Genetic diversity in commercial wineries: effects of the farming system and vinification management on wine yeasts

Aims: Analysis of the diversity and distribution of wine yeasts isolated from organically and conventionally grown grapes, and during the subsequent fermentation with or without starter cultures in six different commercial wineries. Methods and Results: PCR‐RFLP screening of isolates revealed the involvement of ten different species. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, scarcely isolated from grapes, was the dominant species during the latter phases of fermentation, identifying 108 different genotypes by means of SSR analysis. Species and strains’ diversity and presence were strongly influenced by the farming system used to grow the grapes and the system of vinification. Conclusions: Organic farming management was more beneficial in terms of diversity and abundance than the conventional one. Induced fermentation generated a great replacement of native yeasts. Although winery‐resident yeasts resulted to be predominant in the process, some noncommercial strains originally in the vineyard were found in final stages of the fermentation, confirming that autochthonous strains of S. cerevisiae are capable to conduct the fermentation process up to its end. Significance and Impact of the Study: The study of natural yeast communities from commercial vineyards and wineries is an important step towards the preservation of native genetic resources. Our results have special relevance because it is the first time that the real situation of the yeast ecology of alcoholic fermentation in commercial wineries belonging to the relevant wine‐producing Appellation of Origin ‘Vinos de Madrid’ is shown.     

Harnessing stratigraphic bias at the section scale: conodont diversity in the Homerian (Silurian) of the Midland Platform,England

Fossil abundance and diversity in geological successions are subject to bias arising from shifting depositional and diagenetic environments, resulting in variable rates of fossil accumulation and preservation. In simulations, this bias can be constrained based on sequence‐stratigraphic architecture. Nonetheless, a practical quantitative method of incorporating the contribution of sequence‐stratigraphic architecture in community palaeoecology and diversity analyses derived from individual successions is missing. As a model of faunal turnover affected by the stratigraphic bias, we use the ‘Mulde event’, a postulated mid‐Silurian interval of elevated conodont turnover, which coincides with global eustatic sea‐level changes and which has been based on regionally constrained observations. We test whether conodont turnover is highest at the boundary corresponding to the ‘event’ and post‐‘event’ interval against the alternative that conodont turnover reflects habitat tracking and peaks at facies shifts. Based on the previously documented, parasequence‐level stratigraphic framework of sections in the northern and central part of the Midland Platform, the relative controls of sequence‐stratigraphic architecture, time and depositional environment over conodont distribution are evaluated using permutational multivariate analysis of variance. The depositional environment controls the largest part of variability in conodont assemblage composition, whereas the postulated ‘Mulde event’, or genuine temporal change in conodont diversity, cannot be detected. Depending on the binning of the stratigraphic succession, contrasting diversity and turnover patterns can be produced. The simple approach proposed here, emulating partitioning of β diversity into spatial and temporal components, may help to constrain the stratigraphic bias, even at the scale of an individual section.     

Migratory diversity predicts population declines in birds

Declines in migratory species are a pressing concern worldwide, but the mechanisms underpinning these declines are not fully understood. We hypothesised that species with greater within‐population variability in migratory movements and destinations, here termed ‘migratory diversity’, might be more resilient to environmental change. To test this, we related map‐based metrics of migratory diversity to recent population trends for 340 European breeding birds. Species that occupy larger non‐breeding ranges relative to breeding, a characteristic we term ‘migratory dispersion’, were less likely to be declining than those with more restricted non‐breeding ranges. Species with partial migration strategies (i.e. overlapping breeding and non‐breeding ranges) were also less likely to be declining than full migrants or full residents, an effect that was independent of migration distance. Recent rates of advancement in Europe‐wide spring arrival date were greater for partial migrants than full migrants, suggesting that migratory diversity may also help facilitate species responses to climate change.     

