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ANIMAL TRAFFIC: Lively Capital in the Global Exotic Pet Trade: By Rosemary-Claire Collard. First is the erasure of social relations that occurs in the commodity fetishism explained by traditional Marxian analyses, and second is Collard's assertion of the erasure of the animals' socio-ecological relations in their (former) biotic communities. These traits are what provide "use value" for humans, and Collard explains that for the commodity transformation to happen, exotic animals "are subject to a double fetishism" (p. 18). [Extracted from the article]

Comparing with cities, rural communities especially those declining rural communities have become vulnerable to natural disasters owing to their backward socioeconomic conditions. Taking Xun County of China's Henan Province as the study area, the paper aims to evaluate rural community resilience to flood by unveiling the connection between individuals' cognition, follow-up actions and the community resilience. Research results show that: (1) The logic chain exists as individual's cognition to disaster leads to their constructive actions to cope with disaster, which contribute to community resilience. (2) At the cognition dimension, individual's knowledge reserve of disaster prevention and their recognition to local authority are playing an important role in their decision making and follow-up behaviors when disaster occurs. (3) At the action dimension, individual's familiarity with the disaster preparedness, efficient information transmission when disaster occurs and villagers' following order and their unity of action all contribute to community resilience to disaster. The paper proposes ways to improve rural community resilience to disasters based on the research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowing what the highest-level mammalian carnivores and intermediate levels eat throughout the geography and how human activities may affect their community dynamics is relevant information to focusing and deciding on conservation efforts within a territory. In this review, we characterize geographically the accumulated knowledge about the trophic niche of terrestrial mammalian carnivore species and evaluate the spatial relationship between the species richness distribution and the geographical distribution of their trophic knowledge in Chile. We found 88 peer-reviewed papers that include trophic studies per se, theses, and short notes carried out in Chile, where at least one trophic element was reported for terrestrial mammalian carnivore species. We found a positive relationship between the species richness distribution pattern and the spatial distribution of accumulated trophic knowledge, i.e., most of the papers have been conducted in Central-southern Chile (Central Chile and Temperate Forest ecoregions) responding to the highest co-occurrence of carnivore species within the limits of the biodiversity hotspot, the most threatened area in the country. Despite this general relationship, we recognize gaps in knowledge regarding regions of the country that require more research effort, such as O'Higgins, Maule, and Ñuble regions, as well as focus efforts on certain species with no or almost no knowledge of their trophic ecology, such as Leopardus colocola, Lyncodon patagonicus and Conepatus chinga. Except for the northern Chilean ecosystems, there is a generalized report of high consumption of exotic mammals in the diet of carnivores in the center and south of the country. However, of the 98 localities recognized in the 88 papers, 20.4% correspond to an anthropized environment, while most (79.6%) correspond to a "non-anthropized" environment or protected area. We hope this review allows researchers and decision-makers to consider the knowledge and lack thereof of carnivore trophic interactions as an opportunity to conserve entire natural communities throughout the Chilean territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We respond to comments made in the opinion paper by Ainley et al. (Hydrobiologia, 10.1007/s10750-015-2607-4, ) regarding our recent publication on the biology, ecology and life history of Antarctic toothfish ( Dissostichus mawsoni) in the Ross Sea region. We focus in particular on the spatial and temporal extent of data collected from the fishery; results of research to date on changes in abundance and size of Antarctic toothfish at McMurdo Sound; and the subject of neutral buoyancy and inferences about vertical distribution. We conclude by re-iterating the need for well-designed, standardised research programmes to address remaining uncertainties in its life history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on tropical Asian vertebrates has traditionally been sparse, particularly when it comes to cryptic species inhabiting the dense forests of the region. Vertebrate populations are declining globally due to land‐use change and hunting, the latter frequently referred as "defaunation." This is especially true in tropical Asia where there is extensive land‐use change and high human densities. Robust monitoring requires that large volumes of vertebrate population data be made available for use by the scientific and applied communities. Camera traps have emerged as an effective, non‐invasive, widespread, and common approach to surveying vertebrates in their natural habitats. However, camera‐derived datasets remain scattered across a wide array of sources, including published scientific literature, gray literature, and unpublished works, making it challenging for researchers to harness the full potential of cameras for ecology, conservation, and management. In response, we collated and standardized observations from 239 camera trap studies conducted in tropical Asia. There were 278,260 independent records of 371 distinct species, comprising 232 mammals, 132 birds, and seven reptiles. The total trapping effort accumulated in this data paper consisted of 876,606 trap nights, distributed among Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Nepal, and far eastern India. The relatively standardized deployment methods in the region provide a consistent, reliable, and rich count data set relative to other large‐scale pressence‐only data sets, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) or citizen science repositories (e.g., iNaturalist), and is thus most similar to eBird. To facilitate the use of these data, we also provide mammalian species trait information and 13 environmental covariates calculated at three spatial scales around the camera survey centroids (within 10‐, 20‐, and 30‐km buffers). We will update the dataset to include broader coverage of temperate Asia and add newer surveys and covariates as they become available. This dataset unlocks immense opportunities for single‐species ecological or conservation studies as well as applied ecology, community ecology, and macroecology investigations. The data are fully available to the public for utilization and research. Please cite this data paper when utilizing the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Using next-generation sequencing technologies, scientists can sequence complex microbial communities directly from the environment. Significant insights into the structure, diversity, and ecology of microbial communities have resulted from the study of metagenomics. The assembly of reads into longer contigs, which are then binned into groups of contigs that correspond to different species in the metagenomic sample, is a crucial step in the analysis of metagenomics. It is necessary to organize these contigs into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) for further taxonomic profiling and functional analysis. For binning, which is synonymous with the clustering of OTUs, the tetra-nucleotide frequency (TNF) is typically utilized as a compositional feature for each OTU. Results: In this paper, we present AFIT, a new l-mer statistic vector for each contig, and AFITBin, a novel method for metagenomic binning based on AFIT and a matrix factorization method. To evaluate the performance of the AFIT vector, the t-SNE algorithm is used to compare species clustering based on AFIT and TNF information. In addition, the efficacy of AFITBin is demonstrated on both simulated and real datasets in comparison to state-of-the-art binning methods such as MetaBAT 2, MaxBin 2.0, CONCOT, MetaCon, SolidBin, BusyBee Web, and MetaBinner. To further analyze the performance of the purposed AFIT vector, we compare the barcodes of the AFIT vector and the TNF vector. