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FIGURE 9 in Adaptive morpho-traits, taxonomy and biogeography of Metania Gray, 1867 (Porifera: Spongillina: Metaniidae) with the description of a new species from Madagascar

FIGURE 9. Hypothesized evolutionary trend of gemmuloscleres in four genera of the Metaniidae family: pseudobirotules (left) to tubelliform, boletiform (middle) and parmuliform (right) (modified from Volkmer-Ribeiro, 1986).

FIGURE 2 in Adaptive morpho-traits, taxonomy and biogeography of Metania Gray, 1867 (Porifera: Spongillina: Metaniidae) with the description of a new species from Madagascar

FIGURE 2. Genus Metania. Spicular complements of the 11 hitherto accepted Metania species plus the new species M. madagascariensis sp. nov.(modified in part from Volkmer-Ribeiro, 1979, 1986; Volkmer-Ribeiro & Costa, 1992, 1993).

FIGURE 1 in Adaptive morpho-traits, taxonomy and biogeography of Metania Gray, 1867 (Porifera: Spongillina: Metaniidae) with the description of a new species from Madagascar

FIGURE 1. Worldwide geographic range of the genus Metania suggesting a Gondwanan biogeographic pattern with all circumtropical-equatorial records in the Neotropical, Afrotropical, Oriental, and Australian Regions. Each dot refers to one or more species.

FIGURE 6 in Adaptive morpho-traits, taxonomy and biogeography of Metania Gray, 1867 (Porifera: Spongillina: Metaniidae) with the description of a new species from Madagascar

FIGURE 6. Metania madagascariensis sp. nov. Spicular complement (SEM micrographs) of the four studied specimens.

FIGURE 5 in Adaptive morpho-traits, taxonomy and biogeography of Metania Gray, 1867 (Porifera: Spongillina: Metaniidae) with the description of a new species from Madagascar

FIGURE 5. Metania madagascariensis sp. nov. Holotype MSNG 57788 from the Matsiatra River. Body architecture (SEM micrographs). A. Sponge surface (ectosome) with conules and apertures of the aquiferous system in the dermal membrane (ectosomal skeleton, top view); B. Spiny microscleres (detail of A); C. Dermal membrane strongly armed by tangential spiny microscleres (ectosomal skeleton, detail of A); D. Skeletal architecture of the ectosomal and choanosomal skeleton (cross section); E. Skeleton of stout oxeas in an irregular network of mono- to pauci-spicular tracts; F. Ascending spicular fibre supporting a conule at the sponge surface; G. Meshes of choanosomal skeleton with pauci- to multi-spicular tracts of megascleres, and scattered microscleres; H. Dense assemblages of microscleres in choanosomal skeleton; I. Basal spongin plate well developed, tangentially armed by megascleres as stout, smooth oxeas and by microscleres as spiny oxeas.

FIGURE 4 in Adaptive morpho-traits, taxonomy and biogeography of Metania Gray, 1867 (Porifera: Spongillina: Metaniidae) with the description of a new species from Madagascar

FIGURE 4. Metania madagascariensis sp. nov. A. Paratype and Holotype MSNG 57788 in dry condition as small spiny cushions on a boulder; B. Type locality along the River Matsiatra.

opencc-zeroNov 2022View details →

Data from: Nitrogen addition and warming modulate the pathogen impact on plant biomass by shifting intraspecific functional traits and reducing species richness

1. Foliar fungal pathogens can substantially reduce plant biomass. This effect can be modulated by environment conditions, such as soil nitrogen availability and air temperature. The ongoing global changes are altering these variables and thus interact with pathogens to influence plant biomass, but experimental test of their interactions is scarce. 2. We conducted a 4-year field experiment in a Tibetan alpine meadow to examine the interactive effects of nitrogen addition, warming and foliar pathogens (via fungicide application) on plant biomass. We also measured plant functional traits, species richness and abundance to test the possible mechanisms underlying these interactions. 3. Our results showed that foliar fungal pathogens reduced plant community biomass under nitrogen addition, which in turn weakened the positive nitrogen effect on community biomass. Mechanistically, nitrogen addition shifted the plant communities towards fast-growing traits; this happened predominantly because of changes in within-species trait values, including an increase in specific leaf area and height. These trait changes resulted in greater suppression of plant biomass by pathogens, likely because of the trade-offs associated with the allocation of resources to plant growth and defense. Moreover, the reduction in species richness amplified the pathogen effect under nitrogen addition due to the increased density and susceptibility of the most dominant species (i.e. Kobresia capillifolia). Furthermore, warming did not interact with pathogens and nitrogen addition to influence plant community biomass, but their three-way interaction modified the biomass of K. capillifolia. Specifically, warming enhanced the positive effect of nitrogen addition on the biomass of K. capillifolia in the fungicide, low infection plots, while it weakened the nitrogen effect in the no fungicide, high infection plots. 4. Synthesis: Our results demonstrate how pathogens interact with nitrogen addition and warming to influence the biomass of dominant species and the whole plant community. Our study highlights the importance of considering foliar fungal pathogens when assessing ecosystem responses to multiple global change factors.

