Spatial variation in the fatty acid composition of elaiosomes in an ant-dispersed plant: Differences within and between individuals and populations

Euphorbia characias is a common myrmecochorous plant of the western Mediterranean Basin whose seeds are dispersed by ants following fruit explosion. The variation in elaiosomes’ fatty acid composition of this species was studied at three hierarchical levels (sub-individual, individual and population) in four populations from the Iberian Peninsula. We found that differences in fruit location on the inflorescence do not seem to influence the fatty acid composition of elaiosomes, providing to each propagule an equal chance of being dispersed. However, significant differences in elaiosome fatty acid composition between individuals and populations were found for most of the compounds identified. The content of oleic acid, a key mediator in the ant–seed interaction, differed widely between populations, probably reflecting geographic variations in co-adaptation between plants and their dispersers. The finding that the fatty acid composition of E. characias elaiosomes is distinct from that of the seed itself, but very similar to that of elaiosomes from unrelated species, reinforces the idea of convergent evolution in the chemical composition of these structures.     

Environmental factors affecting chemical variability of essential oils in Thymus piperella L.

Environmental factors affecting essential oils variability in Thymus piperella L. are studied. The relationship between the bioclimatics index and edaphic factors with three chemotypes is determined through the application of multivariate analysis (CANOCO) and other statistical processes to both ecological and the essential oil data set components. Chemotype p-cymene γ-terpinene carvacrol shows a positive relationship with the aridity index (I_a) and Altitude. The p-cymene thymol chemotype is related to factors affecting water balance in both the soils and plants. The influence of climatic factors over p-cymene carvacrol is less evident. The compound p-cymene, common to the three chemical groups and the most abundant of all, presents positive correlation with the organic matter in the soil.     

Fragment shape and tree species composition in tropical forests: a landscape level investigation

Fragmentation of tropical forest alters community composition as a result of changes in forest shape. This paper uses 22 hypotheses to test the effect of fragment shape on tree species composition in Ghana, West Africa, within biological categories of regeneration guild, rarity, phenology and dispersal. For both regenerating and mature trees, relationships between species composition and the shape of forest fragments were complex; almost half were significant but many failed to support the established hypotheses. Irregular shaped fragments had high proportions of regenerating, light‐demanding pioneers and mature, animal‐dispersed species. Species common to Ghana formed the foundation of communities in fragments of all shapes. Investigation at the landscape level indicated broad patterns of species change. Rigorous hypothesis testing is needed, following extensive demographic work on the ground, before population dynamics within tropical forest fragments can be comprehended fully and applied to conservation management.     

Fixed‐effect variance and the estimation of repeatabilities and heritabilities: issues and solutions

Linear mixed‐effects models are frequently used for estimating quantitative genetic parameters, including the heritability, as well as the repeatability, of traits. Heritability acts as a filter that determines how efficiently phenotypic selection translates into evolutionary change, whereas repeatability informs us about the individual consistency of phenotypic traits. As quantities of biological interest, it is important that the denominator, the phenotypic variance in both cases, reflects the amount of phenotypic variance in the relevant ecological setting. The current practice of quantifying heritabilities and repeatabilities from mixed‐effects models frequently deprives their denominator of variance explained by fixed effects (often leading to upward bias of heritabilities and repeatabilities), and it has been suggested to omit fixed effects when estimating heritabilities in particular. We advocate an alternative option of fitting models incorporating all relevant effects, while including the variance explained by fixed effects into the estimation of the phenotypic variance. The approach is easily implemented and allows optimizing the estimation of phenotypic variance, for example by the exclusion of variance arising from experimental design effects while still including all biologically relevant sources of variation. We address the estimation and interpretation of heritabilities in situations in which potential covariates are themselves heritable traits of the organism. Furthermore, we discuss complications that arise in generalized and nonlinear mixed models with fixed effects. In these cases, the variance parameters on the data scale depend on the location of the intercept and hence on the scaling of the fixed effects. Integration over the biologically relevant range of fixed effects offers a preferred solution in those situations.     

广西天然林中藤本植物区系组成及系统发育多样性

藤本植物是热带和亚热带森林的重要组分,在过去几十年中藤本植物多样性在热带森林增加,有可能导致森林的多样性减少,碳储量等生态系统服务功能降低,引起广泛关注。以《广西植被志要》中共355个样地数据(喀斯特森林、海拔1000 m以下的非喀斯特森林和海拔1000 m以上的非喀斯特森林)为基础,结合气候数据,分析天然林中藤本植物区系组成、不同生境藤本植物物种多样性与系统发育多样性关系、藤本植物物种多样性与年平均温度关系,以及系统发育结构特点。结果表明:(1)广西天然林藤本植物中,热带分布的含藤属占比最大(75.4%),温带分布含藤属占比较低(12.3%),世界广布含藤属和亚洲分布含藤属占比最小,海拔1000 m以下的喀斯特和非喀斯特森林都有一些专有的含藤科属;(2) 3个生境藤本的Gleason物种多样性和系统发育多样性与年均温都不相关,它们的物种多样性差异不显著,但是系统发育多样性有显著差异,海拔1000 m以下的非喀斯特森林中系统发育多样性最高,喀斯特森林系统发育多样性最低;(3)非喀斯特森林藤本植物系统发育结构趋向于离散,暗指竞争排斥作用是藤本植物组合在该生境群落主要构建机制,喀斯特森林藤本植物系统发育结构趋向于聚集,暗指藤本植物组合由生境过滤作用为主形成。这些研究发现对于热带亚热带森林藤本植物的多样性组成及其共存机制提供了新认识。     

