Phenology and common garden and reciprocal transplant studies of Polymnia canadensis (Asteraceae), a monocarpic species of the North American Temperate Deciduous Forest

Polymnia canadensis, an herbaceous plant species ofthe North American Temperate Deciduous Forest heretofore reported as beingperennial, is shown to be primarily monocarpic. In common garden experiments,the majority of plants grown from seeds or seedlings collected in Kentucky,Alabama, Virginia, Ohio, and Missouri were monocarpic, but some were dicarpic,tricarpic or polycarpic. Observations in natural populations of P.canadensis suggested that there is variation in the life history ofthis species throughout its geographic range. Anthesis date and height ofplantsat anthesis were significantly different between mesic and dry field sites incentral Kentucky populations, but common garden and reciprocal transplantexperiments showed that these were due mainly to environmental (and not togenetic) effects. The latter was also true for age of maturity and rate ofchange in plant height. Lack of significant site × source interaction forthese characters indicated that plants did not differ in their plasticresponsesbetween sources at each site. Winter annual, biennial, triennial, and dicarpicand tricarpic perennial life histories occurred within populations in bothcommon garden and reciprocal transplant experiments. In the latter experiments,most matured plants were either biennials (most common) or winter annuals(second most common), with the order reversed in the former experiments due toamore benign environment favoring earlier maturity. The extensive phenotypicplasticity displayed by P. canadensis for phenology andlife history enables the species to inhabit a wide range of environments.     

Vertical movements through subsurface stream sediments by benthic macroinvertebrates during experimental drying are influenced by sediment characteristics and species traits

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Comprehensive analysis of glucose and xylose metabolism in Escherichia coli under aerobic and anaerobic conditions by 13C metabolic flux analysis

Glucose and xylose are the two most abundant sugars derived from the breakdown of lignocellulosic biomass. While aerobic glucose metabolism is relatively well understood in E. coli, until now there have been only a handful of studies focused on anaerobic glucose metabolism and no ¹³C-flux studies on xylose metabolism. In the absence of experimentally validated flux maps, constraint-based approaches such as MOMA and RELATCH cannot be used to guide new metabolic engineering designs. In this work, we have addressed this critical gap in current understanding by performing comprehensive characterizations of glucose and xylose metabolism under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, using recent state-of-the-art techniques in ¹³C metabolic flux analysis (¹³C-MFA). Specifically, we quantified precise metabolic fluxes for each condition by performing parallel labeling experiments and analyzing the data through integrated ¹³C-MFA using the optimal tracers [1,2-¹³C]glucose, [1,6-¹³C]glucose, [1,2-¹³C]xylose and [5-¹³C]xylose. We also quantified changes in biomass composition and confirmed turnover of macromolecules by applying [U-¹³C]glucose and [U-¹³C]xylose tracers. We demonstrated that under anaerobic growth conditions there is significant turnover of lipids and that a significant portion of CO₂ originates from biomass turnover. Using knockout strains, we also demonstrated that β-oxidation is critical for anaerobic growth on xylose. Quantitative analysis of co-factor balances (NADH/FADH₂, NADPH, and ATP) for different growth conditions provided new insights regarding the interplay of energy and redox metabolism and the impact on E. coli cell physiology.     

Toward a methodical framework for comprehensively assessing forest multifunctionality

Biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) research has extended its scope from communities that are short‐lived or reshape their structure annually to structurally complex forest ecosystems. The establishment of tree diversity experiments poses specific methodological challenges for assessing the multiple functions provided by forest ecosystems. In particular, methodological inconsistencies and nonstandardized protocols impede the analysis of multifunctionality within, and comparability across the increasing number of tree diversity experiments. By providing an overview on key methods currently applied in one of the largest forest biodiversity experiments, we show how methods differing in scale and simplicity can be combined to retrieve consistent data allowing novel insights into forest ecosystem functioning. Furthermore, we discuss and develop recommendations for the integration and transferability of diverse methodical approaches to present and future forest biodiversity experiments. We identified four principles that should guide basic decisions concerning method selection for tree diversity experiments and forest BEF research: (1) method selection should be directed toward maximizing data density to increase the number of measured variables in each plot. (2) Methods should cover all relevant scales of the experiment to consider scale dependencies of biodiversity effects. (3) The same variable should be evaluated with the same method across space and time for adequate larger‐scale and longer‐time data analysis and to reduce errors due to changing measurement protocols. (4) Standardized, practical and rapid methods for assessing biodiversity and ecosystem functions should be promoted to increase comparability among forest BEF experiments. We demonstrate that currently available methods provide us with a sophisticated toolbox to improve a synergistic understanding of forest multifunctionality. However, these methods require further adjustment to the specific requirements of structurally complex and long‐lived forest ecosystems. By applying methods connecting relevant scales, trophic levels, and above‐ and belowground ecosystem compartments, knowledge gain from large tree diversity experiments can be optimized.     

