The relative importance of climatic effects, wildfires and management for future forest landscape dynamics in the Swiss Alps

Forest landscape dynamics result from the complex interaction of driving forces and ecological processes operating on various scales. Projected climate change for the 21st century will alter climate‐sensitive processes, causing shifts in species composition and also bringing about changes in disturbance regimes, particularly regarding wildfires. Previous studies of the impact of climate change on forests have focused mainly on the direct effects of climate. In the present study, we assessed the interactions among forest dynamics, climate change and large‐scale disturbances such as fire, wind and forest management. We used the Land Clim model to investigate the influence, interactions and the relative importance of these different drivers of landscape dynamics in two case study areas of the European Alps. The simulations revealed that projected future climate change would cause extensive forest cover changes, beginning in the coming decades. Fire is likely to become almost as important for shaping the landscape as the direct effects of climate change, even in areas where major wildfires do not occur under current climatic conditions. The effects of variable wind disturbances and harvesting regimes, however, are less likely to have a considerable impact on forest development compared with the direct effects of climate change coupled with the indirect effects of increased fire activity. We conclude that the joint direct and indirect effects of climate change are likely to have major consequences for mountain forests in the European Alps, including their ability to provide protection against natural hazards.     

Does loss of mass during breeding correlate with reproductive success? A study on Blue Tits Parus caeruleus

Substantial loss of mass of female Blue Tits Parus cueruleus during breeding is commonly explained by three not mutually exclusive explanations: shrinking of gonadal tissues, cost of reproduction and adaptation to save energy during flight. This study showed that loss of body mass was inversely correlated with reproductive success of individual females. Female tarsus length and timing of breeding correlated with loss of body mass, whereas ectoparasite loading had no significant effect on body mass. Loss of body mass during the rearing of young could be a useful measure of cost of reproduction by accounting for individual variation in female quality.     

First Guyana records, natural history and systematics of the White-naped Seedeater Dolospingus fringilloides

We report the first records of the White-naped Seedeater Dolospingus fringilloides for Guyana, provide new information on its natural history and plumage sequences, and clarify its systematic relationships based on DNA sequence data. Dolospingus is a rare and patchily distributed endemic of white-sand scrub of the Guianan shield region. Phylogenetic analyses of a broad sampling of emberizine cytochrome b sequences identified a 'seed finch' clade consisting of the genera Sporophila , Oryzoborus and Dolospingus with 100% bootstrap support. More intensive maximum-likelihood (ML) and Bayesian analyses conducted with a reduced data set indicated strong support for the same 'seed finch' clade, but could not distinguish the three genera. In the optimal ML trees, Dolospingus and Oryzoborus were nested within Sporophila , and the two Oryzoborus sequences did not cluster together. However, resolution within the seed-finch clade was weak, so the possibility that all three genera are monophyletic cannot be excluded on the basis of the available molecular data. Thus, whether to group these genera on the basis of genetic similarity or retain them on the basis of diagnostic bill and skull differences will remain a matter of preference until a more fully resolved phylogeny of the seed-finch clade is achieved.     

Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) as a Reporter Gene for the Plant Pathogenic Oomycete Phytophthora ramorum

ABSTRACT. Transgenic Phytophthora ramorum strains that produce green fluorescent protein (GFP) constitutively were obtained after stable DNA integration using a polyethylene glycol and CaCl₂-based transformation protocol. Green fluorescent protein production was studied in developing colonies and in different propagules of the pathogen to evaluate its use in molecular and physiological studies. About 12% of the GFP transformants produced GFP to a level detectable by a confocal laser scanning microscope. Green fluorescent protein could be visualized in structures with vital protoplasm, such as hyphal tips and germinating cysts. In infection studies with Rhododendron , one of the GFP expressing strains showed aggressiveness equal to that of the corresponding non-labelled isolate. Thus, GFP could be used as a reporter gene in P. ramorum . Limitations of the technology are discussed.