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that AFITBin shows superior performance in taxonomic identification compared to existing methods, leveraging the AFIT vector for improved results in metagenomic binning. This approach holds promise for advancing the analysis of metagenomic data, providing more reliable insights into microbial community composition and function. Availability: A python package is available at: https://github.com/SayehSobhani/AFITBin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is based on three months of fieldwork among the Debne and Weima Afar clans in Amibara woreda (district), Afar National Regional State (ANRS), Ethiopia, which was conducted in three rounds in 2016, 2018 and 2022. The purpose of the study is to explore the customary organisational structure and the rules and regulations employed by the local communities in managing natural resources on their rangelands as well as in resolving conflicts. While the clan system provides the basis for the Afar social and political organisation, claims to land are made at subclan and lineage levels. The formal administration largely functions using the clan structure, as it has more legitimacy than the state itself. Given the infrastructural limitations and legitimacy deficits of the government in the region, this paper argues that the clan system continues to play a dominating role when it comes to social organisation, resource management and conflict resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predator–prey interactions are a fundamental part of community ecology, yet the relative importance of consumptive and nonconsumptive effects (NCEs) (defined as a risk‐induced response that alters prey fitness) has not been resolved. Theory suggests that the emergence and subsequent predominance of consumptive or NCEs depend on the given habitat's complexity as well as predator hunting mode and spatial domain sizes of both predator and prey, but their relative influence on the outcome of predator–prey interactions is unknown. We built agent‐based models in NetLogo to simulate predator–prey interactions for three hunting modes—sit‐and‐wait, sit‐and‐pursue, and active—while concurrently simulating large versus small spatial domain sizes for both predators and prey. We studied (1) how hunting mode and spatial domain size interact to influence the emergence of consumptive or NCEs and (2) how, when NCEs do dominate, hunting mode and spatial domain separately or additively determine prey shifts in time, space, and habitat use. Our results indicate consumptive effects only dominate for active predators when prey habitat domains overlap completely with the predator's spatial domain and when sit‐and‐wait and sit‐and‐pursue predators and their prey both have large spatial domains. Prey are most likely to survive when they shift their time but most frequently shift their habitat. Our paper helps to better understand the underlying mechanisms that drive consumptive or NCEs to be most dominant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity is essential to the viability of ecological systems. Species diversity in ecosystems is promoted by cyclic, non-hierarchical interactions among competing populations. Central features of such non-transitive relations are represented by the ‘rock–paper–scissors’ game, in which rock crushes scissors, scissors cut paper, and paper wraps rock. In combination with spatial dispersal of static populations, this type of competition results in the stable coexistence of all species and the long-term maintenance of biodiversity. However, population mobility is a central feature of real ecosystems: animals migrate, bacteria run and tumble. Here, we observe a critical influence of mobility on species diversity. When mobility exceeds a certain value, biodiversity is jeopardized and lost. In contrast, below this critical threshold all subpopulations coexist and an entanglement of travelling spiral waves forms in the course of time. We establish that this phenomenon is robust; it does not depend on the details of cyclic competition or spatial environment. These findings have important implications for maintenance and temporal development of ecological systems and are relevant for the formation and propagation of patterns in microbial populations or excitable media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Archives and libraries all over the world suffer from biodeterioration of writings caused by microorganisms, especially fungi. With traditionally used culture-dependent methods, only a small amount of effectively colonising organisms is detected. Restoration and maintenance of written cultural heritage is therefore problematic due to incomplete knowledge of the deterioration agents. In the present study, culture-independent molecular methods were applied to identify fungal communities colonising paper samples of different composition and age. Nucleic-acid-based strategies targeting the internally transcribed spacer (ITS) regions, which are nested in the nuclear rDNA repeats, were selected to investigate the fungal diversity on paper. The ITS regions possess a high variation among taxonomically distinct fungal species and even within the species. With this aim, several molecular biological methods were optimised for working with paper materials. Here, we introduce a DNA extraction protocol, which allowed the direct extraction of PCR-amplifiable DNA from samples derived from different kinds of paper. The DNA extracts were used to amplify either the ITS1 or ITS2 region by using different fungi-specific primer sets. The ITS-amplified regions were subsequently analysed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Conditions for DGGE analysis, gradient, voltage, and running time, were established to accurately discriminate different fungal species in complex communities. Pure fungal strains were used to constitute a marker for further comparative investigations of historic papers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article is an editorial for a thematic issue on Polar and Alpine Microbiology in the journal FEMS Microbiology Ecology. The issue focuses on the microbial ecology of cold habitats and the importance of understanding the biodiversity and functional roles of microorganisms in these environments. The issue includes 30 peer-reviewed papers, most of which were presented at the 9th International Conference on Polar and Alpine Microbiology (PAM22). The papers cover a range of topics, including microbial communities, adaptation, carbon and nitrogen turnover, and plant-microbe interactions, with a particular emphasis on Arctic, mountain, and Antarctic regions. The issue is dedicated to the late researcher S. Craig Cary, who made significant contributions to the study of microbial life in extreme environments. [Extracted from the article]

Atmospheric changes could strongly influence how terrestrial ecosystems function by altering nutrient cycling. We examined how the dynamics of nutrient release from leaf litter responded to two important atmospheric changes: rising atmospheric CO2 and tropospheric O3. We evaluated the independent and combined effects of these gases on foliar litter nutrient dynamics in aspen ( Populus tremuloides Michx) and birch ( Betula papyrifera Marsh)/aspen communities at the Aspen FACE Project in Rhinelander, WI. Naturally senesced leaf litter was incubated in litter bags in the field for 735 days. Decomposing litter was sampled six times during incubation and was analyzed for carbon, and both macro (N, P, K, S, Ca, and Mg) and micro (Mn, B, Zn and Cu) nutrient concentrations. Elevated CO2 significantly decreased the initial litter concentrations of N (−10.7%) and B (−14.4%), and increased the concentrations of K (+23.7%) and P (+19.7%), with no change in the other elements. Elevated O3 significantly decreased the initial litter concentrations of P (−11.2%), S (−8.1%), Ca (−12.1%), and Zn (−19.5%), with no change in the other elements. Pairing concentration data with litterfall data, we estimated that elevated CO2 significantly increased the fluxes to soil of all nutrients: N (+12.5%), P (+61.0%), K (+67.1%), S (+28.0%), and Mg (+40.7%), Ca (+44.0%), Cu (+38.9%), Mn (+62.8%), and Zn (+33.1%). Elevated O3 had the opposite effect: N (−22.4%), P (−25.4%), K (−27.2%), S (−23.6%), Ca (−27.6%), Mg (−21.7%), B (−16.2%), Cu (−20.8%), and Zn (−31.6%). The relative release rates of the nine elements during the incubation was: K ≥ P ≥ mass ≥ Mg ≥ B ≥ Ca ≥ S ≥ N ≥ Mn ≥ Cu ≥ Zn. Atmospheric changes had little effect on nutrient release rates, except for decreasing Ca and B release under elevated CO2 and decreasing N and Ca release under elevated O3. We conclude that elevated CO2 and elevated O3 will alter nutrient cycling more through effects on litter production, rather than litter nutrient concentrations or release rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs in the U.S. Australian radiosondes monitor a large area of the Southern Hemisphere have experienced so many changes that unadjusted temperature trends of the bulk atmosphere computed from their soundings are suspect. Quantification of carbon exchange in forest ecosystems needs a unique sampling strategy. Strong vertical wind shear usually will weaken even mature hurricanes.

