Number Of Species Research Articles

The loss of forest gaps, changes of vegetation and wild bee communities from 1975 to 2020 – increasing numbers of endangered wild bee species despite negative habitat trends in the Danube valley

This study investigated how structural changes of a historical traditionally used forest landscape in Central Europe have affected traits of vegetation and wild bee communities. We compared the extent of gaps in the forest using aerial photographs between 1945 and 2020. And we found historic vegetation and bee surveys from 1975 and 1990, which we repeated in 2010 and 2020. We characterised the vegetation of the closed forest, the forest gaps and the small-scale meadows adjacent to the forest as well as the wild bee community by traits and investigated trait changes with Kruskal-Wallis tests. By NMDS we characterised sample plots and transect walks of timepoints with traits and species. Area of forest gaps decreased by 88% from 1945 to 2020 and by 74% from 1975 to 2020. In the traits of vegetation, Ellenberg Indicator Values (EIV) for moisture and soil nutrients significantly increased in closed forest, forest gaps and meadows adjacent to forest. The EIVs for light and temperature, and the number of red list species decreased. The number of wild bee species that specialise in visiting flowers with long tubes and hylophilic species declined. The number of eremophilic species, species with longer phenologies, and recently Red list species increased. In the NMDS figure of forest gaps and of adjacent meadows, different species and traits characterised more recent and older sample plots of vegetation and confirm the results of the Kruskal Wallis tests. Wild bee communities of 2010 and 2020 were characterised by frequent species, while those of 1975 and 1990 were not characterised by any species. The traits characterised the wild bee communities of the older and younger transect walks in accordance with the results of the Kruskal Wallis tests. In addition, oligolectic bees characterised the older transect walks. The loss of forest gaps represents a direct loss of habitat for many plant and wild bee species. In addition, the qualitative changes in vegetation indicate a deterioration in habitat quality for plants of open forests and wild bees. Among wild bees, specialists were negatively affected by the changes described. These developments were reflected in the initial downward trend in Red List bee species. The increase in bee species with longer phenology, in eremophilic species, the decrease in hylophilic species, and the recent increase in red-listed species can indicate climate change. Therefore, this study underlines the importance of the preservation and development of ecologically valuable forest gaps, particularly in historical traditionally used forests with a typical species composition.

Contaminated Gibbs-Type Priors

Gibbs-type priors are combinatorial processes widely used as key components in several Bayesian nonparametric models. By virtue of their flexibility and mathematical tractability, they turn out to be predominant priors in species sampling problems and mixture modeling. We introduce a new family of processes which extends the Gibbs-type one, by including a contaminant component in the model to account for an excess of observations with frequency one. We first investigate the induced random partition, the associated predictive distribution, the asymptotic behavior of the total number of blocks and the number of blocks with a given frequency: all the results we obtain are in closed form and easily interpretable. A remarkable aspect of contaminated Gibbs-type priors relies on their predictive structure, compared to the one of the standard Gibbs-type family: it depends on the additional sampling information on the number of observations with frequency one out of the observed sample. As a noteworthy example we focus on the contaminated version of the Pitman-Yor process, which turns out to be analytically tractable and computationally feasible. Finally we pinpoint the advantage of our construction in different applications: we show how it helps to improve predictive inference in a species-related dataset exhibiting a high number of species with frequency one; we also discuss the use of the proposed construction in mixture models to perform density estimation and outlier detection.

Genome size data for eight endemic plant species from the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (Western Himalaya).

