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opencc-zeroDec 2013View details →

Data from: Harnessing ant defence at fruits reduces bruchid seed predation in a symbiotic ant-plant mutualism

In horizontally transmitted mutualisms, mutualists disperse separately and reassemble in each generation with partners genetically unrelated to those in the previous generation. Because of this, there should be no selection on either partner to enhance the other's reproductive output directly. In symbiotic ant–plant mutualisms, myrmecophytic plants host defensive ant colonies, and ants defend the plants from herbivores. Plants and ants disperse separately, and, although ant defence can indirectly increase plant reproduction by reducing folivory, it is unclear whether ants can also directly increase plant reproduction by defending seeds. The neotropical tree Cordia alliodora hosts colonies of Azteca pittieri ants. The trees produce domatia where ants nest at stem nodes and also at the node between the peduncle and the rachides of the infloresence. Unlike the stem domatia, these reproductive domatia senesce after the tree fruits each year. In this study, I show that the tree's resident ant colony moves into these ephemeral reproductive domatia, where they tend honeydew-producing scale insects and patrol the nearby developing fruits. The presence of ants significantly reduced pre-dispersal seed predation by Amblycerus bruchid beetles, thereby directly increasing plant reproductive output.

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

Data from: Within-species tradeoffs in plant-stimulated soil enzyme activity and growth, flowering and seed size

1. Soil microbial communities affect species demographic rates of plants. In turn, plants influence the composition and function of the soil microbiome, potentially resulting in beneficial feedbacks that alter their fitness and establishment. For example, differences in the ability to stimulate soil enzyme activity among plant lineages may affect plant growth and reproduction. 2. We used a common garden study to test differences in plant-stimulated soil enzyme activity between lineages of the same species across developmental stages. 3. Lineages employed different strategies whereby growth, days to flowering and seed size traded-off with plant-stimulated soil enzyme activity. Specifically, the smaller seeded lineage stimulated more enzyme activity at the early stage of development and flowered earlier while the larger seeded lineage sustained lower but consistent enzyme activity through development. 4. We suggest that these lineages, which are both successful invaders, employ distinct strategies (a colonizer and a competitor) and differ in their influence on soil microbial activity. Synthesis. The ability to influence the soil microbial community by plants may be an important trait that trades-off with other growth, flowering and seed size for promoting plant establishment, reproduction and invasion.

opencc-zeroDec 2010View details →

Data from: Metapopulation structure of a seed-predator weevil and its host plants in arms race coevolution

Although the importance of gene flow in the geographic structuring of host–parasite interactions has been well discussed, little is known about how dispersal drives the spatial dynamics of other types of coevolutionary interactions in nature. We evaluated the roles of gene flow in the geographically structured processes of a predator–prey arms race involving a seed-predatory weevil with a long mouthpart and its host camellia plant with a thick fruit coat. Molecular genetic analyses showed that both weevil and camellia populations were structured at a spatial scale of several kilometers. Importantly, the spatial pattern of the migration of weevils, but not that of camellias, imposed significant effects on the geographic configuration of the levels of coevolutionary escalation. This result suggests that even if migration is limited in one species (camellia), local coevolution with the other species that migrates between neighboring localities (weevil) can reduce the inter-population difference in the local adaptive optima of the former species. Thus, gene flow of a species potentially homogenizes local biological environments provided by the species and thereby promotes the evolutionary convergence of its coevolving counterparts. Consequently, by focusing on coevolutionary interactions in natural communities, "indirect" effects of gene flow on the adaptive divergence of organisms could be identified.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: Exclusion of introduced deer increases size and seed production success in an island-endemic plant species

The presence of extra-local invaders, such as the southern California mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) on Santa Catalina Island, may contribute to more selective and insidious effects within the unique ecosystems that have evolved in their absence. Studies at the species level may detect effects not noticed in broader, community level vegetation monitoring or help tease apart differences in the level of effect among the various ecological components of an invaded system. In this initial study, we measured the impacts of herbivory by mule deer, a species native to analogous habitats on the adjacent mainland, on size and seed production success for Crocanthemum greenei (island rush-rose), a federally listed sub-shrub that is not present on mainland California. We found deer exclusion resulted in an overall increase in stem measurement of 18.8 cm. Exclosure populations exhibited complete seed production success, whereas control populations showed significantly reduced success and exhibited complete failure within 58% of populations. These results show that the introduced mule deer on Santa Catalina Island are negatively affecting a federally threatened plant species. This strongly implies that the current deer management strategy is insufficient, if one of its goals is biodiversity and endemic species conservation.

opencc-zeroJun 2021View details →

Quantifying niche similarity among new world seed plants--Species Distribution Models (SDMs) & associated metadata

Niche shift and conservatism are often framed as mutually exclusive. However, both processes could contribute to biodiversity patterns. We tested this expectation by quantifying the degree of climatic niche similarity among New World seed plants. To incorporate the biological reality that species experience varied abiotic conditions across their range, we assembled distribution models and used these to characterize temperature, precipitation, and elevation niches for species as continuously-valued distributions. We then quantified niche similarity (distributional overlap) and identified statistically significant differences compared to a randomized null. The degree of niche similarity differed among climate variables, plant lineages, and at different phylogenetic scales. For example, ~17% of all seed plants were significantly different in elevational niche from their closest relative(s), whereas for precipitation, this value was only ~4%. Average niche similarity decreased with increasing phylogenetic distance, consistent with niche conservatism; however, variance in niche similarity among close relatives was large, such that there always existed niche differences equaling those among distantly related species. Our results suggest researchers should incorporate both niche shift and conservatism as important, scale-dependent factors shaping biodiversity patterns as these processes are not mutually exclusive, nor do they contribute equally to patterns among different plant lineages or niche variables.

opencc-zeroDec 2022View details →

Data on germination of seeds obtained from Frangula alnus mother plants in a common garden that were treated with water limitation

Data on germination of seeds derived from Frangula alnus mother plants in a common garden that were treated with water limitation in 2020: countings of emerged seedlings on a regular basis in the spring of 2021.

