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opencc-by-4.0Jul 2021View details →

Wild Plants Used as Vegetables by Transhumant People Around the Georgia–Turkey Border in the Western Lesser Caucasus

Recent ethnobotanical studies in the Caucasus, mainly in Georgia, reveal the significant ethnobotanical knowledge of local people related to wild edible plants. However, few studies have been conducted in the Lesser Caucasus, West Georgia, and the Turkish Caucasus. is study aims to represent and evaluate the cultural importance of wild vegetable plants and their patterns of use along the Georgia–Turkey border. During the transhumance period in the summers of 2017 and 2018, 104 participants (65 in Turkey and 39 in Georgia) were interviewed using a semistructured questionnaire. e Cultural Importance Index and Relative Frequency of Citation were used to compare the relative importance of species in each region. e use of 83 wild plant species from 23 plant families as vegetables was documented, with 45 species recorded in Georgia and 72 species in Turkey. One-third of the recorded wild plant species and 52 use instances out of 122 species-use combinations were shared on both sides of the border. Women and men had mentioned almost the same number of species, and there was a nonsignificant correlation between plant knowledge and age. Although there were no significant differences in the plant parts used, the way people used plants as vegetables varied significantly across the border. Considering the floral similarity across the border, the number of species used in common and shared vegetable plant knowledge was quite low. ere is not a significant difference between the two countries in terms of the most frequently cited and culturally important species (Rumex, Urtica, and Polygonum spp.). However, the recognition of some of the most important shared species (Heracleum, Chaerophyllum, Arctium, and Campanula spp.) diverged significantly in different administrative regions.

opencc-zeroJul 2021View details →

Data from: Palynology of a short sequence of the Lower Devonian Beartooth Butte Formation at Cottonwood Canyon (Wyoming): Age, depositional environments and plant diversity

The Beartooth Butte Formation hosts the most extensive Early Devonian macroflora of western North America. The age of the flora at Cottonwood Canyon (Wyoming) has been constrained to the Lochkovian-Pragian interval, based on fish biostratigraphy and unpublished palynological data. We present a detailed palynological analysis of the plant-bearing layers at Cottonwood Canyon. The palynomorphs comprise 32 spore, five cryptospore, two prasinophycean algae and an acritarch species. The stratigraphic ranges of these palynomorphs indicate a late Lochkovian - Pragian age, confirming previous age assignments. Analyses on samples from three different depositional environments of the plant-bearing sequence – layers with in situ lycophyte populations, flood layers that buried those populations and an organic matter accumulation zone within a flood layer – demonstrate distinct palynofacies. Comparisons between palynomorph and plant macrofossil diversity reveal some discrepancies. Whereas zosterophylls and lycophytes, most diverse and abundant among the macrofossils, have only one known corresponding spore type (assignable to zosterophylls) in the palynomorph assemblage, the trimerophytes, rare in the macrofossil assemblage, are represented by three spore types. Some of these discrepancies reflect taphonomic differences between macrofossils and palynomorphs, others could be due to the fact that the parent plants of most palynomorph types in the Cottonwood Canyon assemblage are unknown. These observations emphasize the need for concerted efforts to bring together the knowledge of macro- and microfloras within Early Devonian localities. Nevertheless, given the palaeophytogeographic significance of the Beartooth Butte Formation flora, its palyno- and macrofossil assemblages, taken together, provide new data relevant to future discussions of Early Devonian biogeography.

opencc-zeroJul 2021View details →

Complex trait‒environment relationships underlie the structure of forest plant communities

