Fimbristylis littoralis (lesser fimbristylis).

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julissa Rojas-Sandoval ◽  
Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Nutrient Cycles ◽  
Editorial Committee ◽  
Allelopathic Activity ◽  
Flora Of China ◽  
The World ◽  
Hydrological Cycles ◽  
Environmental Weed ◽  
Rice Plantations

Abstract F. littoralis is a tufted leafy annual or short-lived herb (sedge) included in the Global Compendium of Weeds where it is listed as an agricultural and environmental weed (Randall, 2012). It has escaped from cultivation and become established along waterways and wetlands (Flora of China Editorial Committee, 2014). The species is of particular concern in rice plantations around the world (Holm et al., 1977). It shows allelopathic activity and once established it can change features of ecosystem functions including hydrological cycles, biophysical dynamics, nutrient cycles, and community composition (Holm et al., 1977; Holou et al., 2013).

scholarly journals Foeniculum vulgare (fennel).

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Jennifer Datiles ◽  
Ian Popay
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Foeniculum Vulgare ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Invasive Weed ◽  
Editorial Committee ◽  
Native Flora ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Environmental Weed

Abstract Foeniculum vulgare, also known as sweet fennel, is a common kitchen herb used around the world - but it is also a highly invasive weed that can severely damage ecosystems. A risk assessment prepared for Hawaii gave the species a high risk score of 19 (PIER, 2015). F. vulgare is known to alter fire regimes and create dense stands, outcompeting native flora for nutrients and space (DiTomaso et al., 2013; Cal-IPC, 2015). It was listed in the Global Compendium of Weeds as an "agricultural weed, casual alien, cultivation escape, environmental weed, garden thug, naturalised, noxious weed, weed" (Randall, 2012), and is known to be invasive (mostly in natural habitats rather than agricultural land) in California, New Zealand, significant parts of Australia and a number of locations in the Pacific. (PIER, 2015). The species is a principal weed in Mexico and New Zealand, a common weed in Argentina, Australia, Hawaii, and Spain, weedy in Chile, Morocco, Uruguay, the USA, and Venezuela, and it is known to be adventive in China, Colombia (Holm et al., 1979; Flora of China Editorial Committee, 2015; PIER, 2015; Vascular Plants of Antioquia, 2015). It is also reported as invasive in Ethiopia and Kenya. It can regenerate by both seeds and roots, which often makes physical control methods ineffective and chemical control necessary once a population is established.

scholarly journals Towards a function-first framework to make soil microbial ecology predictive

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Rousk ◽  
Lettice Hicks
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Functional Response ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Ecosystem Function ◽  
Bacterial Growth ◽  
Response Curve ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Soil Microbial

<p>Soil microbial communities perform vital ecosystem functions, such as the decomposition of organic matter to provide plant nutrition. However, despite the functional importance of soil microorganisms, attribution of ecosystem function to particular constituents of the microbial community has been impeded by a lack of information linking microbial function to community composition and structure. Here, we propose a function-first framework to predict how microbial communities influence ecosystem functions.</p><p>We first view the microbial community associated with a specific function as a whole, and describe the dependence of microbial functions on environmental factors (e.g. the intrinsic temperature dependence of bacterial growth rates). This step defines the aggregate functional response curve of the community. Second, the contribution of the whole community to ecosystem function can be predicted, by combining the functional response curve with current environmental conditions. Functional response curves can then be linked with taxonomic data in order to identify sets of “biomarker” taxa that signal how microbial communities regulate ecosystem functions. Ultimately, such indicator taxa may be used as a diagnostic tool, enabling predictions of ecosystem function from community composition.</p><p>In this presentation, we provide three examples to illustrate the proposed framework, whereby the dependence of bacterial growth on environmental factors, including temperature, pH and salinity, is defined as the functional response curve used to interlink soil bacterial community structure and function. Applying this framework will make it possible to predict ecosystem functions directly from microbial community composition.</p>

Echinochloa crus-galli (barnyard grass).