The Himalaya harbors a large number of plant endemics but information on their genome size is largely lacking. This study aims to fulfill this gap by reporting genome sizes for 8 endemic Himalayan plant species (Impatiens devendrae Pusalkar, Impatiens scabrida DC., Impatiens sulcata Wall., Geranium robertianum L., Geranium wallichianum D.Don ex Sweet, Thalictrum cultratum Wall., Thalictrum elegans Wall. ex Royle, Thalictrum foliolosum DC.) from the Western Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. The study involved collecting leaf tissues from each of the 8 plant species, chopping, staining and estimating nuclear DNA content using CyFlow Cube 8 flow cytometer with 532 nm laser light source and an orange-red fluorescence emission (>590 nm). The CyFlow Cube 13 programme was utilised to obtain the median fluorescence value from PI-stained G0/G1 (quiescent phase/first growth phase) nuclei, devoid of cellular debris. The DNA 2C value of each sample was then estimated by comparing the median fluorescence intensity values of both sample and standard (Solanum lycopersicum L.) using the standard scientific formula. The highest DNA 2C-values were observed in Geranium, which ranged from 5.29 ± 0.02 pg to 2.49 ± 0.02 pg. The genome size of Impatiens species varied from 1.49 ± 0.08 pg to 3.14 ± 0.04 pg while the three species of genus Thalictrum had nearly similar genome sizes varying between 1.53 ± 0.01 pg to 1.96 ± 0.06 pg. The coefficient of variation among nuclei varied from 3.52 % to 5.38 % with 103 to 1811 numbers of stained nuclei. The results and framework presented in the current study can serve as a template for future studies that attempt to estimate the genome sizes of endemic plant species in the Himalaya, a global biodiversity epicentre and one of the least studied biodiversity hotspots of the world.

Diversity, utility and communities of weed in wheat of Nowshera, Pakistan

Weeds are disregarded for their competitive nature and difficulties during harvesting and threshing. Categorizing them by economic use classes enables effective management. Weed ecological studies in wheat crop fields were conducted to evaluate the floristic diversity, ecological characteristics, community structures and economic uses of weeds in District Nowshera, Pakistan. Different wheat crop fields were surveyed for the collection and identification of plant species growing as weed. Total 50 plant species from 47 genera and 20 families were recorded in the study area. Asteraceae had the highest number of species (10), followed by Poaceae (9). Therophytes were more with 42 species, followed by geophytes and Hemicryptophytes each with 3 species. Most species had mesophyllous leaf size (15), while nanophyllous (12) and microphyllous (11). Simple leaves were more common (28) than dissected leaves (22). Nonspiny species were (44) while only 6 had spines. Maximum plant species were fodder (35) and medicinal (10). In the study, four distinct weed communities were identified using quadrate method i.e. Cynodon-Anagallis-Melilotus, Arenaria-Anagallis-Cannabis, Cynodon-Parthenium-Coronopus and Rumex-Arenaria-Oxalis. These findings provide a valuable starting point for future in-depth investigations on the entire flora and vegetation of Nowshera, Pakistan.

Projected future climatic forcing on the global distribution of vegetation types.

Most emissions scenarios suggest temperature and precipitation regimes will change dramatically across the globe over the next 500 years. These changes will have large impacts on the biosphere, with species forced to migrate to follow their preferred environmental conditions, therefore moving and fragmenting ecosystems. However, most projections of the impacts of climate change only reach 2100, limiting our understanding of the temporal scope of climate impacts, and potentially impeding suitable adaptive action. To address this data gap, we model future climate change every 20 years from 2000 to 2500 CE, under different CO2 emissions scenarios, using a general circulation model. We then apply a biome model to these modelled climate futures, to investigate shifts in climatic forcing on vegetation worldwide, the feasibility of the migration required to enact these modelled vegetation changes, and potential overlap with human land use based on modern-day anthromes. Under a business-as-usual scenario, up to 40% of terrestrial area is expected to be suited to a different biome by 2500. Cold-adapted biomes, particularly boreal forest and dry tundra, are predicted to experience the greatest losses of suitable area. Without mitigation, these changes could have severe consequences both for global biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ecological novelty and planetary stewardship: biodiversity dynamics in a transforming biosphere'.