不同施肥下中国旱地土壤有机碳变化特征——基于定位试验数据的Meta分析

搜集1994—2011年国内外有关中国旱地施肥处理的102个定位试验点的1146对田间试验数据,采用Meta-analysis方法定量分析了不同施肥条件下我国旱地耕层土壤有机碳(Soil Organic Carbon,SOC)的变化特征。结果表明,与对照(CK)相比,不同施肥措施均能显著提高耕层SOC含量,但不同施肥措施的效应不同。氮磷钾肥配施有机肥处理下SOC增速最大,为0.38 g kg-1a-1,单施磷肥处理增速最小,SOC增速仅为0.032 g kg-1a-1;添加有机肥的处理SOC增速远大于仅有无机化肥投入的施肥处理。不同施肥处理下SOC增速存在一定的空间分异特征且不同时期试验SOC相对变化速率也不相同,早期试验中SOC增速大于中、后期试验;不同种植制度对SOC变化速率的影响亦不同,有机肥的投入可以降低种植制度对SOC变化的影响。SOC积累与否及其幅度并不完全取决于初始SOC含量;随试验年限的增加,SOC增加速率呈降低趋势,仅采用短期试验(11 a)数据可能高估施肥措施下的固碳潜力。     

A plant's perspective of extremes: terrestrial plant responses to changing climatic variability

We review observational, experimental, and model results on how plants respond to extreme climatic conditions induced by changing climatic variability. Distinguishing between impacts of changing mean climatic conditions and changing climatic variability on terrestrial ecosystems is generally underrated in current studies. The goals of our review are thus (1) to identify plant processes that are vulnerable to changes in the variability of climatic variables rather than to changes in their mean, and (2) to depict/evaluate available study designs to quantify responses of plants to changing climatic variability. We find that phenology is largely affected by changing mean climate but also that impacts of climatic variability are much less studied, although potentially damaging. We note that plant water relations seem to be very vulnerable to extremes driven by changes in temperature and precipitation and that heatwaves and flooding have stronger impacts on physiological processes than changing mean climate. Moreover, interacting phenological and physiological processes are likely to further complicate plant responses to changing climatic variability. Phenological and physiological processes and their interactions culminate in even more sophisticated responses to changing mean climate and climatic variability at the species and community level. Generally, observational studies are well suited to study plant responses to changing mean climate, but less suitable to gain a mechanistic understanding of plant responses to climatic variability. Experiments seem best suited to simulate extreme events. In models, temporal resolution and model structure are crucial to capture plant responses to changing climatic variability. We highlight that a combination of experimental, observational, and/or modeling studies have the potential to overcome important caveats of the respective individual approaches.     

Interactions between seagrasses and burrowing ghost shrimps and their influence on infaunal assemblages

The current study examined the direct interactions between intertidal seagrasses (Zosteraceae) and burrowing ghost shrimps (Callianassidae) and their influence on associated infaunal assemblages. Reciprocal transplant experiments conducted in two temperate regions revealed different interactions between both types of organism. In the U.S.A., seagrass prospered in all treatments, irrespective of the presence of ghost shrimp, whilst ghost shrimp declined in plots containing seagrass. In New Zealand, neither transplanted ghost shrimp nor seagrass became established in experimental plots, at the same time, neither type of organism appeared to be affected by the experimental addition of transplants. The differences in interactions between seagrass and ghost shrimp appeared to be related to seasonal differences in the timing of the transplant experiments and the pairing of particular ghost shrimp and seagrass species in each region. Infaunal assemblages showed distinct differences between seagrass and ghost shrimp treatments and reflected the dominant type of organism present. In treatments where transplanted seagrass or ghost shrimp became established, assemblage composition shifted in accordance with the type of transplanted organism. Differences in assemblage composition were characterised by higher relative abundances of discriminating taxa in treatments dominated by seagrass. The overall patterns of infaunal assemblage composition were correlated with a number of variables including the number of shoots, above-, below-ground seagrass biomass, % fines/sand, % total organic carbon, and sediment chlorophyll a. Findings from this study highlight the functional importance of intertidal seagrasses and burrowing ghost shrimps and reveal some of the ecological repercussions associated with changes in the distribution of these sympatric ecosystem engineers.     

穗状狐尾藻与不同生长期苦草种间竞争研究

水生植物之间的竞争作用在水体生态系统恢复过程中具有重要作用。本研究采用取代系列实验方法,对穗状狐尾藻(Myriophyllum spicatum L.)与不同生长期(幼苗期和成株期)苦草(Vallisneria natans(Lour.)Hara)的种间竞争进行了研究。结果显示,对于不同生长期的苦草,穗状狐尾藻均具有较强的竞争优势,成株期苦草的竞争能力强于其幼苗期;苦草成株组中的穗状狐尾藻平均株高比苦草幼苗组中的穗状狐尾藻平均株高增加了128.6%(P0.05),但苦草成株组中的穗状狐尾藻植株平均干重比苦草幼苗组中的穗状狐尾藻植株平均干重降低了62.8%(P0.05);苦草幼苗组中的穗状狐尾藻分枝较多、株丛大,对苦草幼苗形成了较大的遮光作用;苦草成株组中的穗状狐尾藻分枝少、植株较长,顶端漂浮于水面生长,表明受苦草的种间竞争压力增大,但仍小于穗状狐尾藻的种内竞争;另外,苦草幼苗组中的苦草根长比苦草成株组中的苦草根长平均长28.6%(P0.05),表明在与穗状狐尾藻竞争过程中,苦草幼苗更趋于竞争地下资源。本研究结果说明穗状狐尾藻竞争能力强于苦草,苦草幼苗受穗状狐尾藻的竞争影响较大。     

Imperfect detection alters the outcome of management strategies for protected areas

Designing protected area configurations to maximise biodiversity is a critical conservation goal. The configuration of protected areas can significantly impact the richness and identity of the species found there; one large patch supports larger populations but can facilitate competitive exclusion. Conversely, many small habitats spreads risk but may exclude predators that typically require large home ranges. Identifying how best to design protected areas is further complicated by monitoring programs failing to detect species. Here we test the consequences of different protected area configurations using multi‐trophic level experimental microcosms. We demonstrate that for a given total size, many small patches generate higher species richness, are more likely to contain predators, and have fewer extinctions compared to single large patches. However, the relationship between the size, number of patches, and species richness was greatly affected by insufficient monitoring, and could lead to incorrect conservation decisions, especially for higher trophic levels.