bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Climate and satellite‐derived land cover for predicting breeding bird distribution in the Great Lakes Basin
Authors: Venier L. A. , Pearce J. , McKee J. E. , McKenney D. W. , Niemi G. J. 
Published: October 2010

AbstractAim  We examined relationships between breeding bird distribution of 10 forest songbirds in the Great Lakes Basin, large‐scale climate and the distribution of land cover types as estimated by advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) and multi‐spectral scanner (MSS) land cover classifications. Our objective was to examine the ability of regional climate, AVHRR (1 km resolution) land cover and MSS (200 m resolution) land cover to predict the distribution of breeding forest birds at the scale of the Great Lakes Basin and at the resolution of Breeding Bird Atlas data (5–10 km2). Specifically we addressed the following questions. (1) How well do AVHRR or MSS classifications capture the variation in distribution of bird species? (2) Is one land cover classification more useful than the other for predicting distribution? (3) How do models based on climate compare with models based on land cover? (4) Can the combination of both climate and land cover improve the predictive ability of these models.Location  Modelling was conducted over the area of the Great Lakes Basin including parts of Ontario, Canada and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania Wisconsin, and Minnesota, USA.Methods  We conducted single variable logistic regression with the forest classes of AVHRR and MSS land cover using evidence of breeding as the response variable. We conducted multiple logistic regression with stepwise selection to select models from five sets of explanatory variables (AVHRR, MSS, climate, AVHRR + climate, MSS + climate).Results  Generally, species were related to both AVHRR and MSS land cover types in the direction expected based on the known local habitat use of the species. Neither land cover classification appeared to produce consistently more intuitive results. Good models were generated using each of the explanatory data sets examined here. And at least one but usually all five variable sets produced acceptable or excellent models for each species.Main conclusions  Both climate and large scale land cover were effective predictors of the distribution of the 10 forest bird species examined here. Models generated from these data had good classification accuracy of independent validation data. Good models were produced from all explanatory data sets or combinations suggesting that the distribution of climate, AVHRR land cover, and MSS land cover all captured similar variance in the distribution of the birds. It is difficult to separate the effects of climate and vegetation on the species’ distributions at this scale.
Comparative phylogeography of Amphicarpaea legumes and their root‐nodule symbionts in Japan and North America
Authors: Parker Matthew A. , Doyle Jane L. , Doyle Jeff J. 
Published: October 2010

AbstractAim  Relationships of eastern Asian and eastern North American populations of legumes in the genus Amphicarpaea Elliot ex. Nuttall (Phaseoleae–Glycininae) and their root nodule bacteria (Bradyrhizobium Jordan) were analysed to test whether both organisms share an identical biogeographic history.Location  Japan and eastern North America (New York and Illinois).Methods  Sequences of three plant genes (chloroplast trnL region, nuclear ribosomal ITS, and histone H3‐D) and a segment of the bacterial ribosomal region (partial 16S rRNA and 23S rRNA genes, and the 16S rRNA–23S rRNA ITS) were used to analyse phylogenetic relationships.Results  For plants, Japanese populations formed a sister group to a well‐supported clade of all North American genotypes. For nodule bacteria associated with Amphicarpaea, isolates from North America did not form a single clade relative to Asian genotypes. Japanese Bradyrhizobium isolates were closely related to particular sub‐groups of North American bacteria (lineages ‘B’ and ‘C’), with other American bacteria branching earlier.Main conclusions  Plants and bacteria showed clear deviations from a pattern of parallel cladogenesis. The most basal Amphicarpaea lineage was associated with a recently‐diverged bacterial group, while one recently‐diverged plant lineage had symbionts that branched in a basal position relative to the other Amphicarpaea bacteria. When analysed with data on symbiotic compatibility from inoculation experiments, the molecular phylogenies suggested that for plants, at least one transition has occurred toward more promiscuous nodulation behaviour. Among bacteria, strains with narrow host range on Amphicarpaea appear to be ancestral to symbiotic generalists.
Bioclimatic perspectives in the distribution of Quercus ithaburensis Decne. subspecies in Turkey and in the Levant
Authors: Dufour‐Dror Jean‐Marc , Ertas Aytekin 
Published: October 2010