Traits differentially adapt plant species to particular conditions generating compositional shifts along environmental gradients. As a result, community-scale trait values show concomitant shifts, termed trait‒environment relationships. Trait‒environment relationships are often assessed by evaluating community-weighted mean (CWM) traits observed along environmental gradients. Regression-based approaches (CWMr) assume that local communities exhibit traits centered at a single optimum value and that traits do not covary meaningfully. Evidence suggests that the shape of trait‒abundance relationships can vary widely along environmental gradients—reflecting complex interactions—and traits are usually interrelated. We used a model that accounts for these factors to explore trait‒environment relationships in herbaceous forest plant communities in Wisconsin (USA). We built a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) to analyze how abundances of 185 species distributed among 189 forested sites vary in response to four functional traits (vegetative height-VH, leaf size-LS, leaf mass per area-LMA, and leaf carbon content), six environmental variables describing overstory, soil, and climate conditions, and their interactions. The GLMM allowed us to assess the nature and relative strength of the resulting 24 trait‒environment relationships. We also compared results between GLMM and CWMr to explore how conclusions differ between approaches. The GLMM identified five significant trait‒environment relationships that together explain ~40% of variation in species abundances across sites. Temperature appeared as a key environmental driver, with warmer and more seasonal sites favoring taller plants. Soil texture and temperature seasonality affected LS and LMA; seasonality effects on LS and LMA were nonlinear, declining at more seasonal sites. Though often assumed for CWMr, only some traits under certain conditions had centered optimum trait‒abundance relationships. CWMr more liberally identified (13) trait‒environment relationships as significant but failed to detect the temperature-seasonality‒LMA relationship identified by the GLMM. Synthesis. Although GLMM represents a more methodologically complex approach than CWMr, it identified a reduced set of trait‒environment relationships still capable of accounting for the responses of forest understory herbs to environmental gradients. It also identified separate effects of mean and seasonal temperature on LMA that appear important in these forests, generating useful insights and supporting broader application of GLMM approach to understand trait‒environment relationships.

opencc-zeroJul 2021View details →

Elevational range-sizes and edaphic associations for plant species of the Mount Kinabalu region of Borneo (Sabah, Malaysia)

Identifying physical and ecological boundaries that limit where species can occur is important for predicting how those species will respond to global change. The island of Borneo encompasses a wide range of habitats that support some of the highest richness on Earth, making it an ideal location for investigating ecological mechanisms underlying broad patterns of species distribution. We tested variation in richness and range-size in relation to edaphic specialization and vegetation zone boundaries using 3060 plant species from 193 families centered around the elevational gradient of Mt. Kinabalu, Borneo. Across species, average range-size increased with elevation, consistent with Rapoport's rule. However, plants associated with ultramafic soil, which is low in nutrient and water availability and often has high concentrations of heavy metals, had larger range-sizes and greater richness than expected along the elevational gradient, as compared to a null model with randomization of edaphic association. In contrast, non-ultramafic species had smaller range-sizes and lower richness than expected. These results suggest that tolerance of resource limitation may be associated with wider range-sizes, whereas species intolerant of edaphic stress may have narrower range-sizes, possibly owing to more intense competition in favorable soil types. Using elevation as a predictor of average range-sizes, we found that piece-wise models with breakpoints at vegetation zone transitions explained species distributions better than models that did not incorporate ecological boundaries. The greatest relative increases in range-size with respect to elevation occurred mid-elevation, within the montane cloud forest vegetation zone. Expansion of average range-size across an area without physical boundaries may indicate a shift in ecological strategy and importance of biotic versus abiotic stressors. Our results indicate that elevational range-size patterns are structured by ecological constraints such as species' edaphic association, which may limit the ability of species to migrate up or down mountains in response to climate change.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2021View details →

Potential distributional shifts in North America of allelopathic invasive plant species under climate change models

Occurrence data for invaive species used in ecological niche modeling for predictive studies. These data are cleaned to removed data with duplicates, incomplete coordinates, unlikely coordinates (e.g., 0,0), or those lacking environmental data were removed using the scrubr v.0.1.1 package in R (Chamberlain, 2016). Points falling outside of the respective training region for each species were also removed. These data represent downloads from iDigBio and GBIF.

