The coincidence of climatic and species rarity: high risk to small-range species from climate change

Why do areas with high numbers of small-range species occur where they do? We found that, for butterfly and plant species in Europe, and for bird species in the Western Hemisphere, such areas coincide with regions that have rare climates, and are higher and colder areas than surrounding regions. Species with small range sizes also tend to occur in climatically diverse regions, where species are likely to have been buffered from extinction in the past. We suggest that the centres of high small-range species richness we examined predominantly represent interglacial relict areas where cold-adapted species have been able to survive unusually warm periods in the last ca 10 000 years. We show that the rare climates that occur in current centres of species rarity will shrink disproportionately under future climate change, potentially leading to high vulnerability for many of the species they contain.     

Complete assignments of the (1)H and (13)C chemical shifts and J(H,H) coupling constants in NMR spectra of D-glucopyranose and all D-glucopyranosyl-D-glucopyranosides

Complete assignment of the (1)H and (13)C NMR spectra of all possible d-glucopyranosyl-d-glucopyranosides was performed and the (1)H chemical shifts and proton-proton coupling constants were refined by computational spectral analyses (using PERCH NMR software) until full agreement between the calculated and experimental spectra was achieved. To support the experimental results, the (1)H and (13)C chemical shifts and the spin-spin coupling constants between the non-hydroxyl protons of alpha- and beta-d-glucopyranose (1a and 1b) were calculated with density functional theory (DFT) methods at the B3LYP/pcJ-2//B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) level of theory. The effects of different glycosidic linkage types and positions on the glucose ring conformations and on the alpha/beta-ratio of the reducing end hydroxyl groups were investigated. Conformational analyses were also performed for anomerically pure forms of methyl d-glucopyranosides (13a and 13b) and fully protected derivatives such as 1,2,3,4,6-penta-O-acetyl-d-glucopyranoses (14a and 14b).     

Prospects for lanthanides in structural biology by NMR

The advent of different lanthanide-binding reagents has made site-specific labelling of proteins with paramagnetic lanthanides a viable proposition. This brings many powerful techniques originally established and demonstrated for paramagnetic metalloproteins into the mainstream of structural biology. The promise is that, by exploiting the long-range effects of paramagnetism, lanthanide labelling will allow the study of larger proteins and protein-ligand complexes with greater ease and accuracy than hitherto possible. In particular, lanthanide-induced pseudocontact shifts (PCS) provide powerful restraints and 3D structure determination using PCS as the only source of experimental restraints will probably be possible with data obtained from samples with different lanthanide-tagging sites. Cell-free protein synthesis is positioned to play an important role in this strategy, as an inexpensive source of selectively labelled protein samples and for easy site-specific incorporation of unnatural lanthanide-binding amino acids.     

The ecology of restoration: historical links, emerging issues and unexplored realms

Restoration ecology is a young academic field, but one with enough history to judge it against past and current expectations of the science's potential. The practice of ecological restoration has been identified as providing ideal experimental settings for tests of ecological theory; restoration was to be the 'acid test' of our ecological understanding. Over the past decade, restoration science has gained a strong academic foothold, addressing problems faced by restoration practitioners, bringing new focus to existing ecological theory and fostering a handful of novel ecological ideas. In particular, recent advances in plant community ecology have been strongly linked with issues in ecological restoration. Evolving models of succession, assembly and state-transition are at the heart of both community ecology and ecological restoration. Recent research on seed and recruitment limitation, soil processes, and diversity–function relationships also share strong links to restoration. Further opportunities may lie ahead in the ecology of plant ontogeny, and on the effects of contingency, such as year effects and priority effects. Ecology may inform current restoration practice, but there is considerable room for greater integration between academic scientists and restoration practitioners.     

Simulation of potential range expansion of oak disease caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi under climate change

This study examines the effects of climate warming on one of the most widely distributed and destructive forest pathogens, Phytophthora cinnamomi. In Europe, the winter survival of the pathogen is the dominant cue for the development of the disease it causes to oaks, especially Quercus robur and Q. rubra. The potential pathogen and disease geographic ranges were compared in France between two reference periods, 1968–1998 and 2070–2099. Simulations were obtained by combining a physiologically based approach predicting the pathogen winter survival in relation to microhabitat temperature (in the phloem of infected trees) with a regionalized climatic scenario derived from a global circulation model. Positive anomalies in winter temperatures calculated with this scenario were in the range 0.5–5°C between the periods 2070–2099 and the 1968–1998, according to sites and months. As a consequence, higher annual rates of P. cinnamomi survival were predicted, resulting in a potential range expansion of the disease of one to a few hundred kilometers eastward from the Atlantic coast within one century. Based on this example, the study emphasizes the need of a better understanding of the impacts of global change on the biotic constraint constituted by plant pathogens.     

Honeybee guards do not use food-derived odors to recognize non-nest mates: a test of the Odor Convergence hypothesis

Honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies rob honey from each other during periods of nectar shortage. Persistent robbing can killweak colonies. Primarily responsible for preventing robbingare guard bees. Previous research has shown that the probabilityof both nest mate and non-nest mate workers being acceptedby guards at the nest entrance increases as nectar availability increases. The mechanism responsible for this change in guardacceptance can be explained by two competing hypotheses: OdorConvergence and Adaptive Threshold Shift. In this study wetested the Odor Convergence hypothesis. The acceptance by guardsat the nest entrance of workers transferred between four coloniesthat had been fed either odorless sucrose syrup (two colonies)or diluted heather honey (Calluna vulgaris) (two colonies)was measured for 3 days before feeding and during 2 weeks offeeding. Despite the large sample sizes, the probability ofguards accepting non-nest mates was not affected by the similaritiesor dissimilarities in food odor between guards' and non-nestmates' colonies. This finding contrasts with the accepted wisdom that food odors are important in nest mate recognition in honeybeesand the data, therefore, strongly reject the Odor Convergencehypothesis.     

Resource use by Enneapterygius Rufopileus and Other Rockpool Fishes

Low-intertidal fish communities, including Enneapterygius rufopileus (Tripterygiidae), were studied in rockpools in Sydney, Australia to consider the role of physical factors and food availability in their distribution and abundance. The rockpool fish community in Sydney was speciose (23 species), of which 35% of individuals were E. rufopileus. Fish abundance and 13 physical and biological parameters were measured in twenty-two rockpools spread among 4 sites. Abundance of E. rufopileus was best predicted by the number of rock overhangs, algal cover (Zonaria sp. and Hormosira banksii), and the encrusting ascidian cunjevoi (Pyura sp.). Experimental increase or decrease in available shelter (mainly boulders and macroalgae) in rockpools did not significantly affect the abundance of fishes, however some pools consistently supported more fishes in total, despite repeated defaunation, indicating that underlying deterministic processes may have a significant effect on rockpool fish communities. The diet of Enneapterygius rufopileus included unidentified crustacean remains, harpacticoid copepods, and gastropods. Gastropod abundance was greater in the diets of larger fish, which also consumed more food overall. Total weight of food was not dependent on E. rufopileus density in pools or the densities of all fish species in pools. Therefore, the study does not support the hypothesis that resources were limiting for this fish species in rockpools.     

The distributions of a wide range of taxonomic groups are expanding polewards

Evidence is accumulating of shifts in species' distributions during recent climate warming. However, most of this information comes predominantly from studies of a relatively small selection of taxa (i.e., plants, birds and butterflies), which may not be representative of biodiversity as a whole. Using data from less well‐studied groups, we show that a wide variety of vertebrate and invertebrate species have moved northwards and uphill in Britain over approximately 25 years, mirroring, and in some cases exceeding, the responses of better‐known groups.