Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of changes in management on resistance and resilience in three grassland communities

Question: Diversification of grassland management is recommended as a tool for conservation of different taxonomic groups living in those habitats. How resistant and resilient are species-rich grasslands in terms of plant species rich- ness and vegetation composition to short-term, small-scale perturbations caused by changes in management practice? Location: B�ilKarpaty Mountains, SE Czech Republic. Methods: The experiment included the effect of six management regimes (mowing in June; mowing in September; mowing in June and September; mowing in June and high stubble left; no management; mowing in June and mulching). It was conducted in species-rich wooded grasslands in the White Carpathians Mts. , Czech Republic, represented by three types of plant commu- nity: a Bromus erectus community (with high species richness and low productiv- ity), a Molinia arundinacea community (with high species richness and high productivity), and a Calamagrostis epigejos community (with low species richness and high productivity). After 3 yr, resistance was assessed, and traditional man- agement (mowing once each year in June) was resumed; resilience was evalu- ated after three more years. Results: While the species-rich, unproductiveBromus community was relatively resistant to less intensive management in terms of species richness, and there- fore its resilience could not be assessed, it changed substantially in terms of vege- tation composition (maximum dissimilarity between control and abandoned plots was 63%). The more productive Molinia and Calamagrostis communities lost up to37% ofspecies duetoabandonment,but notas a consequence of other changes management regimes. After the traditional management was resumed, resilience was higher in the Calamagrostis community than in the Molinia com- munity. Vegetation composition was not affected by treatments. Conclusions: The results show that short-term abandonment causes loss of plant diversity in productive grasslands but not in less productive, species-rich grasslands in the short term. Other relaxed management regimes (e.g. high stubble and delayed mowing) were comparable with the control and can be used for a short time to increase diversity of management without an effect on plant species richness. However, further research is needed to assess the effects of these management practices when they are applied repeatedly or over the long term.
New perspectives in the analysis of fish distributions: a case study on the spatial distribution of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides)

Les analyses des distributions des poissons rendent rarement compte de l'organisation spatiale des types d'habitat, sont generalement effectuees a une seule echelle, et ont recours a une hypothese nulle de distribution aleatoire sans considerer d'autres hypotheses nulles. Nous presentons ici une methode permettant de contourner ces difficultes en analysant des donnees telemetriques recueillies sur l'achigan a grande bouche (Micropterus salmoides) du lac Long (Michigan), Les achigans etaient fortement regroupes dans la zone littorale, et montraient des pics de regroupement a des echelles spatiales petite ( 160 m). Un modele de deplacement neutre (ni taxie ni cinese au sein des types d'habitat) a pu expliquer une partie du regroupement observe, mais non l'importance de cette agregation. Une bonne portion de ce phenomene pourrait etre engendree par une taxie orientee vers la moitie est du bassin, mais l'integration de taxies orientees vers des cellules peu profondes ou des cellules contenant des macrophytes ligneux emerges n'a pas pu generer le degre observe d'agregation a petite echelle. Nos resultats soulignent l'utilite d'une analyse des distributions spatiales a des echelles multiples et l'importance de la configuration spatiale des types d'habitats, et font ressortir que les distributions non aleatoires observees a une seule echelle peuvent etre dues a des processus survenus a des echelles diverses.
AVIAN SPECIES DIVERSITY IN DESERT SCRUB

Along a gradient of habitat complexity in desert scrub communities of the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona, nest sites and food niches become more diverse, and breeding bird population density and species diversity increase. Birds are highly specific in their selection of plants for nest placement; densities of most species are strongly related to densities of nest plants. The MacArthur foliage-height diversity model does not yield con- sistently accurate predictions of breeding bird species diversities in desert scrub communities. A significant relationship is found between physiognomic coverage diversity and breeding bird species diversity. This index, based on a system of plant life forms, quantifies critical environmental features used by birds in habitat selection. A model that combines aspects of foliage-height diversity and physiognomic coverage diversity may provide greater accuracy and wider applicability for predicting breeding bird species diversity.
Structure and dynamics of pollination networks: the role of alien plants

