Community Types Research Articles

A metabolic modeling-based framework for predicting trophic dependencies in native rhizobiomes of crop plants.

The exchange of metabolites (i.e., metabolic interactions) between bacteria in the rhizosphere determines various plant-associated functions. Systematically understanding the metabolic interactions in the rhizosphere, as well as in other types of microbial communities, would open the door to the optimization of specific predefined functions of interest, and therefore to the harnessing of the functionality of various types of microbiomes. However, mechanistic knowledge regarding the gathering and interpretation of these interactions is limited. Here, we present a framework utilizing genomics and constraint-based modeling approaches, aiming to interpret the hierarchical trophic interactions in the soil environment. 243 genome scale metabolic models of bacteria associated with a specific disease-suppressive vs disease-conducive apple rhizospheres were drafted based on genome-resolved metagenomes, comprising an in silico native microbial community. Iteratively simulating microbial community members' growth in a metabolomics-based apple root-like environment produced novel data on potential trophic successions, used to form a network of communal trophic dependencies. Network-based analyses have characterized interactions associated with beneficial vs non-beneficial microbiome functioning, pinpointing specific compounds and microbial species as potential disease supporting and suppressing agents. This framework provides a means for capturing trophic interactions and formulating a range of testable hypotheses regarding the metabolic capabilities of microbial communities within their natural environment. Essentially, it can be applied to different environments and biological landscapes, elucidating the conditions for the targeted manipulation of various microbiomes, and the execution of countless predefined functions.

Digital Divide in the European Union: A Typology of EU Citizens

AbstractThis paper addresses the heterogeneity of the digital divide and internet use among citizens in the 28 European Union (EU) countries (at the time of the survey). Drawing from the Eurobarometer Surveys, three indicators of the digital divide are used to define the groups: frequency of internet access, means of internet access, and online activities. The categorical clustering algorithm identifies six groups of internet users: Non-Users, Basic Users, Information Exchangers, Instrumental Users, Socializers, and Advanced Users, each with distinct socio-demographic profiles. The study reveals significant socio-economic and demographic profiling variables characterizing these patterns, including age, education, gender, occupation, type of community and geographic location. A major digital divide is detected in many countries; Notably, Romania, Greece, and Bulgaria have the largest proportion of Non-Users, emphasizing the need for targeted policy interventions. These results provide crucial insights for the European Commission’s digitization strategy, suggesting that more nuanced and targeted measures are needed to ensure equitable digital access across the EU.

Plant community responses to the individual and interactive effects of warming and herbivory across multiple years.

Anthropogenic climate warming affects plant communities by changing community structure and function. Studies on climate warming have primarily focused on individual effects of warming, but the interactive effects of warming with biotic factors could be at least as important in community responses to climate change. In addition, climate change experiments spanning multiple years are necessary to capture interannual variability and detect the influence of these effects within ecological communities. Our study explores the individual and interactive effects of warming and insect herbivory on plant traits and community responses within a 7-year warming and herbivory manipulation experiment in two early successional plant communities in Michigan, USA. We find stronger support for the individual effects of both warming and herbivory on multiple plant morphological and phenological traits; only the timing of plant green-up and seed set demonstrated an interactive effect between warming and herbivory. With herbivory, warming advanced green-up, but with reduced herbivory, there was no significant effect of warming. In contrast, warming increased plant biomass, but the effect of warming on biomass did not depend upon the level of insect herbivores. We found that these treatments had stronger effects in some years than others, highlighting the need for multiyear experiments. This study demonstrates that warming and herbivory can have strong direct effects on plant communities, but that their interactive effects are limited in these early successional systems. Because the strength and direction of these effects can vary by ecological context, it is still advisable to include levels of biotic interactions, multiple traits and years, and community type when studying climate change effects on plants and their communities.

