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opencc-by-4.0Dec 2017View details →

Fig. 1 in The Flora Of Vascular Plants In The Nature Reserve "Pašuliene Forest"

Fig. 1. Location of the nature reserve "Pašuliene Forest" in Latvia.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2009View details →

Fig.1 in Floristic Structure Of Mountain Plants Collection And The Present Situation In Botanical Garden Of Siauliai University

Fig.1. The number of mountain plants genus and species in collection 2003 – 2008.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2017View details →

Fig. 2. A in Physiological Responses Of Rare Coastal Salt Marsh Plant Triglochin Maritima L. To Soil Chemical Heterogeneity

Fig. 2. A typical morphology of T. maritima plants grown in different substrates for 7 weeks.

Fig. 3 in The Flora Of Vascular Plants In Nature Reserve "Eglone"

Fig. 3. Distribution of forest stands in nature reserve "Eglone" by dominant tree species.

Fig. 4 in The Flora Of Vascular Plants In Nature Reserve "Eglone"

Fig. 4. Distribution of forest stands in nature reserve "Eglone" by forest stand age.

Fig.1 in The Flora Of Vascular Plants In Nature Reserve "Eglone"

Fig.1. Location of nature park "Eglone"

Fig. 2 in The Flora Of Vascular Plants In Nature Reserve "Eglone"

Fig. 2. Distribution of forest stands in nature reserve "Eglone" by forest types.

Ungulate herbivores promote beta diversity and drive stochastic plant community assembly by selective defoliation and trampling: From a four-year simulation experiment

Ungulate herbivores shape grassland plant communities at multiple scales, ultimately affecting ecosystem function. However, ungulates have complex effects on grasslands, including defoliation, trampling, excreta return, and their interactions. Moreover, the effects of ungulate density on grasslands are regulated by these three mechanisms. Nevertheless, how these three mechanisms affect biodiversity at multiple scales and community assembly remains poorly understood. Here, we conducted a 4-year novel field experiment to disentangle the effects of defoliation, trampling, and excreta return by ungulates on plant community assembly in a temperate grassland in Inner Mongolia, China. This experiment set two different scenarios: moderate ungulate density (Moderate, characterised by selective defoliation and moderate trampling) and high ungulate density (Intense, characterised by non-selective defoliation and heavy trampling), including different combinations of defoliation, trampling, and excreta return in each scenario. We found that defoliation and trampling increased stochasticity in community assembly and promoted alpha and beta diversity under both scenarios. Specifically, defoliation promoted the coexistence of species with multiple resource acquisition strategies (higher functional trait diversity) by reducing interspecific competition; trampling tended to facilitate random species colonisation. Conversely, excreta return favoured grasses, promoting deterministic assembly and impacting species coexistence. Notably, selective defoliation in the moderate scenario led to a dominance of stochastic processes during community assembly, whereas non-selective defoliation still did not change the dominance of deterministic processes. Further, communities subject to selective defoliation were insensitive to changes in soil properties caused by trampling and excreta return, maintaining a high-level beta diversity and the stochastic of community assembly. Synthesis: Our study provides important insights into the mechanisms by which ungulate herbivores influence plant community assembly, suggesting that defoliation and trampling have the potential to drive stochastic processes, while excreta return plays the opposite role. Our study also suggests that selective foraging by ungulates acts as stronger stochastic forces during community assembly compared to non-selective defoliation. These results imply that considering ungulate feeding preferences and foraging behaviour in grassland management will help prevent biodiversity loss and biotic homogenisation.

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2024View details →

Sühs_et_al_2024-subtropical_plant_interactions

Dataset

Elk food habits using DNA metabarcoding for plant identification

North American elk (Cervus canadensis) inhabited portions of the Eastern United States until extirpation in the mid-1800s. From 2000 to 2008, 201 elk were reintroduced to the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area (NCWMA), Tennessee. The stocking source was Elk Island National Park, Alberta Canada where there are two distinct genetic populations isolated from the north and south. This genetic structure has largely persisted in the population after translocation. Food habits were evaluated in the early stages of restoration, but the population has had approximately 20 years to adapt to the landscape, and current food habits are unknown. To assess diet composition using DNA metabarcoding, we collected fecal pellets of elk from 65 openings within the 79,318-ha NCWMA weekly from February to April of 2019. We targeted the ITS2 region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA to amplify vegetation sequences found in the internal portion of the elk feces. DNA metabarcoding of feces was linked to results from an accompanying elk population genetics study to investigate food habits between sexes from the two different genetic groups. The majority (80.298%) of sequences matched plants from 22 genera. The top genera (>5.000%) represented were Vaccinium (15.216%), Festuca (8.446%), Rosa (6.358%), Robinia (5.793%), and Eleagnus (5.186%). Elk heavily used woody plants before and after spring green-up (>50% of diet). However, the quantity of forbs in their diet more than doubled after emergence in the spring. The sex-genetic groups consumed similar vegetation in approximately proportionate amounts. Diversity analyses revealed a significant difference in plant genera sequence detection between males from the two genetic groups, although this finding is likely explained by limited sample size. NCWMA elk used a variety of forage in the winter and DNA metabarcoding analysis allows for a comprehensive analysis of food habits useful for monitoring how elk respond dietarily to habitat management.