Research on ecological communities, and plant! pollinator mutualistic networks in particular, has increasingly benefited from the theory and tools of complexity science. Nevertheless, up to now there have been few attempts to investigate the interplay between the structure of real pollination networks and their dynamics. This study is one of the first contributions to explore this issue. Biological invasions, of major concern for conservation, are also poorly understood from the perspective of complex ecological networks. In this paper we assess the role that established alien species play within a host community by analyzing the temporal changes in structural network properties driven by the removal of non-native plants. Three topological measures have been used to represent the most relevant structural properties for the stability of ecological networks: degree distribution, nestedness, and modularity. Therefore, we investigate for a detailed pollination network, 1) how its dynamics, represented as changes in species abundances, affect the evolution of its structure, 2) how topology relates to dynamics focusing on long-term species persistence; and 3) how both structure and dynamics are affected by the removal of alien plant species. Network dynamics were simulated by means of a stochastic metacommunity model. Our results showed that established alien plants are important for the persistence of the pollination network and for the maintenance of its structure. Removal of alien plants decreased the likelihood of species persistence. On the other hand, both the full network and the subset native network tended to lose their structure through time. Nevertheless, the structure of the full network was better preserved than the structure of the network without alien plants. Temporal topological shifts were evident in terms of degree distribution, nestedness, and modularity. However the effects of removing alien plants were more pronounced for degree distribution and modularity of the network. Therefore, elimination of alien plants affected the evolution of the architecture of the interaction web, which was closely related to the higher species loss found in the network where alien plants were removed.
Effects of methanolic extracts from the leaves of brimstone, Cassia, Lemon grass and Chanca piedra on Meloidogyne incognita in the laboratory.

A laboratory experiment was carried out at the Nematology Unit of International Institute for Topical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan in 2005. The experiment was conducted to assess the effect of 0,5,10 and 20% methanolic extracts of brimstone ( Morinda lucida) , Cassia ( Cassia acutifolia ), Lemongrass ( Cymbopogon citratus ) and Chanca piedra (Phyllanthus amarus ) as well as the effect of 1000 ppm carbofuran on the egg hatch and juvenile mortality of Meloidogyne incognita. The experimental design was a factorial type fitted into a completely randomized design (CRD). Laboratory tests were also carried out using standard procedures to determine the bioactive materials with nematicidal or nematostatic properties in the test plants. The results show that on the 8th day of observation, carbofuran and the highest level (20%) of aqueous extracts of all test plants completely inhibited egg hatch while the control (distilled water only) recorded 93% commulative egg hatch. It was also observed that between 98-100% juvenile mortality was recorded in all treatments by the 8th day whereas the untreated control had about 8% juvenile mortality. Generally, treatment level and length of exposure time to treatment were proportional to increased juvenile mortality. Tannins and flavonoids were present in all the test plants while saponins and oxalates were found in all the test plants except in Cassia acutifolia and Cymbopogon citratus respectively. Crude alkaloids were present only in C. acutifolia
Circadian rhythms of ground living spiders: mechanisms of coexistence strategy based on the body size

Circadian rhythms of activity are one of the many cases of the multidimensional mechanisms of species coexistence. Except of oth- ers, the mechanisms of coexistence strategy of spiders involve habitat, seasonal occurrence, food offers and body size of spiders. Circadian rhythm of activity of ground living spiders in floodplain forest and clearcut along the Morava River in the Litovelske Pomoravi Protected Landscape Area (Czech Republic, Central Europe) was studied. Activity of whole community was asymmetrical, diurnal activity was more frequent than nocturnal. Abundant species were analysed closely. Patterns of similarity in syntopic spider groups suggested the body size is significant factor influencing their circadian activity. We found out the predomi- nantly small species achieved bimodal pattern of activity, influenced by the different activity of males and females. Generally we can conclude that spiders smaller than 5 mm were active during late night-morning and spiders bigger than 5 mm were active during afternoon and evening. This pattern was associated with changes of temperature of soil surface - big spiders were active during warmer parts of day. The presented data provide evidence of body-size differences among the spiders enable their coexistence in assemblages.
Valor nutritivo de silagens de sorgo