Diversity and conservation of native Argentine species of Gratioleae (Plantaginaceae)

The tribe Gratioleae is the richest in species of the family Plantaginaceae, with 30 genera and more than 300 species growing mainly in South America, which could be considered a center of diversity. Argentina is one of the countries with the largest number of species (35 belonging to 6 genera) of the tribe. Although the Argentinean Flora and a checklist have been published, both are outdated. With this background, we presented an updated summary of the diversity of species belonging to the tribe Gratioleae in Argentina, with detailed analysis of their geographic distribution, their conservation status according to the categories established by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as well as an exhaustive study on the distribution of their richness and threat patterns in different ecoregions of the country. In addition, an evaluation of the proportion of threatened species in relation to Argentina’s Protected Areas (PAs) was evaluated. The results showed that species of Gratioleae were present in 14 ecoregions, distributed predominantly in the Humid and Dry Chaco, and the Alto Paraná Atlantic Forest. Eighteen species of the 37 Argentine taxa, including two endemic taxa, are categorized as threatened (VU, EN, or CR) (47%). Although some of these species are partially protected due to their distribution in PAs, others lack this protection. Our findings contribute to the knowledge of the geographic distribution of Gratioleae within the Argentine flora, and its conservation status.

Contributions to the Flora of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The Andamans and Nicobars are two groups of islands, lying in the Bay of Bengal between the latitudes 6°41' and 13°41' North and longitudes 92°11’ and 94°00' East. The Andamans consist of 204 islands, while the Nicobars are made up of 22 islands.Geology, soil and climate of these islands are discussed. A brief resume of the botanical history of these islands is presented.The vegetation of the Andamans is classified into 1. Mangrove forests 2. Beach forortr 3. Evergreen forests, situated at lower elevations in alluvial land and valleys 4. Deciduous forests 5. Moist evergreen forests at higher elevations 6. Vegetation in cleared lands and open areas. In Nicobars the following types of vegetation are met with 1. Beach forests 2. Evergreen forests 3. Grass lands 4. Marine vegetation. The floristic composition of these vegetations is discussed in detail.A floristic analysis is presented. The approximate number of Phanerogamic species may, amount to 1000 and 700 for the Andamans and Nicobars respectively. The flora has been subjected to the influence of Burma and Malaysia. A number of non-indigenous species have intruded and mixed well with the Andaman flora. A third feature is presence of plants of their own, with a number of endemic species.

Studies on the Vascular Flora of Anaimudi and the Surrounding Regions, Kottayam District, Kerala

The paper deals with an account of the vegetation of Anaimudi (2,695 m) - the highest peak in the peninsular India - and the surrounding regions situated in the Kottayam District of Kerala. The above area has not received much attention in the detailed studies undertaken by various workers on the vegetation of the South Indian hill tops. Based on the explorations carried out by the authors during the years 1965-70, 317 taxa of vascular plants, under 233 genera and 101 families, are enumerated. An analysis of the distribution pattern of the shola and grassland species has shown that (1) the shola species are mainly of tropical stock, (2) quite a number of species on the shola fringes and the grassland are of temperate origin and (3) the temperate elements play a comparatively less important role in the composition of the vegetation at the higher altitudes (above 1,925 m), and that the predominent elements here are of tropical stock. The high incidence of endemic taxa in this region has been pointed out. Literature on the ecological status of the shola-grassland formation has been reviewed for a better understanding of the vegetation.

Centres of Development and Patterns of Distribution of the Family Melastomataceae in Indo-Malesia

