Bioactive lichen metabolites: alpine habitats as an untapped source

Lichens are fungal and algal/cyanobacterial symbioses resulting in the production of specific metabolites. Some of these are forming an available biomass for phytochemical investigations, including the assessment of biological activities of the isolated compounds. The alpine or polar region are characterised by highly stressful environmental conditions for many organisms, but lichens are among the dominating organisms in these habitats. In the performant mutual protective system, lichen fungi often accumulate high amounts of metabolites with specific physicochemical properties (UV absorbents, hydrophobicity) which help the lichens to survive. Unique secondary metabolites and polysaccharides have been isolated and tested from these organisms. Even though this has been tested until now only with a low number of compounds so far, interesting activities have been recorded. We review here some of the antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative and antioxidant activities properties described. Solutions with axenic biotechnological cultivation of each symbiotic partner and particularly the mycobiont to obtain the lichen secondary metabolites are challenging to overcome the limitations for the supply of these rare compounds. Additionally, these lichens appear to harbour a diversity of culturable microorganisms from which active compounds have also been isolated recently.     

Food–niche relationships within a guild of alpine ungulates including an introduced species

To assess competition for trophic resources within a guild of ungulates, we studied the food niches of sympatric ungulates in an alpine area of the Italian Western Alps and evaluated the extent of their dietary overlap, especially with regard to the presence of the introduced mouflon Ovis musimon . The roe deer Capreolus capreolus had the most diverse diet including dicotyledons, young sprouts of trees and an unusually high percentage of graminoids. The red deer Cervus elaphus and chamois Rupicapra rupricapra mainly consumed graminoids, supplemented with dicotyledonous herbs and woody plants. The mouflon was a grass feeder, with graminoids representing the majority of items ingested in all seasons. Among the native species, we recorded a high overlap of feeding choices between red deer and chamois, which frequently used the same areas and are both intermediate feeders. The mouflon showed considerable dietary overlap with the chamois and red deer in all seasons, while the similarity with roe deer was low. High food–niche overlap can imply competition but only if resources are limited and the species use the same habitats.     

Hemiparasite abundance in an alpine treeline ecotone increases in response to atmospheric CO2 enrichment

Populations of the annual hemiparasites Melampyrum pratense L. and Melampyrum sylvaticum L. were studied at the treeline in the Swiss Alps after 3 years of in situ CO₂ enrichment. The total density of Melampyrum doubled to an average of 44 individuals per square meter at elevated CO₂ compared to ambient CO₂. In response to elevated CO₂, the height of the more abundant and more evenly distributed M. pratense increased by 20%, the number of seeds per fruit by 21%, and the total seed dry mass per fruit by 27%, but the individual seed size did not change. These results suggest that rising atmospheric CO₂ may stimulate the reproductive output and increase the abundance of Melampyrum in the alpine treeline ecotone. Because hemiparasites can have important effects on community dynamics and ecosystem processes, notably the N cycle, changing Melampyrum abundance may potentially influence the functioning of alpine ecosystems in a future CO₂-rich atmosphere.     

Spatial variation in diurnal surface temperatures and the distribution and abundance of an alpine grasshopper

We studied the influence of spatial differences in diurnal surface temperatures due to topography on an alpine grasshopper (Aeropedellus clavatus). Temperature measurements on east-and west-facing alpine dry meadow slopes on Niwot Ridge in Colorado demonstrated a significant difference in diurnal surface temperatures between the two slopes throughout the growing season. A. clavatus body temperature was found to be highly correlated with nearby shaded surface temperature, and individual grasshoppers enclosed on the two slopes had significantly higher relative growth rates on the warmer east slope. Temperature effects were manifest at the population level as well. A. clavatus was significantly more abundant on the east-facing than on the west-facing slope, despite similar vegetation in both areas. This study contributes to our understanding of the myriad of factors governing insect distribution and abundance by attempting to integrate the physiological and ecological, abiotic and biotic, influences on both individuals and populations.     

