the first time in Prague when attending the first Neural Coding Workshop
in 1995. From that time we regularly met at Neural Coding Workshops and these meetings have always been very stimulating and
fruitful for my research. Remarkably, the first paper I studied at the beginning of my scientific career was a seminal paper
by Moore et al. (1970). For me, this paper provided a great opportunity to learn the basic statistical techniques for the
analysis of multiple spike trains and neural coding. According to the Institute of Scientific Information, this paper has
been cited 380 times! This exciting paper has inspired my research into the synaptic and functional connectivity of neural
circuits derived from spike-train recordings (Borisyuk et al. 1985; Stuart et al. 2005) and guided my search for new ideas
on neural coding. 相似文献
6.
Advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics tools have vastly improved our ability to collect and analyze data from complex microbial communities. A major goal of microbiome studies is to correlate the overall microbiome composition with clinical or environmental variables. La Rosa et al. recently proposed a parametric test for comparing microbiome populations between two or more groups of subjects. However, this method is not applicable for testing the association between the community composition and a continuous variable. Although multivariate nonparametric methods based on permutations are widely used in ecology studies, they lack interpretability and can be inefficient for analyzing microbiome data. We consider the problem of testing for independence between the microbial community composition and a continuous or many-valued variable. By partitioning the range of the variable into a few slices, we formulate the problem as a problem of comparing multiple groups of microbiome samples, with each group indexed by a slice. To model multivariate and over-dispersed count data, we use the Dirichlet-multinomial distribution. We propose an adaptive likelihood-ratio test by learning a good partition or slicing scheme from the data. A dynamic programming algorithm is developed for numerical optimization. We demonstrate the superiority of the proposed test by numerically comparing it with that of La Rosa et al. and other popular approaches on the same topic including PERMANOVA, the distance covariance test, and the microbiome regression-based kernel association test. We further apply it to test the association of gut microbiome with age in three geographically distinct populations and show how the learned partition facilitates differential abundance analysis. 相似文献
7.
Many introductory ecology textbooks illustrate succession, at least in part, by using certain classic studies (e.g. sand dunes, ponds/bogs, glacial till, and old fields) that substituted space for time (chronosequence) in determining the sequences of the succession. Despite past criticisms of this method, there is continued, often uncritical, use of chronosequences in current research on topics besides succession, including temporal changes in biodiversity, productivity, nutrient cycling, etc. To show the problem with chronosequence-based studies in general, we review evidence from studies that used non-chronosequence methods (such as long-term study of permanent plots, palynology, and stand reconstruction) to test the space-for-time substitution in four classic succession studies. In several cases, the tests have used the same locations and, in one case, the same plots as those in the original studies. We show that empirical evidence invalidates the chronosequence-based sequences inferred in these classic studies. 相似文献
8.
弹性是生物分子网络重要且基础的属性之一,一方面弹性赋予生物分子网络抵抗内部噪声与环境干扰并维持其自身基本功能的能力,另一方面,弹性为网络状态的恢复制造了阻力。生物分子网络弹性研究试图回答如下3个问题:a. 生物分子网络弹性的产生机理是什么?b. 弹性影响下生物分子网络的状态如何发生转移?c. 如何预测生物网络状态转换临界点,以防止系统向不理想的状态演化?因此,研究生物分子网络弹性有助于理解生物系统内部运作机理,同时对诸如疾病发生临界点预测、生物系统状态逆转等临床应用具有重要的指导意义。鉴于此,本文主要针对以上生物分子网络弹性领域的3个热点研究问题,在研究方法和生物学应用上进行了系统地综述,并对未来生物分子网络弹性的研究方向进行了展望。 相似文献
9.
10.
