Indirect effects in a desert plant community: is competition among annuals more intense under shrub canopies?

An unresolved discussion in contemporary ecology deals with the relative importance of competition along environmental gradients. In deserts, local-scale differences in environmental productivity may be caused by the presence of shrubs, which represent a favorable habitat for annual populations within a nutrient-poor matrix. In this study, we attempted to test the hypothesis that facilitation of desert annuals by shrubs increase the intensity of competition among the annual plants. Such negative indirect effects have so far been ignored in studies about plant-plant interactions. We tested our hypothesis by measuring seedling survival and fecundity of four abundant annual plant species with and without neighbors in open areas and under shrub canopies in a sandy desert area. Our findings did not indicate indirect negative effects of shrubs on their understory annuals. Sensitivity to the presence of neighbors varied between species and surprisingly, the species with the smallest seeds was the only one which was not negatively affected by the presence of neighbors. In contrast to our hypothesis, there was no difference between the habitat types shrubs and openings in absolute and relative competition intensity. Our overall results suggest that negative indirect effects of shrubs are unimportant in determining demographic response of understory annual plants.     

阿拉善荒漠啮齿类动物地理分布的GIS 分析

The rodents were investigated with trap-day method in Mashan Desert of Inner Mongolia from August to September 1998 and 1999. Sixty-five sites were selected according to conditions of vegetation, landform, topography and soil. The area of the site was 10 ha in which 400 - 500 traps were arranged. There were 1019 samples captured with 31 469 effective trap-days in all sites.The results showed that Meriones meridianus was a typical dominant species and Euchoreutes naso was one of representative rodents in Mashan Desert. The Mashan Desert was a new distribution region of Salpingotus crassicauda in China. Therefore, geographical distribution of the three rodents was analyzed with Map-info Professional 6.5 software of GIS (Geographical Information System).The results showed that the distribution maps of the three rodents, which were obtained on the basis of GIS, not only told the information of prophetical distribution of the three rodents in Mashan Desert, but also reported information of the rodents‘ distribution affected by habitat change, which can not be obtained by traditional site-distribution ways. This result can be used as scientific foundation for perfecting research design and monitoring harmful rodents in future.     

塔里木河中下游地区荒漠河岸林群落种间关系分析

采用 2× 2列联表, 应用Fisher精确检验法研究了新疆塔里木河中下游荒漠河岸林群落种间关系, 测定了16种植物、共 12 0个种对的种间联结性。研究结果表明 :1) 12 0个种对中有 17个种对分别在不同的样方尺度中表现出显著或极显著的种间联结, 约占总数的 14.2 % ;其中 13个种对为正关联, 4个种对为负关联 ;2 ) 不同取样面积对种间联结性分析的有效性有影响, 不同种对表现出种间联结的最小样方尺度不同 ;3) 随着样方面积的增大, 各种对自有不同的种间联结变化规律, 可归纳为 4种类型 ;4 ) 17个具种间联结的种对以灌木草本和草本草本的种对居多, 占总数的 76.5 % ;主要乔木树种胡杨 (Populuseuphratica) 与灌木之间、灌木和灌木之间趋向独立分布。     

Spatial structure and dynamics of breeding bird populations at a distribution margin,southern California

Aim Local‐scale processes at species distribution margins can affect larger‐scale distribution dynamics, but are rarely studied. The objective of this research was to elucidate the nature of distribution limits by studying the comparative structure, dynamics and environmental associations of breeding bird populations at their distribution margin. We hypothesized that climate is principally responsible for setting distribution limits, whereas biotic habitat features are more strongly associated with distribution patterns within the range. Location Southern California, USA. Methods During 2005–2007 we studied the distribution patterns of breeding birds in three study areas, each spanning a low‐elevation (200–1800 m) desert scrub‐to‐chaparral gradient. We used logistic regression with hierarchical partitioning to assess the independent effects of environmental variables (e.g. climate versus habitat) on distributions. We tested for shifts in the relative importance of these environmental variables in determining distribution limits versus within‐range patterns, and we also compared higher‐ and lower‐elevation groups of species. Results Distribution patterns were highly variable among species, but were remarkably static over the three study areas and 3‐year study period. Across species, habitat floristic variables performed relatively well at explaining distribution patterns. For higher‐elevation species (chaparral birds), climate was relatively important in setting their lower distribution limits, and there was a shift to a greater importance of biotic habitat (mainly habitat structural variables) for determining within‐range patterns. Relationships were more mixed for lower‐elevation species (desert scrub birds), but with respect to distribution limits, biotic habitat variables tended to be more important relative to climate than we observed for chaparral birds. Main conclusions Along this warm, arid elevational gradient, higher‐elevation chaparral birds are more limited by climate at their lower margin than are lower‐elevation desert birds at their upper margin, suggesting that climate plays a strong role (relative to other values) in excluding non‐desert birds from desert. However, given the strong differences among species, predictive distribution models will need to be individually tailored, and for most species biotic habitat variables were of greater importance than climate in determining limits. This research highlights the usefulness of studying environmental relationships at distribution margins and the importance of considering biotic relationships in forecasting distribution shifts under changing climates.     