Fine scale patterning of species distributions in a saxicolous lichen community at Jonas Rockslide, Canadian Rocky Mountains

Distinct patterns of species distribution upon individual rockfaces are found n a saxicolous lichen community growing on a rockslide in the Canadian Rockies. A grid system was used for sampling individual rockfaces and the likelihood of finding a species on particular parts of the rockface was analysed. Use of chemicals in the field and collection of apothecia allowed specific identification of individual lichen thalli. Lichens were divisible into three groups: those which are distributed apparently at random over the rockfaces, those which are more likely to occur on upper, outer and southerly portions of the rockfaces and those which are found more often on lower, inner and northerly portions of the rockfaces. The upper rockface surfaces are often snow-free in winter while the lower rockface group experiences deeper and more persistent snow cover. Simple microclimatic measurements suggest that temperature also differs across the surface of a rockface.
It is hypothesised that lichen distributions are at least in part explained by ecophysiological adaptations to their particular microhabitat, while it is recognised that competition may also play a role in community organisation.     

新疆托木尔峰国家级自然保护区岩面生地衣群落数量分类及其与环境相关性

采用样地法对新疆托木尔峰国家级自然保护区岩面生地衣群落的种类组成进行调查和统计,并以各种类的盖度为指标、应用双向指示种分析( TWINSPAN)和除趋势对应分析( DCA)对岩面生地衣群落进行数量分类;采用S?rensen相似性系数分析各群丛的物种相似性;此外,应用典范对应分析( CCA)探讨了岩面生地衣种类分布与环境因子间的关系。结果表明：该保护区岩面生地衣群落共包含58种地衣,隶属于6目18科35属;优势科有5个,包含的属、种数量分别占该保护区岩面生地衣属、种总数的42.86%和62.07%。依据TWINSPAN和DCA分析结果并结合生境特征,可将该保护区岩面生地衣群落划分为5个群丛：群丛 A,包氏微孢衣+双缘衣群丛( Assoc. Acarospora bohlinii+Diploschistes scruposus);群丛 B,油黄茶渍+亚白平茶渍+柔扁枝衣群丛( Assoc. Candelariella oleifera+Aspicilia subalbicans+Evernia divaricata);群丛C ,斑纹网衣+旱梅衣+淡肤根石耳群丛( Assoc. Lecidea tessellata+Parmelia vegans+Umbilicaria verginis);群丛D,丽石黄衣+白泡鳞衣群丛( Assoc. Xanthoria elegans+Toninia candida);群丛E,皮果衣+硬袋衣群丛( Assoc. Dermatocarpon miniatum+Hypogymnia austerodes)。相似性分析结果表明：群丛A与群丛B、群丛C与群丛D间的物种相似性较高,相似性系数分别为0.615和0.733;群丛B与群丛C间的物种相似性次之,相似性系数为0.363;其他群丛间的物种相似性均较低。 CCA分析结果显示：该保护区岩面生地衣群落的物种分布受到海拔、光照强度、岩面pH值和相对湿度的影响。     

Site factors controlling epiphytic lichen abundance in northern coniferous forests

Epiphytic lichens are an important part of the vegetation of northern coniferous forests of Eurasia and North America. Much progress has been made during recent decades at disentangling relevant site factors, which control the diversity and distribution of epiphytic lichens in boreal and oroboreal forests. The present paper aims at summarizing the present state of knowledge. Relevant site factors include the microclimate, nutrient supply, structural diversity and, if applicable, air pollution. The continuity of site conditions decides over the presence of species with dispersal limitations. The effects of fire on epiphytic lichens are largely unstudied, although fire is an important ecological factor in boreal forests.     

