Find research datasets worth reusing

opencc-by-4.0Jan 2020View details →

Figure 3 from: Müller C, Bräutigam A, Eilers EJ, Junker RR, Schnitzler J-P, Steppuhn A, Unsicker SB, van Dam NM, Weisser WW, Wittmann MJ (2020) Ecology and Evolution of Intraspecific Chemodiversity of Plants. Research Ideas and Outcomes 6: e49810. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.6.e49810

Figure 3 Scheme of the collaborative ring trial within the RU. For details see text. C – control; H – herbivore-treated.

opencc-by-4.0Jan 2020View details →

Figure 1 from: Müller C, Bräutigam A, Eilers EJ, Junker RR, Schnitzler J-P, Steppuhn A, Unsicker SB, van Dam NM, Weisser WW, Wittmann MJ (2020) Ecology and Evolution of Intraspecific Chemodiversity of Plants. Research Ideas and Outcomes 6: e49810. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.6.e49810

Figure 1 Conceptual framework of the proposed RU on the ecology and evolution of intraspecific plant chemodiversity. We will study chemical variation in different plant parts (flowers, nectar, pollen, leaves, phloem sap; roots will be included in a potential second funding period), among plant individuals within populations and among populations (left) as well as consequences on the plant-associated community (right) over space and time. The projects will focus on the tree Populus nigra and the herbs Solanum dulcamara and Tanacetum vulgare (lower panel, from left to right).

opencc-zeroAug 2020View details →

Soil microbial legacy drives crop diversity advantage: linking ecological plant-soil feedback with agricultural intercropping

<ol> <li>Although the importance of the soil microbiome in mediating plant community structures and functions has been increasingly emphasized in ecological studies, the biological processes driving crop diversity overyielding remain unexplained in agriculture. Based on the plant-soil feedback (PSF) theory and method, we quantified how much soil microbes contributed to intercropping overyielding and detected which microbial groups mediated this effect.</li> <li>Soils were collected as inocula and sequenced from a unique 10-year field experiment, consisting of monoculture, intercropping and rotation planted with wheat (Triticum aestivum), maize (Zea mays) or faba bean (Vicia faba). A PSF study was conducted to test microbial effects on three crops' growth in monoculture or intercropping.</li> <li>In wheat & faba bean (W&F) and maize & faba bean (M&F) systems, soil microbes drove intercropping overyielding compared to monoculture, with 28-51% of the overyielding contributed by microbial legacies. The overyielding effects resulted from negative PSFs in both systems, as crops, in particular faba bean grew better in soils conditioned by other crops than itself. Moreover, faba bean grew better in soils from intercropping or rotation than from the average of monocultures, indicating a strong positive legacy effect of multispecies cropping systems. However, with positive PSF and negative legacy benefit effect of intercropping/rotation, we did not observe significant overyielding in the W&M system.</li> <li>With more bacterial and fungal dissimilarities by metabarcoding in heterospecific than its own soil, the better it improved faba bean growth. More detailed analysis showed faba bean monoculture soil accumulated more putative pathogens with higher Fusarium relative abundance and more Fusarium oxysporum gene copies by qPCR, while in heterspecific soils, there was less pathogenetic effects when cereals were engaged. Further analysis in maize/faba bean intercropping also showed an increase of rhizobia relative abundance.</li> <li> Synthesis and applications. Our results demonstrate a soil microbiome-mediated advantage in intercropping through suppression of the negative PSF of pathogens and increasing beneficial microbes. As microbial mediation of overyielding is context-dependent, we conclude that the dynamics of both beneficial and pathogenic microbes should be considered in designing cropping systems for sustainable agriculture, particularly including combinations of legumes and cereals.</li> </ol>

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2018View details →

Fig. 2 in Distribution patterns of selected insect populations on their host plants - an ecological study

Fig. 2: Illustration of those insects with their preferred host plants studied in the present contribution: (a) greenfly on the leaves of the common hazel, (b) mealybug on the leaves of the chervil, (c) sap beetle on the leaves of the nettle.