Getting biodiversity intactness indices right: ensuring that 'biodiversity' reflects 'diversity'

The 2010 biodiversity target of a ‘significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss’ presents challenges for effective measurement of changes in global/regional biodiversity. A simple ‘biodiversity intactness index’ (BII) is attractive in using available data and expert opinion, but is seen to be only weakly linked to ‘biodiversity’ in its usual sense of ‘variation’. An example illustrates how an improved BII score could result even when there are large species losses. A family of alternative biodiversity ‘representativeness indices’ better reflect variation. They use the same readily available information, plus simple species–area relationships (SAR) and genetic diversity curves. A new genetic‐diversity abundance‐fraction curve, like SAR, is linear in log–log space. The new representativeness indices incorporate, through range‐abundance curves, the abundance fraction estimates normally used for BII. Land use or climate change impacts therefore can reflect partial rather than total biodiversity losses at localities. Estimates of biodiversity gains/losses using these indices enable a novel regional planning‐based approach for addressing the 2010 target.     

Cabbage Whitefly, Aleyrodes proletella (L.) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), Newly Discovered in Australia

Cabbage whitefly, Aleyrodes proletella , was found for the first time in Australia in January 1997. It was found on Brassica oleracea gp Capitata, Sonchus oleraceus and Euphorbia peplus in South Australia at McLaren Vale, Adelaide, Virginia and Renmark, and in Victoria at Red Cliffs.     

New crinoids from the Baltic region (Estonia): fossil tip‐dating phylogenetics constrains the origin and Ordovician–Silurian diversification of the Flexibilia (Echinodermata)

This study documents previously unknown taxonomic and morphological diversity among early Palaeozoic crinoids. Based on highly complete, well preserved crown material, we describe two new genera from the Ordovician and Silurian of the Baltic region (Estonia) that provide insight into two major features of the geological history of crinoids: the early evolution of the flexible clade during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE), and their diversification history surrounding the end‐Ordovician mass extinction. The unexpected occurrence of a highly derived sagenocrinid, Tintinnabulicrinus estoniensis gen. et. sp. nov., from Upper Ordovician (lower Katian) rocks of the Baltic palaeocontinent provides high‐resolution temporal, taxonomic and palaeobiogeographical constraints on the origin and early evolution of the Flexibilia. The Silurian (lower Rhuddanian, Llandovery) Paerticrinus arvosus gen. et sp. nov. is the oldest known Silurian crinoid from Baltica and thus provides the earliest Baltic record of crinoids following the aftermath of the end‐Ordovician mass extinction. A Bayesian ‘fossil tip‐dating’ analysis implementing the fossilized birth–death process and a relaxed morphological clock model suggests that flexibles evolved c. 3 million years prior to their oldest fossil record, potentially involving an ancestor–descendant relationship (via ‘budding’ cladogenesis or anagenesis) with the paraphyletic cladid Cupulocrinus. The sagenocrinid subclade rapidly diverged from ‘taxocrinid’ grade crinoids during the final stages of the GOBE, culminating in maximal diversity among Ordovician crinoid faunas on a global scale. Remarkably, diversification patterns indicate little taxonomic turnover among flexibles across the Late Ordovician mass extinction. However, the elimination of closely related clades may have helped pave the way for their subsequent Silurian diversification and increased ecological role in post‐Ordovician Palaeozoic marine communities. This study highlights the significance of studies reporting faunas from undersampled palaeogeographical regions for clade‐based phylogenetic studies and improving estimates of global biodiversity through geological time.     

Ecological processes in urban landscapes: mechanisms influencing the distribution and activity of insectivorous bats

Urbanisation affects indigenous fauna in many ways; some species persist and even increase in urban areas, whereas others are lost. The causative mechanisms determining changes in distributions and community structure remain elusive. We investigated three hypothesized mechanisms, which influence success or failure of the insectivorous bat assemblage across the urban landscape of Sydney, Australia; landscape heterogeneity (diversity of land uses), productivity (as indexed by landscape geology) and trait diversity. We present data on species richness and activity (bat passes per night) collected systematically using ultrasonic bat detectors from randomly selected landscapes (each 25 km²). Landscapes were categorized into classes including ‘urban’, ‘suburban’ and ‘vegetated’, where suburban sites were additionally stratified based on geology, as a proxy for productivity. Four landscape elements were sampled within each landscape, including remnant bushland (>2 ha), riparian areas, open space/parkland and residential/built space. We found that there was significantly greater bat activity and more species of bat in areas on fertile shale geologies (p<0.05), supporting the productivity, rather than the heterogeneity hypothesis. Within landscapes, there was no significant effect of the landscape element sampled, although bushland and riparian sites recorded greater bat activity than open space or backyard sites. Using general linear mixed models we found bat activity and species richness were sensitive to landscape geology and increasing housing density at a landscape scale. Using an RLQ analysis a significant relationship was found between these variables and species traits in structuring the community present (p<0.01). Specifically, open‐adapted bats were associated with areas of greater housing density, while clutter‐adapted bats were uncommon in urban areas and more associated with greater amounts of bushland in the landscape. Overall we found greater support for the productivity and traits hypotheses, rather than the heterogeneity hypothesis. The degree of urbanisation and amount of bushland remaining, in combination with landscape geology, influenced bat activity and mediated the trait response. Our findings reflect global trends of species diversity and abundance in urban landscapes, suggesting that processes affecting bat species distribution in urban ecosystems may be predictable at a landscape scale.     