The ecological niche is a fundamental concept in ecology that can be used in order better understand species relationships. The overlap in species niches provides a measure of the likelihood for species to co‐occur. Most approaches that quantify niche overlap have been based on distance and similarity indices, for pairwise combinations of species. In this paper, we suggest that niche overlap can be calculated from the predictions of a model. Using a statistical model to predict niche overlap provides various benefits, includes the possibility to adjust the model to properties of the data. We demonstrate this using an example dataset of an ecological community of Foraminifera species, to which we fit a generalized linear latent variable model (GLLVM). GLLVMs are a flexible class of models that allow to estimate the distribution of species using both measured environmental predictors and residual covariation between species. We demonstrate how to calculate niche overlap from GLLVMs for any combination of species, and separately for different environments. Predicting niche overlap from a model further expands the toolset available to ecologists for the exploration of species co‐occurrence patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen cycling in northern temperate forest ecosystems could change under increasing atmospheric CO2 and tropospheric O3 as a result of quantitative and qualitative changes in plant litter production. At the Aspen Free Air CO2–O3 Enrichment (FACE) experiment, we previously found that greater substrate inputs to soil under elevated CO2 did not alter gross N transformation rates in the first 3 years of the experiment. We hypothesized that greater litter production under elevated CO2 would eventually cause greater gross N transformation rates and that CO2 effects would be nullified by elevated O3. Following our original study, we continued measurement of gross N transformation rates for an additional four years. From 1999 to 2003, gross N mineralization doubled, N immobilization increased 4-fold, but changes in microbial biomass N and soil total N were not detected. We observed year-to-year variation in N transformation rates, which peaked during a period of foliar insect damage. Elevated CO2 caused equivalent increases in gross rates of N mineralization (+34%) and NH immobilization (+36%). These results indicate greater rates of N turnover under elevated CO2, but do not indicate a negative feedback between elevated CO2 and soil N availability. Elevated O3 decreased gross N mineralization (−16%) and had no effect on NH immobilization, indicating reduced N availability under elevated O3. The effects of CO2 and O3 on N mineralization rates were mainly related to changes in litter production, whereas effects on N immobilization were likely influenced by changes in litter chemistry and production. Our findings also indicate that concomitant increases in atmospheric CO2 and O3 could lead to a negative feedback on N availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restoration of degraded ecosystems can be constrained by uncertainty over former conditions and the relevance of the past given recent changes. It can be difficult to differentiate among contrasting hypotheses about past ecosystem function, and restoration efforts can emphasize species reestablishment without integrating the ecological and cultural processes that once determined their occurrence. As a case study, we analyzed historical descriptions of an endangered oak grassland ecosystem in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, to determine former conditions and assess their validity for defining restoration targets. Twenty-three documents described this ecosystem from 1790 to 1951. Comparison of early survey records with contemporary occurrences suggests habitat loss of >95%. The identity and former range of most native plant species were poorly described, but accounts of ecosystem structure revealed a diversity of floral communities that has been much simplified. Fire, most likely set by indigenous peoples, interacted with edaphic and topographic factors to create this structural diversity. European settlers intensively modified the ecosystem with grazing, cultivation, and introduced flora. These transformations partly explain the current high levels of plant invasion. Restoration must target the ecosystems' former structural diversity and the ecological and cultural processes that maintained it. Given the recent impacts of fire suppression, habitat loss, and plant invasion, however, land managers must balance the reestablishment of historical processes with their potential negative effects in sites with numerous at-risk species. This ecosystem was, and remains, part of a culturally modified landscape, where human activity has maintained unforested areas for millennia but now promotes mostly exotic flora. Although pre-European conditions cannot be fully restored, the historical data provided restoration insights unobtainable from current biological studies emphasizing the end point of long-term ecological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine if non-native plant species are homogenizing species composition among widely dispersed plant communities. Twenty localities in North America. Species lists among localities were compared to measure the influence of non-native species richness at each locality on the Jaccard Index (JI) of similarity between localities. After removing the effects of distance, because shared native species decreased with distance, three (nonexclusive) lines of evidence indicate that non-native species promote homogenization. First, pairs of sites with a high combined total of non-native species tend to have higher similarity than those with a low total of non-natives. Second, for a given distance, more non-native than native species tended to be shared among localities. Third, whereas most of the site comparisons with high total non-native richness have a non-native/native JI ratio greater than 1 (often much greater), only half of the comparisons with low total non-native richness have a ratio greater than one. These findings provide quantitative support for the widely held, but rarely tested, notion that non-native species tend to homogenize biological communities because they are more commonly shared among communities. Such testing is important as non-native species could theoretically have no impact or even reduce homogenization among communities, if non-native colonizers consist of different species pools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive dieback of salt marsh dominated by the perennial grass Spartina alterniflora occurred throughout the Mississippi River deltaic plain during 2000. More than 100,000 ha were affected, with 43,000 ha severely damaged. The aim of this work was to determine if sudden dieback could have been caused by a coincident drought and to assess the significance of this event with respect to long-term changes in coastal vegetation. Multiple dieback sites and reference sites were established along 150 km of shoreline in coastal Louisiana, USA. Aerial and ground surveys were conducted from June 2000 to September 2001 to assess soil conditions and plant mortality and recovery. Dieback areas ranged in size from ∼300 m2−5 km2 in area with 50–100% mortality of plant shoots and rhizomes in affected zones. Co-occurring species such as Avicennia germinans (black mangrove) and Juncus roemerianus (needlegrass rush) were unaffected. Historical records indicate that precipitation, river discharge, and mean sea level were unusually low during the previous year. Although the cause of dieback is currently unknown, plant and soil characteristics were consistent with temporary soil desiccation that may have reduced water availability, increased soil salinity, and/or caused soil acidification (via pyrite oxidation) and increased uptake of toxic metals such as Fe or Al. Plant recovery 15 months after dieback was variable (0–58% live cover), but recovering plants were vigorous and indicated no long-lasting effects of the dieback agent. These findings have relevance for global change models of coastal ecosystems that predict vegetation responses based primarily on long-term increases in sea level and submergence of marshes. Our results suggest that large-scale changes in coastal vegetation may occur over a relatively short time span through climatic extremes acting in concert with sea-level fluctuations and pre-existing soil conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution of Mutilla europaea (Linnaeus, 1758), has never been carefully investigated in Northern Europe. The density of M. europaea is highest along parts of the coast in Northern Europe and its distribution overlaps the border of the temperate zone in this area, which is not surprising, given that it is well documented that temperature regulates the ecology of insect communities (presumably because temperature is associated with several physiological other adaptations and plastic responses). This paper presents new information on its distribution in Northern Europe and reveals that abiotic factors are associated with this species' distribution in the area around the