1.The Melastomataceae is a homogeneous family of about 220 genera and 5300 species and is generally confined to the tropical and subtropical regions, avoiding arid conditions and attaining prolific developments in the rain forests between the tropic of cancer and the tropic of capricorn. More than one half of the World's melastomataceous genera (about 120) and two-thirds of the total number of species (about 3353) are confined to the New World. The melastomataceous flora of Indo-Malesia consists of 64 genera and about 1300 species. In the Old World the incidence of melastomataceous species for Indo-Malesia and Africa is in the ratio of 2:1.2.The present distribution of Melastomataceae in both the New World and the Old World is discussed on the basis of Wegener's hypothesis of "Continental Drift". Instead of considering the island of Madagascar as the centre of origin of the family in a restricted way, it is considered that "Gondwanaland" was ideally suited for the melastomataceous flora and those blocks that moved away after the breaking up of this huge continental mass in the Late Cretaceous, each carried their own share of melastomataceous species which, after gradual establishment in new situations during a long span of time and space, proliferated into several new taxa by an intensive process of evolution.3.The Deccan Peninsula + Ceylon block in drifting over the Indian Ocean must have carried the original Gondwanaland stock and gene-pool of the Melastomataceae which later-when this block was fused with Laurasia and the Tethys Sea had disappeared-became the centre of development of the family in continental Asia. Then Melastomataceae could further develop on the southern part of Laurasia and from there migrate eastward to the Malesian islands, the Western Pacific and northern Australia.This implies the conclusion that, though Australia also formed part of the ancient Gondwanaland, this cannot have carried part of the ancient Gondwanaland Melastomataceae when Australia drifted apart.4.An attempt has been made to assess the centres of distribution of Indo-Malesian Melastomataceae and from this study the following four centres of development are proposed : (i) The Deccan-Ceylon centre, (ii) The Himalayan-Yunnan centre, (iii) The Sunda centre and (iv) The Philippine-Papuan centre.5.The Island of Borneo is unique in having the largest number of genera-42 out of the Indo-Malesian total of 64 genera-and the largest number of species i.e. 257. Perhaps, it is due to the part played by the mountain of Kinabalu in enriching the floristic composition of Borneo. It is generally considered by phytogeographers that Kinabalu is a great sanctuary of flora, past and present, and a nursery of endemic elements.

Flowering Plants of Shankaracharya Hill, Srinagar, Kashmir

This paper describs the angiospermic flora of the Shankaracharya Hill, covering 204 species of flowering plants belonging to 38 families. Analysis of the species collected shows that the following five families are the richest ones as indicated by the number of species in each family; Gramineae 1451, Compositae (22), Cruciferae (17), Leguminosae (16) and Labiatae (12). These together represent about 56% of the species collected.

A new species of freshwater crab of the genus Hypolobocera Ortmann, 1897 from Colombia (Crustacea: Decapoda: Pseudothelphusidae), including a key to the species of the genus distributed in Colombia

The genus Hypolobocera Ortmann, 1897, is represented by 38 species and is distributed in the south-western Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, including the twenty-two registered species for Colombia. We describe and illustrate a new species of Hypolobocera Ortmann, 1897 from the foothills of the Western Cordillera, Antioquia Department, Cauca River basin, Colombia, which increases in this country the number of Hypolobocera species to twenty-three. The species distribution of this genus covers an extensive area of the Colombian territory, including most of Colombia’s major river basins. We distinguished the new species from its congeners mainly by the third maxilliped, with an exopod that is 0.20 to 0.30 the length of ischium, and by the morphology of the first male gonopod, particularly by the shapes of the lateral and the mesial lobes and the outline of the apex. We include a key to species identification that uses the morphology of the first male gonopod.

Ecology and Distribution of the Genus <I>Evolvulus</I> in India

The genus Evolvulus is represented by about 80 species in tropical regions of the world, the maximum number of species being recorded in Brazil. In India the genus is represented by two species, i.e. Evolvulus alsinoides Linn., and Evolvulus nummulariusLinn.Evolvulus alsinoides Linn, is recorded to extend throughout India in open and grassy Jands, ascending to a height of 6000 ft. in the Himalayas. Evolvulus nummularius Linn, also grows throughout India in various habitats. However this species is not recorded in. any of the earlier floras of India. Raizada (1936) while describing it says "this is a recently introduced species or otherwise imperfectly known plant from the Upper Gangetic plain". The study presented here supports the view of its Recent introduction.

