Search results for " Behavior and Systematics"
showing 10 items of 6516 documents
The effects of grazing history, soil properties and stand structure on the communities of saprotrophic fungi in wood-pastures
2022
Wood-pastures are threatened anthropogenic biotopes that provide habitat for an extensive group of species. Here we studied the effect of management, grazing intensity, time since abandonment, historical land-use intensity, soil properties and stand conditions on communities of saprotrophic fungi in wood-pastures in Central Finland. We found that the proportion of broadleaved trees and soil pH are the major drivers in the communities of saprotrophic fungi in these boreal wood-pastures. In addition, tree species richness, soil moisture, historical land-use intensity and time since abandonment affected the communities of saprotrophic fungi. Current management or grazing intensity did not have…
Editorial: Chemical Ecology and Conservation Biological Control
2022
International audience
Sex Allocation Theory for Facultatively Sexual Organisms Inhabiting Seasonal Environments: The Importance of Bet Hedging
2018
Adaptive explanations for dormancy often invoke bet hedging, where reduced mean fitness can be adaptive if it associates with reduced fitness variance. Sex allocation theory typically ignores variance effects and focuses on mean fitness. For many cyclical parthenogens, these themes become linked, as only sexually produced eggs undergo the dormancy needed to survive harsh conditions. We ask how sex allocation and the timing of sex evolve when this constraint exists in the form of a trade-off between asexual reproduction and sexual production of dormant eggs—the former being crucial for within-season success and the latter for survival across seasons. We show that male production can be tempo…
Kin selection in interactions between gametes: Gamete competition, gamete limitation, and sex allocation
2023
Kin selection on one hand, and gamete interactions in post-ejaculatory sexual selection on the other are two major research themes that have risen to prominence over the past half century and have simultaneously developed into central fields of research in evolutionary biology. There is a natural connection between the two: when gametes interact with each other, very commonly many of them originate from the same parent and are thus siblings. For example, sperm competition will almost always involve competition between sibling gametes even if the interacting parents are not related to each other. If parents are related to each other, the relatedness between gametes increases further. Here we…
New Gynandromorph Records for Chirocephalus diaphanus (Branchiopoda, Anostraca, Chirocephalidae)
2021
We report and describe new Chirocephalus diaphanus Prévost, 1803 gynandromorphs from Tunisia and review the literature of anostracan gynandromorphy and other, possibly associated, somatic aberrations, with comments on their evolutionary significance. Our material has three specimens that are specifically deformed on the left side of the head.
Modelling the relationship between sexual reproduction and rhizome growth in Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile
2006
The relationship between flowering and growth performance of Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile in meadows distributed along the south-eastern coast of Sicily (Italy) was investigated by means of a statistical model (generalized linear mixed model) combined with the lepidochronological analysis. Over a 28-year period, 67 floral stalk remains were observed. The highest flowering index was recorded in lepidochronological year 1998 (10.1%) and the Inflorescence Frequency per age showed a clear decrease corresponding to 15-year-old shoots. The sexual reproductive event had positive effects on rhizome elongation (cm year−1) and leaf production (no. leaves year−1) in the same flowering year, whilst n…
Forest nurseries and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan: the case of Sicily and Apulia (Italy)
2023
In Italy, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) foresees the planting of ca. 6.6 million trees to establish urban and peri-urban forests in 14 metropolitan cities. This ambitious project requires a significant number of native trees and shrubs, currently unavailable in Italian public and private nurseries. This survey analyzes the state of forest nurseries in two administrative regions of southern Italy, i.e. the “Filici” forest nursery (province of Agrigento, Sicily) and the Gargano Mountain Reclamation Consortium (province of Foggia, Apulia), to evaluate the adequacy of Sicilian and Apulian forest nurseries as potential sources of plant material to meet the requirements of the …
Niche position drives interspecific variation in occupancy and abundance in a highly-connected lake system
2019
Highlights • We studied interspecific variation in occupancy and abundance of freshwater species. • Occupancy and abundance correlated positively for both diatoms and macroinvertebrates. • Niche position had clearest effects on variation in occupancy and abundance. • The more marginal the niche position, the rarer a species is. We examined how niche position, niche breadth, biological traits and taxonomic relatedness affect interspecific variation in occupancy and abundance of two commonly-used biological indicator groups, i.e. diatoms and macroinvertebrates. We studied 291 diatom and 103 macroinvertebrate species that occupied the littoral zones of a large (305 km2) highly-connected freshw…
A multifaceted field sampling approach for the management of extremely narrow endemic vascular plant species
2022
Extremely narrow endemic plant species (ENEs) are generally connected with micro- refugia characterized by particular environmental conditions. In-depth knowledge of the ecological requirements of ENEs is fundamental to plan appropriate conservation measures. Using cross-cutting technology, this paper gives a multifaceted approach to collect on-site data on the ecology of ENEs, defines the protocols for a correct sampling design and describes the type of equipment, the time and expenditure needed. Our sampling approach is based on two orthogonal transects, long enough to extrapolate the whole ecological gradient across the area of occupancy of the target species. Microclimatic data are reco…
Multi‐specific small‐scale fisheries rely on few, locally essential, species: Evidence from a multi‐area study in the Mediterranean
2022
Achieving sound management of small-scale fisheries (SSFs) is globally recognized a key priority for sustaining livelihoods, local economies, social wealth and cultural heritage in coastal areas. The paucity of information on SSFs often prevents the proper assessment of different socio-ecological aspects, potentially leading to draw inappropriate conclusions and hampering the development and adoption of effective policies to foster SSF sustainability. To respond to the growing global call to assess these fisheries, we carried out a multi-disciplinary and data-rich assessment of SSFs at 11 areas in 6 Mediterranean EU countries, combining the analysis of 1292 SSF fishing operations and 149 se…