Search results for "15"

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…

Ancient DNA evidence for the loss of a highly divergent brown bear clade during historical times

2008

The genetic diversity of present-day brown bears (Ursus arctos) has been extensively studied over the years and appears to be geographically structured into five main clades. The question of the past diversity of the species has been recently addressed by ancient DNA studies that concluded to a relative genetic stability over the last 35,000 years. However, the post-last glacial maximum genetic diversity of the species still remains poorly documented, notably in the Old World. Here, we analyse Atlas brown bears, which became extinct during the Holocene period. A divergent brown bear mitochondrial DNA lineage not present in any of the previously studied modern or ancient bear samples was unc…

Effects of habitat fragmentation on the genetic structure of the monophagous butterfly Polyommatus coridon along its northern range margin

2004

Population genetic patterns of species at their range margin have important implications for species conservation. We performed allozyme electrophoresis of 19 loci to investigate patterns of the genetic structure of 17 populations (538 individuals) of the butterfly Polyommatus coridon, a monophagous habitat specialist with a patchy distribution. The butterfly and its larval food plant Hippocrepis comosa reach their northern distribution margin in the study region (southern Lower Saxony, Germany). Butterfly population size increased with host plant population size. The genetic differentiation between populations was low but significant (FST = 0.013). No isolation-by-distance was found. Hiera…

Tooth tales told by dental diet proxies: An alpine community of sympatric ruminants as a model to decipher the ecology of fossil fauna

2021

Abstract Paleobiologists tend to use dietary information as an ecological indicator because diet is a fundamental link between an organism and its environment. However, the ecological information from fossilized hard tissues is often difficult to interpret, because links between environment, diet, and hard tissue biology are insufficiently studied in modern communities. To address this dilemma, we investigated dietary proxies commonly used by paleobiologists in a 4-ruminant community from the French Alps. Dental microwear texture analyses are applied to 82 specimens of roe deer, red deer, chamois, and mouflons. Intra-tooth serial enamel stable carbon and oxygen isotope analyses of the struc…

Evolutionary history of two allopatric Terricola species (Arvicolinae, Rodentia) from molecular, morphological, and palaeontological data

2008

To investigate the phylogenetic and phylogeographical relationships of arvicolines, we use several Western European ground voles. More particularly, our study is focused on Microtus (Terricola) savii and M. (T.) pyrenaicus. These two allopatric species are usually considered as having originated from the same ancestor, possibly M. (T.) mariaclaudiae. We propose molecular and morphological approaches: nucleotidic data from the mitochondrial cytochrome b and 12S rRNA genes and global morphological analyses from the first lower molar. Four other Terricola species (multiplex, lusitanicus, duodecimcostatus, subterraneus) were added to the data set for both analyses, and two other vole species (C…

Bird populations most exposed to climate change are less responsive to climatic variation

2020

AbstractThe phenology of many species shows strong sensitivity to climate change; however, with few large scale intra-specific studies it is unclear how such sensitivity varies over a species’ range. We document large intra-specific variation in phenological sensitivity to temperature using laying date information from 67 populations of two European songbirds covering a large part of their breeding range. Populations inhabiting deciduous habitats showed stronger phenological sensitivity compared with those in evergreen and mixed habitats. Strikingly, however, the lowest sensitivity was seen in populations that had experienced the greatest change in climate. Therefore, we predict that the st…