Cytotaxonomy of Amaryllidaceae

Chromosome numbers are now known for about 46 genera in the family Amaryllidaceae. The lowest basic number has been found to be 5 and the' highest 30. Besides these two, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 23 and 29 have also been encountered of which 11 is found in majority of the genera. In a number of genera the derivation of one basic number from the other has been established. In the genus Allium largest number of species have been studied cytologically. The next largest is Narcissus followed by Zephyranthes, Crinum, Hippeastrum and Lycorisin that order.B or supernumerary chromosomes have been observed in Agapanthus, Allium, Crinum, Cooperia, Haemanthus, Hippeastrum, Lycoris and Narcissus.In this family repatterning of chromosomes through inversions (both para afid pericentric), translocation, polyploidy (eu-, aneuo-, hetero-, auto-, and allopolyploidy) and hybridization have played prominent role in chromosome number evolution, karyotype alteration and specisvtion. In addition to this, gene mutation has also played significant part in speciation. Ready vegetative propagation has helped in maintaining sterile hybrids and those forms with numerical and structural changes of chromosomes. Apomixis has also been responsible in chromosome number evolution in some genera.A consideration of taxonomic work done in Amaryllidaceae points out that Hutchinson's system of classification, based on the umbellate inflorescence rather than on the position of the ovary, has been found to be more phylogenetic but the amendments proposed by several workers for changes in tribal and generic level could be taken into consideration and in some cases may be justified.

The Family Compositae in Assam and North East Frontier Agency

The paper presents the distribution and relative abundance of 167 taxa belonging to 47 genera of the Compositae in Assam and North East Frontier Agency. The family is best represented in the tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen and again, in subtropical pine and mixed forests; it is much less abundant in temperate altitudes, very rarely extending up to sub-alpine zone in NEFA. Of the species enumerated, the number of species found common to other countries are indicated against each: Burma (45), Malaya (16), Java (25), China (25), Japan (24), Ceylon (21), Philippines (7), Africa (17), Australia (5), Europe (5) and America (5).Ambrosia artemisiifolia Linn., Eupatorium trapezoideum Kunth, Erigeron annuus Pers. and Petasites albus Gaertn. appear to be new records of species for India. On the other hand, these species viz. Ainsliaea angustifolia Hook. f. & Thom., Brachycome assamica Clarke, Cnicus griffithii Hook. f., Inula kalapani Clarke etc. appear to be endemic to Assam and NEFA.

Some Aspects of the Vegetation of Nepal

In this article the author simply catalogues the number of species of ferns collected by him after giving a short description of the geographical position and the climatic conditions of Nepal and the Kathmandu valley. The collections were made from the latter region only during class and private excursions. Some of these important places are Kakani, Sheopuri, Nagarkot, Sundarijal, Pharping, Godavari, Gokama, Gauchar, Chapagaon, Balaju, Nagaijun, Thankot, Chandragiri etc. Although these collections are mainly from the Kathmandu valley alone yet on comparison with the previous collections made by the earlier workers from the various parts of the country reveal that out of the sixty species of ferns collected by the present author thirty six have not so far been recorded.

Cyperaceae of Gujarat

The family Cyperaceae, because of the difficulty experienced in identifying the members, have been utterly neglected. The aim of the present work is to provide a more up-to-date flora of the family by compiling the available data and the data gathered by the author during the course of various excursions to places in north, central and south Gujarat. The number of species reported from Gujarat region by previous workers comes to 50. To this have been added 14 sedges which are new to Gujarat. Notes on the habit, habitat of these plants along with a distribution chart of all the sedges have been included in the present paper.

Further Contribution to the Flora of the Karimnagar District of Andhra Pradesh

The Karimnagar District lies in the Telangana Region of Andhra Pradesh (18°-19°10' N ; 78°30'-80°20'E). It was recently surveyed with the objective of exploring the possibility of exploiting non agricultural plants of economic value. The survey and collection was done mainly at Mahadevpur, Nimmagodem and Manthani Ranges of the District. The present paper records those taxa which are found as additions to the flora of Karimnagar. The district lies within the tropical deciduous belt which occupies a larger part of the peninsular India. The forests abound in teak mixed with deciduous trees of a number of species, the preponderance of which depends on soil and habitat conditions.

