Search results for "Biodiversity and Ecology"
showing 10 items of 738 documents
Additive effects of temperature and infection with an acanthocephalan parasite on the shredding activity of Gammarus fossarum (Crustacea: Amphipoda):…
2017
10 pages; International audience; Climate change can have critical impacts on the ecological role of keystone species, leading to subsequent alterations within ecosystems. The consequences of climate change may be best predicted by understanding its interaction with the cumulative effects of other stressors, although this approach is rarely adopted. However, whether this interaction is additive or interactive can hardly be predicted from studies examining a single factor at a time. In particular, biotic interactions are known to induce modifications in the functional role of many species. Here, we explored the effect of temperature on leaf consumption by a keystone freshwater shredder, the …
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…
Blackgrass (Alopecurus myosuroides Huds.) seed dispersal from a single plant and its consequences on weed infestation
2001
Blackgrass (Alopecurus myosuroides Huds.) seed dispersal from single mother-plants was studied in two experiments. For the first experiment, eight blackgrass plants of different heights and number of ears were produced in a greenhouse with the help of different in sowing densities and nitrogen nutrition levels. At the beginning of seed shedding, the plants were placed outside, and seeds were gathered daily. Daily seed dispersal was analysed by fitting a Weibull equation to the number of seeds as a function of distance to the mother-plant. The second experiment was carried out in a field comprising winter barley and spring barley plots as well as bare soil. In each of these three parts, two …
The interplay of landscape composition and configuration: new pathways to manage functional biodiversity and agroecosystem services across Europe
2019
Managing agricultural landscapes to support biodiversity and ecosystem services is a key aim of a sustainable agriculture. However, how the spatial arrangement of crop fields and other habitats in landscapes impacts arthropods and their functions is poorly known. Synthesising data from 49 studies (1515 landscapes) across Europe, we examined effects of landscape composition (% habitats) and configuration (edge density) on arthropods in fields and their margins, pest control, pollination and yields. Configuration effects interacted with the proportions of crop and non-crop habitats, and species’ dietary, dispersal and overwintering traits led to contrasting responses to landscape variables. O…
Condition-dependent ecdysis and immunocompetence in the amphipod crustacean, Gammarus pulex.
2010
The exoskeleton of arthropods forms an efficient protection against pathogens, but this first line of defence is periodically weakened during ecdysis, increasing the opportunity for surrounding pathogens to invade the body cavity. Since the richness of pathogens in the environment can be spatially and temporally variable, arthropods may have a fitness advantage in moulting in a place and time of low infection risk. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that the amphipod crustacean, Gammarus pulex , exhibits temporal adjustment of the moult cycle in response to elevated risks of infection. Interestingly, this phenomenon is variable between two populations and independent of levels of im…
Forty questions of importance to the policy and practice of native oyster reef restoration in Europe
2020
© 2020 The Authors. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Oyster reefs are among the most threatened marine habitats globally. In Europe, oyster reefs have been extirpated from most locations within their historical range. Active restoration of the native oyster (Ostrea edulis) in Europe has grown substantially in recent years. In sharing experiences between oyster restoration projects in Europe at the Native Oyster Restoration Alliance conference, NORA2, in Edinburgh in May 2019, it became apparent that a number of similar barriers are experienced. This study identified the top 40 questions, which, if answered, would have the greatest inf…
Small but smart: the interaction between environmental cues and internal state modulates host-patch exploitation in a parasitic wasp
2007
International audience; The reproductive success of insect parasitoids depends on two activities, searching for hosts to obtain immediate fitness rewards (offspring) and searching for food to extend life span and enhance future reproductive opportunities. Models suggest that to deal with this trade-off and to cope with the variability of the resources they depend on, parasitoids should simultaneously integrate information originating from three distinct sources: host and food availabilities in the environment (environmental information) and the metabolic reserves of the parasitoid (internal information). We tested whether, in the parasitic wasp Venturia canescens, these three types of infor…
Evolution of life-history traits and mating strategy in males: a case study on two populations of a Drosophila parasitoid.
2016
10 pages; International audience; Abiotic and biotic factors affect life-history traits and lead populations to exhibit different behavioural strategies. Due to the direct link between their behaviour and fitness, parasitoid females have often been used to test the theories explaining these differences. In male parasitoids, however, such investigations are vastly understudied, although their mating strategy directly determines their fitness. In this study, we compared the pattern of life history traits and the mating strategy of males in two populations of the Drosophila parasitoid Asobara tabida, exposed to different biotic and abiotic conditions, with the major difference being that one o…
Fuzzy quantification of common and rare species in ecological communities (FuzzyQ)
2021
International audience; Most species in ecological communities are rare, whereas only a few are common. This distributional paradox has intrigued ecologists for decades but the interpretation of species abundance distributions remains elusive.We present Fuzzy Quantification of Common and Rare Species in Ecological Communities (FuzzyQ) as an R package. FuzzyQ shifts the focus from the prevailing species-categorization approach to develop a quantitative framework that seeks to place each species along a rarity-commonness gradient. Given a community surveyed over a number of sites, quadrats, or any other convenient sampling unit, FuzzyQ uses a fuzzy clustering algorithm that estimates a probab…
Interspecific variation in the relationship between clutch size, laying date and intensity of urbanization in four species of hole-nesting birds
2016
Marie Vaugoyeau [et al.]