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Wed, 12 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

An undescribed, species of Tricholoma growing in soil in a mixed podocarp and southern beech forest. This species is one of 18 in the genus Tricholoma found in New Zealand that are yet to be formally described. In this issue’s article by Cunningham et al., mushroom-forming fungi, along with lichenized and plant associated fungi, were predicted to experience the greatest increase in new species descriptions. Photo by David Hera.

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Wed, 12 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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Mon, 4 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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Mon, 4 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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Quantifying local-scale changes in Amazonian forest cover using phytoliths

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The ecosystem services and immense biodiversity of Amazon rainforests are threatened by deforestation and forest degradation. A key goal of modern archaeology and paleoecology in Amazonia is to establish the extent and duration of past forest disturbance by humans. Fossil phytoliths are an established proxy to identify the duration of disturbance in lake sedimentary and soil archives. What is not known, is the spatial scale of such forest disturbances when identified by phytoliths. Here we use phytolith assemblages to detect local-scale forest openings, provide an estimate of extent, and consider long-term forest recovery. We use modern phytolith assemblages of 50 Amazonian lakes to i) assess how phytolith assemblages vary across forest cover at 5 spatial scales (100 m, 200 m, 500 m, 1 km, 2 km), ii) model which phytolith morphotypes can accurately predict forest cover at 5 spatial scales, and iii) compare phytoliths with pollen to quantify their relative ability to detect forest...

Biogeographic history of the pantropical family Gesneriaceae with a focus on the Indian plate and diversification through the Old World

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Gesneriaceae consists of around 150 genera and c. 3750 species with a predominantly tropical and subtropical distribution across all continents. Although previous studies have proposed an American origin of Gesneriaceae, the biogeographic history of this pantropical plant family is still unclear, particularly in the Old World. To address this, we assembled the most comprehensively sampled matrix of Gesneriaceae with 143 Gesneriaceae genera and 355 species, including key samples from Sri Lanka analysed here for the first time. We generated molecular phylogenies based on four plastid gene regions (ndhF, matK, rps16 and trnL-F), obtained fossil-calibrated trees, and reconstructed ancestral areas and dispersal routes using Bayesian methods. Our results confirm the origin for the family in the Early Palaeocene (67. Ma) in the region of present day Central America & Andean South America, and that diversity in the Old World originated from a longdistance dispersal event from...

Paleo-climates and past introgression explain the spatio-temporal distribution of genetic structure in Triodanis perfoliata

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The dynamic nature of intrinsic (e.g., reproductive system, hybridization) and extrinsic factors (e.g., physical barriers to gene flow) across space and time generate complex biological processes that influence contemporary patterns of genetic diversity, highlighting the need for interdisciplinary studies. Using the widespread, mixed-mating annual Triodanis perfoliata, previous work demonstrated the important roles of breeding system, isolation by distance, and isolation by resistance in shaping patterns of population genetic diversity. Here we significantly build on this first step by incorporating paleoclimatic data, historical admixture, and estimating species divergence times across 18 populations of T. perfoliata spanning the contiguous US. This current study provides novel insights into factors driving patterns of intraspecific diversification that were not explained using only contemporary climate models. Specifically, these new analyses highlight the early Holocene...

Energy use of modern terrestrial large mammal communities mirrors Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Globally, large mammals are in decline. Biological traits including low population densities and longer generation times make them particularly susceptible. Their losses can have wide-ranging ecological consequences, including dramatic reductions in total heterotrophic energy use. To determine the key drivers of variation in energy use, we calculated daily rates of energy flow across the globe for 241 ecological communities, encompassing 441 large mammal species, using camera trap inventories. These were scaled up from individual metabolic rates and compared with various climate, anthropogenic, geographic, and species richness variables using three analytical methods: model selection, spatial autoregression, and a multiple regression method that completely removes multicollinearity known as least-squares orthogonalization. Community energy use is significantly lower in the Neotropics and Australasia than in the Afrotropics and Eurasia. This pattern mirrors the spatial distribution...

Fungi species description rates confirm high global diversity and suggest half remain unnamed

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Global estimates of the number of species of Fungi have ranged from 1.5 to 13.2 million, but have been based more on opinion and simple ratios than quantitative assessment. We analysed trends in the rate of description of fungal species over four centuries, noted the use of molecular methods in species delimitation, and used a statistical model designed for such data to predict future trends. A total of 144,035 fungal species were analysed, along with smaller species groups extracted from the core dataset that approximated biological and ecological traits. The groups explored included fungi of medical significance (728 spp), those associated with the marine environment (972 spp), rust and smut fungi (9,125 spp), arthropod ectoparasites of class Laboulbeniomycetes (2,376 spp), mushroom-forming fungi of class Agaricomycetes (37,717 spp), the budding yeasts of subphylum Saccharomycotina (1,165 spp), the class Dothideomycetes (30,912 spp), and lichenized fungi of classes Lecanoromycetes...

