Diversity Of Biomes Research Articles

An Enteric Bacterial Infection Triggers Neuroinflammation and Neurobehavioral Impairment in 3xTg-AD Transgenic Mice.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is infamous for hospital-acquired infections and sepsis, which have also been linked to Alzheimer disease (AD)-related neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative impairment. However, its causative and mechanistic role in AD pathology remains unstudied. A preclinical model of K. pneumoniae enteric infection and colonization is developed in an AD model (3xTg-AD mice) to investigate whether and how K. pneumoniae pathogenesis exacerbates neuropathogenesis via the gut-blood-brain axis. K. pneumoniae, particularly under antibiotic-induced dysbiosis, was able to translocate from the gut to the bloodstream by penetrating the gut epithelial barrier. Subsequently, K. pneumoniae infiltrated the brain by breaching the blood-brain barrier. Significant neuroinflammatory phenotype was observed in mice with K. pneumoniae brain infection. K. pneumoniae-infected mice also exhibited impaired neurobehavioral function and elevated total tau levels in the brain. Metagenomic analyses revealed an inverse correlation of K. pneumoniae with gut biome diversity and commensal bacteria, highlighting how antibiotic-induced dysbiosis triggers an enteroseptic "pathobiome" signature implicated in gut-brain perturbations. The findings demonstrate how infectious agents following hospital-acquired infections and consequent antibiotic regimen may induce gut dysbiosis and pathobiome and increase the risk of sepsis, thereby increasing the predisposition to neuroinflammatory and neurobehavioral impairments via breaching the gut-blood-brain barrier.

Pastoralism in the high tropical Andes: A review of the effect of grazing intensity on plant diversity and ecosystem services

AbstractAimsPastoralism is a land‐use system that involves the care and use of grazing livestock and has been more common in areas of low resource availability. In this review, we analyze the impact of pastoralism on biodiversity and ecosystem services across the tropical Andes. This region is the most extensive and populated tropical mountain region in the world and presents a high diversity of biomes, livestock types and management histories. Given that pastoralism is a main land use here, understanding its impacts is important for providing appropriate recommendations for sustainable management.LocationTropical Andes; Venezuela to the north of Argentina and Chile.MethodsTo understand these impacts, we performed a systematic literature search (August 2021) and obtained 103 articles. We created a conceptual framework to map how available research has contributed to our understanding of the main pastoral systems, their associated management strategies and the impact of different grazing intensities on vegetation cover/diversity and ecosystem services.ResultsWe found that research has focused on two leading pastoral systems in the region: bovines in the páramo biome of the northern Andes and camelids in the puna biome of the central Andes. We found important environmental impacts at high grazing intensities for both the puna camelid and páramo bovine pastoral systems, including a decrease in soil organic carbon and an increase in soil compaction, a decrease in above‐ground biomass, plant species richness, and graminoid cover, as well as clear changes in the growth‐form composition of vegetation.ConclusionsGiven these findings, we recommend coordinated research efforts using common methodologies, documenting current and previous land use, including stocking rates, and combining observational and experimental approaches to develop a more integrated understanding of pastoralism's impacts across this diverse and vulnerable region.

Interdisciplinarity in Smart Systems Applied to Rural School Transport in Brazil

Interdisciplinarity applied to rural transport in Brazil through expert systems is the focus of this paper. Rural school transport is a challenge, considering the size of Brazil, the great diversity of biomes and insufficient infrastructure. Collaboration between areas by interdisciplinarity articulates individual knowledge through the object and by transdisciplinarity requires developing new knowledge, based on an individual area, going beyond and extrapolating with different criteria. The "Transcolar Rural" intelligent transport system has been developed at the UFMG School of Engineering to plan and manage rural school transport by optimizing routes and costs. The system is used in 13 states in Brazil, 500 municipalities and manages the daily transport of more than 400 thousand students in rural areas. Reducing transportation costs allows resources to be reallocated to other educational activities. The project highlights Brazil's limited resources, recognized by the government, to meet the population's health, education and transport priorities. Transparent information helps managers make decisions and supervise citizens, allowing both parties to determine priorities for resource allocation. The Project demonstrates how interdisciplinarity is effective for complex problems. The project comprehensively addresses the challenges of transporting children in Brazil by integrating technology, exact sciences and applied social sciences.