opencc-zeroNov 2022View details →

Data and code from: The functional trait distinctiveness of plant species is scale dependent

Beyond the local abundance of species, their functional trait distinctiveness is now recognized as a key driver of community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. Yet, since the functional distinctiveness of a species is always relative to a given species pool, a species distinct at the regional scale might not necessarily be distinct at the local or community scale, and reciprocally. To assess the importance of scale (i.e the definition of a species pool) when quantifying the functional distinctiveness of species, and how it might distort the ecological conclusions derived from it, we quantified trait distinctiveness of 1,350 plant species at regional, local, and community scales over ca. 88 000 grassland plots in France. We measured differences in functional distinctiveness of species between regional, local and community scales and tested the influence of environmental predictors (climate and nitrogen input) and contexts (environmental distinctiveness, frequency, and heterogeneity) on these variations. In line with theoretical expectations, we found large variations of functional distinctiveness (in particular between regional and community scales) for many species, with a general tendency of lower distinctiveness at smaller scales. We also showed that nitrogen input – a key aspect of high land use intensity – and environmental frequency partly explained the differences between local and regional scales only. These results suggest the role played by environmental filtering on species' distinctiveness at the local scale, but the determinant of distinctiveness variations at the community scale still needs to be elucidated. Our study provides robust empirical evidence that measures of ecological originality are strongly scale-dependent. We urge ecologists to carefully consider the scale at which they measure distinctiveness, as ignoring scale dependencies could lead to biased (or even entirely wrong) conclusions when not considered at the scale of interest for the respective research question.

opencc-zeroDec 2022View details →

Seed dormancy and germination traits of 27 species inhabiting the degraded karst mountain from central Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau: Seed mass and moisture content correlates with germination capacity

Seed dormancy and germination play an important roles in regulating germination timing and plant fitness in harsh environment, especially for fragile karst region. Broadening the knowledge regarding seed ecology of native plant species can improve local restoration management due to the increased biodiversity and success of seedling establishment, yet few studies have addressed this. We examined the dormancy types and germination responses to temperature regimes as well as light conditions of totally 27 that were dominant or common species inhabiting a degraded karst mountain from central Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and assessed the relationships between seed traits and germination index using a partial least squares regression (PLSR). Approximately 48% of the investigated species exhibited physiological dormancy, 37% exhibited nondormancy, 7% exhibited morphophysiological dormancy, 4% exhibited morphological dormancy and 4% exhibited physical dormancy. Germination behaviors occurred in 16 of 27 species. The seed germination of 13 species strongly responded to seasonal temperature regimes, whereas 12 species were substantially affected by light conditions. About 94% species germinated to the maximum percent in warm temperature regimes (20/13 and 25/18 °C), while the remaining was in cool temperature regime (10/4 °C). The PLSR analysis indicated a significant positive correlation between seed mass and T50 m (time to 50% final germination), and a negative correlation between seed moisture content and percent germination, showing that small seeds, particularly those with a low moisture content, were more likely to have a greater germination capacity (including relative less germination time and higher germination percent) than large seeds in harsh karst environments. In general, these results strengthen the understanding of seed dormancy classification of dormant species and germination requirements of nondormant ones that representative of pioneer species of early stage of positive succession in seriously degraded sites and provide suggestion for species selection in local seed-based vegetation restoration.

opencc-zeroDec 2022View details →

Data from: Plastic responses of belowground foraging traits to soil phosphorus-rich patches across 17 coexisting AM tree species in a subtropical forest

1. Belowground plastic responses to soil nutrient "hot-spots" form a key nutrient foraging strategy of plants coexisting in natural ecosystems. However, it is unclear how plant species differ in these belowground plastic responses and how they co-vary. 2. Plastic responses to soil phosphorus (P)-rich patches of absorptive root, mycorrhizal, and exudation traits of 17 co-existing arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) tree species in a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest were investigated using a root bag method. 3. There was considerable variation and heterogeneity in species-specific responses to P-rich patches. Negative log response ratios usually occurred for high-cost traits and positive log response ratios for low-cost traits. There were tradeoffs in the plastic responses between root acid phosphatase activity and extraradical hyphal length, which were unaffected by phylogeny, and between root acid phosphatase activity and specific root length. Thicker-rooted species responded to P-rich patches more through root exudation plasticity than mycorrhizal plasticity. Thinner-rooted species relied more on mycorrhizal plasticity. 4. Synthesis. Our results revealed diverse P foraging strategies comprising different combinations of plastic adjustments in absorptive root, mycorrhizal, and exudation traits among coexisting AM tree species, which suggest the potential for complementary exploitation of different soil P sources.