Follicular recruitment in long-term hemicastrate rats

In the long-term hemicastrate rat, the total number of ova shed during estrus is the same as in the intact rat. To determine if the dynamics of follicular development are the same in the hemicastrate rat as in the intact control rat, the remaining ovary was removed from rats 20 to 30 days after hemiovariectomy. Complete serial sections of each ovary were prepared for histological examination. All follicles greater than or equal to 300 micrometers were counted, measured, and examined for signs of atresia. Long-term hemicastrate rats had a total complement of half as many healthy antral follicles compared to intact rats at estrus. At metestrus, there were half as many small and medium antral follicles in long-term hemicastrates as in controls. However, the total number of large antral follicles was the same in hemicastrate and intact rats. Thus, by metestrus, the appropriate number of follicles for ovulation appears to have been achieved in both animals, with all these large antral follicles located in the one remaining ovary of the hemicastrate rat, while they are distributed between both ovaries of the intact rat. Ovaries of the long-term hemicastrate rats contained far fewer attretic follicles than ovaries of intact rats. These findings suggest that the process of follicular recruitment differs greatly between intact and long-term hemicastrate rats. Atresia of small and medium antral follicles (300-400 micrometers in diameter) is apparently a necessary step in achieving the correct number of ovulatory follicles in the intact rat, yet the hemicastrate rat arrives at the correct number of ovulatory follicles without atresia.     

Seasonal and long-term changes in relative abundance of bull sharks from a tourist shark feeding site in Fiji

Shark tourism has become increasingly popular, but remains controversial because of major concerns originating from the need of tour operators to use bait or chum to reliably attract sharks. We used direct underwater sampling to document changes in bull shark Carcharhinus leucas relative abundance at the Shark Reef Marine Reserve, a shark feeding site in Fiji, and the reproductive cycle of the species in Fijian waters. Between 2003 and 2009, the total number of C. leucas counted on each day ranged from 0 to 40. Whereas the number of C. leucas counted at the feeding site increased over the years, shark numbers decreased over the course of a calendar year with fewest animals counted in November. Externally visible reproductive status information indicates that the species' seasonal departure from the feeding site may be related to reproductive activity.     

Relationship between species relative abundance and plant traits for an infertile habitat

This study tested whether differences in species abundance at an infertile site could be explained by differences in the species' plant traits. Nine traits were chosen for the analysis based on results of previous studies conducted across soil fertility gradients. The traits were measured for each of seven herbaceous species whose abundance ranged from 5% to 100% of locations occupied in a ridgetop habitat. Using linear regression, significant relationships were found between species relative abundance and each of five traits. In these relationships, a trait explained between 69% and 88% of interspecific variation in abundance. Relatively abundant species had a slower growth rate, smaller shoot mass, higher root to shoot ratio, slower loss of leaf tissue to herbivores and higher infection of roots by mycorrhizal fungi than less abundant species. Using three of these five traits (i.e. shoot mass, mycorrhizal infection and loss of leaf tissue to herbivores) as independent variables in a multiple regression equation explained 99% of interspecific variation in abundance. The latter result indicates that species relative abundance can be explained for a single habitat by choosing traits found to be related to species abundance in previous gradient studies. However, not every trait chosen was significantly related to species abundance. Therefore, a large number of traits may have to be chosen initially to ensure that some subset of these traits can explain species relative abundance.     

Relationship between reproductive allocation and relative abundance among 32 species of a Tibetan alpine meadow: effects of fertilization and grazing

Background

Understanding the relationship between species traits and species abundance is an important goal in ecology and biodiversity science. Although theoretical studies predict that traits related to performance (e.g. reproductive allocation) are most directly linked to species abundance within a community, empirical investigations have rarely been done. It also remains unclear how environmental factors such as grazing or fertilizer application affect the predicted relationship.

Methodology

We conducted a 3-year field experiment in a Tibetan alpine meadow to assess the relationship between plant reproductive allocation (RA) and species relative abundance (SRA) on control, grazed and fertilized plots. Overall, the studied plant community contained 32 common species.