Spatial distribution and environmental/biological co-regulation mechanism of dimethyl sulfur compounds in the eastern Indian Ocean

Dimethyl sulfur compounds including dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), dimethyl sulfide (DMS), and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), play a crucial part in global sulfur cycling. The eastern Indian Ocean (EIO), characterized by its remarkable diversity of biomes and climate dynamics, is integral to global climate regulation. However, the regulation mechanism of DMS (P, O) in the EIO remains to be elucidated in detail. This paper presented a field survey aimed at investigating the spatial distribution of DMS (P, O) and their relationships with environmental and biological factors in the EIO. The surface concentrations of DMS, DMSPt, and DMSOt varied from 0.07 to 7.37 nmol/L, 0.14 to 9.17 nmol/L, and 0.15 to 3.32 nmol/L, respectively, and their distributions are attributed to high Chl-a concentration near Sri Lanka and the influence of ocean currents (Wyrtki jets, Bay of Bengal runoff). Higher concentrations of DMS (P) and DMSOt were predominantly observed in water columns shallower than 75m and deeper than 75m deep, respectively. The monthly DMS fluxes in the study area peaked in August. Temperature and Dissolved Silica Index (DSI) were the key environmental determinants for DMS distribution, while nitrate (NO3-) was the primary factor for both DMSPt and DMSOt. In terms of biological factors, Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus were significant contributors to DMS (P, O) dynamics. Synechococcus was the dominant influence on the DMS source and DMSPt sink, whereas Prochlorococcus primarily consumed DMSOt. Furthermore, the structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed the relationship between DMS, DMSPt, DMSOt, and the key environmental/biological factors, as well as among them, and together they formed a co-regulatory network in the EIO. This contributes significantly to the advancement of global ecosystem models for DMS (P, O).

Establishing ecological thresholds and targets for groundwater management

AbstractGroundwater is critical for many ecosystems, yet groundwater requirements for dependent ecosystems are rarely accounted for during water and conservation planning. Here we compile 38 years of Landsat-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to evaluate groundwater-dependent vegetation responses to changes in depth to groundwater (DTG) across California. To maximize applicability, we standardized raw NDVI and DTG values using Z scores to identify groundwater thresholds, groundwater targets and map potential drought refugia across a diversity of biomes and local conditions. Groundwater thresholds were analysed for vegetation impacts where ZNDVI dropped below −1. ZDTG thresholds and targets were then evaluated with respect to groundwater-dependent vegetation in different condition classes and rooting depths. ZNDVI scores were applied statewide to identify potential drought refugia supported by groundwater. Our approach provides a simple and robust methodology for water and conservation practitioners to support ecosystem water needs so biodiversity and sustainable water-management goals can be achieved.

Metagenomic Approach Deciphers the Role of Community Composition of Mycobiome Structured by Bacillus velezensis VB7 and Trichoderma koningiopsis TK in Tomato Rhizosphere to Suppress Root-Knot Nematode Infecting Tomato.

The soil microbiome is crucial for maintaining the sustainability of the agricultural environment. Concerning the role of diverse mycobiomes and their abundance toward the suppression of root-knot nematode (RKN) infection in vegetable crops, our understanding is unclear. To unveil this issue, we examined the fungal microbiome in tomato rhizosphere augmented with bioagents challenged against RKN at taxonomic and functional levels. Composition of the mycobiome in tomato rhizosphere treated with Bacillus velezensis VB7 and Trichoderma koningiopsis TK differed significantly from the infected tomato rhizosphere. The abundance and diversity of fungal species, however, were significantly higher in the combined treatments of bioagents than for individual treatments. Fungal microbiome diversity was negatively correlated in the RKN-associated soil. Network analysis of the fungal biome indicated a larger and complex network of fungal biome diversity in bioagent-treated soil than in nematode-associated tomato rhizosphere. The diversity index represented by that challenging the RKN by drenching with consortia of B. velezensis VB7 and T. koningiopsis TK, or applying them individually, constituted the maximum abundance and richness of the mycobiome compared to the untreated control. Thus, the increased diverse nature and relative abundance of the mycobiome in tomato rhizosphere was mediated through the application of either T. koningiopsis TK or B. velezensis VB7, individually or as a consortium comprising both fungal and bacterial antagonists, which facilitated engineering the community composition of fungal bioagents. This in turn inhibited the infestation of RKN in tomato. It would be interesting to explore further the possibility of combined applications of B. velezensis VB7 and T. koningiopsis TK to manage root-knot nematodes as an integrated approach for managing plant parasitic nematodes at the field level.

