Pteridophyte species diversity in the central Peruvian Amazon: Importance of edaphic specialization

Sixty-one species of pteridophytes were found growing in a two-hectare study area that contained two major soil types. Approximately one-third of that species richness was due to the presence of edaphic variation, because 19 species were only found on the sandy loam soil and 24 were restricted to the clay soil. In the Amazon basin, within a particular climatic zone, diversity of soil type and topographic position can result in a habitat mosaic where both edaphic specialists and generalists can be found growing in one area. Sesentaiún especies de pteridófitos se hallaron en el área de estudio de dos hectáreas, el cual contenía dos tipos resaltantes de suelos. Aproximadamente un tercio de la riqueza de especies se debió a la diferencia edáfica, así 19 de ellas se hallaron en el suelo arenoso y 24 sólo en el arcilloso. En la Amazonía, dentro de una determinada zona climática, la diversidad en tipos de suelos y la posición topográfica pueden dar lugar a un habitat en mosaico, donde tanto especialistas edáficos como generalistas pueden crecer en una sola área.     

The effect of spatial heterogeneity and parasites on the evolution of host diversity

Both spatial heterogeneity and exploiters (parasites and predators) have been implicated as key ecological factors driving population diversification. However, it is unclear how these factors interact. We addressed this question using the common plant-colonizing bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens, which has been shown to diversify rapidly into spatial niche-specialist genotypes when propagated in laboratory microcosms. Replicate populations were evolved in spatially homogeneous and heterogeneous environments (shaken and static microcosms, respectively) with and without viral parasites (bacteriophage) for approximately 60 bacterial generations. Consistent with previous findings, exploiters reduced diversity in heterogeneous environments by relaxing the intensity of resource competition. By contrast, exploiters increased diversity in homogeneous environments where there was little diversification through resource competition. Competition experiments revealed this increase in diversity to be the result of fitness trade-offs between exploiter resistance and competitive ability. In both environments, exploiters increased allopatric diversity, presumably as a result of divergent selection for resistance between populations. Phage increased total diversity in homogeneous environments, but had no net effect in heterogeneous environments. Such interactions between key ecological variables need to be considered when addressing diversification and coexistence in future studies.     

Diversity of palm uses in the western Amazon

We used palm knowledge to understand the interaction between people and the rainforests and the factors that influence this dynamic process. We interviewed 278 informants in 12 villages in the Pastaza and Madidi areas of the western Amazon basin. Together they used 38 different palm species for 38 different uses in six use-categories (food, construction, utensils, ritual, medicine, commercial). Euterpe precatoria, Iriartea deltoidea, and Oenocarpus bataua were best known and were mentioned as useful by 76–72% of the informants in the 12 villages. There was a great variation in number of uses and in how widespread the uses were and five of the 38 useful palms were mentioned by only one informant. Among the socioeconomic factors analyzed, the residence village influenced the informants’ knowledge of palms and their uses more than any other factor. Length of education, prosperity and for how long the informant had lived in the village were also positively correlated to how many palms and palm uses were known. Gender differences in informants’ knowledge of palm uses were not observed in our data. We suggest, that the high importance of forest products to the livelihood of the villagers, the great variation in the knowledge they possess, and the fact that the differences between villages is so great, are important elements to consider when developing management plans for the sustainable use of the rainforest resources in the western Amazon.     

Sap tension in flooded trees and bushes of the Amazon

The water relations of the inundated forest of the Rio Negro in the Amazon have been investigated. The sap pressure in trees and bushes standing in several meters of water was found to average between −15 and −20 atm in sunshine. and above −10 in overcast. In rainy weather and at night. the pressure would remain close to ambient. Submerged leaves had ambient or sometimes very slightly positive pressure. Pinnate leaves of legumes folded when the pressure rose above a critical level characteristic of the species. Dehydration curves from full turgor to negative turgor showed 3 characteristic phases: A) a steep decline in pressure when the turgor disappeared; B) a linear decline at zero turgor proportional to the increase in osmotic pressure; and C) a steep decline as negative turgor (intracellular packing) developed. The tensions in the drowned forests were similar to those found in inundated plants of temperate lakes. and hence like many plants in a humid forest. However, in the daytime many flooded plants of the Amazon reached zero turgor without any external sign of wilting.     