Data from: Within-species trait variation can lead to size limitations in seed dispersal of small-fruited plants

The inability of small-gaped animals to consume very large fruits may limit seed dispersal of the respective plants. This has often been shown for large-fruited plant species that remain poorly dispersed when large-gaped animal species are lost due to anthropogenic pressure. Little is known about whether gape-size limitations similarly influence seed dispersal of small-fruited plant species that can show a large variation in fruit size within species. In this study, fruit sizes of 15 plant species were compared with the gape sizes of their 41 animal dispersers in the temperate, old-growth Białowieża Forest, Poland. The effect of gape-size limitations on fruit consumption was assessed at the plant species level, and for a subset of nine plant species, also at the individual level, and subindividual level (i.e., fruits of the same plant individual). In addition, for the species subset, fruit-seed trait relationships were investigated to determine whether a restricted access of small-gaped animals to large fruits results in the dispersal of fewer or smaller seeds per fruit. Fruit sizes widely varied among plant species (74.2%), considerably at the subindividual level (17.1%), and to the smallest extent among plant individuals (8.7%). Key disperser species should be able to consume fruits of all plant species and all individuals (except those of the largest-fruited plant species), even if they are able to consume only 28-55% of available fruits. Fruit and seed traits were positively correlated in eight out of nine plant species, indicating that gape size limitations will result in 49% fewer (in one plant species) or 16-21% smaller seeds (in three plant species) dispersed per fruit by small-gaped than by large-gaped main dispersers, respectively. Our results show that a large subindividual variation in fruit size is characteristic for small-fruited plant species, and increases their connectedness with frugivores at the level of plants species and individuals. Simultaneously, however, the large variation in fruit size leads to gape-size limitations that may induce selective pressures on fruit size if large-gaped dispersers become extinct. This study emphasizes the mechanisms by which gape-size limitation at the species, individual and subindividual level shape plant-frugivore interactions and the co-evolution of small-fruited plants.

Beyond species richness and community composition: Using plant functional diversity to measure restoration success in jarrah forest

Aim: The importance of restoring ecosystem functions to native systems that have been degraded, damaged or destroyed is increasingly recognised. Yet few studies have measured the effect of restoration efforts on ecosystem functioning or the functional diversity (FD) that underpins it. Here we assessed change in FD of restored assemblages one to 25 years after the onset of post-mine restoration. Location: Northern Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata Donn ex Sm.) Forest bioregion of south-western Australia. Methods: Functional richness, evenness, divergence and dispersion were derived from five plant functional traits relevant to community reassembly. Effects of three explanatory variables (i.e., age, year restoration was initiated, and time since fire) on six response variables (i.e., four FD indices, species richness, and compositional similarity to nearby reference forest) were analysed using linear mixed models for a dataset with repeated measures of plots through time (n= 810 plots), and linear models for a sub-set of one-time measures of different aged assemblages (i.e., space-for-time approach; n= 490 plots). Results: Functional evenness and functional dispersion increased with age, while functional divergence and functional richness decreased with age. Functional dispersion increased with time since fire, while functional richness decreased with time since fire. Species richness decreased with age, but at 25-years, species richness was comparable to that observed in reference forest. In contrast, similarity showed no relationship with age of restored forest, and at 25-years, similarity of restored forest to reference was low compared with similarity of reference forest to itself. Three of four FD indices had not reached those of reference jarrah forest 25-years after restoration had been initiated. Conclusions: Reassembly of FD suggests importance of environmental filtering and high functional redundancy. A longer time frame may be needed to assess FD of restored assemblages, and in the meantime, species richness is not an adequate surrogate of FD.

opencc-zeroJul 2022View details →

Projected impacts of climate and land use changes on the habitat of Atlantic Forest plants in Brazil

