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opencc-by-4.0Dec 2022View details →

Figure 8 in Ramie Moth, Arcte coerula (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae): A New Invasive Pest in Hawaii on Endemic Plants

Figure 8. Arcte coerula pupa.

Behaviour of dissolved inorganic salts in the cooling water of a nuclear power plant open recirculation system and formation of water discharge

The main problem in the operation of nuclear power plants is the scale formation of mineral impurities in an open recirculating system. However, water discharge from an open recirculating system into water bodies can lead to changes in the chemical equilibrium of wastewater components and requires constant monitoring. The purpose of this study was to analyse the behaviour of dissolved inorganic salts in water in an open recirculating system during water treatment using the example of the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant. Moreover, the analysis impact of their discharge with return water in the Styr River. The dissolved inorganic salt concentration has a significant impact on the efficiency of the system and the environment of an open recirculating system power plant. Altogether, each dissolved inorganic salt component was analysed separately using standard measurement methods, using statistical methods of data processing, and correlation analysis. In addition, the annual discharge of the dissolved inorganic salts components was calculated and the amount of discharge was assessed for compliance with the maximum discharge limit. Thus, the influence of the formation of the dissolved inorganic salts and changes in their concentration value during the discharge of returned water into a natural water body was analysed.

Data from: Why are plant communities stable? Disentangling the role of dominance, asynchrony and averaging effect following realistic species loss scenario

A growing number of studies have demonstrated that biodiversity is a strong and positive predictor of ecosystem temporal stability by simultaneously affecting multiple underlying mechanisms of stability i.e. dominance, asynchrony, and averaging effects. However, to date, no study has disentangled the relative role of these key mechanisms of stability in biodiversity experiments. We created a species richness gradient by mimicking a loss of rare species and assessed the role of species richness on community stability and, more importantly, quantified the relative role of three stabilizing mechanisms i.e. dominance (stabilization due to stable dominants compared to the rest of the species in the community), asynchrony (stabilization due to temporal asynchrony between species), and averaging effects (pure effect of diversity) on community stability across a species richness gradient. We found that extreme species loss negatively impacted community stability, but just three species were enough to stabilize biomass production to a level similar to highly diverse communities. However, the similar stability of communities resulted from differing contributions from each stability mechanism, depending on the community diversity. Since less abundant species were more temporally variable, species loss stabilized the populations of the remaining species. The loss of rare and subordinate species reduced the dominance and averaging effects, but increased the asynchrony effect. Hence, the asynchrony effect played a major role in the stability of species poor communities, while the averaging effect drove most of the stability of species rich communities. Overall, dominance played only a minor role, accounting for 5-15% of the stabilization, while asynchrony and averaging effects were dominating forces contributing to ~ 85-95% of the total stabilization. Synthesis. This study highlights the importance of biodiversity and roles of dominant and rare species for long-term community stability and, for the first time, disentangles relative roles of dominance effect, asynchrony, and averaging effect on community stability in a real-world biodiversity experiment.

Effects of eCO2 on plant growth and pollen chemistry in 14 angiosperms

Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (eCO2) can affect plant growth and physiology, which can, in turn, impact herbivorous insects, including by altering pollen or plant tissue nutrition. Previous research suggests that eCO2can reduce pollen nutrition in some species, but it is unknown whether this effect is consistent across flowering plant species. We experimentally quantified the effects of eCO2 across multiple flowering plant species on plant growth in 9 species and pollen chemistry (%N an estimate for protein content and nutrition in 12 species; secondary chemistry in 5 species) in greenhouses. For pollen nutrition, only buckwheat significantly responded to eCO2, with %N increasing in eCO2; CO2 treatment did not affect pollen amino acid composition but altered secondary metabolites in buckwheat and sunflower. Plant growth under eCO2 exhibited two trends across species: plant height was taller in 44% of species and flower number was affected for 63% of species (3 species with fewer and 2 species with more flowers). The remaining growth metrics (leaf number, above-ground biomass, flower size, and flowering initiation) showed divergent, species-specific responses, if any. Our results indicate that future eCO2 is unlikely to uniformly change pollen chemistry or plant growth across flowering species but may have the potential to alter ecological interactions, or have particularly important effects on specialized pollinators.