不同类型人工湿地微生物群落的研究进展

微生物是人工湿地不可缺少的成员,对湿地生态系统中物质转化、能量流动起着重要作用.本文从人工湿地微生物群落的研究方法、微生物群落结构与组成、微生物群落调节作用与环境因素的关系等方面,综述了人工湿地微生物的研究进展.各种新颖的分子生物学方法已经成为研究人工湿地的微生物多样性的有力工具,其中最常见的是变性梯度凝胶电泳(DGGE)和寡核苷酸荧光探针原位杂交(FISH);人工湿地微生物群落的调节作用主要取决于湿地的水文条件、废水的特点(包括组成成分,污染物的特点和利用性)、湿地的过滤材料或土壤类型、植物和各种环境因素;不同人工湿地类型的微生物群落组成,从多到少依次是变形菌、噬纤维菌.黄杆菌菌群、放线菌和厚壁菌.如何进一步加深对氮循环相关微生物多样性的研究,提高废水中氮的去除效率依然是未来人工湿地技术需要解决的重要问题之一.     

Endosymbiont metacommunities,mtDNA diversity and the evolution of the Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) species complex

Bemisia tabaci, an invasive pest that causes crop damage worldwide, is a highly differentiated species complex, divided into biotypes that have mainly been defined based on mitochondrial DNA sequences. Although endosymbionts can potentially induce population differentiation, specialization and indirect selection on mtDNA, studies have largely ignored these influential passengers in B. tabaci, despite as many as seven bacterial endosymbionts have been identified. Here, we investigate the composition of the whole bacterial community in worldwide populations of B. tabaci, together with host genetic differentiation, focusing on the invasive B and Q biotypes. Among 653 individuals studied, more than 95% of them harbour at least one secondary endosymbiont, and multiple infections are very common. In addition, sequence analyses reveal a very high diversity of facultative endosymbionts in B. tabaci, with some bacterial genus being represented by more than one strain. In the B and Q biotypes, nine different strains of bacteria have been identified. The mtDNA‐based phylogeny of B. tabaci also reveals a very high nucleotide diversity that partitions the two ITS clades (B and Q) into six CO1 genetic groups. Each genetic group is in linkage disequilibrium with a specific combination of endosymbionts. All together, our results demonstrate the rapid dynamics of the bacterial endosymbiont–host associations at a small evolutionary scale, questioning the role of endosymbiotic communities in the evolution of the Bemisia tabaci species complex and strengthening the need to develop a metacommunity theory of inherited endosymbionts.     

Canopy interactions and physical stress gradients in subtidal communities

Species interactions are integral drivers of community structure and can change from competitive to facilitative with increasing environmental stress. In subtidal marine ecosystems, however, interactions along physical stress gradients have seldom been tested. We observed seaweed canopy interactions across depth and latitudinal gradients to test whether light and temperature stress structured interaction patterns. We also quantified interspecific and intraspecific interactions among nine subtidal canopy seaweed species across three continents to examine the general nature of interactions in subtidal systems under low consumer pressure. We reveal that positive and neutral interactions are widespread throughout global seaweed communities and the nature of interactions can change from competitive to facilitative with increasing light stress in shallow marine systems. These findings provide support for the stress gradient hypothesis within subtidal seaweed communities and highlight the importance of canopy interactions for the maintenance of subtidal marine habitats experiencing environmental stress.     

Predicting future community composition from random soil seed bank sampling – evidence from a drained lake bottom

Questions: What is the accuracy and reliability of the commonly used random soil sampling methodology for predicting seedling density, species richness and composition of the emerging seedling community? Location: Lake Kraenepoel, western Belgium. Methods: We compared density, species composition and observed and rarefactioned species richness of the seedling community emerging on a soft water lake bed exposed after drainage with the seedling community germinating in the laboratory from random soil samples in the same plots. Results: Seedling density did not differ between the two methods and there was a significant correlation between seedling density on the exposed lake bed and in the soil samples. This indicates that future seedling density can be reliably predicted based on soil sampling, in particular for the most abundant species. The most frequently occurring and abundant species among the seedlings in the soil samples were also the most frequent and abundant species germinating on the exposed lake bed. In contrast, species richness was much higher on the exposed lake bed than in the soil samples, and this difference was still significant for annual species after correction for differences in sampling intensity by rarefaction. We found no correlation between the number of species retrieved by the two methods. Although seedlings of rare and target species emerged on the lake bed, random soil sampling clearly failed to detect seeds of most of these species. Conclusions: Random soil sampling at a commonly used intensity and using the standard germination conditions can accurately predict future total seedling density and the density of the most abundant species. However, the method is not reliable for predicting the probability of establishment of populations of uncommon species. When executing a seed bank study, sampling intensity and germination conditions need to be adapted to the nature and the level of detail of the research question to be answered.