Search results for "Behavior and Systematics"
showing 10 items of 6517 documents
Diversity and endemism of woody plant species in the Equatorial Pacific seasonally dry forests
2009
The biodiversity hotspot of the Equatorial Pacific region in western Ecuador and northwestern Peru comprises the most extensive seasonally dry forest formations west of the Andes. Based on a recently assembled checklist of the woody plants occurring in this region, we analysed their geographical and altitudinal distribution patterns. The montane seasonally dry forest region (at an altitude between 1,000 and 1,100 m, and the smallest in terms of area) was outstanding in terms of total species richness and number of endemics. The extensive seasonally dry forest formations in the Ecuadorean and Peruvian lowlands and hills (i.e., forests below 500 m altitude) were comparatively much more specie…
How challenging RADseq data turned out to favor coalescent-based species tree inference. A case study in Aichryson (Crassulaceae)
2022
Analysing multiple genomic regions while incorporating detection and qualification of discordance among regions has become standard for understanding phylogenetic relationships. In plants, which usually have comparatively large genomes, this is feasible by the combination of reduced-representation library (RRL) methods and high-throughput sequencing enabling the cost effective acquisition of genomic data for thousands of loci from hundreds of samples. One popular RRL method is RADseq. A major disadvantage of established RADseq approaches is the rather short fragment and sequencing range, leading to loci of little individual phylogenetic information. This issue hampers the application of coa…
Evolution of the Globin Gene Family in Deuterostomes: Lineage-Specific Patterns of Diversification and Attrition
2012
In the Metazoa, globin proteins display an underlying unity in tertiary structure that belies an extraordinary diversity in primary structures, biochemical properties, and physiological functions. Phylogenetic reconstructions can reveal which of these functions represent novel, lineage-specific innovations, and which represent ancestral functions that are shared with homologous globin proteins in other eukaryotes and even prokaryotes. To date, our understanding of globin diversity in deuterostomes has been hindered by a dearth of genomic sequence data from the Ambulacraria (echinoderms + hemichordates), the sister group of chordates, and the phylum Xenacoelomorpha, which includes xenoturbel…
Phylogenomics Identifies an Ancestral Burst of Gene Duplications Predating the Diversification of Aphidomorpha
2019
Aphids (Aphidoidea) are a diverse group of hemipteran insects that feed on plant phloem sap. A common finding in studies of aphid genomes is the presence of a large number of duplicated genes. However, when these duplications occurred remains unclear, partly due to the high relatedness of sequenced species. To better understand the origin of aphid duplications we sequenced and assembled the genome of Cinara cedri, an early branching lineage (Lachninae) of the Aphididae family. We performed a phylogenomic comparison of this genome with 20 other sequenced genomes, including the available genomes of five other aphids, along with the transcriptomes of two species belonging to Adelgidae (a close…
Effects of predation pressure and resource use on morphological divergence in omnivorous prey fish
2013
Background. Body shape is one of the most variable traits of organisms and responds to a broad array of local selective forces. In freshwater fish, divergent body shapes within single species have been repeatedly observed along the littoral-pelagic axes of lakes, where the structural complexity of near shore habitats provides a more diverse set of resources compared to the open-water zones. It remains poorly understood whether similar resource-driven polymorphism occurs among lakes that vary in structural complexity and predation pressure, and whether this variation is heritable. Here, we analyzed body shape in four populations of omnivorous roach (Rutilus rutilus) inhabiting shallow lakes.…
ATLANTIC BIRDS: a data set of bird species from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest
2017
South America holds 30% of the world's avifauna, with the Atlantic Forest representing one of the richest regions of the Neotropics. Here we have compiled a data set on Brazilian Atlantic Forest bird occurrence (150,423) and abundance samples (N = 832 bird species; 33,119 bird individuals) using multiple methods, including qualitative surveys, mist nets, point counts, and line transects). We used four main sources of data: museum collections, on‐line databases, literature sources, and unpublished reports. The data set comprises 4,122 localities and data from 1815 to 2017. Most studies were conducted in the Florestas de Interior (1,510 localities) and Serra do Mar (1,280 localities) biogeogr…
The interplay of nested biotic interactions and the abiotic environment regulates populations of a hypersymbiont.
2018
1.The role of biotic interactions in shaping the distribution and abundance of species should be particularly pronounced in symbionts. Indeed, symbionts have a dual niche composed of traits of their individual hosts and the abiotic environment external to the host, and often combine active dispersal at finer scales with host‐ mediated dispersal at broader scales. The biotic complexity in the determinants of species distribution and abundance should be even more pronounced for hypersymbionts (symbionts of other symbionts). 2.We use a chain of symbiosis to explore the relative influence of nested biotic interactions and the abiotic environment on occupancy and abundance of a hypersymbiont. 3.…
Understanding the long-term effects of species invasions
2006
We describe here the ecological and evolutionary processes that modulate the effects of invasive species over time, and argue that such processes are so widespread and important that ecologists should adopt a long-term perspective on the effects of invasive species. These processes (including evolution, shifts in species composition, accumulation of materials and interactions with abiotic variables) can increase, decrease, or qualitatively change the impacts of an invader through time. However, most studies of the effects of invasive species have been brief and lack a temporal context; 40% of recent studies did not even state the amount of time that had passed since the invasion. Ecologists…
Hydroperiod length as key parameter controlling seed strategies in Mediterranean salt marshes: The case of Halopeplis amplexicaulis
2018
Abstract The comprehension of plant biology and the response to the environment is fundamental to achieve the optimal skills to manage and conserve the fine equilibrium between biotic and abiotic parameters regulating natural biodiversity in salt marshes. The behaviour of annuals living in these stressful conditions is poorly understood and constitutes a good model for a better understanding of this relationship. We thus identified the determinant environmental factors involved in population survival of Halopeplis amplexicaulis, a threatened annual species inhabiting salt marshes. To achieve this objective, maternal climatic parameters were analyzed in seeds collected in different years, an…
Dental microwear texture gradients in guinea pigs reveal that material properties of the diet affect chewing behaviour
2021
ABSTRACT Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) is widely used for diet inferences in extant and extinct vertebrates. Often, a reference tooth position is analysed in extant specimens, while isolated teeth are lumped together in fossil datasets. It is therefore important to test whether dental microwear texture (DMT) is tooth position specific and, if so, what causes the differences in wear. Here, we present results from controlled feeding experiments with 72 guinea pigs, which received either fresh or dried natural plant diets of different phytolith content (lucerne, grass, bamboo) or pelleted diets with and without mineral abrasives (frequently encountered by herbivorous mammals in natu…