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julissa Rojas-Sandoval ◽  
Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Soil Nitrogen ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Grass Species ◽  
Coastal Forests ◽  
Virus Diseases ◽  
Forage Crops ◽  
Barnyard Grass ◽  
Natural Grasslands ◽  
The World ◽  
Environmental Weed

Abstract E. crus-galli is a grass species included in the Global Compendium of Weeds (Randall, 2012) and which is considered one of the world's worst weeds. This species has the capability to reduce crop yields and cause forage crops to fail by removing up to 80% of the available soil nitrogen. E. crus-galli is considered the world's worst weed in rice paddies and has been also listed as a weed in at least other 36 crops throughout tropical and temperate regions of the world (Holm et al., 1991). The high levels of nitrates it accumulates can poison livestock. It also acts as a host for several mosaic virus diseases. E. crus-galli is also considered an environmental weed that has become invasive in natural grasslands, coastal forests and disturbed sites in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and America (FAO, 2014; USDA-ARS, 2014).

Economics of the Biodiversity Convention

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne C. Burgess
Keyword(s):  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Global Public Good ◽  
Aichi Targets ◽  
Conservation Costs ◽  
Sixth Mass Extinction ◽  
The World ◽  
Biodiversity Convention

Biological diversity refers to the variety of life on Earth, in all its forms and interactions. Biological diversity, or biodiversity for short, is being lost at an unprecedented rate. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species estimates that 25% of mammals, 41% of amphibians, 33% of reef building corals, and 13% of birds are threatened with extinction. These biodiversity benefits are being lost due to conversion of natural habitat, overharvesting, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. The loss of biodiversity is important because it provides many critical resources, services, and ecosystem functions, such as foods, medicines, clean air, and storm protection. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse pose a major risk to human societies and economic welfare. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was established in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio “Earth Summit”) and enacted in 1993. The international treaty aims to conserve biodiversity and ensure the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. The CBD has near universal global participation with 196 parties signatory to the treaty. The non-legally binding commitments established in 2010 by the CBD are known as the Aichi Targets. They include the goal of conserving at least 17% of terrestrial and inland water habitats and 10% of coastal and marine areas by 2020. Biodiversity continues to decline at an unprecedented rate and the world faces “biological annihilation” and a sixth mass extinction event. There are several underlying causes of the continuing loss of biodiversity that need to be addressed. First, the CBD Aichi Targets are not ambitious enough and should be extended to protect as much as 50% of the terrestrial realm for biodiversity. Second, it is difficult to place an economic value on the range of direct, indirect, and nonuse values of biodiversity. The failure to take into account the full economic value of biodiversity in prices, projects, and policy decisions means that biodiversity is often misused and overused. Third, biodiversity is a global public good and displays nonrival and nonexcludable characteristics. Because of this, it is difficult to raise sufficient funds for conservation and to channel these funds to cover local conservation costs. In particular, much of the world’s biodiversity is located in (mainly tropical) developing countries, and they do not have the incentive or the funds to spend the money to “save” enough biodiversity on behalf of the rest of the world. The funding for global biodiversity conservation is $4–$10 billion annually, whereas around $100 billion a year is needed to protect the Earth’s broad range of animal and plant species. This funding gap undermines CBD’s conservation efforts. Governments and international organizations have been unable to raise the investments needed to reverse the decline in biological populations and habitats on land and in oceans. There is an important role for private-sector involvement in the CBD to endorse efforts for more sustainable use of biodiversity and to contribute funds to finance conservation and habitat protection efforts.

Cleome rutidosperma (fringed spiderflower).

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julissa Rojas-Sandoval ◽  
Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Editorial Committee ◽  
Flora Of China ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Intensive Cropping ◽  
Stone Walls ◽  
Cleome Rutidosperma ◽  
Abandoned Lands

Abstract C. rutidosperma is a common herb that grows as a weed in disturbed and ruderal habitats, principally in areas with humid and hot environmental conditions. It is often found as a weed of disturbed ground, roadsides, gardens, crops and abandoned lands, and has also been found growing as an epiphyte on trees, stone walls and cliff faces. This species is included in the Global Compendium of Weeds (Randall, 2012) where it is considered to have moderate economic impacts in a wide range of crops, due to its scrambling habit that smothers and stunts young crop plants. C. rutidosperma has been listed as invasive in China, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, and the Domican Republic (Waterhouse and Mitchell, 1998; Kairo et al., 2003; Flora of China Editorial Committee, 2014, USDA-ARS, 2014). This species has had considerable environmental impacts in South East Asia and Australia. C. rutidosperma also has the potential to be moderately problematic in intensive cropping areas, greenhouses and nurseries.