Intelligent vs. Cultural: Research on the path to improve the resilience of urban and rural community governance based on the AHP-FCE model

Community resilience is a core component of grassroots governance modernization, and community resilience shows different characteristics depending on the type of community. Existing research on community resilience mainly uses direct questionnaire data, relatively ignoring the differences in weights of various dimensions. Different categories of community resilience components play different roles in community resilience. Based on this, the study cited the logic of the AHP-FCE model and added objective data based on empowering resilience, thus making up for the model's shortcomings while giving full play to the model's advantages. The quantitative analysis of 353 questionnaires from five urban districts and five rural communities in the sample city was based on the community resilience evaluation model. In the current process of community resilience construction, there are typical problems of a lack of cultural resilience in urban community resilience construction and a need for more intelligent resilience in rural community resilience construction. The key to future community resilience construction is reconciling the relationship between cultural and intellectual resilience to solve the problem of targeting deviation in urban communities and rural community resilience construction. It is necessary to adhere to the spirit of “long-term construction” to build the cultural resilience of urban communities, implement the path of “digital empowerment” to make the intelligent resilience of rural communities, and adhere to the standard of “complete redundancy” to form an urban and rural community resilience governance mechanism gradually, and then Move towards more resilient urban and rural community governance and help realize the modernization of grassroots governance.

The extent and impact of exotic vine invasions in fragmented mesic forests in Eastern Australia

AbstractExotic vines threaten biodiversity causing damage to forest structure. We investigated the distribution of exotic vines across different patchily distributed plant communities. We surveyed patches of 12 threatened, mesic forest communities along the coastal plain in New South Wales, Australia to determine how exotic and native vine distribution and density were influenced by characteristics of forest patches and neighbouring land use. Vine density and stem widths were measured in quadrats in the edge and interior of patches. Canopy cover, number of dead trees, area to perimeter ratio and surrounding land use were recorded for each patch. Our results show that exotic vine assemblages were influenced by anthropogenic land use surrounding patches but not influenced by community type. Most exotic vine species were present across the whole region where surveys were undertaken. Exotic vines species were sometimes at high densities but had smaller stem widths than native species and there was no change in density from the edges into the interior. Araujia sericifera and Ipomoea cairica were the most prevalent exotic species and together with the fast edge growing Anredera cordifolia are of key concern. In contrast, native vine assemblages were species rich, with some individuals having large stem widths suggesting greater age and we found species composition varied with plant community type. Native vines showed continual recruitment and appeared more specialized to the attributes of each plant community. Surrounding anthropogenic land uses (residential, agricultural and industrial) were the most important factors predicting invasion of exotic vines and were more important than the length of edges. This suggests that the surrounding matrix characteristics were influencing degradation of the interior of these patches, rather than exotic vines invading along an invasion front from the edge. Exotic vines need to be controlled across the entirety of patches, rather than a focus on edge control practices.

Relationships among para-social interaction, perceived benefits, community commitment, and customer citizenship behavior: Evidence from a social live-streaming platform

Encouraging online consumers to participate in the value enhancement process of products and stimulating users to engage in spontaneous and voluntary behaviors, the so-called Customer Citizenship Behaviors (CCBs), can significantly contribute to enhancing the competitiveness of online communities. Nowadays, there has been no systematic discussion on enhancing product value through value co-creation. Based on the Social Exchange Theory (SET), and take the current new type of online community, the social live-streaming community, as the research object, this study investigates how Para-social Interaction (PSI) between users and streamers affects users' perceived benefits, whether perceived benefits are related to users' community commitment and the relationship between community commitment and CCB from the perspective of value co-creation. Three hundred and forty-seven valid samples from China were obtained using TikTok and subsequently analyzed via Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The analysis results show that PSI positively influences users' perceived benefits, and among the perceived benefits, hedonic and self-esteem benefits can positively influence users' community commitment. When users' community commitment to live-streamers exists, it can effectively incentivize users to develop CCB. Theoretically, research findings enrich the study of online community value co-creation, para-social interaction, and citizenship behavior and provide recommendations for operating social live-streaming platforms.

Edinburgh postpartum depression scores are associated with vaginal and gut microbiota in pregnancy

BackgroundPrenatal and postpartum depression may be influenced by the composition of host associated microbiomes. As such, the objective of this study was to elucidate the relationship between the human gut or vaginal microbiomes in pregnancy with prenatal or postpartum depression. Methods140 female participants were recruited at their first prenatal visit and completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) to screen for depression and anxiety, in addition the EPDS was completed one month postpartum. Vaginal and stool biospecimens were collected in the third trimester, analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and assessed for alpha and beta diversity. Individual taxa differences and clustering using the k-medoids algorithm enabled community state type classification. ResultsParticipants with higher postpartum EPDS scores had higher species richness and lower abundance of L. crispatus in the vaginal microbiota compared to those with lower EPDS scores. Participants with a higher prenatal EPDS score had lower species richness of the gut microbiome. Participants with a vaginal community state type dominated by L. iners had the highest mean prenatal EPDS scores, whereas postpartum EPDS scores were similar regardless of prenatal vaginal state type. LimitationsOur small sample size and participant's self-report bias limits generalizability of results. ConclusionsDepression in the prenatal and postpartum period is associated with the composition and diversity of the gut and vaginal microbiomes in the third trimester of pregnancy. These results provide a foundational understanding of the microbial relationships between maternal health and depression for identifying potential therapeutic treatments.

