Search results for "15. Life on land"

Unravelling the scientific debate on how to address wolf-dog hybridization in Europe

2019

Anthropogenic hybridization is widely perceived as a threat to the conservation of biodiversity. Nevertheless, to date, relevant policy and management interventions are unresolved and highly convoluted. While this is due to the inherent complexity of the issue, we hereby hypothesize that a lack of agreement concerning management goals and approaches, within the scientific community, may explain the lack of social awareness on this phenomenon, and the absence of effective pressure on decision-makers. By focusing on wolf x dog hybridization in Europe, we hereby (a) assess the state of the art of issues on wolf x dog hybridization within the scientific community, (b) assess the conceptual base…

Absence inattendue d'espèces endémiques insulaires: Dissémination sur de longues distances chez des espèces de Siphonaria sub-antarctique de haute la…

2018

International audience; Aim: We assess biogeographical patterns, population structure and the range of species in the pulmonate genus Siphonaria across the sub‐Antarctic. We hypothesized that locally endemic cryptic species will be found across the distribution of these direct‐developing limpets in the sub‐Antarctic.Location: The sub‐Antarctic coasts of the Southern Ocean including South America, the Falkland/Malvinas, South Georgia, Kerguelen and Macquarie Islands.Methods: Multi‐locus phylogenetic reconstructions, mtDNA time‐calibrated divergence time estimations and population‐based analyses of Siphonaria populations were used at the scale of the Southern Ocean.Results: We resolve two wid…

2021

Abstract Background Tracing the association between insect cold tolerance and latitudinally and locally varying environmental conditions, as well as key morphological traits and molecular mechanisms, is essential for understanding the processes involved in adaptation. We explored these issues in two closely-related species, Drosophila montana and Drosophila flavomontana, originating from diverse climatic locations across several latitudes on the coastal and mountainous regions of North America. We also investigated the association between sequence variation in one of the key circadian clock genes, vrille, and cold tolerance in both species. Finally, we studied the impact of vrille on fly co…

Evolutionary history of two cryptic species of northern African jerboas

2020

Abstract Background: Climatic variation and geologic change both play significant roles in shaping species distributions, thus affecting their evolutionary history. In Sahara-Sahel, climatic oscillations shifted the desert extent during the Pliocene-Pleistocene interval, triggering the diversification of several species. Here, we investigated how these biogeographical and ecological events have shaped patterns of genetic diversity and divergence in African Jerboas, desert specialist rodents. We focused on two sister and cryptic species, Jaculus jaculus and J. hirtipes, where we (1) evaluated their genetic differentiation, (2) reconstructed their evolutionary and demographic history; (3) tes…

Do small mammals prey upon an invasive ectoparasite of cervids?

2012

Predation is often considered an important factor for population regulation and in some cases for the invasion success of prey. Small mammalian predation may be a major force in the population regulation of many ground-dwelling in- vertebrate species. The deer ked (Lipoptena cervi (L., 1758)) is an ectoparasitic fly of cervids. The species has a large distri- bution area and it has relatively rapidly spread in northern Europe during the previous four decades. The factors possibly regulating the distribution and invasion of this fly are poorly known. During the off-host stage of several months, pupae of deer ked are likely exposed to many ground-dwelling predators. To study whether small mam…

2020

Understanding how and why rates of evolutionary diversification vary is a key issue in evolutionary biology, ecology, and biogeography. Evolutionary rates are the net result of interacting processes summarized under concepts such as adaptive radiation and evolutionary stasis. Here, we review the central concepts in the evolutionary diversification literature and synthesize these into a simple, general framework for studying rates of diversification and quantifying their underlying dynamics, which can be applied across clades and regions, and across spatial and temporal scales. Our framework describes the diversification rate (d) as a function of the abiotic environment (a), the biotic envir…

2022

Abstract The interest in studying wood-inhabiting fungal communities has grown in recent years. This interest has mainly been motivated by the important roles of wood-inhabiting fungi in ecosystem functioning (e.g. nutrient cycling) and conservation biology (e.g. their sensitivity to forest management). In this paper, I argue that another important, but yet largely unexplored motivation for studying wood-inhabiting fungal communities, is their potential to advance fundamental community ecology. One major advantage of wood-inhabiting fungi as model systems is that they are organized as spatially well-defined metacommunities, thus conforming to the assumptions of many theoretical frameworks. …

Adaptation to a seasonally varying environment: a strong latitudinal cline in reproductive diapause combined with high gene flow inDrosophila montana

2011

Adaptation to seasonal changes in the northern hemisphere includes an ability to predict the forthcoming cold season from gradual changes in environmental cues early enough to prepare for the harsh winter conditions. The magnitude and speed of changes in these cues vary between the latitudes, which induces strong selection pressures for local adaptation. We studied adaptation to seasonal changes in Drosophila montana, a northern maltfly, by defining the photoperiodic conditions leading to adult reproductive diapause along a latitudinal cline in Finland and by measuring genetic differentiation and the amount of gene flow between the sampling sites with microsatellites. Our data revealed a cl…

Combining palaeodistribution modelling and phylogeographical approaches for identifying glacial refugia in AlpinePrimula

2013

Aim We investigated the late Quaternary history of two closely related and partly sympatric species of Primula from the south-western European Alps, P. marginata Curtis and P. latifolia Lapeyr., by combining phylogeographical and palaeodistribution modelling approaches. In particular, we were interested in whether the two approaches were congruent and identified the same glacial refugia. Location South-western European Alps. Methods For the phylogeographical analysis we included 352 individuals from 28 populations of P. marginata and 172 individuals from 15 populations of P. latifolia and used amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs). For palaeodistribution modelling, species distrib…

European Red List of Lycopods and Ferns

2017

In recent years, awareness has risen surrounding the crucial role of plants in providing ecosystem services and on their decline – they are one of the essential foundations of healthy ecosystems that we depend on. However, significant gaps in knowledge still remain. In this context, the European Red List of lycopods and ferns provides the first ever comprehensive assessment of the extinction risk of all native lycopod and fern species to Europe. With 194 species assessed, this assessment highlights that 19.9% of lycopod and fern species are threatened with extinction in Europe. This is mainly due to urban and infrastructure development, human intrusions and disturbance, pollution, and water…