Baltic Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the centuries, the populations of human beings settled in the surroundings of water tributaries have indiscriminately disposed of their waste, throwing it into rivers, lakes, oceans, and surrounding land. When the amounts of waste, mostly biodegradable, are low, the environmental consequences and the health of biotic communities are minimal. However, the mass manufacture and disposal of non- biodegradable synthetic materials since the mid-20th century has had profound biological and environmental effects. Plastics are the most significant example of these ubiquitous synthetic materials, usually single-use, non-biodegradable and with high amounts of toxic chemical additives. Due to the high stability and resistance of plastic, it is impossible to quickly bind it in processes that allow its degradation and decomposition; for this reason, they have become half of the waste that exists on the planet today. The drift of these materials leads them, under ambient conditions, to gradually fragment into particles reaching the scales of micrometers and nanometers. These particles have been categorized as incidental contaminants: micro and nanoplastics. Today, the world is witnessing the nanotechnology boom and more and more industries are interested in the use of this emerging technology; They intentionally produce micro and nanoplastics to be incorporated into cosmetic products, textile fibers, among many other purposes. The contamination of these plastic particles of imperceptible dimensions, reaches food for human consumption through persistence in ecosystems and bioaccumulation, through different routes of exposure, mainly through ingestion in the different chains that make up the global trophic web, in addition, of the migration of the material used for the storage, preservation and packaging of food. When ingested, nanoplastics and some microplastics cross physical epithelial barriers and are distributed throughout the body, entering practically all body tissues, altering their function and increasing the disease burden of biotic communities, including humans. As they are considered inert and heterogeneous materials, their identification and recovery are complex, in addition to not being completely effective. This paper seeks to review information that allows evaluating the impact of nanoplastics present in food, highlighting the toxic effects that these materials have for human health through bioaccumulation and biomagnification in food chains at the subcellular biomolecular level and, on the other hand, describe recovery techniques for nanoplastics to reduce their presence in food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a widespread call for the development of transformative adaptation knowledge and strategies in the Himalayan region because of the intensifying onset of climate change impacts. But such transformative thinking is absent in much of Himalayan climate knowledge production, which builds on environmental deterministic and techno-managerial renditions of exceptional precarity; advocates for an increase in the scientific and expert driven projects on the ground; and remains rooted in the scalar realities of the nation-state. This paper contributes to the rich scholarship that counterbalances depoliticized renditions of climate change adaptation, by presenting "everyday stories of adaptation" that have emerged from the authors' work alongside Himalayan communities. In this work we ask, who is the subject in Himalayan climate adaptation discourse and policies? And how can their stories help us envision an adaptation praxis, which challenges regional narratives of crisis and provides alternatives to climate reductionist thinking/planning, by foregrounding the intersectionality and plurality of communities and ecologies? The stories come from three parts of the Himalaya: Uttarakhand, Khumbu, and Assam, and highlight the daily labor for adaptation and its mercurial relationship with the labor for survival. We find that intertwined with changing climate-society relationships are, historical caste privileges and changing generational relationships to land; the complicated engagements between indigeneity, communal sovereignty, and exclusionary institutional mandates; and life with ethnoreligious othering in an aqueous and geopolitically fluid borderland. Together these stories witness the relational social-ecological worlds of regional inhabitants, challenging their powerless and pejorative depictions through climate reductive framings. We conclude with a set of objectives to enable more hopeful and just adaptation futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since their emergence in the 1980s, environmental virtue ethics (EVEs) have aimed to provide an alternative to deontological and consequentialist approaches for guiding ecological actions in the context of the global environmental crisis. The deterioration of the ecological situation and the challenges in addressing collective action problems caused by global changes have heightened interest in these ethics. They offer a framework for meaningful individual actions independently of the commitment of other actors. However, by shifting the focus onto individuals, EVEs appear to grapple with the tension between anthropocentrism and respect for nature, as well as between self-flourishing and concern for other living beings. This article argues that this difficulty is rooted in the neglect within EVEs of the communitarian aspect of ancient virtue ethics. Drawing from Baird Callicott's ecocentric approach and Val Plumwood's works, this paper explores the possibility of conceiving ecological communities as collective frameworks in which both public and private virtues are defined and practiced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new stochastic four-species predator-prey model with disease in the first prey is proposed and studied. First, we present the stochastic model with some biological assumptions and establish the existence of globally positive solutions. Moreover, a condition for species to be permanent and extinction is provided. The above properties can help to save the dangered population in the ecosystem. Through Lyapunov functions, we discuss the asymptotic stability of a positive equilibrium solution for our model. Furthermore, it is also shown that the system has a stationary distribution and indicating the existence of a stable biotic community. Finally, our results of the proposed model have revealed the effect of random fluctuations on the four species ecosystem when adding the alternative food sources for the predator population. To illustrate our theoretical findings, some numerical simulations are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic forcing caused the biodiversity loss and stability decline of communities. There is still controversy over whether the decline in biodiversity will lead to a decrease in community stability. The stability of biological communities is related to both biodiversity and structure, and this paper aims to reveal the human impacts on diatom communities' biodiversity and structure. We studied the richness, β‐diversity and network distance of diatom communities in Qinghai‐Xizang, Yunnan‐Sichuan and Lower Yangtze River Basin, China through empirical dataset and simulation method. The results showed that the diatoms richness in the Qinghai‐Xizang and the Yunnan‐Sichuan region was lower and the network distance was higher than that of the Lower Yangtze River Basin. β‐diversity in the Lower Yangtze River Basin was the lowest and the diatom network distance responds negatively to human population densities in China. The simulation showed that the network distance kept constant during random species loss, and declined while specialist species were lost or replaced by generalist species. The results suggested diatom communities' homogeneity and stability decline were associated with human activities. Human impacts may cause biodiversity loss targeted to specialist species or no biodiversity loss while generalist species replace those specialist species. This study showed that how diversity changes determined ecological stability depends on the type of species changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the effective tools to study the variation between communities is the use of pairwise dissimilarity indices. Besides species as variables, the involvement of trait information provides valuable insight into the functioning of ecosystems. In recent years, a variety of indices have been proposed to quantify functional dissimilarity between communities. These indices follow different approaches to account for between‐species similarities in calculating community dissimilarity, yet they all have been proposed as straightforward tools. In this paper, we review the trait‐based dissimilarity indices available in the literature and identify the most important conceptual and technical properties that differentiate among them, and that must be considered before their application. We identify two primary aspects that need to be considered before choosing a functional dissimilarity index. The first one is the way