Distinct microbial communities supported by iron oxidation.

Microbial biostalactites and streamers commonly grow at iron seepages in abandoned mines worldwide. This study addresses the diversity and composition of these simple prokaryotic communities, which thrive in pH ranges from 2.4 to 6.6 across six different mines. Our analysis of 85 communities reveals that a pH of approximately 3.2 is a critical threshold where alpha and beta diversity change discretely. Below this pH, the average number of ASVs per sample is 2.91 times lower than above this boundary. Autotrophs, heterotrophs, and symbionts of eukaryotes originate from nearly non-overlapping species pools in the two habitat types that differ only in pH. Communities below pH 3.2 further divide into two distinct groups, differing in diversity, taxonomic, and functional composition. Both types of communities coexist within the same stalactites, likely corresponding to zones where the capillary structure of the stalactite is either perfused or clogged. These findings indicate that microbial community structure can be significantly influenced by the intricate spatial organization of the ecosystem, rather than solely by measurable environmental parameters.

Community profiles in northeastern and central Pennsylvania characterized by distinct social, natural, food, and physical activity environments and their relation to type 2 diabetes.

Understanding geographic disparities in type 2 diabetes (T2D) requires approaches that account for communities' multidimensional nature. In an electronic health record nested case-control study, we identified 15,884 cases of new-onset T2D from 2008 to 2016, defined using encounter diagnoses, medication orders, and laboratory test results, and frequency-matched controls without T2D (79,400; 65,069 unique persons). We used finite mixture models to construct community profiles from social, natural, physical activity, and food environment measures. We estimated T2D odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using logistic generalized estimating equation models, adjusted for sociodemographic variables. We examined associations with the profiles alone and combined them with either community type based on administrative boundaries or Census-based urban/rural status. We identified four profiles in 1069 communities in central and northeastern Pennsylvania along a rural-urban gradient: "sparse rural," "developed rural," "inner suburb," and "deprived urban core." Urban areas were densely populated with high physical activity resources and food outlets; however, they also had high socioeconomic deprivation and low greenness. Compared with "developed rural," T2D onset odds were higher in "deprived urban core" (1.24, CI = 1.16-1.33) and "inner suburb" (1.10, CI = 1.04-1.17). These associations with model-based community profiles were weaker than when combined with administrative boundaries or urban/rural status. Our findings suggest that in urban areas, diabetogenic features overwhelm T2D-protective features. The community profiles support the construct validity of administrative-community type and urban/rural status, previously reported, to evaluate geographic disparities in T2D onset in this geography.

Response of Species Diversity and Stability of Typical Steppe Plant Communities on the Mongolian Plateau to Different Grazing Patterns

ABSTRACTGrasslands represent a major biome on Earth and play a vital role in ecosystem functioning and dynamics. However, owing to the variations among grassland types, the impact of grazing on plant community diversity and stability remains unclear. This study is based on the typical steppe of the Mongolian Plateau. Field sampling and data analysis were combined to qualitatively and quantitatively investigate the structural characteristics, species diversity, and stability of plant communities under varying grazing intensities, that is, four‐season nomadic, two‐season rotational, and sedentary grazing (FSNG, TSRG, and SG, respectively). The results indicated that FSNG pastures exhibited the largest number of plant species while FSNG and TSRG pastures exhibited relatively high importance values for the primary dominant species. Carex duriuscula, Chenopodium glaucum, and Cleistogenes squarrosa were prominent in SG pastures, with C. duriuscula having the largest importance value. The mean height, cover, and aboveground biomass of plant communities in FSNG were significantly higher than those in SG (p < 0.05), with no significant difference observed between FSNG and TSRG. FSNG also demonstrated the highest Shannon–Wiener, Simpson, and Pielou indexes. The Shannon–Wiener and Simpson indexes between the FSNG, TSRG, and SG pastures showed significant differences (p < 0.05). Nomadic plant communities displayed positive loosely interspecific traits, suggesting independence and positive succession. Conversely, communities in TSRG and SG exhibited negative correlations and higher instability. The stability analysis ranked community stability as FSNG > TSRG > SG, suggesting that judicious grazing practices could enhance grassland stability. The findings reveal that grazing patterns influence plant community composition and function and that FSNG pastures promote higher species diversity, perennial dominance, and overall stability compared with TSRG and SG pastures.