Volcanoes, evolving landscapes, and biodiversity in Neotropical mountains

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The longstanding view of Neotropical mountain uplift as a promoter of species diversification has become commonplace in the last decades and could benefit from more specific Earth-Life evolution associations. We now know that mountain formation has contributed to the outstanding levels of richness and endemism of Neotropical mountains. Nonetheless, we are lacking conceptual and empirical frameworks where geological and biological processes are causally linked through testable hypotheses. In this perspective, we present volcanic activity in the Neotropics, not as phenomena occurring “on top of” mountain uplift, the latter being the phenomena of biogeographical interest, but rather as geological processes that directly impact biodiversity and are themselves the phenomenon of biogeographical interest. Volcanoes deserve biogeographical attention because their effects on landscape evolution generate predictable biodiversity process counterparts that can be integrated into biogeographical...

From Korean to northeast Asian endemicity: on the occurrence of Pelophylax chosenicus along the Eastern Coastal Yellow Sea

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Understanding the distribution of species is a primary requirement to understand their behaviour, conservation, and phylogeography. Over the last decades, the number of species described on the Korean Peninsula has significantly increased, but surveys around the boundaries of the Peninsula are still needed to refine the range of these species. Further surveys, supported by ecological niche models, are especially needed in areas where the environment is similar and connected. We conducted surveys in the continuous landscapes of the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the People’s Republic of China to determine the distribution of the gold-spotted pond frog, Pelophylax chosenicus (Okada, 1931). The surveys were conducted between 2015 and 2021 through the use of visual and call encounters. We supported our surveys with molecular analyses by sequencing the mitochondrial 16S rRNA, 12S rRNA, and Cytb gene fragments to confirm the species identity of...

Uncovering the distribution and limiting factors of Ericaceae-dominated shrublands in the French Alps

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Mountain shrublands are widespread habitats of the European Alps. Shrub encroachment into above treeline grazed lands profoundly modifies biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Yet, mountain shrublands remain overlooked in vegetation distribution modeling because it is difficult to distinguish them from productive grasslands. Here, we used the pigment-sensitive spectral indices based on Sentinel-2 bands within a specific phenological window, to produce a high-resolution distribution map of mountain shrublands in the French Alps. We evaluated the performance of our classification using a large dataset of vegetation plots and found that our model is highly sensitive to Ericaceous species which constitute most of the dense alpine shrublands in the French Alps. Our analysis of topoclimatic and land use factors limiting the shrubland distribution at regional scale found that, consistent with the ecophysiology of shrubs, expansion is limited by a combination of water deficit and...

Biogeography of the world’s worst invasive species has spatially biased knowledge gaps but is predictable

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The world’s “100 worst invasive species” were listed in 2000. The list is taxonomically diverse, often cited (typically for single-species studies), and its species are frequently reported in global biodiversity data bases. We acted on the principle that these notorious species should be well-reported to help answer two questions about global biogeography of invasive species (i.e., not just their invaded ranges): (1) “how are data distributed globally?” and (2) “what predicts diversity?” We collected location data for each of the 100 species from multiple data bases; 95 had sufficient data for analyses. For question (1), we mapped global species richness and cumulative occurrences since 2000 in (0.5 degree)2 grids. For question (2) we compared alternative regression models representing non-exclusive hypotheses for geography (i.e., spatial autocorrelation), sampling effort, climate, and anthropocentric effects. Reported locations of the invasive species were spatially-biased, leaving...

The distribution and abiotic drivers of subtropical plant taxa in the southwestern U.S. sky island region: identifying hotspots of conservation significance with an aggregation of peripheral species

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A contributing element of the exceptional plant biodiversity of the Arizona-New Mexico sky islands is the numerous southern taxa at their northern extent, yet the local distribution and drivers of subtropical plant richness have not been delineated. We assess the proportion of subtropical richness (PSR) in sky islands as the ratio of subtropical taxa to total species richness. We (1) identified 284 subtropical vascular plant species at or near their northern range in 24 sky islands, (2) calculated PSR for each sky island, (3) quantified spatial patterns of PSR and subtropical beta diversity, (4) determined regional hotspots of PSR, and (5) analyzed independent eight variables as potential drivers of PSR and subtropical species turnover. Sky islands with the highest PSR occur in the southwestern portion of the region close to the international border. Four predictor variables (ordered by significance) strongly correlate with PSR: minimum winter temperature, monsoon season precipitation,...