Wiring between close nodes in molecular networks evolves more quickly than between distant nodes.

As species diverge, a wide range of evolutionary processes lead to changes in protein-protein interaction networks and metabolic networks. The rate at which molecular networks evolve is an important question in evolutionary biology. Previous empirical work has focused on interactomes from model organisms to calculate rewiring rates, but this is limited by the relatively small number of species and sparse nature of network data across species. We present a proxy for variation in network topology: variation in drug-drug interactions (DDIs), obtained by studying drug combinations (DCs) across taxa. Here, we propose the rate at which DDIs change across species as an estimate of the rate at which the underlying molecular network changes as species diverge. We computed the evolutionary rates of DDIs using previously published data from a high throughput study in gram-negative bacteria. Using phylogenetic comparative methods, we found that DDIs diverge rapidly over short evolutionary time periods, but that divergence saturates over longer time periods. In parallel, we mapped drugs with known targets in protein-protein interaction and co-functional networks. We found that the targets of synergistic DDIs are closer in these networks than other types of DCs and that synergistic interactions have a higher evolutionary rate, meaning that nodes that are closer evolve at a faster rate. Future studies of network evolution may use DC data to gain larger-scale perspectives on the details of network evolution within and between species.

A Botanical Tour to Tirap Frontier Division, NEFA (India)

A botanical tour in the southern parts of Tirap Frontier Division lying to the south-east of the Margherita-Nampong-Pangsupass line and bordering upon Burma and Manipur, undertaken over a period of 20 days during August-September, 1958, pelded 518 species of angiosperms and 120 species of pteridophytes amongst others. This paper presents the geology, topography, soil and vegetation together with a comprehensive analysis of the floristic composition of the vegetational types and is followed by enumeration of the species of angiosperms in the Appendix.Analysis of the species collected and belonging to angiosperms established the following ten families as the richest ones on the basis of the number of species. Orchidaceae (50), Rubiaceae (29), Gramineae (28), Urticaceae (27), Leguminosae (21), Compositae (19), Cyperaceae (19) and Gesneraceae (17), Verbenaceae (12), Labiatae (12). These together represent about 45% of the species collected. About 68 species not recorded by Kanjilal et al(1934-1940) have been reported as additions to the dicotyledonous flora of Assam and NEFA. Several are reported here as new records of species for India.

Temporal changes in the composition of parasitoid assemblages associated with the invasive chestnut gall wasp

Abstract Invasive alien species pose a challenge to ecosystem stability and crop production, so understanding their interactions with the natural communities they invade is crucial to mitigate negative effects. The oriental chestnut gall wasp, Dryocosmus kuriphilus Yasumatsu (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae), is an invasive insect that attacks chestnut trees. It was first recorded in Spain in 2012 and is now presumably present in the majority of chestnut stands in the country. We assessed variation in the abundance of D. kuriphilus galls and the composition of their associated parasitoid community (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) during a 4‐year period (2014–2017) in 12 sampling sites in Catalonia (Spain, northeastern Iberian Peninsula), and identified which species contributed most significantly to the control of D. kuriphilus. The results show that the abundance of individual parasitoid species varied during the study period and that the number of species increased year after year. There was also a transition in the parasitoid community composition across the years. Our data suggest that the joint action of the non‐native parasitoid Torymus sinensis Kamijo and the native T. notatus (Walker) (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Torymidae) led to the decline of D. kuriphilus until it was no longer considered a pest. Also, the observed pool of parasitoid species ended up being relatively homogeneous across sites over the years, which may be due to the high natural dispersal of these parasitoids (both by active flight and passive wind dispersal).