Anthropogenic evolution in an insect wing polymorphism following widespread deforestation

Anthropogenic environmental change can underpin major shifts in natural selective regimes, and can thus alter the evolutionary trajectories of wild populations. However, little is known about the evolutionary impacts of deforestation—one of the most pervasive human-driven changes to terrestrial ecosystems globally. Absence of forest cover (i.e. exposure) has been suggested to play a role in selecting for insect flightlessness in montane ecosystems. Here, we capitalize on human-driven variation in alpine treeline elevation in New Zealand to test whether anthropogenic deforestation has caused shifts in the distributions of flight-capable and flightless phenotypes in a wing-polymorphic lineage of stoneflies from the Zelandoperla fenestrata species complex. Transect sampling revealed sharp transitions from flight-capable to flightless populations with increasing elevation. However, these phenotypic transitions were consistently delineated by the elevation of local treelines, rather than by absolute elevation, providing a novel example of human-driven evolution in response to recent deforestation. The inferred rapid shifts to flightlessness in newly deforested regions have implications for the evolution and conservation of invertebrate biodiversity.

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Ecological gradients drive insect wing loss and speciation: The role of the alpine treeline

Molecular Ecology ◽

10.1111/mec.15114 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Graham A. McCulloch ◽

Brodie J. Foster ◽

Ludovic Dutoit ◽

Travis Ingram ◽

Eleanor Hay ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecological Gradients ◽

Insect Wing ◽

Alpine Treeline

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CONSERVAÇÃO DE PEIXES DE RIACHO: PLANEJAMENTO E POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS

Oecologia Australis ◽

10.4257/oeco.2021.2502.20 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 25 (02) ◽

pp. 546-564

Author(s):

Renata Guimarães Frederico ◽

◽

Vanessa Cristine e Souza Reis ◽

Carla Natacha Marcolino Polaz ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Forest Cover ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Freshwater Ecosystems ◽

Action Plans ◽

Conservation Action ◽

Forest Protection ◽

Spatial Prioritization ◽

Impact Reduction ◽

Conservation Actions

Conservation biology has historically been based on principles to protect terrestrial ecosystems, with marine and freshwater ecosystems left behind. As a result, often, protected areas are defined with bases in forest cover and terrestrial characteristics overseeing important components of connectivity of riverine landscapes, such as the connectivity between rivers, lakes, and streams. It is important to emphasize that forest protection is extremely important, but that alone cannot safeguard the protection of freshwater ecosystems. Therefore, our discussion should lead, not to the disregard of terrestrial efforts but to the complementation of existing efforts for forest protection with the addition of areas that can also protect freshwater ecosystems. Fluvial ecosystems are hierarchical and nested systems, with multidimensional connectivity including longitudinal (upstream-downstream), lateral (floodplains and lakes), temporal (seasons) and vertical (groundwaters) connections. Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) is the most well accepted and used method for designing conservation plans based on cost-effective scenarios that include ecological and socio-economic values resulting in thematic maps of priority areas for conservation. Recently, methods to consider the connectivity of freshwater ecosystems were incorporated into spatial prioritization tools. Maps produced using spatial prioritization tools can help decision making on species management and conservation actions, such as plans for species’ impact reduction (PRIM) and action plans for threatened species (PAN). PRIM and PAN use information about species ecology to focus conservation actions onto target species. These conservation action plans must be viable not only ecologically but also economically. In this context, using SCP to guide designs of PRIM and PAN can help stakeholders to achieve better conservation actions in Brazil. Thus, the SCP can improve the conservation and management of freshwater ecosystems, through the integration of science, society and stakeholder.

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Ecosystem dynamics after forest fire. Blideen Atlas case

Territorium Revista Portuguesa de riscos prevenção e segurança ◽

10.14195/1647-7723_29-1_6 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 67-75

Author(s):

Melouani Naziha ◽

Kadik Leila

Keyword(s):

Forest Cover ◽

Plant Biomass ◽

Floristic Composition ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Ecosystem Dynamics ◽

Ecological Data ◽

Human Disturbances ◽

The North ◽

Plant Groups ◽

One Year

Human disturbances affect the majority of terrestrial ecosystems. The radical changes in the behaviour of ecological systems, partial or total destruction of plant biomass, often with the death of fundamental entities. Of these disturbances, fires affect many terrestrial ecosystems, particularly forests, by changing their floristic composition, their structure and their functioning; the global average annual forest area burned is estimated at 65 million ha. The Mediterranean basin, a hotspot, annually loses between 0.5 and 1 million hectares of forest. In Algeria, the annual average of areas destroyed by fire is between 45,000 and 50,000 ha. Our work set out to study the changes in the plant coverage of the land one year after the passage of fire. We studied the effects at the floristic, ecological and dynamic level in a forest ecosystem located in the north of Algeria (Atlas Blideen). The phytoecological inventory of vegetation (74 surveys, 162 species) was carried out from subjective sampling. To highlight the different groupings in the study area, classical statistical treatments (factorial analysis of correspondences) were applied to the floristic and ecological data. The results of computer processing made it possible to individualize and classify four plant groups according to the degree of the fire. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of these groups shows a therophytization of the flora, due to the regression of the forest cover (disappearance of the phanerophytes) caused by the passage of fire, with a floral procession represented mainly by Asteraceae, Poaceae and Fabaceae and an index disturbance which greatly exceeds 50%. However, some tree and shrub taxa such as cork oak, holm oak and Pistacia lentiscus tree have the capacity to reappear by rejecting the calcined stumps.

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Effects of Land Cover Changes on Net Primary Productivity in the Terrestrial Ecosystems of China from 2001 to 2012

Land ◽

10.3390/land9120480 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 480

Author(s):

Hanwei Li ◽

Juhua Ding ◽

Jiang Zhang ◽

Zhenan Yang ◽

Bin Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Land Cover Change ◽

Primary Productivity ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Net Primary Productivity ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Land Cover Types ◽

Cropland Area ◽

Land Cover Data ◽

Increasing Trends

The 2001–2012 MODIS MCD12Q1 land cover data and MOD17A3 NPP data were used to calculate changes in land cover in China and annual changes in net primary productivity (NPP) during a 12-year period and to quantitatively analyze the effects of land cover change on the NPP of China’s terrestrial ecosystems. The results revealed that during the study period, no changes in land cover type occurred in 7447.31 thousand km2 of China, while the area of vegetation cover increased by 160.97 thousand km2 in the rest of the country. Forest cover increased to 20.91%, which was mainly due to the conversion of large areas of savanna (345.19 thousand km2) and cropland (178.96 thousand km2) to forest. During the 12-year study period, the annual mean NPP of China was 2.70 PgC and increased by 0.25 PgC, from 2.50 to 2.75 PgC. Of this change, 0.21 PgC occurred in areas where there was no land cover change, while 0.04 PgC occurred in areas where there was land cover change. The contributions of forest and cropland to NPP exhibited increasing trends, while the contributions of shrubland and grassland to NPP decreased. Among these land cover types, the contributions of forest and cropland to the national NPP were the greatest, accounting for 40.97% and 27.95%, respectively, of the annual total NPP. There was no significant correlation between changes in forest area and changes in total annual NPP (R2 < 0.1), while the correlation coefficient for changes in cropland area and total annual NPP was 0.48. Additionally, the area of cropland converted to other land cover types was negatively correlated with the changes in NPP, and the loss of cropland caused a reduction in the national NPP.

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