The niche through time: Considering phenology and demographic stages in plant distribution models

Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used to infer species-environment relationships, predict spatial distributions, and characterise species' environmental niches. While the importance of space and spatial scales is widely acknowledged in SDM applications, temporal components of the niche are rarely addressed. We discuss how phenology and demographic stages affect model inference in plant SDMs. Ignoring conspicuousness and timing of phenological stages may bias niche estimates through increased observer bias, while ignoring stand age may bias niche estimates through temporal mismatches with environmental variables, especially during times of rapid global warming. We present different methods to consider phenology and demographic stages in plant SDMs, including the selection of causal, spatiotemporally explicit predictors, and the calibration of stage-specific SDMs. Based on a case study with citizen science data, we illustrate how spatiotemporal SDMs provide deeper insights on the coincidence of range and phenological shifts under climate change. The proliferation of digitally available biodiversity and citizen science data increasingly allows considering time explicitly in SDMs. This offers a more mechanistic understanding of plant distributions, and more robust predictions under global change, especially if the reporting of phenological stages and age is facilitated and promoted by relevant data portals.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2024View details →

Partitioning of water and CO2 fluxes at NEON sites into soil and plant components: a five-year dataset for spatial and temporal analysis

This dataset includes estimates of transpiration, evaporation, soil respiration, and plant net photosynthesis obtained using five partitioning approaches. Flux components are available at 47 NEON sites over a period of five years. Additional meteorological inputs and water-use efficiency data are also included.

Parcel level temporal variance of remotely sensed spectral reflectance predicts plant diversity

Over the last two decades, considerable research has built on remote sensing of spectral diversity to assess plant diversity. The spectral variation hypothesis (SVH) proposes that spatial variation in reflectance data of an area is positively associated with plant diversity. While the SVH has exhibited validity in dense forests, it performs poorly in highly fragmented and temporally dynamic agricultural landscapes covered mainly by grasslands. Such underperformance can be attributed to the mosaic-like spatial structure of human-dominated landscapes with fields in varying phenological and management stages. Therefore, we argued for re-evaluating SVH's flawed window-based spatial analysis and underutilized temporal component. In particular, In particular, we captured the spatial and temporal variation in reflectance and assessed the relationships between spatial and temporal components of spectral diversity and plant diversity at the parcel level as a unit that relates to management patterns. Our investigation spanned three grasslands on two continents covering a wide spectrum of agricultural usage intensities. To calculate different components of spectral diversity, we used multi-temporal spaceborne Sentinel-2 data. We showed that plant diversity was negatively associated with the temporal component of spectral diversity across all sites. In contrast, the spatial component of spectral diversity was related to plant diversity in sites with larger parcels. Our findings highlighted that in agricultural landscapes, the temporal component of spectral diversity drives the spectral diversityplant diversity associations. Consequently, our results offer a novel perspective for remote sensing of plant diversity globally.

opencc-by-4.0May 2024View details →

Figure 1 in Within-plant distribution and rapid assessment of sugarcane rust mite population on sugarcane canopy

Figure 1 Mites appearances in visual direct count (left) and imprinting techniques (right).

Fig. 4 in New distributional records of non-native vascular plants in northern Italy

Fig. 4 - Perilla frutescens, Basaluzzo (AL), September 2014 (Photo: F. Verloove).

Fig. 3 in New distributional records of non-native vascular plants in northern Italy

Fig. 3 - Oenothera pedemontana, Bereguardo (PV), September 2014 (Photo: N. Ardenghi).