Strategies for genetic conservation of trees in the Peruvian Amazon

Forestry practices and high rates of land clearance for agriculture are causing genetic erosion of valuable tree species in the Peruvian Amazon, thereby endangering the economic sustainability of rural communities and limiting Peru's opportunities for the development of new timber and non-timber forest products. The potential utility and limitations of six low-input interventions to help forestall further genetic erosion in the region are discussed, with a focus on local community involvement. Improved agroforestry systems may help reduce deforestation by increasing farm productivity, although methods to increase the currently low adoption rate of these technologies need to be developed. Use of strategic tree domestication techniques can also improve farm productivity and prevent inadvertent genetic drift and inbreeding associated with traditional domestication practices, although to have a major impact, current programs need to be extended across the region. Woodlot forestry could supplant selective extraction of timber and offers an attractive opportunity for poverty alleviation if appropriate credit and land tenure policies can be developed. However, it may also result in increased deforestation if activities on public land cannot be controlled. The implementation of improved seed collection systems and simple seed transfer guidelines would help to reduce the collection of seed of poor quality and low genetic diversity, and avoid maladapted plantings, although such programs are difficult to monitor and seed costs may increase. Strategic identification and design of in situ conservation areas would help to ensure the viability of conserved populations, but requires the forfeiture of significant revenue from timber concessions.     

The contribution of grazing to plant diversity in alpine grassland and heath

Abstract Grazing on transplants of a grass, a forb and a tree was examined in low-diversity grassland and more diverse heath in Australia's Snowy Mountains. Transplants were surrounded by 2 mm mesh netting. In one grassland plot, grazers (probably soil invertebrates) attacked 40–90% of tree and forb seedlings but no grass seedlings. In heath, which had about half the grass cover of grassland, grazers consumed grasses but not trees or forbs. The results suggest that grazers can depress diversity in grassland by attacking species other than grass. In heath, they may promote diversity by attacking only grass and releasing other species from competition.     

Disentangling regional and local tree diversity in the Amazon

We analyzed the most extensive data set of tree inventory plots spread over the complete Amazon basin and Guiana shield. We aimed to separate the regional and local tree alpha-diversity to investigate the drivers of diversity at the relevant scale. Our results are consistent with the partitioning of total tree alpha-diversity into regional and local components, which are controlled by evolutionary- and ecological processes, respectively. Regional diversity is correlated with palaeo-climatic stability (31%), and long-term large-scale ecosystem dynamics (14%), as represented by the age of the geological formation. Both mechanisms contribute to high diversity in the central to western Amazon. Actual rainfall seasonality is correlated with regional tree diversity to a certain extent (19%), but we argue that this is of little consequence for the evolutionary drivers of the regional species pool. Frequency of disturbance is the main process driving local diversity, although its explanatory power is relatively small (17%).     

Epiphytes and their contribution to canopy diversity

About ten percent of all vascular plant species world-wide are epiphytes and they are almost exclusively found in tropical forests. Therefore, they constitute a large part of the global plant biodiversity (10% of all species), and in tropical countries represent up to 25% of all vascular plant species. Focusing on the differences between epiphytes in the strict sense or holo-epiphytes (non-parasitic plants that use other plants – usually trees – as growing sites all through their life-cycle) and hemi-epiphytes (half epiphytes which only spend part of their life as epiphytes until their aerial roots become connected to the ground), horizontal and vertical distribution patterns of both in relation to some of their ecological requirements are compared. Vertical ecological gradients (i.e., insolation and humidity differences from the forest floor to the canopy surface) are relevant for the composition of the holo- epiphytic vegetation. For hemi-epiphytes, however, ecological differences between distinct forest habitats (i.e., horizontal gradients) are relevant, but not primarily the canopy structure, as the individual host tree structure is more important. The scale-dependence of epiphyte diversity assessment (relatively small study areas for holo-epiphytes, large study areas for hemi-epiphytes) is mainly due to the striking differences in plant sizes and related mechanical and physiological requirements.     

The molecular heterogeneity and diversity of reptilian keratins

Summary Reptile keratins produce complex electrophoretic patterns, contain a number of size classes, and contain protein fractions analogous to the fractions found in other keratins. Thus, reptile keratins are similar to the heterogenous keratins of birds and mammals, and quite different from amphibian epidermal keratins. This heterogeneity may be related to the multiple functions performed by the epidermis of these organisms.The chemical diversity of reptile keratins seems to depend on the morphological differences between the tissues in which they occur. This situation is also found among these proteins in mammals and birds suggesting that keratin diversity is related to the morphological and presumably functional differentiation of epidermal tissues. The distribution of the keratin fractions in each tissue contributes to this diversity but the significance of these fractional differences is uncertain.A comparison of the half-cystine and glycine content of vertebrate andØ keratins suggests that the andØ proteins of reptiles may be related to the soft keratins of mammals and amphibians. Mammalian hard keratins probably represent a uniquely derived group of proteins which are unlike the other vertebrate keratins. The presence of a high sulphur matrix component in both hard mammalian and reptilian Ø keratins may represent some form of molecular convergence which provides these distantly related proteins with similar physical or organizational properties.     

