Search results for "systematics."
showing 10 items of 4966 documents
Challenges of ecological restoration: Lessons from forests in northern Europe
2013
The alarming rate of ecosystem degradation has raised the need for ecological restoration throughout different biomes and continents. North European forests may appear as one of the least vulnerable ecosystems from a global perspective, since forest cover is not rapidly decreasing and many ecosystem services remain at high level. However, extensive areas of northern forests are heavily exploited and have lost a major part of their biodiversity value. There is a strong requirement to restore these areas towards a more natural condition in order to meet the targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Several northern countries are now taking up this challenge by restoring forest biodiv…
Sex pheromone identified after solid phase microextraction from tergal glands of female alates in Cornitermes bequaerti (Isoptera, Nasutitermitinae)
2002
For the first time, a termite sex pheromone secreted by tergal glands has been isolated and identified. In the mandibulate nasute termite Cornitermes bequaerti, pairing of swarming imagoes is mediated by a sex pheromone secreted by females from their tergal glands. These well developed sexual glands located in front of tergites 8, 9, 10 are essentially composed of class 1 and 2 cells, but also of some glandular units of class 3 cells. The major volatile compound of tergal secretion was isolated by solid phase microextraction (SPME) and identified by GC-MS as (3Z, 6Z, 8E)-dodecatrien-1-ol. Sex attraction bioassays with synthetic (3Z, 6Z, 8E)-dodecatrien-1-ol showed that this alcohol was the …
The socio-economic impact of conservation: The Safe Islands for Seabirds LIFE project
2017
Using the Safe Islands for Seabirds LIFE project as a case study, we assessed the socio-economic impact of a nature conservation project on the local community, focusing on the wealth created and the jobs supported directly and indirectly by the project. The Safe Islands for Seabirds project took place during 2009-2012, mainly on Corvo Island, the smallest and least populated island of Portugal's Azores Archipelago. To assess the impact of the project we used a combination of methods to analyse the project expenditure, the jobs created directly as a result of it, and, by means of multipliers, the incomes and jobs it supported indirectly. We estimate that during 2009-2012 direct expenditure …
Addition of high C:N crop residues to a P-limited substrate constrains the benefits of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis for wheat P and N nutrition
2021
Many aspects concerning the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in plant nutrient uptake from organic sources remain unclear. Here, we investigated the contribution of AM symbiosis to N and P uptake by durum wheat after the addition of a high C:N biomass to a P-limited soil. Plants were grown in pots in the presence or absence of a multispecies AM inoculum, with (Org) or without (Ctr) the addition of 15N-labelled organic matter (OM). A further treatment, in which 15N was applied in mineral form (Ctr+N) in the same amount as that supplied in the Org treatment, was also included. Inoculation with AM had positive effects on plant growth in both control treatments (Ctr and Ctr+N), mainly …
Ovule discounting in an outcrossing, cryptically dioecious tree.
2006
9 páginas, 1 figura, 1 tabla.
Nutritional symbionts enhance structural defence against predation and fungal infection in a grain pest beetle
2022
ABSTRACT Many insects benefit from bacterial symbionts that provide essential nutrients and thereby extend the hosts’ adaptive potential and their ability to cope with challenging environments. However, the implications of nutritional symbioses for the hosts’ defence against natural enemies remain largely unstudied. Here, we investigated whether the cuticle-enhancing nutritional symbiosis of the saw-toothed grain beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis confers protection against predation and fungal infection. We exposed age-defined symbiotic and symbiont-depleted (aposymbiotic) beetles to two antagonists that must actively penetrate the cuticle for a successful attack: wolf spiders (Lycosidae) an…
Plankton community composition in relation to availability and uptake of oxidized and reduced nitrogen
2003
Centre de Recherche en Ecologie Marine et Aquaculture de L'Houmeau (CNRS-IFREMER), BP 5, 17137 L'Houmeau, France ABSTRACT: Trends in nitrogen utilization, determined with 15 N-labeled substrates, were related to blooms of distinct phytoplankton groups in the Gulf of Riga, Baltic Sea, during May, June and July 1999. The dominant phytoplankton groups included diatoms, cryptophytes, dinoflagellates, and fila- mentous cyanobacteria. As the water column became progressively more stratified over the growing season, diatoms comprised a smaller proportion of the total phytoplankton assemblage and almost disappeared by late summer. Their disappearance correlated with undetectable surface-water nitra…
Stimulation of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria in a Baltic Sea plankton community by land-derived organic matter or iron addition
2006
In the Baltic Sea, floating blooms of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria occur yearly during late summer. These blooms can sometimes be limited by iron. Due to extensive foresting around the Baltic Sea, iron is entering the Baltic Sea partly bound to dissolved organic material (DOM) via rivers. An experiment was performed in 300 l laboratory mesocosms to test the hypothesis that riverine high- molecular weight dissolved organic matter (HMWDOM), extracted by tangential flow filtration >1000 Da, stimulates the biomass of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, by increasing the availability of iron. The addition of iron/EDTA and of DOM resulted in 5 to 10 times higher biomass of nitrogen- fixing cyanobacte…
Iron operates as an important factor promoting year-round diazotrophic cyanobacteria blooms in eutrophic reservoirs in the tropics
2021
Abstract We hypothesize that iron availability plays an important role in driving phytoplankton structure and dynamics in tropical reservoir. This role has often been neglected in routine monitoring of water quality since the main focus has been addressed on macronutrients such phosphorus and nitrogen. To elucidate the potential regulation exerted by iron availability on phytoplankton, a limnological investigation was carried out in two neighboring eutrophic reservoirs in tropical China. Traditional physical and chemical variables were measured along with total and dissolved iron concentrations to explore how they could influence phytoplankton structure. Statistical analyses showed that dis…
The Importance of Phytoplankton Biomolecule Availability for Secondary Production
2017
The growth and reproduction of animals is affected by their access to resources. In aquatic ecosystems, the availability of essential biomolecules for filter-feeding zooplankton depends greatly on phytoplankton. Here, we analyzed the biochemical composition, i.e., the fatty acid, sterol and amino acid profiles and concentrations as well as protein, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus content of 17 phytoplankton monocultures representing the seven most abundant phytoplankton classes in boreal and sub-arctic lakes. To examine how the differences in the biochemical composition between phytoplankton classes affect their nutritional quality for consumers, we assessed the performance of Daphnia, on …