Seed dormancy types and germination response of 15 plant species in temperate montane peatlands

Despite their crucial role in determining the fate of seeds, the type and breaking mode of seed dormancy in peatland plants in temperate Asia with a continental monsoon climate are rarely known. Fifteen common peatland plant species were used to test their seed germination response to various dormancy-breaking treatments, including dry storage (D), gibberellin acid soaking (GA), cold stratification (CS), warm followed cold stratification (WCS), GA soaking + cold stratification (GA+CS) and GA soaking + warm followed cold stratification (GA+WCS). Germination experiment, viability and imbibition test, and morphological observation of embryos were conducted. Of the 15 species, nine showed physiological dormancy (PD), with non-deep PD being the dominant type. Four species, Angelica pubescens, Cicuta virosa, Iris laevigata and Iris setosa exhibited morphological physiological dormancy. Two species, Lycopus uniflorus and Spiraea salicifolia, demonstrated non-dormancy of seeds. Overall, the effect hierarchy of dormancy-breaking is: CS > GA > WCS > GA+CS > D > GA+WCS. Principal component analysis demonstrated that seed traits, including embryo length: seed length ratio, seed size, and monocot/eudicot divergence, are more likely to influence seed dormancy than environmental factors. Our study suggests that nearly 90% of the tested peatland plant species in the Changbai Mountains demonstrated seed dormancy, and seed traits (e.g. embryo to seed ratio and seed size) and abiotic environmental factors (e.g. pH and temperature seasonality) are related to germination behavior, suggesting seed dormancy being a common adaptation strategy for the peatland plants in the temperate montane environment.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2019View details →

Fig. 2 in Host plant preference of Melanotus communis (Coleoptera: Elateridae) among weeds and sugar cane varieties found in Florida sugar cane fields

Fig. 2. Diagram of the larval host plant tests.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2019View details →

Fig. 1 in Host plant preference of Melanotus communis (Coleoptera: Elateridae) among weeds and sugar cane varieties found in Florida sugar cane fields

Fig. 1. Diagram of the adult host plant tests.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2020View details →

FIGURE 1 in The Integrated Plant Record (IPR) analysis: Methodological advances and new insights into the evolution of European Palaeogene/Neogene vegetation

FIGURE 1. Zelkova zelkovifolia is a representative of the broad-leaved deciduous component.

Data from: Native plant traits and invasibility of restored communities: Importance of environmental context and trait hierarchies

During community assembly, theory predicts trait convergence among species due to environmental filtering, and trait divergence due to biotic filtering. Learning how traits of non-native species enable them to overcome these filters informs the process of invasion. We manipulated mixtures of native plants in a large restoration project in Southern California that was initially dominated by non-native annual grasses and forbs but was restored to a mixture of native shrubs, grasses, and forbs. We measured subsequent establishment and performance by three non-native species (Brassica nigra, Salsola tragus, and Sonchus oleraceus) on N- and S-facing slopes to investigate relationships between the abiotic environment, native community composition, and invasibility in the context of trait-driven ecological filters. We then evaluated which community metrics influenced invader performance and tested whether relationships between invader performance and community-weighted traits varied depending on slope aspect. Plots with slow-growing native shrubs contained less of the fast-growing invasive, Brassica nigra. Invasibility was greatest in native communities restored with native grass and on N-facing slopes. Traits of individual species indicated relatively greater biotic as compared to environmental filtering. For example, abundance of Phacelia cicutaria, a native annual with traits most like invasive Brassica nigra, was negatively correlated with abundance of that invasive. Several community-weighted trait metrics were also significantly related to invasibility, but the direction of the relationship varied depending on the specific functional trait, community-weighted trait measure (mean or dispersion), invader, and slope aspect. The native functional group that was more likely to prevent invasion by non-native annual species (native shrubs) was different from the single species that most prevented invasion (a native forb). In restoration planning, functional groups and trait values of individual species may point to different mixtures of native species that prevent invasion by specific non-natives, depending on priority effects. Understanding the priority effects and trait hierarchies that underly biotic filtering appears critical to interpreting community-weighted traits and their complexity of responses to environmental variation in space and time.

opencc-by-4.0Feb 2021View details →

Figure 1. First lecture room for Botany – a in Hundred years of Botany at the NWU: contributions towards understanding plant and algae function, diversity and restoration in a changing environment

Figure 1. First lecture room for Botany – a stable (Source: NWU Records, Archives and Museum).

opencc-by-4.0Feb 2021View details →

Figure 6 in Hundred years of Botany at the NWU: contributions towards understanding plant and algae function, diversity and restoration in a changing environment

Figure 6. Stateoftheart open top chambers for research in ecophysiology (Photo: Jacques Berner).

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2022View details →

Figure 2 in Plant growth promoting bacteria drive food security

Figure 2. Screening steps to obtain efficient bioinoculants.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2022View details →

Figure 2. Species area curve obtained from 264 in Composition and structure of plant communities in the Moist Temperate Forest Ecosystem of the Hindukush Mountains, Pakistan

Figure 2. Species area curve obtained from 264 plant species in Lalkoo valley.