Explaining Why Africa had Much Lower COVID-19 Fatalities Per Million than Europe and North America

Abstract: This letter aims to explain the observed difference between COVID-19 fatalities in Europe and America compared to Africa. At present (May 3, 2023), the cumulative number of COVID-19 fatalities per million people has been 3,093 in South America, 2,761 in Europe, and 2,662 in North America. In particular, the United States and the United Kingdom had 3,323 and 3,320, respectively. With fewer opportunities to practice social distancing or hygiene and much more limited access to health care, Africa only had 181 fatalities per million. The better performances of Africa have been ascribed to the positive effects of reduced hygiene, increased biome diversity, lack of masking mandates and restrictions, better access to antivirals, a younger population, and lower vaccination rates, which all may have contributed to the better performances of Africa compared to Europe and North America against COVID-19.

The relative influence of history, climate, topography and vegetation structure on local animal richness varies among taxa and spatial grains.

Understanding the spatial scales at which environmental factors drive species richness patterns is a major challenge in ecology. Due to the trade-off between spatial grain and extent, studies tend to focus on a single spatial scale, and the effects of multiple environmental variables operating across spatial scales on the pattern of local species richness have rarely been investigated. Here, we related variation in local species richness of ground beetles, landbirds and small mammals to variation in vegetation structure and topography, regional climate, biome diversity and glaciation history for 27 sites across the USA at two different spatial grains. We studied the relative influence of broad-scale (landscape) environmental conditions using variables estimated at the site level (climate, productivity, biome diversity and glacial era ice cover) and fine-scale (local) environmental conditions using variables estimated at the plot level (topography and vegetation structure) to explain local species richness. We also examined whether plot-level factors scale up to drive continental scale richness patterns. We used Bayesian hierarchical models and quantified the amount of variance in observed richness that was explained by environmental factors at different spatial scales. For all three animal groups, our models explained much of the variation in local species richness (85%-89%), but site-level variables explained a greater proportion of richness variance than plot-level variables. Temperature was the most important site-level predictor for explaining variance in landbirds and ground beetles richness. Some aspects of vegetation structure were the main plot-level predictors of landbird richness. Environmental predictors generally had poor explanatory power for small mammal richness, while glacial era ice cover was the most important site-level predictor. Relationships between plot-level factors and richness varied greatly among geographical regions and spatial grains, and most relationships did not hold when predictors were scaled up to the continental scale. Our results suggest that the factors that determine richness may be highly dependent on spatial grain, geography, and animal group. We demonstrate that instead of artificially manipulating the resolution to study multiscale effects, a hierarchical approach that uses fine grain data at broad extents could help solve the issue of scale selection in environment-richness studies.

Breathing life into trees: the physiological and biomechanical functions of lenticels

