Search results for "species diversity."
showing 10 items of 160 documents
Discrepant partitioning of genetic diversity in mouse lemurs and dwarf lemurs--biological reality or taxonomic bias?
2013
Unequal degrees of taxonomic subdivision can pose problems for research that relies on cross-taxon comparisons of biogeographic patterns. Numerous species of lemurs have been described in recent years. These descriptions were unevenly distributed over the genera of lemurs as exemplified by the closely related mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.) and dwarf lemurs (Cheirogaleus spp.). According to previous studies, these genera display striking differences such as many versus few species, small versus large distributions, and small versus large mitochondrial divergence within and between species. We questioned if these differences reflect the biological reality or a biased taxonomic subdivision, wh…
Benthic foraminiferal response to trace element pollution. The case study of the Gulf of Milazzo, NE Sicily (Central Mediterranean Sea).
2013
The response of benthic foraminiferal assemblages to trace element pollution in the marine sediments of the Gulf of Milazzo (north-eastern Sicily) was investigated. Since the 1960s, this coastal area has been a preferred site for the development of two small marinas and a commercial harbour as well as for heavy industry. Forty samples collected in the uppermost 3-4 cm of an undisturbed layer of sediment in the littoral environment were used for this benthic foraminiferal analysis. The enrichment factors (EFs) of selected trace elements (As, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) were also calculated. Changes both in benthic foraminiferal assemblages and in some trace elements concentrations have pr…
Species Diversity and Distribution of Mammals in Riga
2003
The aim of this study was to investigate the species diversity and distribution of mammals in the territory of Riga. Our specific aims were to create a zonal division of Riga, and to classify habitats in unbuilt areas of the city. Riga was divided into four zones according to historical, economic and geographical features. Criteria of habitat classification were as follows: the size of a territory, anthropogenic load, soil and vegetation types and age. Sixteen types of habitats were distinguished. In the period 1999–2002, 27 mammal species of six orders were registered in the investigated territory of Riga. The number of animals and the diversity of species increased towards the periphery o…
Life-form adaptations and substrate availability explain a 100-year post-grazing succession of bryophyte species in the Moricsala Strict Nature Reser…
2013
Bryophyte species composition, richness and life-form distributions were studied in a succession after termination of land-use as meadows and pasture in the Moricsala Strict Nature Reserve. Detailed lists of bryophyte species in various vegetation types, which were produced in the early 1900s by Karl Reinhold Kupffer, were compared with those prepared from 2006 to 2010 to determine changes in species composition. Colonisations and extinctions of bryophyte species and life forms could be explained by increases in available substrates (living trees, dead wood, ground layer disturbance patches), and increasingly shaded conditions. In each forest type, the species diversity (alpha diversity) in…
Pesticide doses, landscape structure and their relative effects on farmland birds
2014
International audience; tAgricultural changes related to the intensification of farming practices and the simplification of land-scape elements often occur simultaneously. Their respective effects on biodiversity are thus difficult todisentangle and are poorly understood. This study assessed the relative contribution of each componentof agricultural intensification on taxonomic and functional bird communities.The bird communities studied were composed of 70 species, both farmland and non-farmland birds,found in 66 fields covering three main cereal departments of France. Herbicide dose was related to mea-surable negative effects on the Community Specialization Index (CSI). Overall, the propo…
Is land-use change a cause of loss of pedodiversity? The case of the Mazzarrone study area, Sicily
2011
Anthropogenic soils created ex novo by land-us e change in large scale farming are, from a pedogenetic point of view, catastrophic events that bring the soils to time zero and change the natural pattern of the soilscape, remarkably, in some cases. The qu antitative aspects of pedodiversity of a soilsc ape in South-East Sicily, where some types of soils, in recent decades, have suffered a consistent reduction due to the transformations by large scale farming, are considered. The evolution of pedodiversity over a 53-year period (1955 to 2008 ) is examined using a dedicated statistical method and a space – time model based on Markov analysis and cellular autom ata in order to predict the evolu…
Metals and Organochlorine Compounds in Fish from Latvian Lakes
1998
Organochlorines and metals have high toxicity and worldwide distribution in the aquatic environment. They are known to accumulate in sediments. In mollusks and fishes, they are bioconcentrated, even when released in minute quantities into the environment. This is important, as these chemicals have an adverse impact on species diversity, and accumulate in humans when seafood is consumed (Jaffar et al. 1988; Ruiter 1995). The nature and extent of accumulation and impact of persistent xenobiotics in water bodies depend on their sources; i.e. whether they are from industry, agricultural activities, transboundary transport with air masses (Sharif et al. 1993), geochemically determined elevated c…
Transmission modes affect the population structure of potato virus Y in potato.
2020
Transmission is a crucial part of a viral life cycle and transmission mode can have an important impact on virus biology. It was demonstrated that transmission mode can influence the virulence and evolution of a virus; however, few empirical data are available to describe the direct underlying changes in virus population structure dynamics within the host. Potato virus Y (PVY) is an RNA virus and one of the most damaging pathogens of potato. It comprises several genetically variable strains that are transmitted between plants via different transmission modes. To investigate how transmission modes affect the within-plant viral population structure, we have used a deep sequencing approach to …
Taxonomic complexity in the halophyte Limonium vulgare and related taxa (Plumbaginaceae): insights from analysis of morphological, reproductive and k…
2014
Part of a special issue on halophytes and saline adaptations Background and Aims Limonium is awell-known example of a group of plants that is taxonomically complex due to certain biological characteristics that hamper species’ delineation. The closely related polyploid species Limonium vulgare Mill., L. humile Mill. and L. narbonense Mill. are defined species and can be used for studying patterns of morphological and reproductive variation. The first two taxa are usually found in Atlantic Europe and the third in the Mediterranean region, but a numberof intermediate morphological formsmay be present alongside typical examples of these species. This study attempts to elucidate morphological, …
Gastropods from upper Pliensbachian–Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) sediments of Causses Basin, southern France and their recovery after the early Toarcian…
2015
AbstractA gastropod fauna has been studied from upper Pliensbachian – upper Toarcian deposits of two sections of the Causses Basin (southern France) in order to investigate the mode of recovery after the early Toarcian anoxic event. The fauna consists of 15 species, one of which is new (Bathrotomaria kronzwilmesorumsp. nov.). Their stratigraphical distribution shows two peaks of diversity – in the Bifrons Zone (Bifrons Subzone) and in the Aalensis Zone (Mactra Subzone) – which reflect brief times during which the oxygen content and bottom consistency favoured the settlement of a relatively diversified fauna. In the Variabilis–Pseudoradiosa zones, gastropods are only represented by two speci…