The intake and apparent digestibility of silage nutrients of different sorghum hybrids: AG2006, AGX215, AGX213, AGX202 e AG2002, were evaluated. Twenty crossbred castrated sheep, averaging 50.7 kg, were assigned to a randomized blocks design, with four animals per treatment. There was no significant difference among silages for the different nutrients intake. Dry matter and total digestible nutrients intakes, in g/day, showed values that ranged from 936.2 (AGX202) to 1156.4 (AG2006) and from 460.9 (AGX215) to 613.4 (AGX213), respectively. The coefficients of digestibility showed differences among silages, and the higher coefficients of apparent dry matter and organic matter digestibility were recorded for the silage of AGX213 hybrid, compared to the silages of AGX215, AG2006 and AG2002 hybrids. Based on the intake and digestibility of the nutrients, except for the crude protein content, the AGX213 and AGX202 were successful for silage production.
Utilization of inorganic carbon by the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi (Lohmann) Kamptner

SUMMARY Inorganic carbon-dependent photosynthetic oxygen evolution was saturated at a photon flux density of 100 ,tmol m-2 s- for air-grown cells of a low calcifying strain of Emiliania huxleyi (Lohmann) Kamptner. Measurement of photosynthetic oxygen evolution at constant inorganic carbon concentration but varying pH showed that exogenous bicarbonate was not a major carbon source for photosynthesis. At pH 8 0 the concentration of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) required for the half-maximal rate of photosynthetic 02 evolution (K .5 [DIC]) was 2 86 mm; the rate of non-enzymic dehydration of HCO3- greatly exceeding the rate of CO2 fixation. Carbon dioxide uptake occurs by diffusive entry as shown by the KO,5 [DIC] of 12 5 /tm at pH 5 0. Bicarbonate uptake, measured by the silicone-oil-layer centrigual filtering technique, did not show Michaelis-Menten type kinetics. The electrical membrane potential difference was determined from the distribution of the lipophilic cation tetra[3H]phenylphosphonium (TPP+) between cells and the media. Cells grown at pH 8 0 exhibited a negative membrane potential (inside of cell relative to outside) of about -60 mV.
Data partitioning in Bayesian analysis: molecular phylogenetics of metalmark moths (Lepidoptera: Choreutidae)

In this study a multilocus phylogenetic analysis of metalmark moths (Lepidoptera: Choreutidae) focused on resolving the higher‐level phylogeny of this group is presented. Through the analysis of this dataset, I explore different data‐partitioning strategies in Bayesian phylogenetic inference, and find that a partitioning strategy can have a large influence on the results of phylogenetic analysis. Depending on how the data are partitioned, there can be significant differences in branch support. I also test for the existence of the Bayesian star tree paradox, and its importance in this dataset, and find that it appears to inflate support for the clade including Rhobonda gaurisana, Hemerophila houttuinialis, H. diva and H. felis, but plays no role in other cases where the differences between maximum‐likelihood bootstraps and Bayesian posterior probabilities are large. The results of all the phylogenetic analyses strongly suggest that including Millieriinae in Choreutidae renders the family polyphyletic. The monophyly of the other two subfamilies, Brenthiinae and Choreutinae, as well as their sister‐group relationship, is strongly supported. Similarly, the monophyly of all the genera examined except Hemerophila is also well supported. To bring the classification of Choreutidae in line with our current understanding of the phylogenetic relationships in the family, I propose to exclude Millieriinae from Choreutidae, elevate it to Millieriidae Heppner, and place it as incertae sedis within Ditrysia.
Development and validation of a set of standard area diagrams to aid in estimation of spot blotch severity on wheat leaves