海拔变化会引起气压、温度、降水、土壤湿度和风速等环境因子发生急剧变化, 植物功能性状-海拔的相互关系对于预测全球变化背景下山地植物的适应方式具有重要意义。该研究在青海湖流域海拔3 400-4 200 m范围内布设了5个样地(海拔间隔约200 m), 通过植物群落调查, 测定植物功能性状和土壤理化性质, 结合气象数据, 探讨了海拔对青海湖流域群落水平植物功能性状的影响。结果如下: (1)群落加权平均植株高度(H)、叶片干物质含量(LDMC)、叶片碳氮比(C:N)和叶片氮磷比(N:P)随海拔升高显著降低, 比根表面积(SRA)随海拔升高波动下降, 比叶面积(SLA)、叶片氮含量(LNC)和叶片磷含量(LPC)随海拔升高显著升高, 叶片碳含量(LCC)、比根长(SRL)和根组织密度(RTD)随海拔未发生显著变化。(2)所有性状的变异来源以物种组成变化为主, N:P和LPC的种内性状变异与物种组成变化呈现正的协变效应, 其余性状为负的协变效应。(3)降水和0- 10 cm土层土壤养分含量对SLA变化的解释率较高, 温度和10-20 cm土层土壤养分含量对其余性状随海拔变化的解释率较高。以上结果表明青海湖流域植物群落主要通过物种更替来适应随海拔升高而剧烈变化的环境, 且各群落中的非优势种倾向于占据与优势种相反的性状空间来提高资源利用率, 随海拔变化的热量和深层土壤养分含量是群落水平植物功能性状变化的主要影响因子。 相似文献
11.
Stability in temperate reef communities over a decadal time scale despite concurrent ocean warming 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
RICK D. STUART-SMITH NEVILLE S. BARRETT DAVID G. STEVENSON GRAHAM J. EDGAR 《Global Change Biology》2010,16(1):122-134
Despite increasing scientific and public concerns on the potential impacts of global ocean warming on marine biodiversity, very few empirical data on community-level responses to rising water temperatures are available other than for coral reefs. This study describes changes in temperate subtidal reef communities over decadal and regional scales in a location that has undergone considerable warming in recent decades and is forecast to be a 'hotspot' for future warming.
Plant and animal communities at 136 rocky reef sites around Tasmania (south-east Australia) were censused between 1992 and 1995, and again in 2006 and 2007. Despite evidence of major ecological changes before the period of study, reef communities appeared to remain relatively stable over the past decade. Multivariate analyses and univariate metrics of biotic communities revealed few changes with time, although some species-level responses could be interpreted as symptomatic of ocean warming. These included fishes detected in Tasmania only in recent surveys and several species with warmer water affinities that appeared to extend their distributions further south. The most statistically significant changes observed in species abundances, however, were not related to their biogeographical affinities. The majority of species with changing abundance possessed lower to mid-range abundances rather than being common, raising questions for biodiversity monitoring and management. We suggest that our study encompassed a relatively stable period following more abrupt change, and that community responses to ocean warming may follow nonlinear, step-like trajectories. 相似文献
Plant and animal communities at 136 rocky reef sites around Tasmania (south-east Australia) were censused between 1992 and 1995, and again in 2006 and 2007. Despite evidence of major ecological changes before the period of study, reef communities appeared to remain relatively stable over the past decade. Multivariate analyses and univariate metrics of biotic communities revealed few changes with time, although some species-level responses could be interpreted as symptomatic of ocean warming. These included fishes detected in Tasmania only in recent surveys and several species with warmer water affinities that appeared to extend their distributions further south. The most statistically significant changes observed in species abundances, however, were not related to their biogeographical affinities. The majority of species with changing abundance possessed lower to mid-range abundances rather than being common, raising questions for biodiversity monitoring and management. We suggest that our study encompassed a relatively stable period following more abrupt change, and that community responses to ocean warming may follow nonlinear, step-like trajectories. 相似文献
12.
Eddy van der Maarel 《Plant Ecology》1988,77(1-3):7-19
This paper introduces the collection of contributions in this special volume on temporal and spatial patterns of vegetation dynamics. First, it is pointed out that the dynamics of any piece of vegetation, large or small, is always dependent on the degree of isolation of that piece towards its environment. Then ten types of island situation are treated ranging from very much to very little isolated: remote species-rich oceanic islands, remote species-poor islands, young big islands near a continent, small off-shore islands, emerging islands, isolated hills, landscape islands, isolated patches of vegetation, and gaps in stands of vegetation.Also, eight forms of vegetation dynamics are treated, ranging from short-term to long-term changes and involving larger and larger units: individuals, patches, communities, landscapes and vegetation regions. The forms of dynamics are fluctuation, gap dynamics, patch dynamics, cyclic succession, regeneration succession, secondary succession, primary succession, and secular succession. Each form of dynamics may occur under varying degrees of isolation.The general conclusion is that processes and patterns of vegetation dynamics cannot be generalized in any simple manner. The 20 papers collected in this volume, divergent as they are, express the complexity of vegetation dynamics. 相似文献
13.