Intrapopulation germinability may help the Mediterranean plant species Poterium spinosum L. to cope with climate changes and landscape fragmentation.

Poterium spinosum L. is a key plant species forming typical shrub communities, distributed across the Mediterranean eastern coasts. The conservation of P. spinosum is thus of the utmost importance, especially due to the ever-increasing environmental pressures like climate changes and habitat fragmentation. This study, in particular, investigated for the first time the germination variability of P. spinosum at intrapopulation level, by analysing the germination behavior of five different subpopulations growing along the coasts of Sicily. For a more exhaustive picture of the main drivers of biodiversity loss affecting the distributional area of P. spinosum, the trends of climate and land-cover changes were also studied over the periods 1931-2020 and 1958-2018, respectively. The results found significant intrapopulation variability in P. spinosum, whose germination parameters showed that fruits and seeds from distinct subpopulations respond differently to diverse temperatures. Seeds showed generally higher values of final germination percentage (FGP) compared to fruits, and at higher temperatures: the highest FGP in seeds was 70% at 20°C, whereas in fruits was 58.2% at 15°C. The environmental threats showed worrying trends across the study area: during 1931-2020, the average temperature increased by 1.5°C, whereas the average rainfall declined from 710 to 650mm. Similarly, in the period 1958-2018, the analysis of the CORINE land-cover changes showed a highly fragmented agricultural landscape, where natural areas were reduced to 2.5-5.0%. Germination variability at intrapopulation level should be considered as a fundamental adaptation strategy, which can increase the reproductive success of P. spinosum under climate and land-cover changes.

Research on the Management of Residents in Resettlement Communities in the Yellow River Beach Area: A Case Study of H Community in Jinan City

In recent years, China has attached great importance to the development of the Yellow River coastal areas and formulated many promotion policies for this purpose. The relocation and resettlement of residents in the Yellow River beach area is one of them. The implementation of this measure has enabled the people in the beach area to move out of the Yellow River coast in an orderly manner, ensuring the safety of residents and making their lives more convenient. At the same time, it also promotes the construction of new rural communities. H community is a typical community for relocation in Huanghe Beach District, Jinan City. This study conducted semi-structured interviews with residents of different identities and occupations in the H community, and conducted field research for a period of time to point out the governance status and difficulties of the H community. Based on the research, suggestions were proposed for similar communities and problems.

Vegetation Structure, Composition and Plant Community types in Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

The research was carried out in the Aravalli Forests of Nahargarh (NWLS) and Jamwa Ramgarh Wildlife Sanctuaries (JRWLS) of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. The vegetation structure, composition, biodiversity and plant community types were assessed across the five forest stands viz Nahargarh biological park (S1), Nahargarh Sanctuary (S2) in NWLS and Ramgarh (S3), Raisar (S4), and Digota (S5) of JRWLS, respectively. A total of 164 qaudrats of 20*20 m2 were laid to assess the vegetation data including frequency, basal area, density, importance value index (IVI), biodiversity indices (Shannon-weiner, Simpson, Pielou and Margalef’s) and plant community types. The tree basal area ranged between 18.56 -34.36 m2/ha while stand density was 923-1433 tree/ha. Our study indicated the dominance of family Fabaceae with 20 species and 11 genera with Anogeissus pendula showing the maximum frequency, density, mean basal area and IVI. Further, the agglomerative hierarchal clustering showed five types of plant communities with Anogeissus-Adhatoda as the most widely spread community in these forests. Among the two sanctuaries, species diversity was higher for JRWLS (2.83) than NWLS (2.80). The current study provides important baseline data for forthcoming research on monitoring and preserving these forest’s biological diversity. The significance of present study will provide insight into the structure and variety of tree species in tropical dry deciduous forests.