communities are represented in the trait space. The three main types of representations are the typical values, the discrete sets using the combination of species × sites and species × traits matrices, and the hypervolumes. The second decision is the concept of dissimilarity to follow, including two options: distances and disagreements. We use the above scheme to discuss the available functional dissimilarity indices and evaluate their relations to each other, their capabilities, and accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex mixtures of substances are in the atmosphere and they can cause diseases in humans and biological communities after acute or chronic exposition. This paper focuses on the physical measurement of particulate matter, a proxy for air pollution, and a biological method for mutation assessment due to plants' exposure to air pollution. The objective of this research was to characterize the air pollution seasonality in municipalities in southern Brazil, and also to understand the relation between air pollution and the biological response of the Tradescantia sp. clone 4430. The optical sensor SDS011 was used for measurements of particulate matter (PM) and the Trad-SHM bioassay was chosen to quantify the mutagenic alterations that occurred in stamen hairs during the study period, with PM data being measured every 5 seconds and the flowers being harvested approximately every two weeks for laboratory analysis. The Pearson test was applied to verify the correlation between PM and mutations in stamen hair as a result of which it was observed that there is a positive correlation between these data, with the highest value found being r = 0.61. Also, the period with the highest occurrence of pink cells was between autumn and spring, the same period in which an unusual increase in PM concentrations was also observed, a period that corresponds to a less favorable dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere. The use of Tradescantia sp. clone 4430 showed sensitivity to the environments in which it was exposed. Biomonitoring is an important tool for understanding the effects of pollutants on the ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marsh Fern (Thelypteris palustris) is a hygrophytic plant uncommon to the flora of Bulgaria. It is also a vulnerable species, with small and isolated localities in several parts of the country. This paper provides new data on syntaxonomy of the communities in which this fern participates, as well as on a new important locality near Pleven town, Danubian Plain. The paper also attempts to summarize the published and more recent information on the distribution of this species in Bulgaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of intraspecific trait variation in functional ecology has gained traction in recent years as many papers have observed its importance in driving community diversity and ecology. Yet much of the work in this field relies on field-based trait surveys. Here, we used continuous canopy trait information derived from remote sensing data of a highly polymorphic tree species, Metrosideros polymorpha, to quantify environmental controls on intraspecific trait variation. M. polymorpha, an endemic, keystone tree species in Hawai'i, varies morphologically, chemically, and genetically across broad elevation and soil substrate age gradients, making it an ideal model organism to explore large-scale environmental drivers of intraspecific trait variation. M. polymorpha canopy reflectance (visible to shortwave infrared; 380–2510 nm) and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data collected by the Global Airborne Observatory were modeled to canopy trait estimates of leaf mass per area, chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids, total carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, phenols, cellulose, and top of canopy height using previously developed leaf chemometric equations. We explored how these derived traits varied across environmental gradients by extracting elevation, slope, aspect, precipitation, and soil substrate age data at canopy locations. We then obtained the feature importance values of the environmental factors in predicting each leaf trait by training random forest models to predict leaf traits individually. Of these environmental factors, elevation was the most important predictor for all canopy traits. Elevation not only affected canopy traits directly but also indirectly by influencing the relationships between soil substrate age and canopy traits as well as between nitrogen and other traits, as indicated by the change in slope between the variables at different elevation ranges. In conclusion, intraspecific variation in M. polymorpha traits derived from remote sensing adheres to known leaf economic spectrum (LES) patterns as well as interspecific LES traits previously mapped using imaging spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to disperse has continually shaped both the distribution and diversification of biota, and it affects the survival of the species with respect to wide-ranging habitat loss. As a response, organisms unable to spread by their own means often developed surrogate dispersal strategies. Pseudoscorpions possess small body sizes and cannot actively disperse over large distances and geographic barriers; therefore, they have adopted other ecological strategies. They are either sedentary and remain confined to stable environments or passively disperse via phoresy and are capable of inhabiting a wide variety of habitats, including temporary ones. In this paper, we use barcoding data to investigate the genetic diversity of four widely distributed and relatively morphologically uniform Cheliferidae genera Chelifer, Dactylochelifer, Rhacochelifer and Hysterochelifer. We aim to (i) test whether the genera harbor cryptic diversity and (ii) evaluate whether the genetic structure of the species parallels their dispersal capabilities and habitat preferences (i.e., ecological strategies). In general, we uncovered independent lineages within all analyzed genera, which indicates their need for a thorough and integrative taxonomic revision. More specifically, we detected a varying degree of genetic structuring among the lineages. Known phoretic species, as well as some species and delimited lineages that are not known to use this manner of dispersal, showed a complete lack of geographical structure and shared haplotypes over large distances, while other taxa had restricted distributions. We argue that genetic structure can be used as a proxy to evaluate species' dispersal manner and efficacy. Our results also suggest that taxa inhabiting stable environments might use phoresy for their dispersal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CONCLUDING REMARKS This new paper by Fong et al. makes an exciting and relevant contribution to the emerging field of trait-based seaweed ecology, leading to new opportunities in trait-based seaweed research. In this issue, Fong et al. show how the use of categorical traits can greatly accelerate progress in the emerging field of seaweed trait-based ecology (Fong et al., [3]). Keywords: aquatic plant ecology; categorical traits; determinants of plant community diversity and structure; functional traits; Macroalgae; plant development and life-history traits; trait-based ecology EN aquatic plant ecology categorical traits determinants of plant community diversity and structure functional traits Macroalgae plant development and life-history traits trait-based ecology 1844 1847 4 09/07/23 20230901 NES 230901 In this issue, Fong et al. show how the use of categorical traits can greatly accelerate progress in seaweed trait-based ecology. [Extracted from the article]

Environment and natural resources were crucial to the existence of abiotic and biotic organisms, which included human beings. As the environment degraded, one of the key solutions was the next generation's perception, understanding, and attitude toward environmental laws. Thus, the paper studied the knowledge and attitude of Bachelor of Science in Agriculture students toward environmental laws in the Philippines. The study was conducted through a structured survey questionnaire and interview. The study revealed that students of the Bachelor of Science in Agriculture of the DEBESMSCAT-Cawayan Campus had poor knowledge and awareness of environmental laws. However, their attitude towards environmental law enforcement was considered essential. Additionally, students believed that the government was not effective in enforcing environmental laws in the country, their level of confidence in the government towards environmental law was low, and they perceived that most people were not aware of environmental laws. Lastly, community clean-up drives, tree planting, conservation of electricity, and everyone's responsibility were pro-environmental behaviors of Bachelor of Science in Agriculture students. Therefore, strict implementation and molding of agriculture students in their subjects were necessary to strengthen their attitude toward environmental laws. It was also vital to enhance their leadership skills to influence the community as they had positive behavior