opencc-zeroJan 2023View details →

Supplementary material 3 from: Worthy SJ, Marsico TD, Lucardi RD, Whitehurst LE, Burgess KS (2022) Variation in plant traits and phylogenetic structure associated with native and nonnative species in an industrialized flora. NeoBiota 77: 101-123. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.77.87307

Phylogenetic tree depicting genetic relationships among 159 species of the flora at the Port of Savannah, Savannah, Georgia, USA, with available sequences

opencc-zeroFeb 2023View details →

Dataset from: Functional traits explain both seedling and adult plant spatial patterns in gypsum annual species

1. Ecological processes such as seed dispersal or plant–plant interactions and environmental constraints such as climate or soil heterogeneity are known to influence establishment, and thus the spatial patterns of plant communities and populations. In this study, we hypothesized that key functional traits such as the specific leaf area (SLA), reproductive ratio (reproductive/vegetative biomass), seed mass, and maximum plant height would influence the spatial patterns of individual species in annual, gypsophilous plant communities, and that these effects would be modulated by both the soil surface structure (biocrust) and climate (precipitation) conditions. 2. We mapped the spatial patterns of all plants found in six 1 x 1 m plots (more than 1000 individuals per plot) in both the seedling (autumn) and adult stages (spring) under two biocrust experimental conditions (intact vs disturbed biocrust) during two consecutive years which were contrasted in term of precipitation (dry year and wet year). To assess the spatial patterns of seedlings and adults, we fitted four different spatial point pattern models (i.e., Poisson, inhomogeneous Poisson, Poisson cluster, and inhomogeneous Poisson cluster processes) to each of the 242 populations of the 27 most abundant species that had more than 15 individuals per plot. 3. Most seedling populations exhibited clustered spatial patterns that persisted in the adult stage, which suggests that short-distance dispersal is an adaptive trait for soil specialists such as gypsophilous plants. One-third of the populations fitted an inhomogeneous model best, but the physical structure of the biocrust was not related to them. More importantly, we found a connection between the functional strategies of species and the spatial distribution of plants. In particular, during the dry year, irrespective of the biocrust conditions, species with a high SLA and high Rep/Veg mainly exhibited clustered spatial patterns, whereas low SLA and low Rep/Veg were associated with random distributions. Species with heavy and light seed masses had random and clustered patterns, respectively. In both the dry and wet years, species with lower maximum heights had clustered patterns, whereas taller species exhibited random patterns. In addition, species with heavier seeds and greater maximum heights had the largest cluster sizes. 4. Our results confirm that the spatial patterns of seedlings and adult plants are significantly determined by the functional strategy of each species.

opencc-zeroJun 2023View details →

Contrasting mycorrhizal growth responses in native and invasive woody species are associated with distinct root trait syndromes

<ol> <li>Invasive plant species often express resource-acquisitive leaf traits that support rapid growth, but associated fine root traits and the role of microbial mutualists in invader whole-plant functioning remains poorly understood.</li> <li>We performed an experiment of 12 phylogenetically-grouped native and non-native, invasive woody species, grown with or without a common inoculum of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) across two nutrient levels. We measured 10 fine root traits associated with nutrient uptake and suitability of AMF colonization.</li> <li>The presence of AMF increased the growth rate of all species, but native species were significantly more dependent on AMF than invaders. Further, invaders expressed a distinct syndrome of first-order root traits, including longer, thinner roots of high specific root length, greater branching intensity, and lower tissue density, which are traits associated with rapid nutrient uptake and low AMF association. This syndrome was independent of phylogeny, AMF inoculation, and soil fertility.</li> <li>An acquisitive fine root trait syndrome for invaders supports high photosynthetic and growth rates, linking above- and below-ground functioning. The occurrence of this syndrome across phylogenetic groups indicates that lineages of woody invaders typically associated with arbuscular mycorrhizas may be generally less dependent on AMF than native species.</li> </ol>

opencc-zeroJul 2023View details →

Functional traits of both specific alien species and receptive community but not community diversity determined the invasion success under biotic and abiotic conditions