Response of wild bee diversity,abundance, and functional traits to vineyard inter‐row management intensity and landscape diversity across Europe

Agricultural intensification is a major driver of wild bee decline. Vineyards may be inhabited by plant and animal species, especially when the inter‐row space is vegetated with spontaneous vegetation or cover crops. Wild bees depend on floral resources and suitable nesting sites which may be found in vineyard inter‐rows or in viticultural landscapes. Inter‐row vegetation is managed by mulching, tillage, and/or herbicide application and results in habitat degradation when applied intensively. Here, we hypothesize that lower vegetation management intensities, higher floral resources, and landscape diversity affect wild bee diversity and abundance dependent on their functional traits. We sampled wild bees semi‐quantitatively in 63 vineyards representing different vegetation management intensities across Europe in 2016. A proxy for floral resource availability was based on visual flower cover estimations. Management intensity was assessed by vegetation cover (%) twice a year per vineyard. The Shannon Landscape Diversity Index was used as a proxy for landscape diversity within a 750 m radius around each vineyard center point. Wild bee communities were clustered by country. At the country level, between 20 and 64 wild bee species were identified. Increased floral resource availability and extensive vegetation management both affected wild bee diversity and abundance in vineyards strongly positively. Increased landscape diversity had a small positive effect on wild bee diversity but compensated for the negative effect of low floral resource availability by increasing eusocial bee abundance. We conclude that wild bee diversity and abundance in vineyards is efficiently promoted by increasing floral resources and reducing vegetation management frequency. High landscape diversity further compensates for low floral resources in vineyards and increases pollinating insect abundance in viticulture landscapes.     

Traits of benthic macroinvertebrates in semi-natural French streams: an initial application to biomonitoring in Europe

• 1 The methods used to indicate the biological state of streams are often based on taxonomic composition, and the abundance of species or other taxa. This ‘taxonomic structure’ varies among ecoregions and cannot be applied to wider geographical areas. Therefore, we assessed the species traits of benthic macroinvertebrates from semi‐natural reference sites as a potential benchmark for large‐scale biomonitoring. Our purpose was to assess the stability of community structure, based on the representation of taxa and of traits, across large gradients of geology (sedimentary to granitic), altitude (65–1982 m), geographical coordinates (0° 48′ W to 7° 20′ E and 42° 52′ to 48° 44′ N), stream order (1–5) and slope (0.5–60‰).
• 2 We used invertebrate abundance data from the 62 most natural French stream sites available. These abundance data served to weight the occurrence of ‘biological’ traits, such as reproductive characteristics, mobility, resistance forms, food, feeding habits, respiration, and ‘ecological’ traits, such as preferences for temperature, trophic level, saprobity, biogeographic distribution, longitudinal zonation, substratum and current velocity.
• 3 Multivariate analyses of taxonomic composition demonstrated a clear site gradient from lowlands to uplands and from calcareous to granitic geology. In contrast, community structure based on both biological and ecological traits was stable across environmental gradients.
• 4 The frequency distribution of biological traits indicated that the stream benthos of the ‘reference sites’ had a mixture of categories which confirmed theoretical predictions for temporally stable and spatially variable habitats. A mixture of ecological trait categories also occurred at our reference sites. Thus, semi‐natural benthic macroinvertebrate communities are functionally diverse. Moreover, we included an initial application of these traits to a case of slightly to moderately polluted sites to show that the impact of humans significantly changes this natural functional diversity.
• 5 Future studies should focus on the potential for various biological and ecological traits to discriminate different human impacts on the benthic macroinvertebrates of running waters, and on the integration of this functional application into a general ‘reference‐condition’ approach.