Fig. 3 in Seed tannin composition of tropical plants

Fig. 3. Examples of the UV chromatograms (280 nm), quantification data and biological activities of the proanthocyanidin-rich samples. a) Lacistema aggregatum, b) Cnestidium rufescens, c) Platypodium elegans. Abbreviations: 3-CQA: 3-O-caffeoylquinic acid, 5-CQA: 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid, CAF: caffeic acid derivative, CAT: catechin, ECAT: epicatechin, G: galloyl group, GCAT: gallocatechin, PA: proanthocyanidin (in the info box: portion of proanthocyanidins), PC: procyanidin, 2PC: dimeric PC, PD: prodelphinidin, 3PD: trimeric PD, PT: mass spectrometric quantitation of selected polyphenolics, HT: portion of hydrolysable tannins, FC: total phenolics quantified using Folin-Ciocalteu assay, pH 10: portion of easily oxidized total phenolics, PPC: protein precipitation capacity reported in relation to the total phenolics.

Fig. 2 in Seed tannin composition of tropical plants

Fig. 2. Examples of the UV chromatograms (280 nm), quantification data and biological activities of the ellagitannin-rich samples. a) Combretum laxum, b) Eugenia coloradoensis, c) Myrcia splendens. Abbreviations: CAT: catechin, EA: ellagic acid, ET: ellagitannin, GlcA: glucuronic acid, PA: proanthocyanidin (in the info box: portion of proanthocyanidins), PC: procyanidin, PT: mass spectrometric quantitation of selected polyphenolics, HT: portion of hydrolysable tannins, FC: total phenolics quantified using Folin-Ciocalteu assay, pH 10: portion of easily oxidized total phenolics, PPC: protein precipitation capacity reported in relation to the total phenolics.

Fig. 1 in Seed tannin composition of tropical plants

Fig. 1. Examples of the UV chromatograms (280 nm), quantification data and biological activities of the gallic acid derivative-rich samples. a) Doliocarpus multiflorus, b) Anacardium excelsum, c) Canavalia campylocarpa. Abbreviations: 1GG: monogalloyl glucose, 2GG: digalloyl glucose, 3GG: trigalloyl glucose, 3GG (GT): gallotannintype 3GG, 4GG: tetragalloyl glucose, CAT: catechin, G: galloyl group, PT: mass spectrometric quantitation of total phenolics, HT: portion of hydrolysable tannins, PA: portion of proanthocyanidins, FC: total phenolics quantified using Folin-Ciocalteu assay, pH 10: portion of easily oxidized total phenolics, PPC: protein precipitation capacity reported in relation to the total phenolics.

Figure S2.13 in Seed tannin composition of tropical plants

Figure S2.13). Presumably due to the lower number of hydroxyl groups, these PAs were more hydrophobic than PCs and PDs – the hump of Psychotria PAs began to elute at ca. 4.0 min as opposed to ca. 2.0 min of PDs and ca. 3.0 min of PCs in other species. While fragmentation patterns characteristic to PAs appear in the mass spectra (retro-Diels-Alder fragmentation, heterocyclic ring fission, and quinone-methide fragmentation; Friedrich et al., 2000; Gu et al., 2003), coelution makes the assignation of the fragment ions to the correct corresponding molecular ions impossible. Based on our knowledge on the oxidative activities of phenolics, the high activities of these samples (see the following section) would indicate a presence of pyrogallol moieties (Kim et al, 2018, 2020; Vihakas et al., 2014). However, this would also require highly unusual PA structures, as this would mean that there would be no additional hydroxyl groups in 258 Da subunits, and for 274 Da subunits, there would only be one, likely at positions 3, 5 or 7. Alternatively, the high activity of Psychotria extracts was governed by compounds that were not detected or identified in this study, or by an unknown structure/activity relationship.

opencc-zeroSep 2023View details →

Data from: Rye planting date impacts biomass production more than seeding rate and nitrogen fertilizer

This zipped folder contains the code and datasets used for an experiment conducted over six years (2015–2020) at the Wiregrass Research and Extension Center in Headland, AL to examine rye biomass production. Treatments included four planting dates (late October, early November, late November, and early December), two seeding rates ( 67 and 101 kg ha-1), and four nitrogen rates (0, 34, 67, and 101 kg ha-1) replicated four times for a total of 128 observations each year. Measured and/or calculated variables from the data set included biomass, total C and N concentrations for the plant material, C:N ratio, N uptake values, as well as cost info for the biomass. In addition, there are three years of peanut yield data (2015, 2017, 2019) and only two years of cotton yield data (2016, 2020). No cotton data was collected for 2018 due to hurricane damage. Initial and final soil total C values were also measured across the 0 and 101 kg N ha-1 rates for the 67 kg ha-1 seeding rate.

ClinicalTrials.gov32/100

Does Consuming Modified Plant Seed Oil Containing Fish Oil Fatty Acids Act in the Same Way as Consuming Fish Oil?

ClinicalTrials.gov study NCT03477045. IPD Sharing: Not stated. Countries: 1. Publications: 4.

restrictedIPD-UNDECIDEDFeb 2026View details →