Summary Lenticels can be defined as pores that are the entrance of a continuous aeration system from the atmosphere via the living bark to the secondary xylem in the otherwise protective layers of the periderm. Most work on lenticels has had an anatomical focus but the structure-function relationships of lenticels still remain poorly understood. Gas exchange has been considered the main function of lenticels, analogous to the stomata in leaves. In this perspective review, we introduce novel ideas pertaining to lenticel functions beyond gas exchange. We review studies on lenticel structure, as this knowledge can give information about structure-function relationships. The number of species investigated to-date is low and we provide suggestions for staining techniques for easy categorization of lenticel types. In the follow-up sections we review and bring together new hypotheses on lenticel functioning in the daily “normal operation range”, including regulative mechanisms for gas exchange and crack prevention, the “stress operation range” comprising flooding, drought and recovery from drought and the “emergency operation range”, which includes infestation by insects and pathogens, wounding and bending. We conclude that the significance of dermal tissues and particularly of lenticels for tree survival has so far been overlooked. This review aims to establish a new research discipline called “Phytodermatology”, which will help to fill knowledge gaps regarding tree survival by linking quantitative and qualitative lenticel anatomy to tree hydraulics and biomechanics. A first step into this direction will be to screen more species from a great diversity of biomes for their lenticel structure.

Exploring Virome Diversity in Public Data in South America as an Approach for Detecting Viral Sources From Potentially Emerging Viruses.

The South American continent presents a great diversity of biomes, whose ecosystems are constantly threatened by the expansion of human activity. The emergence and re-emergence of viral populations with impact on the human population and ecosystem have shown increases in the last decades. In deference to the growing accumulation of genomic data, we explore the potential of South American-related public databases to detect signals that contribute to virosphere research. Therefore, our study aims to investigate public databases with emphasis on the surveillance of viruses with medical and ecological relevance. Herein, we profiled 120 “sequence read archives” metagenomes from 19 independent projects from the last decade. In a coarse view, our analyses identified only 0.38% of the total number of sequences from viruses, showing a higher proportion of RNA viruses. The metagenomes with the most important viral sequences in the analyzed environmental models were 1) aquatic samples from the Amazon River, 2) sewage from Brasilia, and 3) soil from the state of São Paulo, while the models of animal transmission were detected in mosquitoes from Rio Janeiro and Bats from Amazonia. Also, the classification of viral signals into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) (family) allowed us to infer from metadata a probable host range in the virome detected in each sample analyzed. Further, several motifs and viral sequences are related to specific viruses with emergence potential from Togaviridae, Arenaviridae, and Flaviviridae families. In this context, the exploration of public databases allowed us to evaluate the scope and informative capacity of sequences from third-party public databases and to detect signals related to viruses of clinical or environmental importance, which allowed us to infer traits associated with probable transmission routes or signals of ecological disequilibrium. The evaluation of our results showed that in most cases the size and type of the reference database, the percentage of guanine–cytosine (GC), and the length of the query sequences greatly influence the taxonomic classification of the sequences. In sum, our findings describe how the exploration of public genomic data can be exploited as an approach for epidemiological surveillance and the understanding of the virosphere.

Palaeophytogeographical Patterns Across the Permian–Triassic Boundary

It has long been recognized that terrestrial floras underwent major and long-lasting changes during the Permian and Triassic, some of which have been attributed to the end-Permian mass extinction. However, these changes are still poorly understood with regard to the late Permian and Early Triassic. In particular, the impact that ecological disturbances around the Permian–Triassic boundary had on the composition and palaeogeographical distribution of land plant communities needs to be scrutinized. We analyse this impact based on fossil floras from across the world, covering the Wuchiapingian to Ladinian time interval. The plant assemblages are assigned to biomes representing particular environmentally controlled community types. Variations in the distribution of biomes between stages indicate shifts in the environmental parameters affecting terrestrial floras, and provide insights into population turnover dynamics. A substantial shift towards increasing seasonality and a reduction of biome diversity occurs in the earliest Triassic and stabilised throughout the Middle Triassic. However, results also show that the stratigraphically and (palaeo-) geographically unequal distribution of sampled localities constitutes an important limitation for this kind of analysis.

Tardigrades Research in Brazil: an overview and updated checklist

Tardigrades are microscopic animals, commonly referred to as “water bears”, and comprise the phylum Tardigrada. They are found in diverse habitats in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments worldwide. In this paper, it is presented a brief history of the study of tardigrades in Brazil and an updated species checklist of Brazilian tardigrades. Since the first report in 1913, the number of tardigrades records has increased, reflecting advances in the understanding the diversity of tardigrades in Brazil. A total of 100 species known from Brazil are listed, being 30 in marine and 70 in terrestrial and freshwater environments. The records are concentrated in Southeast (47.1%) and Northeast (41.3%) regions. Despite the advances, further research and sampling of new areas is still needed, besides reanalysis and confirmation of old records. Brazil, with its vast territory, extensive continental shelf and great diversity of biomes, has great potential to expand our knowledge of tardigrades fauna.