AbstractAim  To define the bioclimatic tolerance ranges of the two Tabor oak subspecies. Prior to this definition, and considering the confusion in the literature regarding the Tabor oak subspecies geography, a reassessment of their present distribution is proposed.Location  Turkey and the Levant.Methods  The bioclimatic tolerance range of each subspecies was characterized by four parameters: (1) the humidity category (Q2), (2) the winter variant (m) – the two basic variables used in Emberger's method for the definition of Mediterranean bioclimates, (3) the length of the dry season (LDS) and (4) its severity, expressed by the dry season water deficit (DSWD). The reference to the last two variables in the definition of bioclimatic tolerance ranges of Mediterranean species has so far never been considered. The concept of bioclimatic niche, based on the reference to these four parameters, is proposed and discussed.Results  The reassessment of the Tabor oak subspecies distribution shows that their extents of occurrence do not overlap and are significantly distant. The comparison between the characteristics of each subspecies bioclimatic niche has highlighted three major differences: (1) The bioclimatic niche of the subspecies macrolepis is characterized by a great heterogeneity as it includes up to 10 distinct bioclimate types, whereas only four types have been found in the bioclimatic niche of the subspecies ithaburensis. (2) A 10 °C gap has been found between the winter variants of both bioclimatic niches. (3) The third major difference relates to the dry season characteristics: the bioclimatic niche of the subspecies ithaburensis is characterized by an LDS 40–75% longer than it is in the bioclimatic niche of the subspecies macrolepis. Moreover, and surprisingly, although the most arid humidity categories are found in the bioclimatic niche of the subspecies macrolepis, the bioclimatic niche of the subspecies ithaburensis is characterized by a significantly more severe dry season as the DSWD is 36–180% greater than in the bioclimatic niche of the subspecies macrolepis. It is suggested that the duration and the severity of the dry season is a major limiting factor in the spatial distribution of the subspecies macrolepis.Main conclusions  The reference to the duration (LDS) and severity (DSWS) of the dry season is essential when defining the bioclimatic niche of Mediterranean species.
Phytogeography of the Kaieteur Falls, Potaro Plateau, Guyana: floral distributions and affinities
Authors: Kelloff Carol L. , Funk V. A. 
Published: October 2010

AbstractAim  The plant diversity of one location on the Guiana Shield, Kaieteur National Park in Guyana, is used to examine the various hypothesized origins of the flora and to evaluate which may best explain the current plant distributions.Location  Kaieteur National Park is located on eastern edge of the Potaro Plateau in central Guyana, South America. The species examined have distributions that vary from local to global.Methods  The distribution patterns of the families, genera and species known from Kaieteur are examined using generalized distribution patterns.Results  Data on distribution patterns, elevation and habitat were gathered from 131 flowering plant families, 517 genera and 1227 species. These plants represent all taxa that are currently known to occur in the area of the original Kaieteur National Park. Families tend to have cosmopolitan or pantropical distribution, genera are mostly neotropical and at the species level, most species are restricted to the Guiana Shield (c. 40%), northern South America (69%) or neotropical (96%) in distribution, each level inclusive of the previous.Conclusions  The flora at the study site in Kaieteur National Park has its strongest affinity with the Guiana Shield; 42.1% of the species have a distribution that corresponds with the Shield or is more restricted within the Shield. There is a distinct flora on the Guiana Shield and its affinities lie with the flora of northern South American and beyond that, the neotropics. The flora is not closely affiliated with the floras of the Brazilian Shield, the Amazon, the Andes, the eastern coastal forests of Brazil, southern South America, or Africa as has been previous suggested.
Tropical and north Pacific teleconnections influence fire regimes in pine‐dominated forests of north‐eastern California, USA
Authors: Norman S. P. , Taylor A. H. 
Published: October 2010

AbstractAim  To assess the importance of drought and teleconnections from the tropical and north Pacific Ocean on historical fire regimes and vegetation dynamics in north‐eastern California.Location  The 700 km2 study area was on the leeward slope of the southern Cascade Mountains in north‐eastern California. Open forests of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa var. ponderosa Laws.) and Jeffrey pine (P. jeffreyi Grev. & Balf) surround a network of grass and shrub‐dominated meadows that range in elevation from 1650 to 1750 m.Methods  Fire regime characteristics (return interval, season and extent) were determined from crossdated fire scars and were compared with tree‐ring based reconstructions of precipitation and temperature and teleconnections for the period 1700–1849. The effect of drought on fire regimes was determined using a tree‐ring based proxy of climate from five published chronologies. The number of forest‐meadow units that burned was compared with published reconstructions of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO).Results  Landscape scale fires burned every 7–49 years in meadow‐edge forests and were influenced by variation in drought, the PDO and ENSO. These widespread fires burned during years that were dryer and warmer than normal that followed wetter and cooler years. Less widespread fires were not associated with this wet, then dry climate pattern. Widespread fires occurred during El Niño years, but fire extent was mediated by the phase of the PDO. Fires were most widespread when the PDO was in a warm or normal phase. Fire return intervals, season and extent varied at decadal to multi‐decadal time scales. In particular, an anomalously cool, wet period during the early 1800s resulted in widespread fires that occurred earlier in the year than fires before or after.Main conclusions  Fire regimes in north‐eastern California were strongly influenced by regional and hemispheric‐scale climate variation. Fire regimes responded to variation that occurred in both the north and tropical Pacific. Near normal modes of the PDO may influence fire regimes more than extreme conditions. The prevalence of widespread teleconnection‐driven fires in the historic record suggests that variation in the Pacific Ocean was a key regulator of fire regimes through its influence on local fuel production and successional dynamics in north‐eastern California.
The biogeography of Gunnera L.: vicariance and dispersal
Authors: Wanntorp Livia , Wanntorp Hans‐Erik 
Published: October 2010