Report on Cardiovascular Health and Diseases in China 2023: An Updated Summary

Since 1990, China has made considerable progress in resolving the problem of “treatment difficulty” of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The prevalent unhealthy lifestyle among Chinese residents has exposed a massive proportion of the population to CVD risk factors, and this situation is further worsened due to the accelerated aging population in China. CVD remains one of the greatest threats to the health of Chinese residents. In terms of the proportions of disease mortality among urban and rural residents in China, CVD has persistently ranked first. In 2021, CVD accounted for 48.98% and 47.35% of deaths in rural and urban areas, respectively. Two out of every five deaths can be attributed to CVD. To implement a national policy “focusing on the primary health institute and emphasizing prevention” and truly achieve a shift of CVD prevention and treatment from hospitals to communities, the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases has organized experts from relevant fields across China to compile the “Report on Cardiovascular Health and Diseases in China” annually since 2005. The 2024 report is established based on representative, published, and high-quality big-data research results from cross-sectional and cohort population epidemiological surveys, randomized controlled clinical trials, large sample registry studies, and typical community prevention and treatment cases, along with data from some projects undertaken by the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases. These firsthand data not only enrich the content of the current report but also provide a more timely and comprehensive reflection of the status of CVD prevention and treatment in China.

Burning through information: An investigation of information sources and information seeking behavior during 2020 Oregon wildfires

A series of wildfires in Oregon in 2020 resulted in severe human and property losses. Given the stressful and time-sensitive nature of such events, providing timely information to people during extreme weather events like wildfires can be challenging. Understanding individuals' most-frequently-used information sources along with their information seeking behaviors can help communicators to target audiences and effectively communicate emergency information. A quantitative study was conducted to explore the information sources Oregon residents frequently used during 2020 wildfire season along with the factors underlying their information seeking behaviors. The results indicated television news was the most frequently used information source by the respondents, followed by the National Weather Service. Rural and urban/suburban residents varied on their reliance on friends, family, and neighbors as information sources during the wildfires. Additionally, risk awareness, community type, emotional response to climate change, media trust, and age significantly predicted the information seeking behaviors of Oregon residents during the 2020 wildfire season. Those involved in communicating information during emergencies should be mindful of their audiences’ information source use and create messages for sources most likely to be relied upon. The implications of this research are useful for stakeholders dealing with emergency communication and management to better understand the public and their information needs and behaviors during emergencies.

The Effect of Increasing Aggregation Levels of Electrical Consumption Data on Renewable Energy Community (REC) Analyses

The growing number of renewable energy communities (RECs) exemplifies the potential of citizen-driven actions towards a more sustainable future. However, obtaining hourly measured consumption data from REC members remains challenging, hindering accurate feasibility studies for the development of communities. This study examines the impact of estimating hourly consumption from aggregated data on REC analysis results. A case study with real consumption data from diverse users, representative of a typical community in Tuscany, Italy, was analysed to investigate various influencing factors. Multiple scenarios were simulated: two open-source tools estimated energy production from the community’s PV plants, and two REC configurations were considered—one with consumers and prosumers and another with consumers and a producer (with the same total installed power). Additionally, three locations were evaluated to consider the importance of geographical positioning. The study revealed that the impact of consumption data aggregation is more significant in scenarios with low energy sharing, such as the scenario where prosumers were replaced with a producer. Geographical positioning showed no major discrepancies in energy and economic outcomes, implying that using estimated hourly consumption data from aggregated data has a relevant impact regardless of location. Furthermore, different weather files did not affect the impact of aggregated consumption data.

Navigating Mental Health and Wellness in Communities: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Libraries, Librarians, and Library Workers

ABSTRACT Through a review of current literature and by providing statistics regarding mental health and its impact on people, this article emphasizes the critical role of reference librarians in supporting mental health and wellness within the different types of communities they serve. Furthermore, the article highlights the global and national context of mental health, stressing the importance of understanding this background for librarians to better meet the health and wellness needs of the communities they serve. The author summarizes recent wellness initiatives by various types of libraries to serve as an inspiration for librarians considering implementing new wellness efforts. The historical role of libraries in supporting mental health, including through the practice of bibliotherapy and how that role has expanded over time, is also shared. The author advocates for librarians and library workers to pursue professional development that is specific to trauma-informed librarianship and related areas. Special emphasis is placed on reference librarians and library workers becoming certified in Mental Health First Aid. The author also recommends resources from library science literature that emphasize the need for whole-person librarianship, the importance of librarians and library workers’ mutual support for each other, and other relevant topics.

