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opencc-zeroDec 2020View details →

Multi-dimensional biodiversity hotspots and the future of taxonomic, ecological, and phylogenetic diversity: a case study of North American rodents

Aim: We investigate geographic patterns across taxonomic, ecological, and phylogenetic diversity to test for spatial (in)congruency and identify aggregate diversity hotspots in relation to present land-use and future climate. Simulating extinctions of imperiled species, we demonstrate where losses across diversity dimensions and geography are predicted. Location: North America Time period: Present-day, future Major taxa studied: Rodentia Methods: Using geographic range maps for rodent species, we quantified spatial patterns for eleven dimensions of diversity: taxonomic (species, range-weighted), ecological (body size, diet, habitat), phylogenetic (mean, variance, and nearest-neighbor patristic distances, phylogenetic distance, genus-to-species ratio) and phyloendemism. We tested for correlations across dimensions and used spatial residual analyses to illustrate regions of pronounced diversity. We aggregated diversity hotspots in relation to land-use and climate-change predictions and recalculated metrics following extinctions of IUCN-listed imperiled species. Results: Topographically-complex western North America hosts high diversity across multiple dimensions: phyloendemism and ecological diversity exceed predictions based on taxonomic richness and phylogenetic variance patterns indicate steep gradients in phylogenetic turnover. While an aggregate diversity hotspot emerges in the west, spatial incongruence exists across diversity dimensions at the continental scale. Notably, phylogenetic metrics are uncorrelated with ecological diversity. Diversity hotspots overlap with land-use and climate change, and extinctions predicted by IUCN status are unevenly distributed across space, phylogeny, or ecological groups. Main conclusions: Comparison of taxonomic, ecological, and phylogenetic diversity patterns for North American rodents clearly shows the multifaceted nature of biodiversity. Testing for geographic patterns and (in)congruency across dimensions of diversity facilitates investigation into underlying ecological and evolutionary processes. The geographic scope of this analysis suggests that several explicit regional challenges face North American rodent fauna in the future. Simultaneous consideration of multidimensional biodiversity allows us to assess what critical functions or evolutionary history we might lose with future extinctions and maximize the potential of our conservation efforts.

opencc-zeroDec 2020View details →

Alternative pathways to diversity across ecologically distinct lizard radiations

Aim: Lizard assemblages vary greatly in taxonomic, ecological and phenotypic diversity, yet the mechanisms that generate and maintain these patterns at a macroecological scale are not well understood. We aimed to characterize the ecological and environmental drivers of species richness patterns in the context of macroecological theory for ten independent lizard radiations. Location: Global Time Period: Present-day Major taxa: Lizards Methods: We analyzed patterns of species and ecological trait diversity in ten ecologically distinct and widely distributed clades encompassing nearly all known lizard species. Using recently published spatial, phylogenetic, and ecological trait datasets, we built spatially explicit structural equation models to ask whether species diversity was directly or indirectly related to functional divergence or convergence within communities, and with features of the environment, including measures of productivity, complexity, and harshness. Results: Our results show that high species diversity is achieved via different pathways in different lizard clades, with both functionally divergent and convergent assemblages harboring high diversity in different clades. More generally, we also find common, positive effects of temperature, productivity, and topography on species richness within lizard clades. Main Conclusions: Thermal constraints, topographic complexity, and spatial structuring of functional diversity help explain the presence of highly diverse lizard assemblages, suggesting the importance of environmental filters in shaping present-day diversity and assemblage structure. Our results show how different pathways to high richness in different clades have contributed to the overall global pattern of species richness in reptiles.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: Ecologically diverse and distinct neighbourhoods trigger persistent phenotypic consequences, and amine metabolic profiling detects them