Aim: To provide novel evidence on the average impact of climate and land use changes on habitat suitability for tropical plants and to test previous conclusions on the relative importance of these two drivers in shaping future availability of habitat for tropical plant species. Location: Brazil's Atlantic Forest domain. Time period: Plant occurrences recorded between 1960 and 2014. Baseline climate from 1960-2000 and land use from 2015. Projected scenarios of climate for 2041-2060 and land use for 2050. Major taxa studied: Angiosperms. Results: Our results suggest that climate change alone will, surprisingly, have only a modest negative impact on the mean habitat suitability, decreasing it by 2% (median = -5% to -7%, variation associated with scenarios). Land use change alone had a more consistent negative impact on habitat suitability, causing mean and median reductions of 4% to 6%. When the effects of climate and land use are combined, the mean habitat suitability was reduced by 4% (median = -9% to -11%). Main conclusions: The combined impacts of climate and land use changes were substantial, although smaller than expected. Habitat suitability decreased for most species, but it increased substantially for some species, suggesting that the distribution of impacts across species is markedly right skewed. The impacts were typically detrimental to small-ranged species and neutral or beneficial to widespread species. Land use change rather than climate change will likely cause more losses to the habitat of Atlantic Forest plant species within the next several decades.

Data from: Plant-type dominates fine-root C:N:P stoichiometry across China: a meta-analysis

Aim: Fine roots play an important role in biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. However, our understanding of large scale biogeographic patterns and drivers of fine-root C:N:P stoichiometry is extremely limited. Location: China. Methods: We compiled data for fine-root carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations at 165 sites across China to explore large-scale biogeographic patterns and drivers of fine-root C:N:P stoichiometry. Results: The geometric means of fine-root C, N, and P concentrations were 448.81 mg g-1, 10.73 mg g-1, and 0.9 mg g-1, respectively, whereas C:N, C:P and N:P ratios were 41.84, 508.32 and 11.73, respectively. The fine-root elemental concentrations and their ratios varied widely among plant groups and biomes, and showed clear latitudinal and longitudinal trends, as a consequence of differences in climate, soil and plant-type. However, plant-type was the largest contributor to the total variance in fine-root C, N, and P and their ratios compared to climate factors or soil features. Main conclusions: The data reveal the existence of broad biogeographic patterns of fine-root C:N:P stoichiometry in China. These results advance our knowledge about the biogeochemical cycling of fine roots.

Data from: Detailed characterization of the UMAMITs proteins provides insight into their evolution, amino acid transport properties, and role in the plant

Amino acid transporters play a critical role in distributing amino acids within the cell compartments and between the plant organs. Despite this importance, relatively few amino acid transporter genes have been characterized and their role elucidated with certainty. Two main families of proteins encode amino acid transporters in plants: the Amino Acid-Polyamine-Organocation superfamily, containing mostly importers, and the Usually Multiple Acids Move In and out Transporter family, apparently encoding exporters, totaling 63 and 44 genes in Arabidopsis, respectively. Knowledge on UMAMITs is scarce, based on six Arabidopsis genes and a handful of genes from other species. To get insight into the role of the members of this family and provide data to be used for future characterization, we studied the evolution of the UMAMITs in plants, and determined the functional properties, the structure, and the localization of the 47 Arabidopsis UMAMITs. Our analysis showed that the AtUMAMITs are essentially localized at the tonoplast or the plasma membrane, and that most of them are able to export amino acids from the cytosol, confirming a role in intra- and inter-cellular amino acid transport. As an example, this set of data was used to hypothesize the role of a few AtUMAMITs in the plant and the cell.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2002View details →

Fig. 4 in Are plant adaptations to growing on serpentine soil rare or common? A few case studies from New Caledonia

Fig. 4. — Guioa (WELZEN 1990), showing soil preferences as in Fig. 1.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2002View details →

Fig. 3 in Are plant adaptations to growing on serpentine soil rare or common? A few case studies from New Caledonia

Fig. 3. — Cupaniopsis (modified from ADEMA 1991), showing soil preferences as in Fig. 1.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2007View details →

FIG. 1. — L in Architectures de plantes de l'Île Robinson Crusoe, archipel Juan Fernández, Chili

