2020 April - 46 articles
Artificial light at night is considered a major threat to biodiversity, especially for nocturnal species, as it reduces habitat availability, quality, and functionality. Since the recent evolution in light technologies in improving luminous efficacy,...
Wildlife passages are currently built at roads and railway lines to re-establish connectivity. However, little is known about whether predator-prey interactions may reduce the effectiveness of the crossing structures. We evaluated the co-occurrence p...
The relatively extensive fossil record of owls (Aves, Strigiformes) in North America and Europe stands in stark contrast to the paucity of fossil strigiformes from Africa. The first occurrence of a fossil owl from the Paleogene of Africa extends the...
Potamogeton crispus (curlyleaf pondweed) and Myriophyllum spicatum (Eurasian watermilfoil) are widely thought to competitively displace native macrophytes in North America. However, their perceived competitive superiority has not been comprehensively...
Assessing the applicability of theory to major adaptive radiations in deep time represents an extremely difficult problem in evolutionary biology. Neoaves, which includes 95% of living birds, is believed to have undergone a period of rapid diversific...
Cross-taxon analyses can explain patterns of interaction between taxa and their application in conservation studies can drive management actions. In a coastal sand dune system characterized by a high human pressure, we explored the co-occurrence patt...
Several species of surface salamanders exploit underground environments; in Europe, one of the most common is the fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra). In this study, we investigated if fire salamander larvae occurring in groundwater habitats can...
In the south of the Iberian Peninsula, many rivers are intermittent, a state most likely to be exacerbated by climate change, strongly affecting river biota. An additional challenge for native biota in this area is the arrival of new species, frequen...
Acanthochiton rubrolineatus (Cryptoplacidae, Neoloricata, Polyplacophora) has a narrow distribution range along the seacoasts of China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan. We collected 238 samples from eight localities along the Chinese coast, and analyz...
The Mediterranean islands represent a center of vascular plant diversity featuring a high rate of endemic richness. Such richness is highly threatened, however, with many plants facing the risk of extinction and in need of urgent protection measures....
Coral restoration is rapidly becoming a mainstream strategic reef management response to address dramatic declines in coral cover worldwide. Restoration success can be defined as enhanced reef functions leading to improved ecosystem services, with mu...
Orchids are one of the most species-rich families in the world, and many species are under threat in numerous countries. Biodiversity research focusing on the relationship between the richness of orchid species and ecological factors was performed ac...
To test for the presence of purging in populations, the classical pedigree-based inbreeding coefficient (F) can be decomposed into Kalinowski’s ancestral (FANC) and new (FNEW) inbreeding coefficients. The FANC and FNEW can be calculated by a st...
The effects of invasive species at the ecosystem level remain an important component required to assess their impacts. Here, we conducted an experimental study with labeled nitrogen in two types of soil (low and high nitrate conditions), investigatin...
Climate change is likely to have strong impacts on oviparous animals with minimal parental care, because nest temperature can impact egg development, sex, and survival, especially in the absence of mitigation via parental care. Nesting females may co...
Conspecific individuals often exhibit behavioral differences that influence susceptibility to predation. Yet, how such trait differences scale to affect prey population regulation and community structure remains unclear. We used an 8 day field mesoco...
Although aboveground metrics remain the standard, restoring functional ecosystems should promote both aboveground and belowground biotic communities. Restoration using salvaged soil—removal and translocation of topsoil from areas planned for de...
Cliffs are reservoirs of biodiversity; therefore, many plant species and communities of inland and coastal cliffs are protected by Council Directive 92/43/EEC (European Economic Community), and their monitoring is mandatory in European Union countrie...
Invasive Alien Species (IAS) are a serious threat to biodiversity, severely affecting natural habitats and species assemblages. However, no consistent empirical evidence emerged on which functional traits or trait combination may foster community inv...
Polygordius is a clade of marine annelids mainly seen in coarse-grained habitats. They are notable for their smooth bodies, lacking in chaetae or obvious segments, and they resemble Nematoda or Nemertea. Though Polygordius taxa are found in all ocean...
Phenotypic plasticity in defensive traits is an appropriate mechanism to cope with the variable hazard of a frequently changing predator spectrum. In the animal kingdom these so-called inducible defences cover the entire taxonomic range from protozoa...
Nineteen fungal strains associated with the seagrass Posidonia oceanica, with the green alga Flabellia petiolata, and the brown alga Padina pavonica were collected in the Mediterranean Sea. These strains were previously identified at the family level...
In this note, we suggest the adoption of expert-based approaches for threat analysis to allow an assessment of the magnitude of efforts of wildlife management actions. Similar to what is proposed for expert-based quantification of threat events, in w...