This study aimed to develop and validate a standard area diagram (SAD) set to quantify the severity of spot blotch, caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana, on wheat leaves. The proposed SAD set includes images of leaves with 11 distinct disease severities (0·1, 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and 83%). The SAD set was validated by 12 raters without experience in evaluating plant disease. Lin's concordance correlation analysis of estimated versus actual disease severity (based on image analysis) showed that precision and accuracy improved for all raters using the SAD set in contrast to assessments made without it. The SAD set improved accuracy (coefficient of bias, Cb = 0·88 and 0·99, without and with the SAD set, respectively) and agreement (Lin's concordance correlation coefficient, ρc = 0·81 and 0·96 without and with the SAD set, respectively) of the estimates of severity. The severity estimates were also more reliable when using the SAD set (coefficient of determination, R2 = 0·76 unaided and R2 = 0·92 with the SAD set, and intra-class correlation ρ = 0·79 without the SAD set and ρ = 0·95 using the SAD set). The SAD set proposed in this study will improve the accuracy and reliability of estimates of spot blotch severity on wheat leaves.
Draining system and feeding rate during the initial development of Lophiosilurus alexandri (Steindachner, 1877), a carnivorous freshwater fish

This study evaluated the efficiency of the drainage system during the larviculture of Lophiosilurus alexandri. Moreover, we assessed the best feeding rate after feed training for juvenile production. The study was performed in three phases over 87 days. In phase 1 (40 days), larvae were fed live food and posteriorly submitted to feed training in two drainage systems: water drained on the surface (DS), and water drained into a tank column (DI). In the second phase (30 days), using only the DS system juveniles were fed a formulated diet at feeding rates, 2, 4, 6 and 8% of body wet weight. In the third phase (17 days), the fish from the second phase were fed until apparent satiation. At the first phase, the animals in the DS system exhibited greater survival rates and growth. The best feeding rate for daily weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR) and mean body weights were similar: 5.57, 5.13 and 5.68% respectively. In the third phase, an increased SGR was observed in the treatment groups that received lower feeding rates in the second phase (2 and 4%), which could indicate a possible compensatory growth rate.
Lamellibrachia anaximandri n. sp., a new vestimentiferan tubeworm (Annelida) from the Mediterranean, with notes on frenulate tubeworms from the same habitat

Southward E. C. , Andersen A. C. & Hourdez S. 2011. — Lamellibrachia anaximandri n. sp. , a new vestimentiferan tubeworm (Annelida) from the Mediterranean, with notes on frenulate tubeworms from the same habitat. Zoosystema 33 (3): 245–279. ABSTRACT A new species of lamellibrachiid vestimentiferan, Lamellibrachia anaximandri n. sp. , has been found in the Eastern Mediterranean, close to cold seeps of fluid carrying dissolved methane and sources of sulfide in superficial sediments. It occurs at about 1100 to 2100 m depth, on some of the mud volcanoes on the Anaximander Mountains, south of Turkey, on the Mediterranean Ridge, south of Crete, and on the Nile deep-sea fan. In addition, it has been obtained from rotting paper inside a sunken ship, torpedoed in 1915 and lying at 2800 m depth, southeast of Crete. Some frenulate pogonophores also occur on the mud volcanoes (including a species of Siboglinum resembling S. carpinei and tubes of other unidentified genera). The new Lamellibrachia is the first vestimentiferan species to be described from the Mediterranean. It differs from L. luymesi taken from the Gulf of Mexico population in the very weak development of collars on its tube and in having a smaller number of pairs of branchial lamellae in the branchial plume. Sequencing of the COI and the mt16S genes confirms a difference at the species level between the new species and L. luymesi, and a difference between these two species and four described species of Lamellibrachia from the Pacific Ocean. The largest individuals of L. anaximandri n. sp. may be many years old, but there are numerous young individuals at some sites, showing that favourable conditions are available for settlement and early growth. The development of the branchial plume in a series of young stages reveals that the sheath lamellae, which are characteristic of the genus Lamellibrachia, begin to form only after the establishment of several pairs of branchial lamellae. Examination of the adult trophosome by transmission electron microscopy shows Gram-negative bacteria without internal stacked membranes, indicating that the symbionts are most probably sulfide oxidizing.
Fine-scale post-fire dynamics in southern Brazilian subtropical grassland