Principal Findings

At the treatment level, (i) RA was negatively correlated with SRA on control plots and during the first year on fertilized plots. (ii) No negative RA–SRA correlations were observed on grazed plots and during the second and third year on fertilized plots. (iii) Seed size was positively correlated with SRA on control plots. At the plot level, the correlation between SRA and RA were not affected by treatment, year or species composition.

Conclusions/Significance

Our study shows that the performance-related trait RA can negatively affect SRA within communities, which is possibly due to the tradeoffs between clonal growth (for space occupancy) and sexual reproduction. We propose that if different species occupy different positions along these tradeoffs it will contribute to biodiversity maintenance in local communities or even at lager scale.     

Species relative abundance and direction of introgression in oaks

Successful hybridisation and subsequent introgression lead to the transfer of genetic material across species boundaries. In this process, species relative abundance can play a significant role. If one species is less abundant than the other, its females will receive many heterospecific gametes, increasing mate-recognition errors and thus hybridisation rate. Moreover, first-generation hybrids will also more likely mate with the more abundant species, leading to asymmetric introgression. These predictions have important fundamental consequences, especially during biological invasions or when a rare species threatened by extinction is surrounded by individuals from a related species. However, experimental tests in nature of the importance of the relative abundance of each species on hybridisation dynamics remain scarce. We assess here the impact of species relative abundance on hybridisation dynamics among four species from the European white oak species complex. A total of 2107 oak trees were genotyped at 10 microsatellite markers and Bayesian clustering methods were used to identify reference trees of each species. We then used these reference trees to simulate purebred and hybrid genotypes to determine optimal threshold for genetic assignment. With this approach, we found widespread evidence of hybridisation between all studied oak species, with high occurrence of hybrids, varying from 11% to 31% according to stand and sampling strategies. This finding suggests that hybridisation is a common phenomenon that plays a significant role in evolution of this oak species complex. In addition, we demonstrate a strong impact of species abundance on both hybridisation rate and introgression directionality.     

Herb abundance and life-history traits in two contrasting alpine habitats in southern Norway

Colonisation is often a critical stage in the life history of plants, and recruitment success is expected to have a strong impact on plant frequencies especially among herbs. Several plant traits (seed size, plant height, leaf dry weight and specific leaf area) are suggested to be functionally important in early life stages, and the impact of such traits is expected to increase with habitat harshness. In this comparative study we examine the relative role of different plant traits for herb community patterns on both a local and regional scale in two contrasting alpine ecosystems in southern Norway: (1) a sub-continental region with more dry and productive, base-rich soils (Ho1, Hallingdal) and (2) an oceanic region, with humid acidic soils (Setesdal). Differences in species richness between regions were mainly due to higher herb richness in the base-rich region (n=55) than in the acidic region (n=13). Among traits, herb species seed weight was higher at the acidic site. The relative importance of traits for explaining herb local abundance and regional distribution tended to be stronger at the acidic site. No trait had a significant effect at the base-rich site, although seed weight and seed number were marginally non-significant. Plant clonality was positively related to local abundance and marginally to regional distribution at the acidic site. Plant frequency-trait correlations were generally higher in the acidic region then in the base-rich region. There was further a (marginal) increase of herbs with large seeds and with a dependence on sexual reproduction with increasing pH levels in Ho1. Soil pH was also the most important environmental variable for herb richness in Ho1, while no environmental variable was significantly related to herb richness in Setesdal. The study suggests that recruitment through seed is critical for the alpine herb community patterns especially in harsh habitats. Possible explanations for recruitment constraints include both soil acidity (low pH and Ca levels in addition to possible aluminium toxicity) and disturbance through grazing.     