Fig. 2 in New distributional records of non-native vascular plants in northern Italy

Fig. 2 - Bidens vulgatus, Martignana di Po (CR), September 2014 (Photo: F. Verloove).

Fig. 5 in New distributional records of non-native vascular plants in northern Italy

Fig. 5 - Populus deltoides, San Rocco al Porto (LO), September 2014 (Photo: F. Verloove).

Data from: From leaves to whole plants: effects of shelter-builders on arthropod communities are stronger in dry seasons

Leaf shelters function as microclimatic refuges, reducing arthropod exposure to climatic fluctuations of surrounding habitats. Although facilitation is expected to increase under stressful conditions, empirical studies investigating the patterns of variation and magnitude of effects of ecosystem engineering at different spatial and temporal scales are still scarce. In this study we evaluated the facilitation consequences of leaf shelter created by gall-inducers on arthropod communities of Miconia ligustroides (DC.) Naudin (Melastomataceae). We evaluated how such effects change at the leaf and plant levels in an environment subject to strong climatic seasonality. The presence of leaf shelters on M. ligustroides increased arthropod diversity and biomass, modified the species composition at both the leaf and plant levels, and in wet and dry seasons. However, the addition of artificial leaf shelters during the dry season showed greater abundance, richness, and biomass of arthropods when compared to shelters added during the wet season. Regarding the global effects of artificial leaf shelters on the diversity of arthropods associated with M. ligustroides, the dry season showed strong and positive effects, increasing the abundance, richness, and biomass of arthropods by an average of 65% for both years. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the patterns of variation and magnitude of ecosystem engineering at different spatial and temporal scales and provides new insights into the importance of shelters for aridity-sensitive species.

Evolutionary assembly of the plant terrestrialization toolkit from protein domains

Land plants (embryophytes) came about in a momentous evolutionary singularity: plant terrestrialization. This event marks not only the conquest of land by plants but also the massive radiation of embryophytes into a diverse array of novel forms and functions. The unique suite of traits present in the earliest land plants is thought to have been ushered in by a burst genomic novelty. Here, we asked the question of how these bursts were possible. For this, we used phylostratigraphy to explore the (i) initial emergence and (ii) reshuffling of domains to give rise to hallmark environmental response genes of land plants. We pinpoint that a quarter of the embryophytic stress physiology is specific to the lineage, yet a significant portion of this novelty arises not de novo but from re-shuffling and recombining of pre-existing domains. Our data suggest that novel combinations of old genomic substrates shaped the plant terrestrialization toolkit, including hallmark processes in signaling, biotic interactions, and specialized metabolism.

opencc-zeroSep 2019View details →

Data from: Microfluidic Enrichment Barcoding (MEBarcoding): a new method for high throughput plant DNA barcoding

DNA barcoding has become a valuable tool to support species identification with a broad range of applications in fields such as traditional taxonomy, ecology, forensics, food analysis, and environmental science. We introduce Microfluidics Enrichment Barcoding (MEBarcoding) for plant DNA Barcoding, a cost-effective method for high throughput DNA barcoding. MEBarcoding uses the Fluidigm Access Array™ to simultaneously amplify targeted regions for 48 DNA samples and hundreds of PCR primer pairs (a total of 23,040 PCR products) during a single thermal cycling protocol. A second generation instrument from Fluidigm, called the Juno™, can accommodate 192 DNA samples simultaneously. As a proof of concept, we developed a microfluidic PCR workflow using the Fluidigm Access Array™ and Illumina MiSeq to generate new sequences from 96 samples for each of the four primary DNA barcode loci in plants: rbcL, matK, trnH-psbA, and ITS (384 total sequences). This workflow was used to build a reference library that includes 78 families and 96 genera from all major plant lineages, including bryophytes, ferns and lycophytes, gymnosperms, and all major groups of angiosperms, which are currently lacking in public databases. Our results demonstrate that this technique offers a highly efficient alternative method to traditional PCR and Sanger sequencing by increasing the estimated number of plant DNA barcodes that can be sequenced by a single technician in one week by 800%, at a reduced cost, and by generating a barcode library with a more comprehensive taxonomic coverage.