da Silva-Filho EA Brito dos Santos SK Resende Ado M de Morais JO de Morais MA Ardaillon Simões D 《Antonie van Leeuwenhoek》2005,88(1):13-23
Yeast population used in industrial production of fuel-ethanol may vary according to the plant process condition and to the environmental stresses imposed to yeast cells. Therefore, yeast strains isolated from a particular industrial process may be adapted to such conditions and should be used as starter strain instead of less adapted commercial strains. This work reports the use of PCR-fingerprinting method based on microsatellite primer (GTG)5 to characterize the yeast population dynamics along the fermentation period in six distilleries. The results show that indigenous fermenting strains present in the crude substrate can be more adapted to the industrial process than commercial strains. We also identified new strains that dominate the yeast population and were more present either in molasses or sugar cane fermenting distilleries. Those strains were proposed to be used as starters in those industrial processes. This is the first report on the use of molecular markers to discriminate Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains from fuel-ethanol producing process. 相似文献
14.
Eurípedes Alves da?Silva-Filho Scheila Karina Brito dos?Santos Alecsandra do Monte?Resende José Otamar Falc?o?de Morais Marcos Antonio?de MoraisJr
Yeast populations used in industrial production of fuel-ethanol may vary according to the plant process conditions and to the environmental stresses imposed on yeast cells. Therefore, yeast strains isolated from a particular industrial process may be adapted to such conditions and should be used as the starter strain instead of less adapted commercial strains. This work reports the use of a PCR-fingerprinting method based on microsatellite primer (GTG)5 to characterize the yeast population dynamics during the fermentation period in six distilleries. The results show that indigenous fermenting strains present in the crude substrate can be more adapted to the industrial process than commercial strains. We also identified new strains that dominated the yeast population and were more commonly present either in molasses or sugar cane fermenting distilleries. Those strains were proposed to be used as starters in those industrial processes. This is the first report on the use of molecular markers to discriminate Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains from the fuel-ethanol producing process. 相似文献
15.
Jonathan Bennie Thomas W. Davies David Cruse Richard Inger Kevin J. Gaston 《Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences》2015,370(1667)
Artificial light at night has a wide range of biological effects on both plants and animals. Here, we review mechanisms by which artificial light at night may restructure ecological communities by modifying the interactions between species. Such mechanisms may be top-down (predator, parasite or grazer controlled), bottom-up (resource-controlled) or involve non-trophic processes, such as pollination, seed dispersal or competition. We present results from an experiment investigating both top-down and bottom-up effects of artificial light at night on the population density of pea aphids Acyrthosiphon pisum in a diverse artificial grassland community in the presence and absence of predators and under low-level light of different spectral composition. We found no evidence for top-down control of A. pisum in this system, but did find evidence for bottom-up effects mediated through the impact of light on flower head density in a leguminous food plant. These results suggest that physiological effects of light on a plant species within a diverse plant community can have detectable demographic effects on a specialist herbivore. 相似文献
16.
Timothy R. McClanahan 《Plant Ecology》1986,65(3):175-178
An analysis of the Relative Importance Value Index (RIVI) of later successional tree species and the Shannon diversity indexH of all tree and shrub species was undertaken on previously mined sites within a sparsely forested area in central Florida, USA. A comparative analysis of the distance to a seed source and the age of a site suggested that the distance to a seed source was the best predictor (R2=0.85) of the regeneration of the later successional species and a good predictor of species diversity. Both theRIVI of the later successional species and the diversity index decreased with the distance from the seed source. The lack of a seed source containing climax species resulted in arrested succession at some sites. It is suggested that biological information is the causative means of succession and the dispersal of this information entails spatial dependency while its introduction and development are time dependent processes.Research was part of a project of the Center for Wetlands, University of Florida, Gainesville under contract with the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research. Interactions of Wetlands with Phosphate Mining, H. T. Odum and G. R. Best, principal investigators. B. T. Rushton, J. Butner, G. R. Best, R. S. Schnoes and S. R. Humphrey are thanked for the use of their data. 相似文献
17.