Interactions in an acarine predator guild: impact on Typhlodromalus aripo abundance and biological control of cassava green mite in Benin, West Africa

To determine the impact of an acarine predator guild on the abundance of a shared herbivorous prey and its principal exotic predator, a series of surveys were conducted in ca. 200 cassava fields in swamp and non-swamp areas in southwestern Benin, West Africa. For each field, the surveys provided data on the density of a pest arthropod, the cassava green mite Mononychellus tanajoa (Bondar), of an introduced and successfully established natural enemy, the apex-inhabiting predatory mite Typhlodromalus aripo DeLeon, and on occurrence of other predator species that inhabit the leaves and share the same prey. These other predators included one exotic species, Typhlodromalus manihoti Moraes, that is successfully established mainly in swamp areas, and two indigenous species, Euseius fustis (Pritchard and Baker) and Typhlodromalus saltus (Denmark and Matthysse), that are commonly found on cassava in Africa. Our aim was to assess the association between the density of M. tanajoa and that of T. aripo, the most successful predator in terms of establishment and abundance, and subsequently determine how this association was affected by the presence or absence of the other predator species. No obvious density-dependent relationship was found by inspecting the scattergrams of T. aripo versus M. tanajoa densities, but high T. aripo densities did not occur when M. tanajoa densities were low and--during the dry season in February--the densities of M. tanajoa steeply increased when T. aripo numbers were low. Given the establishment of T. aripo in all fields, the presence of other species of predatory mites (T. manihoti, both in swamp and non-swamp areas; T. saltus in absence--as well as presence--of T. manihoti in swamp areas; E. fustis in absence of T. manihoti in non-swamp areas) reduced the density of M. tanajoa by a factor 2-3. Thus in all these cases, the presence of an exotic or indigenous species of predatory mite in addition to T. aripo was associated with lower M. tanajoa density. The density of T. aripo was usually positively affected by the presence of other predator species except for T. saltus in presence of T. manihoti that negatively affected the density of T. aripo in swamp areas, an effect likely mediated by either intraguild predation or competition for food. Path analysis showed that indigenous phytoseiid species were more important in suppression of M. tanajoa populations in cassava fields than previously thought. We suggest that the lack of negative effects of the predator species complex is likely due to differential niche use by the various species which reduces interference among the predators. Manipulative experiments are, however, needed to provide details on the relative importance in M. tanajoa suppression by each species within this acarine predator guild.     

Prehistoric human influence on the abundance and distribution of deadwood in alpine landscapes

Scientists have long inferred the locations of past treelines from the distribution of deadwood above modern tree boundaries. Although it is recognized that deadwood above treeline may have decayed, the absence of such wood is routinely taken to imply the absence of trees for periods ranging from the past few millennia to the entire Holocene. Reconstructed treeline histories are then explained in terms of such variables as slope, drainage, temperature, solar insolation, and precipitation. While these variables certainly help determine where deadwood is to be found above treeline today, we suggest that they cannot always explain where it is not to be found. In the alpine environments of the western United States, archeological work has established a human presence during nearly the entire Holocene in portions of the Rocky Mountains and for over 5000 radiocarbon years in the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada. We suggest that prehistoric occupations may have stripped deadwood from the landscape in all of these areas. To the extent that this is true, reconstructions of past treelines from deadwood may reflect the human prehistory of an area as much as it reflects treeline history itself. We encourage evaluation of this hypothesis in areas of active dendrochronological and archeological research.     

Serine-specific tRNAs in Escherichia coli: relative abundance and sequence

Serine isoaccepting tRNAs were isolated from bulk tRNA of Escherichia coli by affinity chromatography on immobilized bacterial elongation factor Tu and their relative abundance was determined. The three major species, which are sufficient to read all six serine codons, were identified by sequencing. The sequence of a novel tRNASer with the anticodon GGA was elucidated.     

Species composition and relative abundance of copepods in Chilean fjords

We studied the species composition of copepods in the fjordregion, Isla Madre de Dios, Chile during October 1979. Fifteennew records for the fjords are cited. We found the antarcticcopepod Paraeuchaeta antarctica which is consistent with earlyrecords of other antarctic zooplankters in the area. The analysisof relative abundances shows that changes in dominance occuronly among four most abundant species of copepods.