Flying snails: immigrant selection and the taxon cycle in Pacific Island land snails

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We tested the hypothesis that, for land snails, long-distance dispersal across oceans is primarily via aerial dispersal (i.e. wind- or bird-mediated), which likely favors so-called micromolluscs through immigrant selection for small (aerially buoyant) body size. Immigrant selection is a filtering process favoring phenotypes conferring greater capacities for long-distance dispersal. We also tested predictions of E. O. Wilson’s taxon cycle, which hypothesizes that descendant species of island colonists are subject to a series of ecological and evolutionary dynamics, resulting over time in progressively more ecologically specialized island endemics with more limited dispersal capacity. We tested predictions of immigrant selection on aerial dispersal and the taxon cycle in native Pacific Island land snails of the Samoan Islands, Mariana Islands, and Lord Howe Island and neighboring small islands using geographic range, shell size, microhabitat, and elevation data compiled from primary...

Can you trust comparative trait data based on singleton species?

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Trait measures are affected by intra- and interspecific variability. Most studies aggregate species-level data to averages to analyze patterns of interspecific variation. Reliable per-species averages require data for many individuals per species, which leads to insurmountable measuring effort when studying species-rich assemblages. Here we argue that across a large number of species, patterns and relationships can be precisely recovered even if they are based on measures from a single individual per species. While these deviate to an unknown degree from the true per-species averages, randomly distributed errors will level out across many species. We used subsamples of body size data along elevational gradients for moths and small mammals (dozens to several hundred species per dataset), as well as simulated species assemblages, to illustrate this effect and explore some of its consequences. Single-individual measures correlated well with “true” (i.e., full data) averages. Furthermore,...

Macroecological correlates of richness, body size, and species range size in terrestrial vertebrates across the world

Mon, 1 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Species richness, body size, and range size are among key subjects in animal macroecology and biogeography. To date, the species richness–body size–range size nexus remains largely understudied at a global scale and for large taxonomic groups. Here we examine the relative role of species richness and body size in determining species range size among terrestrial vertebrates across spatial and taxonomic scales. We then test related hypotheses in the context of Rapoport’s rule, latitude, and climate variation. To do this, we used simultaneous autoregressive analysis and structural equation modeling to test for statistical relationships among species richness, body size, and range size for all terrestrial vertebrates and for each continent. We then investigated the relative contributions of richness, body size, latitude, climate variation, and their combinations in the variations in species range sizes. We found that species richness consistently shows strong negative correlations...

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Fri, 1 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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Fri, 1 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this issue Minchin and Quigley review the disseminules known to be carried by ocean currents to western Europe. The image is of a stranded fruit of the coconut (Cocos nucifera) on a Florida shore, the largest to make a North Atlantic crossing and rarely viable after floating 110 days. Upon stranding on a tropical or sub-tropical shore germination may take place. Photo by Dan Minchin.

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Mon, 4 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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Mon, 4 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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The universal evolutionary and ecological significance of 20 oC

Sat, 5 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We connect evidence that 20 oC is the most stable temperature for cellular processes with macroecological observations. Examples show that temperatures warmer than ~20 oC result in decreases in: aquatic species’ tolerance to low oxygen; marine pelagic and benthic algal productivity; pelagic and benthic predation rates; global species richness in pelagic fishes, plankton and benthic invertebrates; and genetic diversity; but increased extinctions in the fossil record. The realised thermal niche of reef fishes and invertebrates globally is narrowest among species with distributions centred on 20 oC, as also seen in microbes. While many species have evolved to live at warmer and colder temperatures, most species live at, and extinctions in the fossil record across seven phyla were lower at, 20 oC. The mathematical “Corkrey” model, which predicts that thermal breadth should be minimized and species richness maximised at 20 oC across all Domains of life, provides an explanation for...

Historic placenames as a source in identifying bygone faunal distributions: a double-edged sword

Tue, 1 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this article is to exemplify how certain types of historic toponyms (placenames) can be employed as an aide to biogeographers in revealing past distributions of species and ecosystems, but also the need for additional interrogation of their likely veracity. Some of the toponyms bestowed by the Dutch explorer, Maerten van Delft, who surveyed the northern coasts of Australia’s Melville Island and the Cobourg Peninsula in 1705, serve as examples for further examination. The expedition conferred 61 toponyms and topographic descriptors, some of which are enigmatic given what we know of the ostensive distribution of Australian fauna in the region at the time. Presumably, the names referred to animals seen on the expedition. Cartographic, documentary, linguistic, and natural science sources were consulted to analyse the meanings of the toponyms. It shows that some the toponyms were based on misidentification due to unfamiliarity of the endemic fauna, whilst one did...