AbstractAim The genus Gunnera is distributed in South America, Africa and the Australasian region, a few species reaching Hawaii and southern Mexico in the North. A cladogram was used to (1) discuss the biogeography of Gunnera and (2) subsequently compare this biogeographical pattern with the geological history of continents and the patterns reported for other Southern Hemisphere organisms.Location Africa, northern South America, southern South America, Tasmania, New Zealand, New Guinea/Malaya, Hawaii, North America, Antarctica.Methods A phylogenetic analysis of twenty‐six species of Gunnera combining morphological characters and new as well as published sequences of the ITS region, rbcL and the rps16 intron, was used to interpret the biogeographical patterns in Gunnera. Vicariance was applied in the first place and dispersal was only assumed as a second best explanation.Results The Uruguayan/Brazilian Gunnera herteri Osten (subgenus Ostenigunnera Mattfeld) is sister to the rest of the genus, followed sequentially upwards by the African G. perpensa L. (subgenus Gunnera), in turn sister to all other, American and Australasian, species. These are divided into two clades, one containing American/Hawaiian species, the other containing all Australasian species. Within the Australasian clade, G. macrophylla Blume (subgenus Pseudogunnera Schindler), occurring in New Guinea and Malaya, is sister to a clade including the species from New Zealand and Tasmania (subgenus Milligania Schindler). The southern South American subgenus Misandra Schindler is sister to a clade containing the remaining American, as well as the Hawaiian species (subgenus Panke Schindler). Within subgenus Panke, G. mexicana Brandegee, the only North American species in the genus, is sister to a clade wherein the Hawaiian species are basal to all south and central American taxa.Main conclusions According to the cladogram, South America appears in two places, suggesting an historical explanation for northern South America to be separate from southern South America. Following a well‐known biogeographical pattern of vicariance, Africa is the sister area to the combined southern South America/Australasian clade. Within the Australasian clade, New Zealand is more closely related to New Guinea/Malaya than to southern South America, a pattern found in other plant cladograms, contradictory to some of the patterns supported by animal clades and by the geological hypothesis, respectively. The position of the Tasmanian G. cordifolia, nested within the New Zealand clade indicates dispersal of this species to Tasmania. The position of G. mexicana, the only North American species, as sister to the remaining species of subgenus Panke together with the subsequent sister relation between Hawaii and southern South America, may reflect a North American origin of Panke and a recolonization of South America from the north. This is in agreement with the early North American fossil record of Gunnera and the apparent young age of the South American clade.
Reconstructing the spread of invasive plants: taking into account biases associated with herbarium specimens
Authors: Delisle Fanny , Lavoie Claude , Jean Martin , Lachance Daniel 
Published: October 2010

AbstractAimTo reconstruct the spread of invasive wetland species using herbarium specimens and to develop a method that accounts for the biases associated with this type of historical record.LocationSouthern Québec.MethodsThe temporal and spatial distribution of herbarium specimens of vascular plants was examined. Six invasive species that are mainly found in wetlands were compared with five native, non‐expanding hydrophytes. The cumulative number of locations was plotted against time to construct invasion curves. For native species, this ‘invasion curve’ indicates the spatiotemporal distribution of the sampling for herbarium specimens of wetland plants. It also represents the history of the state of knowledge of the distribution of native species. Deviation from the native species invasion curve can be used to describe the spread of invasive species. For every year on record, the cumulative number of locations of each exotic species was divided by the cumulative number of locations of all native species, and the proportions obtained were plotted against time. Periods of invasiveness were then delineated.ResultsDuring the twentieth century, two periods of intensive herbarium specimen collection in Québec can be clearly distinguished, i.e. from 1930 to 1940 and from 1950 to 1985. Several periods of invasiveness were delineated forButomus umbellatusL. (1922–35),Hydrocharis morsus‐ranaeL. (1957–96),Lycopus europaeusL. (1963–2000),Lythrum salicariaL. (1890–1905, 1923–46),Phragmites australis(Cav.) Trin. ex Steudel (1963–84) andRorippa amphibia(L.) Bess. (1929–34, 1943–52, 1971–79).Main conclusionsAccounting for sampling biases associated with herbarium specimens is important in order to objectively delineate periods of invasiveness for exotic species. The spread of wetland vascular plant species can be reconstructed using herbarium specimens, even when the phenomenon is rapid, but the reconstruction is certainly more accurate when the invasion occurred during an active sampling period. The highly variable sampling effort for herbarium specimens in Québec and in other regions strongly cautions against using herbarium data without correction procedures.
Integrating individual habitat choices and regional distribution of a biodiversity indicator and top predator
Authors: Sergio Fabrizio , Marchesi Luigi , Pedrini Paolo 
Published: October 2010