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2018View details →

Fig. 1 in Distribution patterns of selected insect populations on their host plants - an ecological study

Fig. 1: (a) Basic types of distribution patterns in the animal kingdom: (1) regular distribution, (2) aggregated (clotted) distribution, (3) random distribution; (b) graphical method for the determination of the distribution pattern produced by a given animal population.

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2018View details →

Fig. 3 in Distribution patterns of selected insect populations on their host plants - an ecological study

Fig. 3: Graphical determination of the distribution patterns of those species introduced in Fig. 2: (a) greenfly on the common hazel, (b) mealybug on the chervil, (c) sap beetle on the nettle.

opencc-zeroOct 2020View details →

Data from: Ecological and evolutionary responses of an arctic plant to variation in microclimate and soil

The arctic and alpine regions are predicted to experience some of the highest rates of climate change, and the arctic vegetation is expected to be especially sensitive to such changes. Understanding the ecological and evolutionary responses of arctic plant species to changes in climate is therefore a key objective. Geothermal areas, where natural temperature gradients occur over small spatial scales, and without many of the confounding environmental factors present in latitudinal and other gradient studies, provide a natural experimental setting in which to examine the response of arctic-alpine plants to increasing temperatures. To test the ecological and evolutionary response of the circumpolar alpine bistort (Persicaria vivipara) to temperature, we collected plant material and soil from areas with low, intermediate, and high soil temperatures and grew them at three different temperatures in a threefactorial growth chamber experiment. At higher experimental soil temperatures, sprouting was earlier, and plants had more leaves. Sprouting was earlier in soil originating from intermediate temperature and plants had more leaves when grown in soil originating from low temperatures. We did not find evidence of local adaptation or genetic variation in reaction norms among plants originating from areas with low, intermediate, and high soil temperature. Our findings suggest that the alpine bistort has a strong plastic response to warming, but that differences in soil temperature have not resulted in genetic differentiation. The lack of an observed evolutionary response may, for example, be due to the absence of temperature-mediated selection on P. vivipara, the low rate of sexual recombination, or high levels of gene flow balancing differences in selection. When placed within the context of other studies, we conclude that arctic-alpine plant species often show strong plastic responses to spring warming, while evidence of evolutionary responses varies among species.

opencc-zeroDec 2011View details →

Data from: Testing for ecological limitation of diversification: a case study using parasitic plants

Imbalances in phylogenetic diversity could be the result of variable unbounded diversification rates, differing limits on diversity, or a combination of the two. We propose an approach to distinguish between rates and limits as the primary cause of phylogenetic imbalance, using parasitic plants as a model. With sister-taxon comparisons, we show that parasitic plant lineages are typically much less diverse than their autotrophic sisters. We then use age estimates for taxa used in the sister-taxon comparisons to test for correlations between clade age and diversity. We find that parasitic plant diversity is not significantly correlated with the age of the lineage, whereas there is a strong positive correlation between the age and diversity of autotrophic sister lineages. The Ericaceae sister-pair Monotropoideae (parasitic) and Arbutoideae (autotrophic) are sufficiently well samples at the species level to allow more parametric comparisons of diversification patterns. Model-fitting for this group supports ecological limitation in Monotropoideae and unconstrained diversification in Arbutoideae. Thus, differences in diversity between parasitic plants and their autotrophic sisters might be caused by a mixture of ecological limitation and unbounded diversification. A combination of sister-taxon comparisons of diversity and age, coupled with model-fitting of well-sampled phylogenies of focal taxa, provides a powerful test of likely causes of asymmetry in the diversity of lineages.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: The stable isotope ecology of mycalesine butterflies: implications for plant-insect co-evolution