     

Landscape patterns of indicator plants for soil acidity in the Bavarian Alps

Aim Electronic distribution atlases and lists of ecological indicator values are becoming important tools in plant geography. In this contribution, we combine a geographical and an ecological data bank, and map out patterns of indicator value spectra (instead of single or average values) across a physiographically complex landscape. For our study, we select indicators of soil pH and carbonate content as key environmental factors that strongly affect overall plant diversity patterns in the temperate zone. Our goal is to relate the distribution and diversity of plant groups that are indicators of soil pH and carbonate content to environmental controls at the landscape‐scale, and thus contribute to a causal understanding of species pools. Location We studied the Bavarian Alps, which represent the German portion of the Northern Alps. Methods Based on the existing floristic survey, we calculated relative frequencies of nine classes of indicator plants for soil pH and carbonate content in grid cells. The resulting attribute matrix (cells by indicator class frequencies) was subjected to principal components analysis and to k‐means clustering. Results were compared and mapped out in the grid array of the whole region, resulting in continuous and discrete representations of species pool structure. We used a geographical information system to derive physiographical landscape properties from a geological map and a digital elevation model, and analysed their statistical relationship with the shapes of indicator spectra. Results and Main conclusions Averages of indicator values for soil pH and carbonate content follow the geological structure quite closely. Surprisingly, the diversity of indicator plant groups does not appear to be a function of geological or topographic heterogeneity. Rather, it seems to be related to areas of high elevation with uniform geology. The effect is a matter of additional acidophytes in high mountain areas and, in the high calcareous Alps, extreme calciphytes, while species with intermediate requirements are rarer than usual. For explanation, we suggest two facts: (1) a frequent lack of mature soils at high elevations and (2) particularities in soil genetic processes occurring under the harsh climatic conditions of high mountains.     

Benefits of increased colonist quantity and genetic diversity for colonization depend on colonist identity

Larger numbers of colonists can be more likely to establish and spread due to the benefits provided by either more individuals (quantity) or a greater diversity of genotypes or phenotypes (genetic diversity). However, the value of higher colonist quantity or genetic diversity varies widely across studies, leaving a great deal of uncertainty in how these respective mechanisms affect colonization success. This variability is potentially driven by differences in which traits are present in respective colonist pools (‘colonist identity’). Studies with high‐performing colonizers (e.g. genotypes pre‐adapted to the colonizing environment) may find increasing quantity or diversity to be beneficial because it increases the chance high‐performers are sampled, while studies with no high‐performers may find no effects of quantity or diversity. Alternatively, quantity and genetic diversity may play little to no role if the smallest populations already contain high‐performing colonists because there is no scope for a sampling effect to operate. We conducted a field mesocosm experiment to determine if variability in the benefits provided by increased quantity or genetic diversity relates to colonist traits. Nine distinct genotypes of Daphnia pulex characterized also by phenotype, were introduced in ‘single’ (one individual) or ‘many’ (nine individuals) introduction quantities and at ‘low’ (monoclonal) and ‘high’ (mixed genotypes) genetic diversities. We found that larger‐bodied D. pulex genotypes benefited less from increased colonist quantity, while increasing genetic diversity tended to have a lower effect on higher growth rate genotypes. Our results show that the trait values of the colonists can determine the benefits gained when colonist quantity or genetic diversity are increased, with potential applications to future research and practical efforts to promote, or prevent, population establishment.     

Soil organic matter accounting in the carbon footprint analysis of the wine chain

Purpose

Concerns about global warming led to the calculation of the carbon footprint (CF) left by human activities. The agricultural sector is a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, though cropland soils can also act as sinks. So far, most LCA studies on agricultural products have not considered changes in soil organic matter (SOM). This paper aimed to: (1) integrate the Hénin–Dupuis SOM model into the CF study and (2) outline the impacts of different vineyard soil management scenarios on the overall CF.