scholarly journals The evolution of traits and functions in herbivorous coral reef fishes through space and time

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1897) ◽  
pp. 20182672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre C. Siqueira ◽  
David R. Bellwood ◽  
Peter F. Cowman
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Fish Assemblages ◽  
Reef Fishes ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Ecological Framework ◽  
Functional Composition ◽  
Ecological Process ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World ◽  
Trait Space

Herbivory by fishes has been identified as a key ecological process shaping coral reefs through time. Although taxonomically limited, herbivorous reef fishes display a wide range of traits, which results in varied ecosystem functions on reefs around the world. Yet, we understand little about how these trait combinations and functions in ecosystems changed through time and across biogeographic realms. Here, we used fossils and phylogenies in a functional ecological framework to reveal temporal changes in nominally herbivorous fish assemblages among oceanic basins in both trait space and lineage richness among functions. We show that the trait space occupied by extant herbivorous fishes in the Indo-Pacific resulted from an expansion of traits from the ancestral Tethyan assemblages. By contrast, trait space in the Atlantic is the result of lineage turnover, with relatively recent colonization by lineages that arose in the east Tethys/Indo-Pacific. From an ecosystem function perspective, the Atlantic supports a depauperate fauna, with few extant herbivorous reef fish lineages performing each function. Indo-Pacific fishes support both more functions and more lineages within each function, with a marked Miocene to Pleistocene expansion. These disparities highlight the importance of history in explaining global variation in fish functional composition on coral reefs.

Influence of maintenance practices on plant community properties interacting with ecosystem functions in an agricultural ditch

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Rudi ◽  
Jean-Stéphane Bailly ◽  
Yves Caraglio ◽  
Jeanne Dollinger ◽  
Fabrice Vinatier
Keyword(s):  
Water Transport ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Plant Community Composition ◽  
Medium Term

<p><span>Maintenance practices restoring the hydraulic capacity of agricultural ditches (mowing, burning, chemical weeding or dredging) modify the plant communities in the short and medium term. However, the medium term modification of plant community composition, parameters and properties, and in turn the associated functions provided by ditches (water transport, propagules and sediment retention, biodiversity conservation) have not attracted much attention so far. Therefore, the main question raised in this study was the following : Do ditch maintenance practices affect plant community composition, parameters, and properties associated with water and particle transport processes (sediments, seeds), as well as biodiversity, in the medium term (two years)?</span></p><p><span>We designed an experiment to compare the effects of different maintenance practices in a Mediterranean agricultural ditch. We measured the plant richness, morphological parameters and properties of the plant community affecting ecosystem functions twice : before applying the maintenance practices and after two years of contrasting maintenance practices. We assessed the differences between practices using linear models and generalized linear models, followed by pairwise comparisons between means using the Tukey test.</span></p><p><span>Maintenance practices differently affected plant community composition, parameters and properties, such as richness, proportions of harmful plants, distribution of heights, densities, proportions of growth forms and total biomass. None of the maintenance strategies simultaneously improved the functions considered. After two years, mowing provided the highest alpha-diversity and had a low proportion of harmful plants. Burning was the practice that produced the highest total biomass and blockage factor, and therefore negatively influenced the water transport. However, this practice positively impacted seed retention and sedimentation. Our results suggest that associations of maintenance practices would preserve the trade-offs among the different functions in the medium term. </span></p><p> </p><p><br><br></p>

A new species of Rhododendron (Ericaceae) from Shangri-La, NW Yunnan, China

Phytotaxa ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 238 (3) ◽  
pp. 293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rongli Liao ◽  
Dan Xue ◽  
Jens Neilsen ◽  
Jihua Wang ◽  
Yongpeng Ma
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Flora Of China ◽  
The World ◽  
Species Being ◽  
A New Species

Rhododendron Linnaeus (1753: 392) exhibits great diversity and roughly 1,025 species are prized in the temperate parts of the world for their horticultural value (Chamberlain et al. 1996). There are approximately 680 species in six subgenera in China, of which more than 400 are endemic (Fang & Min 1995). However, the number of Rhododendron species known is increasing, with many new species being described after the publishing of Flora of China (Fang et al. 2005, Chen et al. 2012, Mao et al. 2013, Ma et al. 2015, Mao & Bhaumik 2015).

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