FIG. 1. — L'archipel Juan Fernández, à 700 km à l'ouest de Valparaíso.

opencc-zeroFeb 2020View details →

Rapid adaptive evolution to drought in a subset of plant traits in a large-scale climate change experiment

Rapid evolution of traits and of plasticity may enable adaptation to climate change, yet solid experimental evidence under natural conditions is scarce. Here, we imposed rainfall manipulations (+30%, control, -30%) for ten years on entire natural plant communities in two Eastern Mediterranean sites. Additional sites along a natural rainfall gradient and selection analyses in a greenhouse assessed whether potential responses were adaptive. In both sites, our annual target species Biscutella didyma consistently evolved earlier phenology and higher reproductive allocation under drought. Multiple arguments suggest that this response was adaptive: it aligned with theory, corresponding trait shifts along the natural rainfall gradient, and selection analyses under differential watering in the greenhouse. However, another seven candidate traits did not evolve, and there was little support for evolution of plasticity. Our results provide compelling evidence for rapid adaptive evolution under climate change. Yet, several non-evolving traits may indicate potential constraints to full adaptation.

Warming and shifting phenology accelerate an invasive plant life cycle

Numerous studies have documented changes in the seasonal timing of organisms' growth and reproduction in response to climate warming. These changes correlate with documented changes in species' abundance, but mechanisms linking these trends remain elusive. We investigated the joint demographic effects of advanced reproductive phenology and warming on a globally invasive plant (Carduus nutans) in a field experiment, documenting a substantial shift toward completion of the life cycle at younger ages. Demographic modeling projected 71% of warmed individuals flower as annuals, compared to 61% under current conditions. As this species only reproduces once, this represents a major acceleration of the life cycle. We project a 15% increase in this invader's population growth rate. We show that rising temperatures accelerate this invasive species' population growth by increasing the average size of reproducing individuals; increasing the proportion of individuals that survive to reproduce; and increasing the fraction that reproduce as annuals. Major increases in population growth in this, and potentially many other, invasive species will threaten food security and require careful planning to avoid significant environmental and economic impacts.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2010View details →

Figure 17 in Jumping plant-lice of the family Phacopteronidae (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) from Cameroon

Figure 17. Pseudophacopteron electum, fifth instar larva: left dorsal and right ventral surfaces.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2010View details →

Figure 14 in Jumping plant-lice of the family Phacopteronidae (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) from Cameroon

Figure 14. Pseudophacopteron cuniculus, fifth instar larva: left dorsal and right ventral surfaces.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2010View details →

Figure 18 in Jumping plant-lice of the family Phacopteronidae (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) from Cameroon

Figure 18. Pseudophacopteron morion, fifth instar larva: left dorsal and right ventral surfaces.

opencc-by-nc-4.0Aug 2019View details →

Figure 4 in New distribution record, host plant and notes on natural history of Tomoplagia rudolphi (Lutz & Lima, 1918) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Figure 4. Scanning electron micrographs and photos of the larval of Tomoplagia rudolphi. (A) caudal segment; (B) posterior spiracle (tapered shape indicated by black arrow); (C) posterior spiracle, detail of the three respiratory openings; (D) anal opening; (E) pupa, frontal view; (F) pupa, posterior view; (G) cephalopharyngeal skeleton, lateral view; (H) anterior spiracle, lateral view; (I) posterior spiracle, dorsal view. Abbreviations: a spr = anterior spiracle; as = anterior sclerite; at = apical tooth; da = dorsal apodeme; db = dorsal bridge; dc = dorsal cornu; ds = dental sclerite; hb = hypopharyngeal bridge; hs = hypopharyngeal sclerite; md = mandible; prap th = preapical tooth; ps = pharyngeal sclerite; p spr = posterior spiracle; rm = rima; spr h = spiracular hairs; va = ventral apodeme; vc = ventral cornu.