1.Global change triggers rapid alterations in the composition and diversity of plant communities which may change ecosystem functioning. Do changes in community diversity also change traits persistently, i.e. does coexistence with numerous or functionally or phylogenetically distinct species trigger, in a given focal species, trait shifts that persist? 2.We studied the grass Dactylis glomerata. Dactylis was grown in experimental plots with different species compositions for five years, sampled, cloned and grown in a common garden. We studied amines, regulators integrating growth responses of organisms to their environment. 3.We found that the mean levels and variances of most amines depended on the diversity of the source community, notably the species richness and the phylogenetic and functional distinctness from Dactylis, unbiased by species identity or biomass shifts. 4.Synthesis. Our results suggest that different levels of ambient diversity can, within a few years, select for different genotypes which have different compositions of growth regulators. Our study also suggests that a plant species can evolve in response to the diversity or distinctness of the surrounding plant community. Evolutionary changes of plant phenotypes might mediate an impact of past biological diversity on present ecosystem functioning.

opencc-zeroDec 2013View details →

Data from: Morphological, phylogenetic, and ecological diversity of the new model species Setaria viridis (Poaceae: Paniceae) and its close relatives

Premise of the study: Species limits of the emerging model organism Setaria viridis (tribe Paniceae, subtribe Cenchrinae) are not well defined. It is thought to be related to S. adhaerens, S. faberi, S. verticillata, and S. verticilliformis and in North America occurs with the morphologically similar S. pumila. An integrated approach was taken to evaluate its variation and relationships with the other taxa. Methods: Statistical morphology, flow cytometry, molecular phylogenetics, and growth experiments were employed to examine the group's physical variation, polyploidy, evolutionary relationships, and drought ecology, respectively. Key results: Setaria viridis contributed one genome to the tetraploids S. faberi, S. verticillata, and S. verticilliformis; the other genome of the latter two was contributed by S. adhaerens. Setaria pumila is unrelated. Morphologically, S. viridis is most similar to S. faberi, but all tested accessions of S. viridis were diploid, whereas those of S. faberi were all tetraploid. Principal component analysis of 70 morphological characters consistently separated S. viridis from S. faberi, largely by spikelet characters. The diagnostic morphological characters are not affected by watering. Setaria faberi is far more sensitive to drought, in terms of mortality and morphological stunting, than S. viridis or S. pumila. Conclusions: Setaria viridis is a diploid species and has contributed to several polyploid derivatives. The most morphologically similar of the polyploids is S. faberi, which differs in spikelet features, phylogenetics, genome size, and ecological response to drought. Researchers using field-collected S. viridis as a model organism will benefit from the clear delimitation provided in this study.

opencc-zeroDec 2013View details →

Data from: Adaptive landscape and functional diversity of Neotropical cichlids: implications for the ecology and evolution of Cichlinae (Cichlidae; Cichliformes)

Morphological, lineage and ecological diversity can vary substantially even among closely related lineages. Factors that influence morphological diversification, especially in functionally relevant traits, can help to explain the modern distribution of disparity across phylogenies and communities. Multivariate axes of feeding functional morphology from 75 species of Neotropical cichlid and a stepwise-AIC algorithm were used to estimate the adaptive landscape of functional morphospace in Cichlinae. Adaptive landscape complexity and convergence, as well as the functional diversity of Cichlinae, were compared with expectations under null evolutionary models. Neotropical cichlid feeding function varied primarily between traits associated with ram feeding vs. suction feeding/biting and secondarily with oral jaw muscle size and pharyngeal crushing capacity. The number of changes in selective regimes and the amount of convergence between lineages was higher than expected under a null model of evolution, but convergence was not higher than expected under a similarly complex adaptive landscape. Functional disparity was compatible with an adaptive landscape model, whereas the distribution of evolutionary change through morphospace corresponded with a process of evolution towards a single adaptive peak. The continentally distributed Neotropical cichlids have evolved relatively rapidly towards a number of adaptive peaks in functional trait space. Selection in Cichlinae functional morphospace is more complex than expected under null evolutionary models. The complexity of selective constraints in feeding morphology has likely been a significant contributor to the diversity of feeding ecology in this clade.

opencc-zeroMar 2020View details →

Diversity and ecology of aphyllophoroid fungi on driftwood logs on the shores of the Baltic Sea