Methods

A representative wine chain in the Maremma Rural District, Tuscany (Italy), made up of a cooperative winery and nine of its associated farms, was selected to investigate the production of a non-aged, high-quality red wine. The system boundary was established from vineyard planting to waste management after use. The functional unit (FU) chosen for this study was a 0.75-L bottle of wine, and all data refer to the year 2009. The SOM balance, based on Hénin–Dupuis’ equation, was integrated and run using GaBi4 software. A sensitivity analysis was performed, and four scenarios were developed to assess the impact of vineyard soil management types with decreasing levels of organic matter inputs.

Results and discussion

SOM accounting reduced the overall CF of one wine bottle from 0.663 to 0.531 kg CO₂-eq/FU. The vineyard planting sub-phase produced a loss of SOM while, in the pre-production and production sub-phases, the loss/accumulation of SOM was related to the soil management practices. On average, soil management in the production sub-phase led to a net accumulation of SOM, and the overall vineyard phase was a sink of CO₂. Residue incorporation and grassing were identified as the main factors affecting changes in SOM in vineyard soils.

Conclusions

Our results showed that incorporating SOM accounting into the wine chain’s CF analysis changed the vineyard phase from a GHG source to a modest net GHG sink. These results highlighted the need to include soil C dynamics in the CF of the agricultural product. Here, the SOM balance method proposed was sensitive to changes in management practices and was site specific. Moreover, we were also able to define a minimum data set for SOM accounting. The EU recognises soil carbon sequestration as one of the major European strategies for mitigation. However, specific measures have yet to be included in the CAP 2020. It would be desirable to include soil in the new ISO 14067—Carbon Footprint of Products.     

Vitex agnus‐castus cannot be used as trap plant for the vector Hyalesthes obsoletus to prevent infections by ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ in northern Italian vineyards: Experimental evidence

Bois noir (BN), the most prevalent disease of the grapevine yellows complex, causes considerable yield loss in vineyards. BN is associated with phytoplasma strains of the species ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ (taxonomic subgroup 16SrXII‐A). In Europe, the BN phytoplasma is transmitted to grapevine mainly by Hyalesthes obsoletus, a polyphagous cixiid completing its life cycle on stinging nettle and field bindweed. As a result of the complexity of BN epidemiology, no effective control strategies have been developed. In previous studies conducted in the eastern Mediterranean coast of Israel, chaste tree (Vitex agnus‐castus) was found to be the preferred host plant of H. obsoletus but did not harbour BN phytoplasma. Thus, a ‘push and pull’ strategy was suggested based on the fact that chaste tree plants located at vineyard borders was an effective trap plant for H. obsoletus adults. However, in other studies carried out in the eastern Adriatic coast of Montenegro, chaste tree was found to be a key source plant for BN phytoplasma transmission to grapevine. This study aimed to investigate (i) the interaction between chaste tree and H. obsoletus through survival, attractiveness and oviposition experiments conducted comparing the behaviour of H. obsoletus in chaste tree versus stinging nettle and grapevine and (ii) the capability of chaste tree to harbor ‘Ca. P. solani’ in northern Italy through transmission trials. H. obsoletus adults were found to survive on chaste tree and grapevine over a 1 week period and prefer chaste tree to grapevine. Moreover, H. obsoletus produced eggs and overwintered as nymphs on chaste tree, even if at a lesser extent than on stinging nettle. H. obsoletus originating from nettle was found able to transmit ‘Ca. P. solani’ to chaste tree (2 plants of 16 were found infected by the BN phytoplasma strain St5 identified in H. obsoletus specimens). These results increased our knowledge about the role of Vitex agnus‐castus as host plant of H. obsoletus and BN phytoplasma in northern Italy and do not recommend considering chaste tree as trap plant at vineyard borders.     