FINE SPATIAL SCALE MODELLING OF TRENTINO PAST FOREST LANDSCAPE (TRENTINOLAND): A CASE STUDY OF FOSS APPLICATION

Abstract. Trentino is an Italian alpine region (about 6200 km2) with a forest coverage exceeding 60% of its whole surface. In the past, forest landscape has changed dramatically, especially in periods of forest over-exploitation.Previous studies in some Trentino sub-regions (Val di Fassa, Paneveggio) have identified these changes and the current trend of forest growth at the expenses of open areas, such as pastures and grasslands, due to the abandonment of rural areas. This phenomenon leads to the rapid Alpine landscape change and profoundly affects the ecological features of mountain ecosystems. To be able to monitor and to take future actions about this trend it is fundamental to know in detail the historical situation of the progressive changes on the land use that occurred over Trentino.The work aims to comprehensively reconstruct the forest cover of whole Trentino at high resolution (5 m × 5 m pixels) using a series of maps spanning a long period, consisting in historical maps, aerial images, remote sensed information and historical archives. The datasets were archived, processed and analyzed using the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) GIS GRASS and QGIS. Historical maps include Atlas Tyrolensis (dated 1770), Theresianischer Kataster (dated 1859) and Italian Kingdom Forest Map (IKFM) of 1936. The aerial imagery dataset includes aerial images taken in 1954, which have been orthorectified during this research, and orthophotos available for years 1973, 1994, 2000, 2006, 2010 and 2016. Remote sensed information includes Landsat and recent Lidar data, while historical archives consist mostly in Forest Management Plans available since around 1950.The versatility of the wide variety of modules supplied from the FOSS GRASS and QGIS enabled to perform a diverse set of analysis and pre-processing (e.g.:orthorectification) on a heterogeneous dataset of input images. We will focus on the different strategies and methodologies implemented in the FOSS GIS used to process the various types of geographic data, challenges for the future of the research and the fundamental role of the FOSS systems in this process.Quantifying forest change in the time-span of our dataset can be used to perform further analysis on ecosystem services, such as protection from soil erosion, and on modification of biome diversity and to create future change scenarios.

Plant Functional Diversity and the Biogeography of Biomes in North and South America

The concept of the biome has a long history dating back to Carl Ludwig Willdenow and Alexander von Humboldt. However, while the association between climate and the structure and diversity of vegetation has a long history, scientists have only recently begun to develop a more synthetic understanding of biomes based on the evolution of plant diversity, function, and community assembly. At the broadest scales, climate filters species based on their functional attributes, and the resulting functional differences in dominant vegetation among biomes are important to modeling the global carbon cycle and the functioning of the Earth system. Nevertheless, across biomes, plant species have been shown to occupy a common set of global functional “spectra”, reflecting variation in overall plant size, leaf economics, and hydraulics. Still, comprehensive measures of functional diversity and assessments of functional similarity have not been compared across biomes at continental to global scales. Here, we examine distributions of functional diversity of plant species across the biomes of North and South America, based on distributional information for > 80,000 vascular plant species and functional trait data for ca. 8,000 of those species. First, we show that despite progress in data integration and synthesis, significant knowledge shortfalls persist that limit our ability to quantify the functional biodiversity of biomes. Second, our analyses of the available data show that all the biomes in North and South America share a common pattern–most geographically common, widespread species in any biome tend to be functionally similar whereas the most functionally distinctive species are restricted in their distribution. Third, when only the widespread and functionally similar species in each biome are considered, biomes can be more readily distinguished functionally, and patterns of dissimilarity between biomes appear to reflect a correspondence between climate and functional niche space. Taken together, our results suggest that while the study of the functional diversity of biomes is still in its formative stages, further development of the field will yield insights linking evolution, biogeography, community assembly, and ecosystem function.