Driftwood is woody debris that is floating on the sea or brought onto the shore by the sea. It can have a natural origin but often it originates from human activities. Driftwood has a significant ecological role as a microhabitat for a large range of species. Dead-wood-associated aphyllophoroid fungi on driftwood have been studied rather little globally, and there are hardly any studies conducted in the Baltic Sea. We studied the diversity and ecology of polypores and corticioids growing on driftwood (man-made logs) on the shores of Finnish SW-archipelago. In total, 394 driftwood logs were surveyed for visible fungal sporocarps. We found altogether 145 species (1023 records) of which approximately three-fourths were corticioids. The driftwood logs hosted several rare and noteworthy species, such as one new corticioid species, 16 nationally rare species, and 40 new species to the region. The five most common species accounted for one-third of all observations, whereas 82 species (11 % of all records) were recorded only once or twice. Larger logs hosted, on average, more species compared to small-diameter logs. The mean number of species increased significantly when comparing the logs in the first and the middle stages of decay. Our results show that driftwood logs can host a wide variety of species and they provide an important substrate for many dead-wood-associated fungi, including species of conservation concern and species with restricted ecological requirements. Driftwood hosted several species that have not been previously found in the archipelago forests, and the logs clearly enrich the fungal diversity in the area. Our results encourage to increase dead wood for fungi in coastal forests where it has been dramatically decreased as a result of strong hemeroby.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: Correlation between genetic diversity and environmental suitability: taking uncertainty from ecological niche models into account

The hindcast of shifts in the geographical ranges of species as estimated by ecological niche modelling (ENM) has been coupled with phylogeographical patterns, allowing the inference of past processes that drove population differentiation and genetic variability. However, more recently, some studies have suggested that maps of environmental suitability estimated by ENM may be correlated to species' abundance, raising the possibility of using environmental suitability to infer processes related to population demographic dynamics and genetic variability. In both cases, one of the main problems is that there is a wide variation in ENM development methods and climatic models. In this study, we analyse the relationship between heterozygosity (He) and environmental suitability from multiple ENMs for 25 population estimates for Dipteryx alata, a widely distributed, endemic tree species of the Cerrado region of central Brazil. We propose a new approach for generating a statistical distribution of correlations under randomly generated ENM. The confidence intervals from these distributions indicate how model selection with different properties affects the ability to detect a correlation of interest (e.g. the correlation between He and suitability). Additionally, our approach allows us to explore which particular ensemble of ENMs produces the better result for finding an association between environmental suitability and He. Caution is necessary when choosing a method or a climatic data set for modelling geographical distributions, but the new approach proposed here provides a conservative way to evaluate the ability of ensembles to detect patterns of interest.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: Genetic signatures of ecological diversity along an urbanization gradient

Despite decades of work in environmental science and ecology, estimating human influences on ecosystems remains challenging. This is partly due to complex chains of causation among ecosystem elements, exacerbated by the difficulty of collecting biological data at sufficient spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales. Here, we demonstrate the utility of environmental DNA (eDNA) for quantifying associations between human land use and changes in an adjacent ecosystem. We analyze metazoan eDNA sequences from water sampled in nearshore marine eelgrass communities and assess the relationship between these ecological communities and the degree of urbanization in the surrounding watershed. Counter to conventional wisdom, we find strongly increasing richness and decreasing beta diversity with greater urbanization, and similar trends in the diversity of life histories with urbanization. We also find evidence that urbanization influences nearshore communities at local (hundreds of meters) rather than regional (tens of km) scales. Given that different survey methods sample different components of an ecosystem, we then discuss the advantages of eDNA—which we use here to detect hundreds of taxa simultaneously—as a complement to traditional ecological sampling, particularly in the context of broad ecological assessments where exhaustive manual sampling is impractical. Genetic data are a powerful means of uncovering human-ecosystem interactions that might otherwise remain hidden; nevertheless, no sampling method reveals the whole of a biological community.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: Macronutrient signature of dietary generalism in an ecologically diverse primate in the wild

