Search results for "Diversity."

Disturbance-grazer-vegetation interactions maintain habitat diversity in mountain pasture-woodlands

2017

Low-intensity livestock grazing is a widespread management tool in order to maintain habitat diversity in mountain pasture-woodlands for nature conservation purposes. Historical photographs indicate that forest disturbance significantly contributed to forest-grassland mosaic pattern formation. Disturbance grazer interactions are however poorly understood and the effects of logging or windthrow are rarely considered in management plans. Moreover, disturbance-grazer interactions are crucial for the maintenance of open habitats in the upcoming "rewilding" approach of nature conservation. We aimed to understand the effects of forest gap creation by the breakdown of senile trees or by single-tre…

Psallus thomashenryi sp. n. and Psallus lucanicus from Turkey (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Miridae)

2018

Psallus (Psallus) thomashenryisp. n.(Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Phylinae: Phylini: Phylina) is described from southern Anatolia, Turkey. Illustrations of the dorsal habitus and male genitalia are provided. Its habitus is similar to other uniformly orange species of the subgenus Psallus Fieber, 1858, particularlyP.asthenicusSeidenstücker, 1966 from which it can be easily distinguished by the combination of extremely small size (2.3 mm in both sexes) and different morphology of the vesica. Psallus (Psallus) lucanicus Wagner, 1968 is recorded for the first time from Turkey. Psallus (Psallus) aurora (Mulsant & Rey, 1852) is removed from the list of Turkish fauna based on a reevalu…

Identification of new hardy ferns that preferentially accumulate light rare earth elements: a conserved trait within fern species

2020

Environmental contextRare earth elements (REEs) are strategic metals and emerging contaminants for which plant-based remediation measures are needed. We screened a collection of hardy ferns and identified new accumulator species that preferentially transferred light REEs to their fronds. This study is an important step towards understanding the mechanisms of REE accumulation in plants. AbstractRare earth elements (REEs) include the lanthanides plus yttrium and scandium, and can be split according to their atomic mass into light (LREEs) and heavy REEs (HREEs). The increasing demand for REEs is mainly driven by new technologies, and their current low recyclability has led them to become emer…

Mitochondrial phylogeography of the edible dormouse (Glis glis) in the western Palearctic region

2010

International audience; This study describes in detail the phylogeoraphic pattern Of the edible dormouse (Glis glis) a European rodent With pronounced hibernating behavior We Used sequences of 831 base pairs of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome-b gene from 130 edible dormice collected at 43 localities (throughout Its distribution. Our results reveal presence of 3 main haplogroups: Sicilian, South Italian (restricted to the Calabrian region) (a widespread lineage corresponding to all remaining western, central. and eastern European populations). Examination of paleontological data confirms refugial regions for G,Its in the 3 Mediterranean peninsulas, although overall low genetic diversity is …

Male sex pheromone of cockroach Eurycotis floridana (Walker) (Blattidae, Polyzosteriinae): role and composition of tergites 2 and 8 secretions

1994

0098-0331; In Eurycotis floridana, the male calling behavior is associated with the exposition of epidermal glands located under tergites 2, 7, and 8. 4-Hydroxy-5-methyl-3(2H)-furanone and 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone were recently identified as the specific components of tergite 7 secretion. Methylene chloride extracts of tergite 7 and its major compound 4-hydroxy-5-methyl-3(2H)-furanone attract the conspecific females at a distance. Methylene chloride extracts of tergite 8 are also attractive at a distance to the females, whereas extracts of tergite 2 had no effect on males and females. Our GC investigations showed the absence of specific compounds in tergite 2 secretions. The GC…

Bryophyte Species Richness on Retention Aspens Recovers in Time but Community Structure Does Not

2014

Green-tree retention is a forest management method in which some living trees are left on a logged area. The aim is to offer ‘lifeboats’ to support species immediately after logging and to provide microhabitats during and after forest re-establishment. Several studies have shown immediate decline in bryophyte diversity after retention logging and thus questioned the effectiveness of this method, but longer term studies are lacking. Here we studied the epiphytic bryophytes on European aspen (Populus tremula L.) retention trees along a 30-year chronosequence. We compared the bryophyte flora of 102 ‘retention aspens’ on 14 differently aged retention sites with 102 ‘conservation aspens’ on 14 d…

Spatial structure and β-diversity of phytoplankton in Tibetan Plateau lakes: nestedness or replacement?

2017

Spatial patterns and β-diversity of phytoplankton assemblages depend on the relative importance of species dispersal capacity and species-sorting. Variability in species composition, composed by differences in species richness (nestedness) and/or species replacement, may be caused by niche availability and environmental selection. A field survey was carried out in Tibetan plateau on 38 lakes. Tibetan plateau lakes, located at high elevation, are harsh ecosystems characterized by low temperatures, low available nutrients, high UV amount, and strong salinity gradients. Only well-adapted species can survive in these environments. We therefore hypothesized that environmental filtering was the m…

Interactions between environmental variability and immigration rate control patterns of species diversity

2006

Abstract Theories focussing on local competition processes predict that species diversity is maximised with high-frequency environmental variability or alternatively with intermediate frequencies. The models coupling regional processes to local explanations of diversity patterns predict that the immigration rate from a regional species pool can strongly increase diversity. However, the interaction between local and regional processes in temporally fluctuating environment has received little attention. We explored in a simulation study how the patterns of species diversity are affected by the frequency spectrum of stochastic environmental variations and density independent immigration rate i…

2018

Abstract Understanding the response of biodiversity to management, land use and climate change is a major challenge in farmland to halt the decline of biodiversity. Farmlands shelter a wide variety of taxa, which vary in their life cycle and habitat niches. Consequently, monitoring biodiversity from sessile annual plants to migratory birds requires dedicated protocols. In this article, we describe the protocols applied in a long-term research platform, the LTSER Zone Atelier “Plaine & Val de Sevre” (for a full description see Bretagnolle et al. (2018) [1] ). We present the data in the form of the description of monitoring protocols, which has evolved through time for arable weeds, grassland…

The relation between circadian asynchrony, functional redundancy, and trophic performance in tropical ant communities

2016

The diversity-stability relationship has been under intense scrutiny for the past decades, and temporal asynchrony is recognized as an important aspect of ecosystem stability. In contrast to relatively well-studied interannual and seasonal asynchrony, few studies investigate the role of circadian cycles for ecosystem stability. Here, we studied multifunctional redundancy of diurnal and nocturnal ant communities in four tropical rain forest sites. We analyzed how it was influenced by species richness, functional performance, and circadian asynchrony. In two neotropical sites, species richness and functional redundancy were lower at night. In contrast, these parameters did not differ in the t…