in the implementation of environmental laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper specifies the invasibility of common plant community types in the natural habitats of the Middle Urals. Invasibility was defined as the vulnerability of a community to alien plant species invasions, regardless of the conditions in which the community existed. We analyzed 749 vegetation relevés made in natural bogs, floodplains, rocky grasslands, meadows, and forest communities. We surveyed urban and non-urban habitats (30–40 km from the city). Invasibility was calculated in two different ways based on two parameters: the number and proportion of alien species in the relevé. These invasibility parameters are widely applicable and comparable, scale-independent, measurable, and reliable, based on data that do not require the destruction of ecosystems or biota and are based on available data. Based on the invasibility degree, we identified three community-type groups with two subgroups in one group. In ascending order of invasibility degree, the community types were arranged as follows: (1) bogs with and without trees; (2a) coniferous forests; grass communities in floodplains; (2b) deciduous forests, coniferous plantations, floodplain communities with woody plants; and (3) dry meadows and rocky grasslands. Obtained results of the assessment of different plant community invasibility may be used to understand patterns of alien plant distribution in local habitats and the reasons for the different vulnerability of communities to plant invasions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last century, science fiction has become an incredibly powerful tool in depicting alternative social imaginaries, particularly those of the future. Extending beyond their fictious nature is a commentary on the stark realities of modern society. The 'cyberpunk' subgenre, for example, offers a dystopian critique on the dangers of technological dependence and hypercapitalism. In studying science fiction, future imaginaries can be developed as utopian goals for governance systems to strive for. In contrast to cyberpunk, the subgenre of 'solarpunk' depicts a utopian society where humanity lives locally, sustainably, and in harmony with nature. This paper deconstructs solarpunk media to describe three guiding principles of solarpunk: anarchism, ecology, and justice. As an anarchist community, solarpunk strives for a post-scarcity, post-capitalist society devoid of hierarchy and domination. As an ecological community, solarpunk strives for local, self-sufficient, and sustainable living where both the human and non-human flourish. Finally, as a just community, solarpunk strives to rid society of marginalization and celebrate authenticity. These three principles can be used to guide humanity towards a utopian, solarpunk future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-omics has the promise to provide a detailed molecular picture of biological systems. Although obtaining multi-omics data is relatively easy, methods that analyze such data have been lagging. In this paper, we present an algorithm that uses probabilistic graph representations and external knowledge to perform optimal structure learning and deduce a multifarious interaction network for multi-omics data from a bacterial community. Kefir grain, a microbial community that ferments milk and creates kefir, represents a self-renewing, stable, natural microbial community. Kefir has been shown to have a wide range of health benefits. We obtained a controlled bacterial community using the two most abundant and well-studied species in kefir grains: Lentilactobacillus kefiri and Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens. We applied growth temperatures of 30 °C and 37 °C and obtained transcriptomic, metabolomic, and proteomic data for the same 20 samples (10 samples per temperature). We obtained a multi-omics interaction network, which generated insights that would not have been possible with single-omics analysis. We identified interactions among transcripts, proteins, and metabolites, suggesting active toxin/antitoxin systems. We also observed multifarious interactions that involved the shikimate pathway. These observations helped explain bacterial adaptation to different stress conditions, co-aggregation, and increased activation of L. kefiranofaciens at 37 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ongoing debate in academic and practitioner communities, centers on the measurement similarities and differences between social vulnerability and community resilience. More specifically, many see social vulnerability and community resilience measurements as conceptually and empirically the same. Only through a critical and comparative assessment can we ascertain the extent to which these measurement schemas empirically relate to one another. This paper uses two well-known indices—the social vulnerability index (SoVI) and the Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) to address the topic. The paper employs spatio-temporal correlations to test for differences or divergence (negative associations) and similarities or convergence (positive associations), and the degree of overlap. These tests use continental U.S. counties, two timeframes (2010 and 2015), and two case study sub-regions (to identify changes in measurement associations going from national to regional scales given the place-based nature of each index). Geospatial analytics indicate a divergence with little overlap between SoVI and BRIC measurements, based on low negative correlation coefficients (around 30%) for both time periods. There is some spatial variability in measurement overlap, but less than 2% of counties show hot spot clustering of correlations of more than 50% in either year. The strongest overlap and divergence in both years occurs in few counties in California, Arizona, and Maine. The degree of overlap in measurements at the regional scale is greater in the Gulf Region (39%) than in the Southeast Atlantic region (21% in 2010; 28% in 2015) suggesting more homogeneity in Gulf Coast counties based on population and place characteristics. However, in both study areas SoVI and BRIC measurements are negatively associated. Given their inclusion in the National Risk Index, both social vulnerability and resilience metrics are needed to interpret the local community capacities in natural hazards risk planning, as a vulnerable community could be highly resilient or vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of health has gained importance in today's society in the context of a healthy China. The success of community environmental design is intimately correlated with everyone's physical and mental health since it is the setting for people's daily lives. At present, although the facilities and equipment of the community environment in our country are improving day by day, the important role of color psychology in the community environment has been neglected. Color has always been a part of human life and a very important component of the community environment. When it comes to the design of communal environments, the color design of various areas will have variable degrees of influence on the psychological space and perspective of individuals. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the application value of color psychology in the design of community health environments using color psychology as a scientific foundation. Additionally, the paper attempts to use color psychology as a scientific basis to study the thinking of health issues in the community environment. In addition, the results of the questionnaire survey are used to perform analysis and discussion in order to investigate the regular characteristics of the various research objects, as well as their preferences and psychological needs for color. This is done with the goal of providing empirical support for the improvement of the community environment and the health of the people living in it. In the end, the results of the questionnaire survey are compiled with four different design concepts. These design principles include functionality, naturalness, beauty, and safety. And the design intention and optimization strategy from the three directions the overall building, planting, and paving in the community healthy environment are then presented. This is done in order to create a colorful and comfortable healthy environment for the community life of people and to support the development of people's physical and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Forest resource Metabolism Network model isdeveloped for ecological and economic analysis. • Exploitation index is developed to reveal the weaker sectors in the ecological relations. • A case study of Guangdong province, China isconducted to illustrate the potential benefits. • Scientific Basis are provided to allocate forestresources and stabilize industrial structure. Abstract Integrating forest resources into the socio-economic system correctly and reasonably is of vital importance to tackle the increasingly scarce forest resources. In this paper, forest resource input-output model and forest resource metabolism network model are established