A question of considerable importance is why some animals are able to succeed on a wide range of diets while others are more tightly constrained. Theory predicts that generalists should show a flexible response for macronutrient acquisition in the face of ecologically-driven constraint on the nutritional balance of available foods, which in the modelling framework of nutritional geometry has been quantitatively characterized as an "equal distance" regulatory model. This prediction, which has empirical support from several laboratory studies on insects, has not been tested for any generalist animal in the wild, nor for any vertebrate. We performed the first such test, using 281 dawn-to-dusk focal animal observations over three years (2013-2015) of Rhesus macaques monkeys (Macaca mulatta tcheliensis), a primate that is second only to humans in ecological generalism. Results showed, as predicted, that macronutrient regulation conformed closely to the equal distance pattern, and differed markedly from the other, ecologically more-specialized primate species that have been studied to date. The same was independently true for lactating and non-lactating macaques, but lactating females had substantially higher intake of macronutrients, as well as the non-nutritional food components, indigestible fiber and tannins. This demonstrates that equal distance regulation by non-lactating monkeys was not an artefact of constraint such as restricted food availability or an upper limit to the ingestion of dietary fiber or plant tannins, but a strategic regulatory response to variation in dietary macronutrient balance. We discuss implications of our results for the most generalist primate of all, humans.

FIGURE 18 in Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology

FIGURE 18. Polycelis nigra, (A) egg capsule from a laboratory population originating from animals collected from the river Uncín near the beach of Concha de Artedo (Asturias, northern Spain), (B–C) specimen from the river Muga (Girona, northeastern Spain), (B) adult worm encysted, (C) adult worm at the moment of being forced to leave its envelope.

FIGURE 15 in Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology

FIGURE 15. Phagocata hellenica, specimens from the Canal of Argos, near Argos and Néa Kíos, Greece. (A) living animal, (B–C) holotype, V.Pl. 6878.4, (B) sagittal section of the copulatory apparatus (anterior to the right), (C) sagittal reconstruction of the copulatory apparatus (anterior to the right).

FIGURE 14 in Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology

FIGURE 14. Phagocata sp., specimen from a small tributary creek of the Barcaliente stream (León, northern Spain), living animal.

FIGURE 13 in Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology

FIGURE 13. (A–B) Phagocata pyrenaica, holotype, V.Pl. 6873.2, (A) sagittal reconstruction of the copulatory apparatus (anterior to the right), (B) sagittal section of the copulatory apparatus (anterior to the right); (C) Phagocata ullala, V.Pl.859.1, specimen from Ullas de Baltasar (Tarragona, northeastern Spain), sagittal section of the copulatory apparatus (anterior to the right).

FIGURE 16 in Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology

FIGURE 16. Phagocata graeca, freehand sketch of a preserved specimen from springs of the River Pamisos in Agios Floros, Greece.

FIGURE 9. Phagocata flamenca. Holotype V in Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology

FIGURE 9. Phagocata flamenca. Holotype V.Pl. 6868.1, (A) sagittal section of the copulatory apparatus (anterior to the left), (B) sagittal reconstruction of the copulatory apparatus (anterior to the left).

FIGURE 8 in Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology

FIGURE 8. Phagocata flamenca (A–D) specimens from "Fuente de Don Pedro" (Loja), (A) living animal, (B) preserved specimen, (C) freehand sketch of a live specimen in movement, (D) diagrammatic transverse section through the pharynx, showing the arrangement of the rows of longitudinal and circular muscles.

FIGURE 12 in Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology

FIGURE 12. (A–B) Phagocata pyrenaica, living animal, (A) specimen from a spring near Basturs, dark form, (B) specimen from Font de la O, transparent form, (C) Phagocata ullala, specimen from Ullas de Baltasar (Tarragona, northeastern Spain), living animal.

FIGURE 7. Dendrocoelum inexspectatum. Holotype, V in Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology

FIGURE 7. Dendrocoelum inexspectatum. Holotype, V.Pl. 6867.1, (A–B) sagittal sections of the copulatory apparatus (anterior to the right), (C–D) sagittal reconstructions of the copulatory apparatus (anterior to the right).

FIGURE 5 in Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology

FIGURE 5. Dendrocoelum spatiosum (A–B), holotype V.Pl. 6864.5, sagittal reconstructions of the copulatory apparatus (anterior to the right).

FIGURE 4 in Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology

FIGURE 4. Dendrocoelum spatiosum (A–B) specimens from Sot d'En Farré, (A) living animal, (B) holotype V.Pl. 6864.5, sagittal section of the copulatory apparatus (anterior to the right).