18.
Sergei Yu. Grishin Roger del Moral Pavel V. Krestov Valentina P. Verkholat 《Plant Ecology》1996,127(2):129-153
Ksudach Volcano, southern Kamchatka Peninsula, erupted in 1907 and impacted over 2000 km2 of forests with air-fall pumice deposits. We identified three impact zones. In Zone I, deposits deeper than 100 cm destroyed all vegetation. Two early successional stages occur, a lichen-dominated desert and isolated patches of a pioneer herb stage. Zone II is defined by pumice deposits 30 to 100 cm deep. Deposits of 70 to 100 cm destroyed all vegetation, but left scattered snags. Here primary succession dominates recovery, but its rate varies. Isolated trees survived in deposits of 30 to 70 cm and primary and secondary successional stages form a complex mosaic termed an intermediate succession. In Zone II, the primary stages found in Zone I are joined by a dwarf shrub-herb stage and a secondary birch forest stage. Zone III occurs where thinner deposits permitted some vegetation to survive in all locations. Secondary succession dominates in deposits of 10 to 30 cm. Trees suffered damage, but survived deposits of 20 to 30 cm, while other vegetation layers were eliminated. Deposits of 10 to 20 cm eliminated mosses and lichens and but only reduced the number of dwarf shrubs and herbs. Deposits of less than 10 cm damaged herb, moss and lichen layers but did not eliminate any species. All sampled vegetation remains in a pre-climax state, having yet to recover fully from earlier eruptions. Reconstructed vegetation maps for before 1907 and for ca. 1925 are compared to the map of vegetation in 1994. Based on degree of soil formation, vegetation recovery and colonization rates at different pumice depths, and the current vegetation, we estimate that full recovery of the soil-vegetation system will take more than 2000 years. 相似文献
19.
稳定碳、氮同位素比值分析技术是研究生态系统中物质循环与能量流动的有效技术.δ13C可以用来判断食物网中不同生物的能量来源;δ15N主要用于确定生物在食物网中所处的营养位置.通常用δ13C—δ15N图来表征某一特定时间或空间的食物网结构,但是这种方法在比较不同时间和空间食物网结构中功效较差.同时这种定性描述食物网结构也无法满足食物网复杂变化下的假说验证.应用环形统计方法,以太湖梅梁湾鱼类群落为例,定量评价了群落水平食物网能流季节演替特征.结果表明太湖梅梁湾鱼类营养生态位移动的季节特征明显.进一步物种水平分析结果表明,各种鱼类角度和幅度随季节均有变化.Rayleigh检验结果表明,群落中不同种类在秋冬、冬春和夏秋均有显著的一致的方向变化;而春夏期间不显著.Watson-William检验结果表明,群落水平的鱼类营养生态位移动在秋冬和冬春季节转换中有显著差异.引起鱼类群落水平营养生态位在食物网空间中季节性移动的主要因素为可利用资源稳定同位素的季节变化和不同鱼类种群自身的食性季节性转变.同时,由于梅梁湾食物网鱼类群落杂食性水平高,季节性浮游初级生产力成为食物网能量流动的重要驱动作用.因此,在富营养化生态系统中,食物网群落水平营养生态位季节波动也暗示了系统稳定性的下降.定量评价食物网变化有助于认识和理解食物网结构与功能在生态学和生态系统管理等方面的重要. 相似文献
20.
流动沙地→半流动沙地白沙蒿群落→半固定沙地油蒿+白沙蒿群落→固定沙地油蒿群落→固定沙地油蒿+本氏针茅+苔藓群落→地带性的本氏针茅草原及其迅速沙化的植被发展过程是毛乌素沙地植被自发演替的基本过程。油蒿具有耐沙埋、抗风蚀、耐土壤贫瘠等特性,是该地区最主要的优良固沙植物和重要牧草。半固定、固定沙地池蒿群落在毛乌素沙地的生态环境保护和农牧业生产方面发挥着极其重要的作用,维持其稳定十分重要。然而,其沙化的现 相似文献