Kuwait territorial water hosts an important part of national biodiversity (i.e., zooplankton and phytoplankton), but very limited information exists on the overall diversity of benthic foraminifera. On the basis of the integration of publications, re...
Brachyuran crabs of various families are known as obligate associates of stony corals, with many of these species living as endosymbionts inside the skeleton of their hosts [...]
Glyphosate and copper-based herbicides/fungicides affect non-target organisms, and these incidental exposures can impact microbial populations. In this study, glyphosate resistance was found in the historical collection of S. cerevisiae, which was co...
Seasonally dry woodlands are the dominant land cover across southern Africa. They are biodiverse, structurally complex, and important for ecosystem service provision. Species composition and structure vary across the region producing a diverse array...
The biodiversity loss resulting from rising levels of human impacts on ecosystems has been extensively discussed over the last years. The expansion of urban areas promotes drastic ecological changes, especially through fragmentation of natural areas....
(1) Predation selects for antipredator competence in prey. For fishes with parental care, brood predators exert selection on the morphological phenotype of offspring, and also exert strong selection pressure to promote parental care behavior of adult...
Nematode communities and relevant environmental variables were investigated to assess how the presence of a dam affects the Ba Lai estuary benthic ecosystem, in comparison to the adjacent dam-free estuary Ham Luong. Both estuaries are part of the Mek...
A robust survey method that samples the main characteristics of plant assemblages is needed to assess the conservation status of European habitat in the Natura 2000 network. A measure of variability, called pseudo-multivariate dissimilarity-based sta...
Protected areas are intended to achieve the long-term conservation of nature, but not all such areas are equal in their effectiveness because of their varying regulation of human activities. In Costa Rica, we assessed mammal and bird species presence...
Human disturbances are greatly threatening to the biodiversity of vascular plants. Compared to seed plants, the diversity patterns of ferns have been poorly studied along disturbance gradients, including aspects of their taxonomic, phylogenetic, and...
Background: Functional diversity effects on ecosystem processes, like on soil erosion, are not fully understood. Runoff and soil erosion in agricultural landscapes are reduced by the hydraulic roughness (HR) of vegetation patches, which furthers sedi...
Due to the rapid developments in the aquaculture industry, Artemia franciscana, originally an American species, has been introduced to Eurasia, Africa and Australia. In the present study, we used a partial sequence of the mitochondrial DNA Cytochrome...
We investigated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) spore density and root colonization in three distinct dry Afromontane forest plant communities, representing differing levels of disturbance and soil properties. Soil and root samples were collected...
The submerged evergreen aquatic plant Myriophyllum heterophyllum is among the worst invasive species in Europe, causing severe problems especially in navigation channels but also lentic systems. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview an...
Wine grape production is an important economic asset in many nations; however, a significant proportion of vines succumb to grapevine trunk pathogens, reducing yields and causing economic losses. Cover crops, plants that are grown in addition to main...
In this study, we report the first finding of the non-indigenous seaweed Caulacanthus okamurae (Rhodophyta) in the Ionian and Adriatic Seas (Mediterranean). Specimens were identified through molecular analyses based on the plastid ribulose-1,5-bispho...
We performed over 19,000 lure-assisted, underwater visual fish census transects at over 140 shallow coastal sampling locations in the mid- eastern Adriatic sea of the Croatian mainland and islands, recording all fish taxa observed, their predatory be...
Balkan chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra balcanica) is a protected species with an Inadequate-Bad (U2) conservation status in Greece. Our study explores its seasonal range use pattern, demography and habitat selection in a site of the Natura 2000 network,...
Rhodolith beds have not previously been recorded in South Africa. A multidisciplinary research effort used remote sampling tools to survey the historically unexplored continental shelf off the Eastern Cape coast of South Africa. A rhodolith bed, bear...
Deforestation transforms habitats, displacing vertebrates and the other dimensions of biodiversity they support through their interactions. Few empirical studies have quantified the effect deforestation has on vertebrate–pollinator interaction...
Among the complex ecosystems and habitats that form the deep sea, submarine canyons and open slope systems are regarded as potential hotspots of biodiversity. We assessed the spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity in sediment communities of a...
The input of new nutrients by upwelling in shelf waters, and the associated carbon and nitrogen fluxes, can be traced by their stable isotope signatures in organic matter. Here, we analyze the relationships between upwelling intensity and natural abu...
Africa has the largest diversity of the genus Hypoxis, accounting for 61% of the current globally accepted taxa within the genus, including some endemic species. Using Hypoxis hemerocallidea as a case study, this review addresses the conservation con...
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