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Tue, 6 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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Tue, 6 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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Reciprocal knowledge exchange between climate-driven species redistribution and invasion ecology

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Climate change is driving a rapid but highly variable redistribution of life on Earth, comparable in scale and magnitude to changes historically only seen over tens of thousands of years. Despite increased research effort, the complex mechanisms driving these changes in geographical distribution of species, or ‘range shifts’, remain only superficially understood. Attempts to understand the processes underpinning species responses are hampered by the paucity of comprehensive, longterm datasets, few theoretical frameworks, and lack of strategic direction and cross-fertilisation with related ecological fields. As an emerging, dynamic field, range shift ecology would benefit from integrating concepts and approaches from other related, more established areas of research, such as invasion ecology. Here, we use a systematic literature review and bibliographic analysis to assess the level of knowledge exchange between range shift ecology and invasion ecology. We found that while the...

Delimiting zoogeographic centres for South African Orthoptera

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Biogeography attempts to find explanations for the distributions of species, based on their past histories and present environmental conditions. Historically, biogeographic studies were modelled on intuitive and expert knowledge, whereas recent studies have advanced with the aid of digitised natural history collections, computational power and repeatable methods. In South Africa, biogeographical studies on insects are greatly lacking and very little is known about the zoogeographic patterns for many insect groups in the region. South Africa has a high level of diversity and endemism of orthopterans (> 800 species), making them an ideal group to investigate zoogeographic patterns. The aim of this study was to identify and describe the zoogeographical patterns of South Africa’s orthopteran species, based on the distributions and levels of diversity of all major families. Point locality data was used to conduct a hierarchical cluster analysis based on the shared presence of...

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Fri, 3 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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Fri, 3 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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The right tree in the right place: predicting and mapping global-scale suitable areas for Marula tree, Sclerocarya birrea, (A. Rich.) Horchst, subspecies cultivation, conservation, and use in restoring global drylands

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The marula tree, Sclerocarya birrea (S. birrea) (A. Rich.) Horchst, is native to Africa, used to restore drylands, and introduced outside Africa as a pilot towards commercial cultivation due to its economic potential. However, there is a global paucity of information regarding where subspecies can survive beyond Africa. We aimed to predict and quantify global-scale suitable areas for S. birrea and its subspecies beyond their native ranges under the current environmental conditions and future warming climates. The areas were predicted by using MaxEnt algorithm using occurrence data from Africa and, climatic and topographical environmental variables and, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and Hadley Climate Center’s global Earth Systems Models under shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) greenhouse gas concentrations, SSP3-7.0, for the year 2050 and 2080. The results show that the models’ predictive power was robust, with the Receiver Operating Characteristic’s Area under the...

Community Science Biogeography

Thu, 9 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Community Science Biogeography

Body size and abundance are decoupled from species richness in Australian marine bivalves

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The “more individuals hypothesis” suggests that increases in the total number of individuals per species leads to increases in community richness. Abundance, body size distributions and richness do vary with latitude in several taxonomic groups. However, support for this hypothesis has otherwise been mixed. In this paper, we investigate latitudinal changes in all three variables for marine bivalves along the eastern coastline of Australia. We utilise a large, uniformly sampled field dataset of 5670 shells representing 157 species that spans 20º of latitude and crosses a major biogeographic transition. For each of 15 field sites, 10 quadrats were randomly placed and completely sampled, making it possible to quantify total abundance. Species richness was calculated using a new estimator based on the geometric series distribution. Body size was computed as the geometric mean of length and width. Despite uncovering a strong latitudinal gradient in species richness, we found no significant...

The paradox of anthropogenic enrichment: homogenization and downsizing of insular mammals

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Oceanic islands are global hotspots of biodiversity – many of them harboring marvels of evolution in isolation. Unfortunately, insular biotas are also highly susceptible to extinction, especially following colonization by humans. Here, we assess the influence of humanity on the diversity and biological distinctiveness of mammals inhabiting 37 oceanic islands. We compiled lists of mammals inhabitingthese islands prior to and then following colonization by hominids (including Homo erectus and H. sapiens). We then quantified the dynamics in diversity (as measured by species richness) and distinctiveness (measured as beta-diversity) among islands. We compared mammalian assemblages on islands prior to humanity, following colonization by early hominids and then following colonization by H. sapiens (in the latter case, separating assemblage dynamics resulting from extinctions of native species from the effects of species introductions). As expected, early hominids hardly influenced...

How to assess the absence of a species? A revision of the geographical range of the horned sea star, Protoreaster nodosus (Echinodermata; Asteroidea)