Multiscale responses of soil stability and invasive plants to removal of non-native grazers from an arid conservation reserve

Disturbances and ecosystem recovery from disturbance both involve numerous processes that operate on multiple spatial and temporal scales. Few studies have investigated how gradients of disturbance intensity and ecosystem responses are distributed across multiple spatial resolutions and also how this relationship changes through time during recovery. We investigated how cover of non-native species and soil-aggregate stability (a measure of vulnerability to erosion by water) in surface and subsurface soils varied spatially during grazing by burros and cattle and whether patterns in these variables changed after grazer removal from Mojave National Preserve, California, USA. We compared distance from water and number of ungulate defecations — metrics of longer-term and recent grazing intensity, respectively, — as predictors of our response variables. We used information-theoretic analyses to compare hierarchical linear models that accounted for important covariates and allowed for interannual variation in the disturbance–response relationship at local and landscape scales. Soil stability was greater under perennial vegetation than in bare interspaces, and surface soil stability decreased with increasing numbers of ungulate defecations. Stability of surface samples was more affected by time since removal of grazers than was stability of subsurface samples, and subsurface soil stability in bare spaces was not related to grazing intensity, time since removal, or any of our other predictors. In the high rainfall year (2003) after cattle had been removed for 1–2 years, cover of all non-native plants averaged nine times higher than in the low-rainfall year (2002). Given the heterogeneity in distribution of large-herbivore impacts that we observed at several resolutions, hierarchical analyses provided a more complete understanding of the spatial and temporal complexities of disturbance and recovery processes in arid ecosystems.     

Phototrophic Community in Gypsum Crust from the Atacama Desert Studied by Raman Spectroscopy and Microscopic Imaging

The hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert represents one of the driest places on Earth with an exceptional occurrence of microbial life coping with extreme environmental stress factors. The gypsum crusts have already been found to harbor diverse communities in this area. Here, we present a Raman spectroscopic study, complemented by correlative microscopic imaging using SEM-BSE and fluorescence microscopy, of the endolithic microbial communities inside the Ca-sulphate crusts dominated by phototrophic microorganisms. Differences of pigment composition within different zones follow the cyanobacterial and algal colonization and also reveal the degradation of phycobiliproteins within the decayed biomass of cyanobacteria. Carotenoids of at least three different types were recognized, differing in dependence on the particular phylum of phototrophic microorganisms. Moreover, calcium oxalate monohydrate – whewellite – was found to be associated with the algae and hyphal associations living in the lower regions of the crust. The 785 nm excitation wavelength employed here was found to be the correct source for studying pigment composition as well as for the detection of the oxalate. A comparison of these results with those using 514.5 nm laser excitation which is widely adopted for the detection of carotenoids due to the resonance Raman effect is made and discussed.     

Noninvasive Identification of Herpetofauna: Pairing Conservation Dogs and Genetic Analysis

Noninvasive fecal sampling combined with genetic analysis is a technique allowing the study of elusive or otherwise difficult to monitor species without the need for direct contact. Although this method is widely used in birds and mammals, it has never been successfully applied on a large scale in reptiles. The blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila) is an endangered species endemic to the San Joaquin Desert, California, USA. Presently, acquiring data on the species for research and management involves more traditional methods such as live capture or visual surveys, the latter of which are required for regulatory monitoring in accordance with wildlife agency protocols. We used an approach for gathering additional information that combines conservation detection dogs trained to locate blunt-nosed leopard lizard scat samples with genetic analysis for identifying and distinguishing among sympatric lizard species. We developed 2 polymerase chain reaction assays that produce fluorescently labelled amplicons of species-specific fragment length for 6 lizard species in the study area. Using these assays, we genetically identified to species 78% (255 of 327) of samples collected by dog-handler teams across 4 years. The majority of the genetically identified samples (82.4%; 210 of 255) were confirmed as originating from blunt-nosed leopard lizards. Although an assessment of the viability of detection dogs in regulatory monitoring efforts is required, our ability to recover usable DNA and to differentiate among a diverse group of lizards highlights the broad potential of our methodology for noninvasive sampling in reptiles. © 2019 The Authors. The Journal of Wildlife Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Wildlife Society.     

Survival of Adult Female Bighorn Sheep Following a Pneumonia Epizootic

Beginning in the early 1900s, poly-factorial, poly-microbial pneumonia was identified as a disease affecting bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) and it continues to threaten bighorn populations, posing an ongoing management challenge. In May and June 2013, a pneumonia outbreak linked to the pathogen Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae led to an all-age die-off of desert bighorn sheep (O. c. nelsoni) at Old Dad Peak in the Kelso Mountains of the Mojave Desert in California, USA. Subsequently, we observed clinical signs of respiratory disease among bighorn sheep in multiple neighboring ranges. Our objective was to investigate post-outbreak survival of adult female bighorn across 9 populations from 2014 to 2017 in the Mojave Desert and evaluate the relationship between M. ovipneumoniae infection and survival, while testing effects of range factors that could potentially influence differences in adult female survival (i.e., forage quality, winter precipitation, population abundance). We fitted adult females with radio-collars following the outbreak and collected serum and nasal swab samples for competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing to determine exposure and infection status at time of capture. We tracked survival of 115 adult females with radio-collars and used the known-fate model in Program MARK to evaluate effects and estimate survival from November 2013 to March 2017. Annual survival was negatively correlated with positive infection status at capture but varied across populations with respect to differences in range conditions. Summer and autumn forage quality, as represented by mean normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values for summer and autumn, was positively correlated with overwinter survival, whereas winter precipitation (a proxy for winter severity) was negatively correlated with overwinter survival. Population abundance was negatively correlated with annual survival, suggesting a potential density-dependent effect. Model-averaged annual survival estimates ranged from 0.700 ± 0.07 (SE) to 0.945 ± 0.026 for infected individuals and 0.896 ± 0.03 to 0.983 ± 0.011 for uninfected individuals. We conclude that summer and autumn forage quality, indexed by NDVI, may partially offset the negative effect associated with M. ovipneumoniae infection on host survival. Our survival modeling results suggest that chronic infection may have afflicted adult females that were PCR-positive (i.e., infected with M. ovipneumoniae) at time of capture. We propose programmatic re-testing of infected individuals to assess pathogen persistence at the individual level and evaluate whether selective culling might potentially help to reduce prevalence and transmission within populations. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.