opencc-by-4.0Feb 2024View details →

Fig. 5 in Taxonomic Notes and New Distribution and Host Plant Records for Sawflies and Woodwasps (Hymenoptera, Symphyta) of Japan IX

Fig. 5.ɹEmpria takeuchii, ovipositor (A) and serrulae 5–7 (B), Nakagawa. Photographed by H. Hara.

opencc-by-4.0Jan 2024View details →

Data and Code for "No general support of functional diversity enhancing resilience across terrestrial plant communities"

The data and code provided here is to support the study "No general support of functional diversity enhancing resilience across terrestrial plant communities"  This repository contains the following files:  The code to reproduce main analysisi and graphs in R and HTML format <ul> <li>RcodeNoGeneralSupport.R</li> <li>RcodeNoGeneralSupport.html</li> </ul> The data to be used for the different analyses <ul> <li>ResilienceFDIndices.csv</li> <li>ResilienceFDIndices-BiomassH.csv</li> <li>ResilienceFDIndices-BiomassW.csv</li> <li>ResilienceFDIndices-CompositionW.csv</li> <li>ResilienceFDIndices-Herbaceous.csv</li> <li>ResilienceFDIndices-woody.csv</li> <li>ResilienceSR.csv</li> <li>ResilienceSR-BiomassH.csv</li> <li>ResilienceSR-BiomassW.csv</li> <li>ResilienceSR-CompositionW.csv</li> <li>ResilienceSR-herbaceous.csv</li> <li>ResilienceSR-woody.csv</li> </ul> The detailed information for each variable in each data set <ul> <li>README.txt</li> </ul>

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

Data from: Oviposition strategies of Pieridae butterflies in nature and the role of an egg-killing plant trait therein

Most herbivorous insects are host-plant specialists that evolved detoxification mechanisms to overcome their host plant's toxins. In the evolutionary arms-races between Pieridae butterflies and Brassicaceae plants, some plant species have evolved another defence against the pierids: egg-killing. Underneath the eggs, leaves develop a so-called hypersensitive response HR-like cell death. Whether some butterflies have evolved oviposition strategies to counter-adapt against egg-killing remains to be studied. In this study, we assessed the oviposition site location of pierid butterflies on their natural host plants. We described the plant tissue on which we located the eggs of the most common Pieridae in the Netherlands: Gonepteryx rhamni, Anthocharis cardamines, Pieris rapae, P. napi, P. brassicae, and P. mannii. Additionally, we assessed expression of HR-like cell death in response to the deposited butterfly eggs. We found that both A. cardamines and G. rhamni mainly oviposited on the floral stem and the branch, respectively, and oviposited on host plants from lineages not expected to express HR in response to pierid eggs. Accordingly, no HR responses were seen. All Pieris eggs found were located on leaves of their host, the only tissue found to express HR-like cell death. Furthermore, each Pieris species was found to at least occasionally oviposit on Brassica nigra. This was the only plant species in this survey that expressed HR-like cell death in response to the eggs of P. rapae, P. napi and P. brassicae. Our observations demonstrate that HR-like cell death remains an effective defence strategy against these Pieris species and as such did not find evidence for the hypothesised counterstrategies. Surveying certain key species and disentangling the micro-evolution of oviposition strategies within a species would allow us to further investigate potential counter-adaptations that evolved against HR-like cell death. This study provides the basis for further investigation of potential counter-adaptations to egg-killing defences.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2020View details →

Fig. 1 in Allium Paradoxum (M.Bieb.) G. Don (Amaryllidaceae) - A New Invasive Plant Species For The Flora Of Baltic States

Fig. 1. Map showing the distribution of Allium paradoxum (M. Bieb.) G. Don. in Latvia.