Metabolic Resistance in the Fall Armyworm: An Overview

The Fall Armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (Smith, 1797) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is one of the most important pests in the American continent and has recently become an invasive species in Africa. It’s main form of control is through the use of insecticides, however during the last 40 years, due to continuous spraying and high doses used along with FAW’s high adaptative capacity, developed resistance to different classes of chemical insecticides. One of the main mechanisms enabling resistance in the FAW is by detoxification enzymes or so-called metabolic resistance. P450s, Carboxylesterases and Glutathione-S-Transferases are the main families of enzymes believed to mediate the detoxification process. These enzymes in the FAW, although widely studied, have been difficult to generalize into patterns. This happens mainly because FAW populations can have high genetic variability within the species, as they have different biotypes meaning that they can be morphologically identical but physiologically different and consequently, enzymatic responses to toxic compounds can also differ. There are also differences due to the diversity of biomes in which S. frugiperda is found, which due to adaptations to different host plants and other abiotic factors, it’s hard to predict enzymatic responses in insecticide resistance. In this context we aimed to review the literature regarding these three main enzymes families involved in metabolic resistance in S. frugiperda, by cataloguing, analysing and summarizing these studies.

Characterization of conservation units of the Central-West region of Brazil

The objective of this research is to characterize the existing conservation units in the Central-West region of Brazil, considering some aspects of the Presidential Decree No. 4.340/2002, which provides the necessary guidelines for the creation of conservation units. The choice of this region is due to its diversity of biomes. The deductive method was used for the elaboration of the research, starting with information about the country and sequentially about the chosen region. Even though there is a national registry of conservation units, there is a lack of information on these areas, because it is not filled in completely.

Metal and metalloid distribution in different environmental compartments of the middle Xingu River in the Amazon, Brazil

Concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Cr, Pb, Hg, and Ni were analyzed during rainy and dry seasons in water, sediment, soil, and two fish species. The analysis took place at four points in the Xingu River, one point in the Fresco River, and two mining pits in the southeastern area of the Eastern Amazon, Brazil. In the water, the total concentration of As (>0.14μg/L) was higher than the local reference values at all sampling points and in both seasons. Ordination analysis (PCA) highlighted As and Cu elements in the water. PERMANOVA showed that the metals behaved differently in the water throughout the monitored season and between sampling points. The sites with mining activity were the regions that were the most contaminated by metals. Samples of sediment (Ni>18mg/kg and Cr>37.30mg/kg) and soil (Pb>72mg/kg, Cr>75mg/kg and Ni>30mg/Kg) showed concentrations above the recommended by local legislation. Metal values in the muscle of both fish species were relatively low at all sampling points and in both monitored seasons. Concentrations in water, sediment, and soil showed that some points of the Xingu River, Fresco River and mining pits are contaminated by trace elements, mainly As, Hg, Cr, Pb, and Ni. This was the first study about trace elements in the Middle Xingu River, which leads us to conclude that rainfall and cassiterite mining activities strongly influence the mobilization of metals, especially in abiotic compartments. However, the fish analyzed did not exhibit relevant levels of contamination. This indicates low risk for human consumption. Additionally, results highlight the need to establish local criteria to define contamination limits for different metals while taking into account local geochemistry particularities and biome diversity.

The Intestinal Eukaryotic and Bacterial Biome of Spotted Hyenas: The Impact of Social Status and Age on Diversity and Composition.