to provide new insights into the relationships among the systems, industries and sectors related to forest resources. A promising indicator named exploitation index is developed to reveal the weaker sectors in the ecological relations, which will further help to provide better corrective actions and integrated strategic measures. Guangdong is taken as an example to verify the availability of the model and solve the problem. The results show that the primary manufacturing consumes more direct timber, while advanced manufacturing and the service sector utilize timber indirectly. In addition, Guangdong forest metabolism system shows a negative correlation and the whole network does not achieve the mutualism state, leading to competition relationships between pairwise sectors that should not appear, such as Forestry sector and Papermaking and Paper Products sector. These results provide the corresponding reference for helping the decision makers to allocate forest resources and coordinate ecological and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss of habitat can take many forms, ranging from the fragmentation of once-continuous habitat to the slow erosion of populations across continents. Usually, the harm leading to biodiversity loss is not immediately obvious: there is an extinction debt. Most modelling research of extinction debt has focussed on relatively rapid losses of habitat with species loss happening in response afterwards. In this paper, using a niche-orientated community model we compare and contrast two different mechanisms and find contrasting patterns of extinction debt. From small fragments, we typically see the rapid initial loss of many species, followed by a slower loss of species on larger timescales. When we consider slow incremental declines of population sizes, we find initially a slow rate of extinction which subsequently increases exponentially. In such cases, the delayed extinctions may go undetected initially both because the extinctions may be small relative to background randomness and because rate itself is not constant and takes time to reach its maximum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expanding on Haeckel's classical definition, ecology can be defined as the study of strong and weak interactions between the organism and the environment, hence the need for identifying strong interactions as major drivers of population and community dynamics. The solution to this problem is facilitated by the fact that the frequency distribution of interaction strengths is highly skewed, resulting in few or, according to Liebig's law of the minimum, just one strong interaction. However, a single strong interaction often remains elusive. One of the reasons may be that, due to the ever‐present dynamics of ecological systems, a single strong interaction is likely to exist only on relatively short time intervals, so methods with sufficient temporal resolution are required. In this paper, we study the temporal resolution of contribution analysis of birth rate in zooplankton, a method to assess the relative strength of bottom‐up (food) versus top‐down (predation) effects. Birth rate is estimated by the Edmondson–Paloheimo model. Our test system is a population of the cladoceran Bosmina longirostris inhabiting a small northern lake with few planktivorous predators, and thus likely controlled by food. We find that the method's temporal resolution in detecting bottom‐up effects corresponds well to the species' generation time, and the latter seems comparable to the lifetime of a single strong interaction. This enables one to capture a single strong interaction "on the fly," right during its time of existence. We suggest that this feature, the temporal resolution of about the lifetime of a single strong interaction, may be a generally desirable property for any method, not only the one studied here, intended to identify and assess strong interactions. Success in disentangling strong interactions in ecological communities, and thus solving one of the key issues in ecology, may critically depend on the temporal resolution of the methods used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts by presenting an empirical finding in the U.S. stock market: Between 2001 and 2021, high productivity was achieved when the Shannon evenness—measuring the inverse of concentration—dropped. Conversely, when the Shannon evenness soared, productivity plunged. The same inverse relationship between evenness and productivity has been observed in several ecosystems. This suggests explaining this result by adopting the business ecosystem perspective, i.e., regarding the tangle of interactions between companies as an ecological network, in which companies play the role of species. A useful strategy to model such ecological communities is through ensembles of synthetic communities of pairwise interacting species, whose dynamics is described by the Lotka–Volterra generalized equations. Each community is specified by a random interaction matrix whose elements are drawn from a uniform distribution centered around 0. It is shown that the inverse relationship between productivity and evenness can be generated by varying the strength of the interaction between companies. When the strength increases, productivity increases and simultaneously the market evenness decreases. Conversely, when the strength decreases, productivity decreases and evenness increases. This strength can be interpreted as reflecting the looseness of monetary policy, thus providing a link between interest rates and market structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat complexity affects the structure and dynamics of ecological communities, more often with increased complexity leading to greater species diversity and abundance. Among the terrestrial invertebrate groups, the low vagility of land snails makes them susceptible to react to small-scale habitat alteration. In the current paper we aimed to assess the relationship between taxonomic and functional composition and diversity of land snail communities and habitat structure in the riparian forest habitat. We found that both snail abundance and species richness responded positively to the increase in habitat complexity. The complexity of the riparian forest affected also the snail trait composition. Forest species, species living in woody debris, leaf litter, and root zone and those feeding on detritus were more abundant in complex habitats, while large snails with more offspring, snails having the ability to survive longer periods of dryness, as well as species that prefer arid habitats, were more abundant in less complex habitats. We concluded that habitat complexity promoted functional diversity, with the amount of woody debris as main positive driver, and the adjacent agricultural fields as negative driver of functional diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the main directions and range of man-made changes to the vascular flora and their effects at the vegetation level. The native flora of Poland, located in the temperate zone of Central Europe, comprises approximately 2639 species. The effect of human pressure, which began in the Neolithic and has intensified in the last 200 years, has caused changes in the native flora and has included an inflow of 975 alien species, 560 of which have become permanently established. Currently, at least 704 native species are recognized as endangered, and only 623 are recognized as being able to occupy habitats that were created or strongly transformed by humans. Native species (apophytes) and aliens (anthropophytes) have co-created completely new plant communities in these habitats. Among the alien plants, neophytes (399 species) outnumber archaeophytes (161 species). Additionally, many neophytes (123 species) can penetrate seminatural and natural communities. Research has shown that the proportions of apophytes, alien plants, and declining species can be used to clearly differentiate plant communities and be used as an indicator of anthropogenic changes. A comparison of the man-made changes in Polish flora and vegetation in other countries showed that the changes in Poland are part of the global process of environmental degradation and are aggravated by the country's economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of climate change based on point observations indicate an extension of the plant growing season, which may have an impact on plant production and functioning of natural ecosystems. Analyses involving remote sensing methods, which have added more detail to results obtained in the traditional way, have been carried out only since the 1980s. The paper presents the results of a bibliometric analysis of papers related to the growing season published from 2000–2021 included in the Web of Science database. Through filtering, 285 publications were selected and subjected to statistical processing and analysis of their content. This resulted in the identification of author teams that mostly focused their research on vegetation growth and in the selection of the most common keywords describing the beginning, end, and duration of the growing season. It was found that most studies on the growing season were reported from Asia, Europe, and North America (i.e., 32%, 28%, and 28%, respectively). The analyzed articles show the advantage of satellite data over low-altitude and ground-based data in providing information on plant vegetation. Over three quarters of the analyzed publications focused on natural plant communities. In the case of crops, wheat and rice were the most frequently studied plants (i.e., they were analyzed in over 30% and over 20% of publications, respectively). