Phylogenetic reconsideration of Myrmekiaphila systematics with a description of the new trapdoor spider species Myrmekiaphila tigris (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Cyrtaucheniidae, Euctenizinae) from Auburn, Alabama

The trapdoor spider genus Myrmekiaphila currently comprises 11 nominal species. A recent molecular phylogenetic evaluation of the group identified a number of problems with respect to how species and species groups were delineated by Bond and Platnick in their 2007 taxonomic revision of the genus. We report herein the discovery of a new species, Myrmekiaphila tigrissp. n. The phylogenetic position of the species is evaluated using a molecular phylogenetic approach based on a set of mtDNA markers. Our preferred phylogenetic hypothesis supports the recognition of a new species and further highlights the need to more carefully investigate species boundaries within the genus. These results further indicate that palpal bulb morphology is rapidly evolving and has likely been a contributing factor in rendering a number of species paraphyletic with respect to the molecular data.     

The trait and host plant ecology of aphids and their distribution and abundance in the United Kingdom

Aim We characterized the annual populations of 170 aphid species by their log abundance, site occupancy and site continuity (i.e. the persistence of species in time) and used this information to make predictions about groups of species that displayed characteristic patterns. By doing so, we aimed to identify commonalities in functional traits (host‐alternation; mode of reproduction; life‐cycle plasticity; median body size) and host plant geographic range sizes that may indicate why some species are common and others not. Location The population dynamics of winged aphids at 27 locations in the United Kingdom were studied. Methods The annual numbers of aphids were studied using a dataset comprising over 11 million individuals across 509 site‐years. Traits and host plants were analysed using linear mixed effects models and nonlinear regression models. Results Linear mixed effects models showed that the fixed effects of host alternation and winter host plant area of occupancy were important in predicting log abundance, site occupancy and site continuity. Life‐cycle plasticity was also a significant effect, although not for log abundance. Relationships between site continuity, site occupancy and log abundance were strongly nonlinear. Site continuity always lagged site occupancy, indicating that species were less likely to retain previously occupied sites when abundances were low. Main conclusions Aphid traits are a better paradigm than taxonomic relatedness in explaining macroecological patterns. Host alternation induces an annual flux of migrants that engenders higher annual log abundances, consistent with the theory that species with high local densities tend to confer a much wider distribution than those with low densities. The abundance of aphids is monotonically related to the geographic range size of their winter host, suggestive of a strong bottom‐up effect (i.e. resource controlled). The areas of occupancy (AOO) of winter host plants constrain aphids to low abundances because a greater proportion of hosts are trees and shrubs which tend to have smaller AOO than herbs and grasses, the common summer host types.     

Food Aversion Plus Odor Cue Protects Crop From Wild Mammals

Abstract: Wild mammals cause foraging damage to crops worldwide and nonlethal methods are required for controlling such damage. Many wildlife management situations demand protection of untreated foods. We tested learned food aversion plus an odor cue as a paradigm for protecting untreated model crop items from European badgers (Meles meles). Following conditioning with a combination of ziram and clove oil, badgers avoided untreated maize cobs in presence of a clove odor cue. A clove oil control did not condition badgers. This work has been an important step before proceeding to full-scale field trials for protecting growing crops on a wider scale. (JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 72(3):785–791; 2008)     

Comparison of Methods for Estimating Bird Abundance and Trends From Historical Count Data

Abstract: The use of bird counts as indices has come under increasing scrutiny because assumptions concerning detection probabilities may not be met, but there also seems to be some resistance to use of model-based approaches to estimating abundance. We used data from the United States Forest Service, Southern Region bird monitoring program to compare several common approaches for estimating annual abundance or indices and population trends from point-count data. We compared indices of abundance estimated as annual means of counts and from a mixed-Poisson model to abundance estimates from a count-removal model with 3 time intervals and a distance model with 3 distance bands. We compared trend estimates calculated from an autoregressive, exponential model fit to annual abundance estimates from the above methods and also by estimating trend directly by treating year as a continuous covariate in the mixed-Poisson model. We produced estimates for 6 forest songbirds based on an average of 621 and 459 points in 2 physiographic areas from 1997 to 2004. There was strong evidence that detection probabilities varied among species and years. Nevertheless, there was good overall agreement across trend estimates from the 5 methods for 9 of 12 comparisons. In 3 of 12 comparisons, however, patterns in detection probabilities potentially confounded interpretation of uncorrected counts. Estimates of detection probabilities differed greatly between removal and distance models, likely because the methods estimated different components of detection probability and the data collection was not optimally designed for either method. Given that detection probabilities often vary among species, years, and observers investigators should address detection probability in their surveys, whether it be by estimation of probability of detection and abundance, estimation of effects of key covariates when modeling count as an index of abundance, or through design-based methods to standardize these effects.     