AbstractAim  Habitat selection studies have mainly focused on behavioural choices of individuals or on the habitat‐related regional distribution of a population, with little integration of the two approaches. This is despite the fact that traditional biogeography theory sees the geographical distribution of a species as the collective outcome of the adaptive habitat choices of individuals. Here, we integrate individual habitat choices with regional distribution through a bottom‐up Geographical Information System (GIS)‐based approach, by using a 9‐year data set on a large avian predator, the eagle owl (Bubo bubo L.). We further examine the potential population level and biodiversity consequences of this approach.Location  The study was conducted in the Trento Region (central‐eastern Italian Alps) and in six other areas of the nearby Lombardia Region in the central Alps.Methods  We used stepwise logistic regression to build a habitat suitability model discriminating between eagle owl territories and an equal number of random locations. The model was applied to the whole Trento region by means of a GIS so as to predict suitable habitat patches. The predicted regional distribution (presence–absence in 10‐km grid quadrats) was then compared with the observed one. Furthermore, we compared estimates of biodiversity in quadrats with and without eagle owls, so as to test whether the presence of this top predator may signal macro‐areas of high biodiversity.Results  The logistic habitat suitability model showed that, compared with a random distribution, eagle owls selected low‐elevation breeding sites with high availability of prey‐rich habitats in their surroundings. Breeding performance increased with the availability of prey‐rich habitats, confirming the adaptiveness of the detected habitat choices. We applied the habitat suitability model to the 6200 km2 study region by means of a GIS and found a close fit between the observed and predicted regional distribution. Furthermore, population abundance was positively related to the availability of habitat defined as suitable by the above analyses. Finally, high biodiversity levels were associated with owl presence and with the amount of suitable owl habitat, demonstrating that modelling habitat suitability of a properly chosen indicator species may provide key conservation information at the wider ecosystem level.Main conclusions  Our bottom‐up modelling approach may increase the conservation‐value of habitat selection models, by (1) predicting local and regional distribution, (2) estimating regional population size, (3) stimulating further hypothesis testing, (4) forecasting the population effects of future habitat loss and degradation and (5) aiding in the identification and prioritization of high‐biodiversity areas.
Relationships between land snail assemblage patterns and soil properties in temperate‐humid forest ecosystems
Authors: Martin Konrad , Sommer Michael 
Published: October 2010

AbstractAim The objectives were to (1) analyse the combined effects of soil pH, Ca content and soil moisture on total density and species richness of land snails in forest ecosystems, (2) explore relationships between the quantitative composition of snail assemblages and habitat characteristics, (3) investigate the relationships between soil pH and density of some of the most frequent species, and (4) compare the data with those from studies conducted in other temperate‐humid regions of Europe.Location Study sites were selected from 15 landscape types including different lithologies within the area of Baden‐Württemberg (35,000 km2), SW Germany.Methods Snails were recorded quantitatively from 83 study sites, with four plots representing a total of 0.25 m2per site. Topsoil samples from each site were analysed for pH, exchangeable Ca, and Ca content of carbonates. Three categories of soil moisture (dry, intermediate and wet) were established and defined according to the (climatic) water balance. Numbers of individuals and species were brought in relation to soil moisture and soil pH. Cluster analyses were conducted to identify groups of quantitatively similar snail species assemblages.Results Topsoil pH (2.7–7.5) and soil Ca contents were closely correlated. On dry soils, total snail density and species richness are generally low and do not change with pH, but clearly increase with increasing pH on intermediate moisture soils and on wet soils. On the latter, numbers of individuals and species are generally much higher compared with intermediate moisture sites at the same value of soil pH. Changes of density in relation to soil pH vary between species. Depending on the species, density increases only in the lower or only in the higher range of pH, is not related to pH, or decreases with increasing pH. Furthermore, these patterns vary within the same species depending on the region. This became evident from comparisons with other studies, particularly between sites in SW Germany and southern Scandinavia. From cluster analyses, subgroups of snail assemblages of high quantitative similarity were identified. Group formation is explained by soil pH to some extent, and one subgroup showed a connection with coniferous woodland sites on acidic soils. No further environmental factors available from our data could explain the clustering of snail assemblages more detailed.Main conclusions Soil moisture is the strongest determinant of snail density and species richness at undisturbed woodland sites, but effects of soil moisture and soil pH on these patterns are closely interrelated on intermediate moisture soils and wet soils. However, the quantitative species composition of the land snail assemblages is related to soil properties to a lower degree than snail density and species richness, and other habitat characteristics such as vegetation or litter quality, can be important for species dominance in addition.