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dendrolites composed of light gray massive micrite limestone occur at the top of the Cambrian Zhangxia Formation in Houziyu Section, Zibo, Shandong Province. Because it is very difficult to study the genesis of microbial rocks through "the function of diagenesis filter," this paper analyzes its genetic mechanism by characterizing the sedimentary fabric and formation environment of dendrolites and it is of great significance to study microbial carbonate deposited in geological history in oil exploration. The Cambrian Zhangxia Formation in the Houziyu section is a marine deposit. The macroscopic shrub-like fabric of centimeter scale can be seen on the surface of the tree-shaped stone, with small biological burrows and remnants of calcareous mud components after filling. The microstructure observation shows that the main fabric of the dendrolites is a dark micrite matrix, bright calcite cement, clastic particles, and a calcified cyanobacteria biological community. Detailed supplementary information on the diversity of calcified microorganisms in dendrolites has been made through the study of various types of calcified cyanobacteria and calcified residual substances in the microbial membrane of calcified cyanobacteria in the dendrolites of the study area. It is clear that dendrolites are the product of the calcification of biofilms or microbial mats dominated by cyanobacteria. With the deepening of this kind of research, it is bound to raise the research of microbial carbonate to a new level in China and provide great help to find oil and gas resources in marine strata of microbial origin in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological evolution is generally regarded as a stochastic or probabilistic process, per the ideas of Darwin in the nineteenth century. Even if this is true at the meso-scale, it still may, however, be impacted by overarching constraints that we have not yet identified. In this paper, we revisit the subject of mammal faunal regions with a mind to explore a potential kind of macroevolutionary influence. We first identify an optimum seven-region mammal faunal classification system based on spatial and phylogenetic data from a comprehensive 2013 review, and then examine the possibility that this classification provides supporting evidence for a Spinoza-influenced philosophical/theoretical model of the "natural system" concept developed by one of the authors in the 1980s. The hierarchical pattern of regional affinities revealed does do this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological communities are populations of various species interacting in a common location. Microbial communities, which are formed by microorganisms, are ubiquitous in nature and are increasingly used in biotechnological and biomedical applications. They are nonlinear systems whose dynamics can be accurately described by models of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). A number of ODE models have been proposed to describe microbial communities. However, the structural identifiability and observability of most of them—that is, the theoretical possibility of inferring their parameters and internal states by observing their output—have not been determined yet. It is important to establish whether a model possesses these properties, because, in their absence, the ability of a model to make reliable predictions may be compromised. Hence, in this paper, we analyse these properties for the main families of microbial community models. We consider several dimensions and measurements; overall, we analyse more than a hundred different configurations. We find that some of them are fully identifiable and observable, but a number of cases are structurally unidentifiable and/or unobservable under typical experimental conditions. Our results help in deciding which modelling frameworks may be used for a given purpose in this emerging area, and which ones should be avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of ecological niche is an important task to correctly identify the role exerted by species within ecosystems, to assess their vulnerability, to plan effective measures addressed at fulfilling the postulates of biological conservation, and ultimately to prevent biodiversity loss. However, for the majority of organisms our knowledge about the actual extent of their ecological niche is quite limited. This is especially true for microscopic organisms. Evidence exists that in different geographical areas allegedly conspecific populations can show different, if not antithetical, ecological requirements and not-overlapping ecological niches. This opinion paper discusses whether this "niche displacement" effectively occurs between conspecific populations or if the pattern is rather due to an inaccurate identification of species and/or to an insufficient knowledge about population and community ecology. Hence, some subjectively selected study cases when alleged phenomena of niche displacements take place are presented, and shortfalls in the correct assessment of the identity and ecological niches of microscopic aquatic eukaryotes, namely phytoplankton, zooplankton, and meiofauna are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deserts are stressful environments where the living beings must acquire different strategies to survive due to the water stress conditions. From the late Albian to the early Cenomanian, the northern and eastern parts of Iberia were the location of the desert system represented by deposits assigned to the Utrillas Group, which bear abundant amber with numerous bioinclusions, including diverse arthropods and vertebrate remains. In the Maestrazgo Basin (E Spain), the late Albian to early Cenomanian sedimentary succession represents the most distal part of the desert system (fore-erg) that was characterised by an alternation of aeolian and shallow marine sedimentary environments in the proximity of the Western Tethys palaeo-coast, with rare to frequent dinoflagellate cysts. The terrestrial ecosystems from this area were biodiverse, and comprised plant communities whose fossils are associated with sedimentological indicators of aridity. The palynoflora dominated by wind-transported conifer pollen is interpreted to reflect various types of xerophytic woodlands from the hinterlands and the coastal settings. Therefore, fern and angiosperm communities abundantly grew in wet interdunes and coastal wetlands (temporary to semi-permanent freshwater/salt marshes and water bodies). In addition, the occurrence of low-diversity megafloral assemblages reflects the existence of coastal salt-influenced settings. The palaeobotanical study carried out in this paper which is an integrative work on palynology and palaeobotany, does not only allow the reconstruction of the vegetation that developed in the mid-Cretaceous fore-erg from the eastern Iberia, in addition, provides new biostratigraphic and palaeogeographic data considering the context of angiosperm radiation as well as the biota inferred in the amber-bearing outcrops of San Just, Arroyo de la Pascueta and La Hoya (within Cortes de Arenoso succesion). Importantly, the studied assemblages include Afropollis, Dichastopollenites, Cretacaeiporites together with pollen produced by Ephedraceae (known for its tolerance to arid conditions). The presence of these pollen grains, typical for northern Gondwana, associates the Iberian ecosystems with those characterising the mentioned region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diversity of biota in different parts of the planet has demonstrated dramatic changes within the last several decades due to the extinction of native taxa and the appearance of invasive taxa. The correct taxonomic identification of non-native species is important for understanding their dispersal abilities, especially when potential invaders may be of closely related species. Information on the species identity of ricefish (Oryzias spp.), which have formed self-sustainable populations in some parts of Eurasia, is contradictory. In this paper, we studied samples from non-native populations of Oryzias from several Eurasian regions. The results of our mtDNA COI partial sequence study confirm that the individuals we studied belong to the species Chinese ricefish, O. sinensis. Analyses of the literature and our own data suggest that all known alien populations of Oryzias in continental Eurasia belong to the same species, O. sinensis. A recent finding of O. sinensis in the Don delta suggests that one of the species' secondary dispersal pathways could run from the Kuban region through the lower part of the Don basin to the Cis-Azov area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]