Human plague in the USA: the importance of regional and local climate

A 56-year time series of human plague cases (Yersinia pestis) in the western United States was used to explore the effects of climatic patterns on plague levels. We found that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), together with previous plague levels and above-normal temperatures, explained much of the plague variability. We propose that the PDO's impact on plague is conveyed via its effect on precipitation and temperature and the effect of precipitation and temperature on plague hosts and vectors: warmer and wetter climate leading to increased plague activity and thus an increased number of human cases. Our analysis furthermore provides insights into the consistency of plague mechanisms at larger scales.     

A review of recent advances in the study of early angiosperms from northeastern China

The last 10 years (1998–2007) were very productive and important in the study of early angiosperms in northeastern China. The new discoveries of the earliest well-documented records of angiosperms such as Archaefructus, as well as Hyrcantha decussata (= Sinocarpus decussatus), provided fresh knowledge for better understanding the primitive characters of the ancient angiosperms and also their aquatic (or wet) habitat and their herbaceous nature. Some new approaches such as the combination of molecular and morphological characters joined together to place Archaefructus in the angiosperm phylogenetic framework. These fossils demonstrate that we should expect more ancient angiosperms to be found in the pre-Cretaceous which will continue to add important new understanding to the nature of the origin and evolution of the angiosperms.     

Upper Triassic (Norian) hypercalcified sponges from the Musandam Peninsula (United Arab Emirates and Oman)

Supercalcified sponges, including sphinctozoans, inozoans, chaetetids, spongiomorphids, occurring in Upper Triassic (Norian-Rhaetian) shallow-marine limestones of Musandam Mountains in United Arab Emirates (UAE), are described. The following taxa were determined: sphinctozoans: Hajarispongia osmani Senowbari-Daryan and Yancey, Nevadathalamia arabica n. sp., Nevadathalamia conica n. sp., Fanthalamia milahaensis n. sp., Iranothalamia incrustans (Boiko), Cinnabaria regularis n. sp.; inozoans: Cavsonella triassica n. sp., Molengraaffia regularis Vinassa de Regny, Peronidella? sp., Circopora cf. caucasica Moiseev, Circopora? sp.; spongiomorphids: Spongiomorpha sp.; chaetetids: Lovcenipora chaetetiformis Vinassa de Regny, Lovcenipora musandamensis n. sp., Lovcenipora sp., chaetetid sponge gen. et sp. indet. The most abundant sponge in the studied material is Nevadathalamia arabica n. sp. The described sponge association of the Arabian shelf (Musandam Mountains) shows close affinity to the sponge association known from age-equivalent terranes in the Panthalassa Ocean (Sonora Mountains in Mexico; Pilot Mountains in Nevada, USA), but is remarkably different from sponge associations in carbonates bordering the Tethys. This difference goes along with the biogeography of wallowaconchid bivalves and is most likely attributed to climatic, palaeogeographic or oceanographic factors.     

Spatial Controls of Pre–Euro-American Wind and Fire Disturbance in Northern Wisconsin (USA) Forest Landscapes