Effects of vineyard management on biotic homogenization of insect–flower interaction networks in the Cape Floristic Region biodiversity hotspot

Plant and animal communities, as well as their interaction networks in agricultural landscapes, face threats of biotic homogenization due mostly to intensive management and cropland expansion. It is unclear whether agri-environmental schemes that promote environmentally friendly farming approaches can reduce the effects of these threats which cause reduction in regional (beta) diversity. Here, we examined biotic homogenization of insect–flower interactions in vineyards managed under agri-environmental schemes in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR). The interaction networks studied are of significant conservation value in the fragmented CFR agricultural landscape. Assessment was done using permutational distance-based test for homogeneity of multivariate dispersion to determine whether vineyards contributed to loss of diversity across the landscape through homogenization of their insect–flower interaction networks and flower visitor community. Vineyards did not show significant homogenization of interaction networks and flower-visitor community when compared to natural sites. Organic viticulture, integrated vineyard management and on-going protection of natural vegetation close to vineyards, as practiced in the CFR, are possibly contributing to the reduction in biotic homogenization observed here. Further vineyard expansion must however be prevented to avoid future biotic losses. These measures should be supported by all stakeholders in the conservation sector to achieve wine production while at the same time conserving the natural complement of biodiversity.     

The influence of geographical and ecological factors on island beta diversity patterns

Aim To investigate the importance of various island characteristics in determining spatial patterns of variations in beta diversity for various animal groups. Location Analyses are presented for 10 animal groups living on the Aeolian Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the central Mediterranean, near Sicily. Methods Three hypotheses were formulated to explain patterns of beta diversity: the target‐area–distance effect, stepping stone dispersal and island age. Matrices of inter‐island dissimilarities were constructed under each hypothesis and correlated with matrices of faunal dissimilarities using Mantel tests. For the ‘target‐area–distance effect’ hypothesis, inter‐island dissimilarities were calculated using island sizes and distances to nearest mainland areas. For the ‘stepping stone dispersal’ hypothesis, inter‐island distances were measured. Finally, for the ‘island age’ hypothesis, inter‐island dissimilarities were calculated on the basis of the geological age of the islands. Cluster analysis was used to investigate inter‐island faunal relationships. Results Support for a target‐area–distance effect was found only for birds. For these highly mobile animals, inter‐island distances had no significant effects on beta diversity. Birds are known to colonize islands by crossing large sea barriers and thus they can easily reach the Aeolian Islands, which are close to source areas (notably Sicily). Inter‐island distances had a significant role in determining patterns of beta diversity in most invertebrates. For Mollusca, Opiliones, Chilopoda, Heteroptera, coprophagous Scarabaeoidea, and Tenebrionidae, even relatively short distances preclude invertebrates from colonizing an island regularly from the mainland, and most colonization probably results from inter‐island faunal exchanges. Island age was proved to be important only for orthopterans. Main conclusions The origin of most of the Aeolian invertebrate fauna is quite recent, and species appear to have established on the islands predominantly by stepping stone dispersal. Birds, which are highly mobile organisms, follow more direct mainland–island dynamics. As further studies on other islands become available, comparative analyses will confirm whether the factors influencing variations in beta diversity in this study and their relationships with species dispersal ability are consistent across scales and geographical context.     

Scale and trends in species richness: considerations for monitoring biological diversity for political purposes

Switzerland's governmental ‘Biodiversity Monitoring’ program is designed to produce factual information on the dynamics of biodiversity within the country for governmental agencies, politicians, and the general public. Monitoring a complex issue like biodiversity in order to give relevant and accurate messages to the general public and politicians within a politically relevant timescale and at moderate cost means focusing on few elements. Because relevant human impacts on biodiversity operate differently at different spatial scales, we need at least three different indicators to observe changes over time in local (‘within‐habitat’), landscape (‘habitat‐mosaic’), and macro‐scale (‘regional’) diversity. To keep things as simple as possible, we use species richness as an indicator for all three levels of diversity, just defining three different spatial scales (10 m², 1 km², regions, respectively). Each indicator is based on a number of taxonomic groups which have been selected mainly on the basis of costs and the availability of appropriate methods.     