In mammals, two factors likely to affect the diversity and composition of intestinal bacteria (bacterial microbiome) and eukaryotes (eukaryome) are social status and age. In species in which social status determines access to resources, socially dominant animals maintain better immune processes and health status than subordinates. As high species diversity is an index of ecosystem health, the intestinal biome of healthier, socially dominant animals should be more diverse than those of subordinates. Gradual colonization of the juvenile intestine after birth predicts lower intestinal biome diversity in juveniles than adults. We tested these predictions on the effect of: (1) age (juvenile/adult) and (2) social status (low/high) on bacterial microbiome and eukaryome diversity and composition in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), a highly social, female-dominated carnivore in which social status determines access to resources. We comprehensively screened feces from 35 individually known adult females and 7 juveniles in the Serengeti ecosystem for bacteria and eukaryotes, using a set of 48 different amplicons (4 for bacterial 16S, 44 for eukaryote 18S) in a multi-amplicon sequencing approach. We compared sequence abundances to classical coprological egg or oocyst counts. For all parasite taxa detected in more than six samples, the number of sequence reads significantly predicted the number of eggs or oocysts counted, underscoring the value of an amplicon sequencing approach for quantitative measurements of parasite load. In line with our predictions, our results revealed a significantly less diverse microbiome in juveniles than adults and a significantly higher diversity of eukaryotes in high-ranking than low-ranking animals. We propose that free-ranging wildlife can provide an intriguing model system to assess the adaptive value of intestinal biome diversity for both bacteria and eukaryotes.

Shifts in vegetation phenology along flyways entail varying risks of mistiming in a migratory songbird

AbstractLong‐term shifts in vegetation phenology generally follow the pattern of global warming. Yet, topographical complexity and biome diversity cause uneven spatial trends in the phenological response of vegetation to climate change. If phenology changes similarly along migration routes, individuals may adequately respond by shifting the whole migration schedule to still time life history with local phenological events. On the contrary, phenological shifts that differ in direction or magnitude between sites can enhance the risk of mistiming, resulting in reduced survival and reproductive success and eventually population declines. We identified the direction and magnitude of long‐term shifts in vegetation phenology along avian migration routes, using remotely sensed vegetation data over 29 yr (1982–2010) to estimate the risk of mistiming for different sets of assumptions concerning cues and adaptability of migration timing. For this study, we used individual series of non‐breeding, spring stopover and breeding sites (determined by light‐level geolocation) of three European populations of Luscinia megarhynchos (Common Nightingale), an insectivorous Palearctic long‐distance migrant. The breeding populations in France, Italy, and Bulgaria are representatives for populations migrating on the western, central, and eastern flyway toward sub‐Saharan Africa. The direction and magnitude of phenological shifts differed between migration stages and across flyways and under most sets of assumptions, the resulting risk of mistiming was higher in the Western compared to Central and Eastern flyway. We emphasize that estimates for the risk of mistiming as resulting from phenological shifts highly depend on the cues that migrants use to time migratory progression and on the adaptive potential of the particular migratory species to react to phenological shifts.

BIODIVERSITY OF OROBIOMES IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS ON THE BIOME MAP OF RUSSIA

The aim is to introduce the concept of biogeographical map "Biomes of Russia" (m 1:.7.500000), scientific and methodological principles of the development of its content, the selection of indicators to characterize the biodiversity of the regional biomes and mark its place and role in the development of biogeography as well as biogeographical mapping and in terms of practical application as in education, in the sustainable development of the regions and for solving the problems in the field of nature and environmental protection. Materials and methods. Map is based on the classification of terrestrial ecosystems (biomes) and eco-geographical approach to their subordination on different levels of organization of the biotic cover. Results. We have displayed on the map the differentiation of the country on the composition of ecosystems and their biodiversity at the regional level. Biomes at the regional level are central to the study and are mapping units. Legend includes 35 lowland biomes and 31 orobiomes (in the mountains). A characteristic has been made up for each biome, which includes indicators of moisture and heat supply, the number of species of vascular plants, mosses and lichens, terrestrial vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians). To illustrate this, there is the characteristic of the 3 orobiomes of the North Caucasus. Conclusion. Using biomes as supporting biodiversity accounting units enables the integrated analysis of botanical and zoogeographic information about biota, as well as the dual study of biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem. The current state of biomes is defined by two interrelated processes of transformation and modification of ecosystems and the reduction or loss of biological diversity. Map of regional biomes can serve as a basis for further research on the biome biodiversity on species and ecosystem levels; as the inventory of the biota and the creation of databases on species and cenotic diversity of biomes; for the development and justification of environmental protection measures.