Biodiversity can provide some resistance to alien species in some cases, but not in others. The observed paradoxical results may be related to several reasons, including variations in abiotic and/or biotic conditions, alien species characteristics, and the fact that the species number cannot adequately reflect native community diversity. A comprehensive study that incorporates these elements is lacking. We constructed invasion systems using nine alien plant species and 12 native communities, composed of two diversity levels (three vs. six species), under different nitrogen (N) and arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) inoculation conditions. We used this fully crossed factorial experiment, i.e. N (low vs. high) × native community diversity (three vs. six species) × AMF (with vs. without), to systematically explore the invasion success in native communities. We found that the species number of native communities didn't affect invasion success under any of the N or AMF conditions. The effects of N enrichment and AMF inoculation on invasion were not consistent between alien species and native communities based on their phenotypic plasticity of functional traits in response to N enrichment and AMF inoculation. Specifically, the changing of invasion in response to N enrichment and AMF inoculation was associated with the plasticity of plant height and root mass fraction (RMF) that reflects the competitiveness for the acquisition of light and soil resources. Our results that species number did not capture well the resistance of the native community suggested that the simple expression of species richness is not realistic to describe the invasion resistance of the community. Additionally, the association between functional traits of both alien species and native communities and invasion success suggested that changes in competitive advantage and resource acquisition strategy are more important in explaining changes in invasive success in different N and AMF conditions. Future studies are needed to explore invasion success by systematically considering the characteristics of invasive species and the native community, and the specific abiotic and biotic conditions. Using functional traits may help advance our understanding of plant invasion in broad circumstances and shed light on a generalized framework of biological invasion.

opencc-zeroAug 2023View details →

The relationships of plant species occupancy to niches and traits vary with spatial scale

Aim: Support for different underlying mechanisms of species occupancy is inconsistent, yet this could be related to spatial scale. Since abiotic filtering typically acts at broader scales than biotic interactions, we hypothesise that occupancy could be more driven by species' abiotic niche (i.e., tolerance and preference of abiotic conditions) at broad scales, whereas species' traits affecting competitive ability could be more important at fine scales. Here we test these hypotheses by assessing relationships of occupancy to niche and trait metrics across spatial scales. Location: Four study areas located north of Arctic Circle. Taxon: Vascular plants. Methods: We derived occupancy for 106 species at four spatial scales (Micro-scale with plot size of 0.04 m 2 and extent of 2 km, Local-scale with plot size of 4 m 2 and extent of 40 km, Regional-scale with plot size of 4 ha and extent of 800 km, and Polar-scale with plot size of 4 km 2 and extent of 5200 km). We then assessed using generalized additive models whether the relationships between occupancy and species' niche breadth, niche marginality, intraspecific trait variability (ITV) and trait distinctiveness vary across the scales. Results: At the finer scales, ITV (especially of specific leaf area) had the highest contribution with positive relationship in explaining occupancy. At the broader scales, occupancy was better explained by niche metrics. Especially at the broadest scale, the occupancy had a positive relationship with species' climatic tolerance. Main conclusions: Abiotic filtering, especially related to macro-climate, drives species occupancy at broader spatial scales while biotic interactions are relatively more important at local scales. This scale-dependency of factors behind species occupancy should be accounted for when, for example, planning conservation of rare species, forecasting invasions, or anticipating the effects of changing climate on biota at local versus global scales.

Fig. 3 in An integrated approach for the characterization of wild Crocus species adopting phenotypical and phytochemical traits

Fig. 3. Biplot from Principal Component Analysis for the phytochemical components (flavonols and crocins) for fifteen wild Crocus samples and saffron. All components were used for the analysis, but only the ones with the longest vectors were represented in the graph. See Table 1 for the coding of populations (S = saffron) and Tables 4 and 5 for the coding of phytochemicals.

Fig. 4 in An integrated approach for the characterization of wild Crocus species adopting phenotypical and phytochemical traits

Fig. 4. Wild Crocus taxa collected in Southern Italy: Crocus biflorus; C. longiflorus; C. siculus; C. thomasii; C. neapolitanus.

Fig. 1 in An integrated approach for the characterization of wild Crocus species adopting phenotypical and phytochemical traits

Fig. 1. Biplot from Principal Component Analysis for the floral traits in the sixteen Crocus populations. Lops and Lips: outer and inner perigone segments; Lsb: length of style-branches; Lpt: Length of perigone tube; Lanth: length of anther of the 16 Crocus samples. See Table 1 for the coding of populations.

Fig. 2 in An integrated approach for the characterization of wild Crocus species adopting phenotypical and phytochemical traits

Fig. 2. General molecular structures of flavonoids (flavonols) and apocarotenoids (crocins) characterised in the stigmas of wild Crocus samples and saffron.