Abstract Question: How does fire influence species richness and diversity in subtropical grassland in southern Brazil? Location: Recurrently burned grassland in Porto Alegre, Brazil (30°03′ S, 51°07′ W; max. altitude 311 m a.s.l.) and abandoned grassland near São Francisco de Paula, Brazil (29°47′ S, 50°22′ W; ca. 900 m a.s.l.). Methods: In the burned grassland, between-year changes in community composition and single-plot diversity, species number and vegetation structure were analysed in two consecutive years for plots with different time since last fire. Responses to fire of individual species were analysed. At the abandoned site, diversity, species number and vegetation structure were examined. Results: Species number and small-scale species turnover were highest ca. one year after the burn, and decreased as caespitose grasses increased in cover with time since fire until reaching a stable, but less diverse state three to four years after a fire. The abandoned grassland showed higher dominance of caespitose grasses and lower richness and diversity. Conclusions: Fire clearly leads to a short-term increase in species richness and diversity at the plot scale, as competitive interactions are being reduced and recruitment possibilities are high in early post-fire vegetation development. Overall community composition does not change after a fire. While small herbs seem to be slightly favoured in the early post-fire environment, no clear group of fire following species (absent in vegetation unburned for longer) was observed. The results indicate that the community is adapted to the current fire regime and is being maintained under the influence of fire.
Testing reliability of a potential island mating apiary using DNA microsatellites

Twenty-four virgin sister queens were kept for 2l days in mating nuclei on the drone-free island Baltrum to test the reliability of a potential mating area. On each of the neighbouring islands Norderney and Langeoog (750 m and 2 km away) l2 sister queens were kept with drones. Workers fiom cofonies with island-mated queens (Baltrum n= ll, Langeoog n=7 and Norderney n = 6) were genotyped with four DNA microsatellite loci (n = 996) to estimate queen mating frequency. No ditferences in queen mating frequency were observed between Langeoog and Norderney. However, the level of polyandry on Baltrum was significantly lower than on the neighbouring islands, indicating that mating conditions were much more difficult. The standard genetic distance and differences in allele frequencies between the populations were determined to estimate putative origins of the drones. In this study, 43.1 Vo of the identified drone fathers did not descend from any of the queens on the adja- cent islands. They were most likely from mainland colonies at least 5.4 km (3 km across open water) away, showing that the combination of distances over open water and over dry land is important in explaining the mating behaviour of honeybee queens. O Inra/DIB/AGIB/Elsevier, Paris
Ecological Biogeography of Arthropods on Spartina Islands in Northwest Florida

Experimental tests of the equilibrium theory of insular biogeography with the terrestrial arthropod fauna of small islands in Northwest Florida are described. Six islets composed of pure Spartina alterniflora (area: 56 m2 to 1023 m2; distance from mainland: 29 m to 1752 m) were defaunated with methyl bromide gas after intensive, inclusive censuses of their terrestrial arthropod inhabitants. Two additional islands and a large S. alterniflora stand on the mainland were not defaunated and served as controls. The recolonization process was monitored by weekly nonlethal censuses of all the sites. Four large cages were placed over other, similar, islands to determine the persistence of populations trapped inside the cages in the absence of immigration. In addition, six traps located in the study area showed the general movement patterns of arthropods. A distinction was made between transient and resident species colonizing the islands based partly upon 3 previous yr of data on the arthropod communities of the a.