We elucidate spatial controls of wind and fire disturbance across northern Wisconsin (USA), where climatic and topographic gradients are not strong, using data from the original US Public Land Survey (PLS) notes. These records contain information on the location and extent of heavy windthrows and stand-replacing fires prior to Euro-American settlement. The spatial patterns of windthrow and fire were spatially clustered at all scales in this historical environment, with stronger associations at local than regional scales. Logistic regression shows environmental variables to have a strong influence on this pattern. In the case of heavy windthrow, environmental drivers of disturbance pattern are fairly consistent across the region. The effects of climate and vegetation are predominant at all scales, but effects are often indirect, with strong interactions between them. Interactions between these two drivers and soil characteristics are also sometimes present. In contrast, models of stand-replacing fire show simple and direct control within and across fire-prone landscapes of historical northern Wisconsin, with climate and physiography as the main factors explaining the distribution of fire disturbance. This simple and direct control is lost at the regional scale, where climate, physiographic, soil, and vegetation variables, along with interactions between them, are significant factors. Contrary to other regions, the topographic effects are generally not important in predicting either wind or fire disturbance. Our work suggests that, in landscapes that lack strong environmental patterning, climate maintains its role as a primary driver of these natural disturbances, but topography is replaced by interactions and feedbacks with other forms of environmental heterogeneity.     

Potential Changes in Tree Species Richness and Forest Community Types following Climate Change

Potential changes in tree species richness and forest community types were evaluated for the eastern United States according to five scenarios of future climate change resulting from a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂). DISTRIB, an empirical model that uses a regression tree analysis approach, was used to generate suitable habitat, or potential future distributions, of 80 common tree species for each scenario. The model assumes that the vegetation and climate are in equilibrium with no barriers to species migration. Combinations of the individual species model outcomes allowed estimates of species richness (from among the 80 species) and forest type (from simple rules) for each of 2100 counties in the eastern United States. Average species richness across all counties may increase slightly with climatic change. This increase tends to be larger as the average temperature of the climate change scenario increases. Dramatic changes in the distribution of potential forest types were modeled. All five scenarios project the extirpation of the spruce–fir forest types from New England. Outputs from only the two least severe scenarios retain aspen–birch, and they are largely reduced. Maple–beech–birch also shows a large reduction in area under all scenarios. By contrast, oak–hickory and oak–pine types were modeled to increase by 34% and 290%, respectively, averaged over the five scenarios. Although many assumptions are made, these modeled outcomes substantially agree with a limited number of predictions from researchers using paleoecological data or other models. Received 12 May 2000; accepted 20 October 2000.     

Ecological indicators to capture the effects of fishing on biodiversity and conservation status of marine ecosystems

IndiSeas (“Indicators for the Seas”) is a collaborative international working group that was established in 2005 to evaluate the status of exploited marine ecosystems using a suite of indicators in a comparative framework. An initial shortlist of seven ecological indicators was selected to quantify the effects of fishing on the broader ecosystem using several criteria (i.e., ecological meaning, sensitivity to fishing, data availability, management objectives and public awareness). The suite comprised: (i) the inverse coefficient of variation of total biomass of surveyed species, (ii) mean fish length in the surveyed community, (iii) mean maximum life span of surveyed fish species, (iv) proportion of predatory fish in the surveyed community, (v) proportion of under and moderately exploited stocks, (vi) total biomass of surveyed species, and (vii) mean trophic level of the landed catch. In line with the Nagoya Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2011–2020), we extended this suite to emphasize the broader biodiversity and conservation risks in exploited marine ecosystems. We selected a subset of indicators from a list of empirically based candidate biodiversity indicators initially established based on ecological significance to complement the original IndiSeas indicators. The additional selected indicators were: (viii) mean intrinsic vulnerability index of the fish landed catch, (ix) proportion of non-declining exploited species in the surveyed community, (x) catch-based marine trophic index, and (xi) mean trophic level of the surveyed community. Despite the lack of data in some ecosystems, we also selected (xii) mean trophic level of the modelled community, and (xiii) proportion of discards in the fishery as extra indicators. These additional indicators were examined, along with the initial set of IndiSeas ecological indicators, to evaluate whether adding new biodiversity indicators provided useful additional information to refine our understanding of the status evaluation of 29 exploited marine ecosystems. We used state and trend analyses, and we performed correlation, redundancy and multivariate tests. Existing developments in ecosystem-based fisheries management have largely focused on exploited species. Our study, using mostly fisheries independent survey-based indicators, highlights that biodiversity and conservation-based indicators are complementary to ecological indicators of fishing pressure. Thus, they should be used to provide additional information to evaluate the overall impact of fishing on exploited marine ecosystems.