One of the most dramatic examples of biome shifts in the geological record is the rapid replacement of C3 vegetation by C4 grasses in (sub-) tropical regions during the Late Miocene–Pliocene. Climate-driven biome shifts of this magnitude are expected to have a major impact on diversification and ecological speciation, especially in grazing taxa. Mycalesine butterflies are excellent candidates to explore the evolutionary impact of these C3/C4 shifts on insect grazer communities. Mycalesine butterflies feed on grasses as larvae, have radiated spectacularly and occur in almost all extant habitats across the Old World tropics. However, at present, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the larval ecology of these butterflies and this hampers investigations of co-evolutionary patterns among the geographically parallel radiations of mycalesine butterflies and the remarkable evolutionary history of their host plants. By conducting several experiments under defined environmental conditions, we demonstrate that the feeding history of mycalesine larvae on C3 and C4 grasses can be traced by analysing δ13C in the organic material of the adult exoskeleton, while values of δ18O in the adult reflect atmospheric humidity during larval development. To show the power of these isotopic proxies for ecological studies, we analysed the isotopic composition of organic material obtained from adult butterflies sampled in two extensive longitudinal surveys. We observed strong associations among the larval ecology, habitat preferences of the adult butterflies and patterns of seasonality, such that mycalesine species that inhabit open environments are more opportunistic in their host plant choice but utilize C3 grasses more frequently during the dry season. Crucially, the ability to process the less palatable C4 grasses appears to be phylogenetically clustered within mycalesine species, suggesting that novel feeding adaptations may have evolved in response to the ecological dominance of C4 grasses in open savanna habitats.

opencc-zeroDec 2011View details →

Data from: The genetic architecture of a complex ecological trait: host plant use in the specialist moth, Heliothis subflexa

We used genetic mapping to examine the genetic architecture of differences in host plant use between two species of noctuid moths, Heliothis subflexa, a specialist on Physalis spp., and its close relative, the broad generalist H. virescens. We introgressed H. subflexa chromosomes into the H. virescens background and analyzed 1,462 backcross insects. The effects of H. subflexa-origin chromosomes were small when measured as the percent variation explained in backcross populations (0.2 to 5%), but were larger when considered in relation to the interspecific difference explained (1.5 to 165%). Most significant chromosomes had effects on more than one trait, and their effects varied between years, sexes, and genetic backgrounds. Different chromosomes could produce similar phenotypes, suggesting that the same trait might be controlled by different chromosomes in different backcross populations. It appears that many loci of small effect contribute to the use of Physalis by H. subflexa. We hypothesize that behavioral changes may have paved the way for physiological adaptation to Physalis by the generalist ancestor of H. subflexa and H. virescens.

FIGURE 3 in Phytodiversity, ecological attributes and phytogeographical distribution of plants in Arang Valley, District Bajaur, a remote area in the Northwest of Pakistan

FIGURE 3. Life form of the plant species

FIGURE 6 in Phytodiversity, ecological attributes and phytogeographical distribution of plants in Arang Valley, District Bajaur, a remote area in the Northwest of Pakistan

FIGURE 6. Flowering phenology of the flora

FIGURE 5 in Phytodiversity, ecological attributes and phytogeographical distribution of plants in Arang Valley, District Bajaur, a remote area in the Northwest of Pakistan

FIGURE 5. Floristic elements of Arang valley

FIGURE 4 in Phytodiversity, ecological attributes and phytogeographical distribution of plants in Arang Valley, District Bajaur, a remote area in the Northwest of Pakistan

FIGURE 4. Leaf size spectrum of the plant species

FIGURE 1 in Phytodiversity, ecological attributes and phytogeographical distribution of plants in Arang Valley, District Bajaur, a remote area in the Northwest of Pakistan

FIGURE 1. Map of the study area

FIGURE 2 in Phytodiversity, ecological attributes and phytogeographical distribution of plants in Arang Valley, District Bajaur, a remote area in the Northwest of Pakistan

FIGURE 2. Habit of the flora