Conceptualizing Worker-to-Worker Relations: A Comparative Perspective

Contemporary labour law scholarship places the relationship between employers and employees at the heart of its analysis, mostly disregarding relations between workers, especially if they belong to different organizations. This article argues that such an approach is one-dimensional and misses a central aspect of the experience of being a worker. It argues that the increasing complexity of the modern workplace requires a coherent scholarly account of this additional dimension of workplace dynamics.Attempting to address this blind spot, the article suggests conceptualizing worker-to-worker relations as a type of community: the ‘Worker-Community’. This new paradigm advances our understanding of the special characteristics, including duties and obligations, of relations between workers. The article further examines the range of potential legal implications of this model, from bullying and sexual harassment to the unregulated practice of underbidding in the gig or platform economy.

Losses and destabilization of soil organic carbon stocks in coastal wetlands converted into aquaculture ponds.

Coastal-wetlands play a crucial role as carbon (C) reservoirs on Earth due to their C pool composition and functional sink, making them significant for mitigating global climate change. However, due to the development and utilization of wetland resources, many wetlands have been transformed into other land-use types. The current study focuses on the alterations in soil organic-C (SOC) in coastal-wetlands following reclamation into aquaculture ponds. We conducted sampling at 11 different coastal-wetlands along the tropical to temperate regions of the China coast. Each site included two community types, one with solely native species (Suaeda salsa, Phragmites australis and Mangroves) and the other with an adjacent reclaimed aquaculture pond. Across these 11 locations we compared SOC stock, active OC fractions, and soil physicochemical properties between coastal wetlands and aquaculture ponds. We observed that different soil uses, sampling sites, and their interaction had significant effects on SOC and its stock (p < .05). Reclamation significantly declined SOC concentration at depths of 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm by 35.5% and 30.3%, respectively, and also decreased SOC stock at 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm depths by 29.1% and 37.9%, respectively. Similar trends were evident for SOC stock, labile organic-C, dissolved organic-C and microbial biomass organic-C concentrations (p < .05), indicating soil C-destabilization and losses from soil following conversion. Soils in aquaculture ponds exhibited higher bulk density (BD; 11.3%) and lower levels of salinity (61.0%), soil water content (SWC; 11.7%), total nitrogen (TN) concentration (23.8%) and available-nitrogen concentration (37.7%; p < .05) than coastal-wetlands. Redundancy-analysis revealed that pH, BD and TN concentration were the key variables most linked with temporal variations in SOC fractions and stock between two land use types. This study provides a theoretical basis for the rational utilization and management of wetland resources, the achievement of an environment-friendly society, and the preservation of multiple service functions within wetland ecosystems.

Allometry and the distribution of fruit and seed traits across tropical plant species

AbstractFruit and seed morphometry was studied across 1070 plant species belonging to 140 families from 27 contrasting plant communities. The main objectives were to identify allometric relationships and describe the frequency distributions of the weights and sizes of fruits and seeds across plant species, regardless of any qualitative attribute or community type. The frequency distributions of 12 morphometric variables were then determined. Pearson correlations were used to describe associations between quantitative attributes and estimate the slopes of the lines (allometric coefficients) obtained. In general, small fruits and seeds (&lt;1 cm) prevailed in the sample examined. The frequency distributions of the weight and size parameters of the fruits and seeds were bell‐shaped, with the exception of the number of seeds per fruit, which was skewed to the right. The highest allometric coefficients were found between the dry weights and sizes of the fruits and seeds, suggesting that these traits are mutually supporting. The cost of seed packaging per fruit, or the pericarp/seed ratio, tended to decrease with increasing investment in progeny, and the number of seeds per fruit decreased with an increase in seed weight. The significant associations between the fruit shape indexes and the morphometric attributes show that the shape of fruits is related to their size and weight. The highest allometric coefficients were found between the dry weights and sizes of the fruits and seeds. Fruit and seed size can predict their biomass and vice versa. There is a close relationship between fruit biomass values and their components (seeds and pericarp). Most species invest more biomass in pericarp (protection and dispersal) compared with the investment in progeny (seed per fruit). The sample examined could be influenced taxonomically along with selective pressures that favour the reproductive economy of the species and suggest that morphometric traits have evolved in coordination.