Surface-active arthropods in organic vineyards,integrated vineyards and natural habitat in the Cape Floristic Region

The Cape Floristic Region (CFR), South Africa, is a biodiversity hotspot challenged by intensive wine production. Innovative approaches are being explored to optimize wine production without compromising biodiversity. As organic farming enhances biodiversity conservation in many other regions, the aim here was to assess the potential of organic vineyard management for conserving CFR soil surface arthropod diversity. Pitfall traps were used to sample arthropods in three study areas, each of which included an organic vineyard, an integrated vineyard and a natural vegetation reference habitat. Overall arthropod morphospecies richness was highest in natural sites, followed by organic vineyards and then integrated vineyards. The same trend was seen for predators, saprophages and phytophages. The ability of organic vineyards to sustain more morphospecies than integrated vineyards were partially due to higher non-crop vegetation complexity and less intense management in the organic vineyards. Arthropod assemblages were similar in organic and integrated vineyards, while both land-uses differed greatly from natural sites. Variation among natural vegetation assemblages in different study areas was also much greater than among assemblages of cultivated sites. Organic vineyard management has the potential to make an important contribution to arthropod conservation in the CFR at the field scale. However, at the landscape scale, natural habitat supports a much wider variety of morphospecies, and the preservation of natural fragments in the vineyard landscape may be the most effective measure to increase biodiversity in the winelands.     

A structural comparison of ‘real’ and ‘model’ calmodulin clarified allosteric interactions regulating domain motion

Calmodulin (CaM) is a multifunctional calcium-binding protein, which regulates various biochemical processes. CaM acts via structural changes and complex forming with its target enzymes. CaM has two globular domains (N-lobe and C-lobe) connected by a long linker region. Upon calcium binding, the N-lobe and C-lobe undergo local conformational changes, after that, entire CaM wraps the target enzyme through a large conformational change. However, the regulation mechanism, such as allosteric interactions regulating the conformational changes, is still unclear. In order to clarify the allosteric interactions, in this study, experimentally obtained ‘real’ structures are compared to ‘model’ structures lacking the allosteric interactions. As the allosteric interactions would be absent in calcium-free CaM (apo-CaM), allostery-eliminated calcium-bound CaM (holo-CaM) models were constructed by combining the apo-CaM’s linker and the holo-CaM’s N- and C-lobe. Before the comparison, the ‘real’ and ‘model’ structures were clustered and cluster–cluster relationship was determined by a principal component analysis. The structures were compared based on the relationship, then, a distance map and a contact probability analysis clarified that the inter-domain motion is regulated by several groups of inter-domain contacting residue pairs. The analyses suggested that these residues cause inter-domain translation and rotation, and as a consequence, the motion encourage structural diversity. The resultant diversity would contribute to the functional versatility of CaM.     

Hierarchical partitioning of ant diversity: implications for conservation of biogeographical diversity in arid and semi‐arid areas

Aim The scale of observation is important in detecting the spatial variation of biological assemblages, which should be taken into consideration for an appropriate plan of biogeographical conservation. We investigated whether (1) World Wildlife Fund’s ecoregion units are the appropriate scale for conserving ant diversity in Iran, (2) each ecoregion represents a distinct ant community composition and (3) patterns of diversity partitioning differ among four ecoregions. Location Iran, a sampling transect along four arid and semi‐arid ecoregions. Methods We applied hierarchical partitioning to data collected from a nested sampling design including four hierarchical levels: ‘local’, ‘landscape’, ‘ecoregional’ and ‘whole‐region’. Observed alpha and beta diversity components were compared with values of null distributions. Hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to evaluate similarity of ant species composition among ecoregions. Results Partitioning of whole‐region species richness showed that 85% of the species richness was generated by beta diversity among ecoregions and landscapes. The highest value of diversity was generated by beta diversity among ecoregions. Unlike whole‐region partitioning, separate partitioning within each ecoregion revealed that beta component among localities contributed to species richness of each ecoregion. Ecoregions showed different patterns of diversity partitioning. The alpha component contributed largely to the total diversity of two ecoregions, but for two other ecoregions, beta component contributed more than alpha component. Cluster analysis identified four discrete ant species compositions; however, it split landscapes of one ecoregion into two distinct groups. Main conclusions Whole‐region diversity partitioning indicates that ecoregions represent the appropriate scale for conserving ant diversity and that each ecoregion has a distinct ant fauna. However, different conservation strategies should be considered for different ecoregions owing to the differing scales of variation within them. Boundaries of ecoregions remain a subject for further studies. The influence of climate change on ecoregional boundaries should be considered and should be predicted with respect to future conservation maps.