The evolution of pheromone diversity

Pheromones are chemical signals whose composition varies enormously between species. Despite pheromones being a nearly ubiquitous form of communication, particularly among insects, our understanding of how this diversity has arisen, and the processes driving the evolution of pheromones, is less developed than that for visual and auditory signals. Studies of phylogeny, genetics and ecological processes are providing new insights into the patterns, mechanisms and drivers of pheromone evolution, and there is a wealth of information now available for analysis. Future research could profitably use these data by employing phylogenetic comparative techniques to identify ecological correlates of pheromone composition. Genetic analyses are also needed to gain a clearer picture of how changes in receivers are associated with changes in the signal.     

The evolution of the diversity of cultures

The abundant evidence that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa within the past 200,000 years, and dispersed across the world only within the past 100,000 years, provides us with a strong framework in which to consider the evolution of human diversity. While there is evidence that the human capacity for culture has a deeper history, going beyond the origin of the hominin clade, the tendency for humans to form cultures as part of being distinct communities and populations changed markedly with the evolution of H. sapiens. In this paper, we investigate 'cultures' as opposed to 'culture', and the question of how and why, compared to biological diversity, human communities and populations are so culturally diverse. We consider the way in which the diversity of human cultures has developed since 100,000 years ago, and how its rate was subject to environmental factors. We argue that the causes of this diversity lie in the distribution of resources and the way in which human communities reproduce over several generations, leading to fissioning of kin groups. We discuss the consequences of boundary formation through culture in their broader ecological and evolutionary contexts.     

西太平洋浮游动物种类多样性

西太平洋区是全球海洋生物种源中心,许多类群的最高物种多样性都出现于该区域,因此,在该区开展种类多样性的研究不仅重要和必要,而且具有在跨国尺度上进行综合管理和相互合作的迫切性。本文在西太平洋的浮游动物样品鉴定分类、编目、文献资料整理和分析的基础上,记录和编入西太平洋10个浮游动物类群2,658种(含亚种),隶属于206科675属,其中水螅水母类99科251属697种,栉水母类12科22属59种,浮游软体动物14科35属86种,介形类8科89属416种,桡足类51科156属908种,糠虾类4科58属202种,磷虾类2科8属56种,十足类8科22属105种,毛颚类5科8属48种,被囊类5科26属81种。     

Measuring the contribution of community members to functional diversity

Although the contribution of community members to functional diversity is a key question of conservation ecology, its measurement and interpretation are rather problematic. In this paper, we suggest a novel method for decomposing functional diversity. To do this we consider functional units (i.e. species or a group of species with identical traits) as the functional building blocks of communities. Then we propose the use of a recently developed measure of functional diversity (called modified functional attribute diversity or MFAD) and suggest additive decomposition of MFAD into functional values contributed by the functional units. We point out that functional values are related to changes in MFAD if the functional unit is removed from the community. This property of decomposition allows the quantification of the contribution of community members to functional diversity. By studying artificial and actual communities we compare the performance of our new method with other recently developed contribution measures, which are based on dendrograms and ordinations. Both theoretical considerations and analyses of artificial and actual data sets suggest that the proposed method of calculating functional values expresses more explicitly the contribution of community members to functional diversity and hereby can be used as a simple, yet efficient method for searching for functional keystones in ecological communities or for quantifying the contribution of community members to functional diversity.     

The evolution and diversity of kinetoplastid flagellates

Five years ago, little was known about kinetoplastid evolution. Recent improvements in the taxon sampling for nuclear rRNA genes and several protein markers have transformed this understanding. Parasitism evolved at least four times in kinetoplastids. Obligate parasitic trypanosomatids are a relatively 'derived' group within kinetoplastids; their closest relative is likely to be the free-living Bodo saltans, and the ancestral trypanosomatids were probably parasites of insects. Although subject to recent controversy, trypanosomes (genus Trypanosoma) probably constitute a monophyletic group. Several unusual features of trypanosomatid genomes (e.g. trans-splicing, mitochondrial RNA editing and intron poverty) are common in kinetoplastids and pre-date the adoption of parasitism. The framework of relationships is becoming robust enough for real comparative approaches to be used to understand kinetoplastid biology.