scholarly journals Comparison of functional diversity of two Alaskan Arctic shelf epibenthic communities

2020 ◽  
Vol 651 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
L Sutton ◽  
K Iken ◽  
BA Bluhm ◽  
FJ Mueter
Keyword(s):  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Taxonomic Composition ◽  
Arctic Shelf ◽  
Biological Traits ◽  
Body Form ◽  
Alaskan Arctic ◽  
Epibenthic Communities ◽  
Diversity Metrics

Alaskan Arctic shelf communities are currently experiencing dramatic changes that will likely affect ecosystem functioning of Arctic marine benthic communities. Here, functional diversity based on biological traits was used to assess differences and similarities in ecosystem functioning between 2 shelf systems that are geographically close but vary in many environmental influences: the Arctic Beaufort and Chukchi Sea epibenthic communities. We hypothesized that (1) patterns of functional composition and diversity metrics reflect patterns in taxonomic composition and diversity metrics in these 2 shelf communities; and (2) patterns in functional diversity metrics are distinct between the 2 shelves. We evaluated 9 biological traits (body form, body size, feeding habit, fragility, larval development, living habit, movement, reproductive strategy, sociability) for 327 taxa in 2014 and 2015. For each trait, multiple modalities (specific expressions within a trait) were considered. Patterns in functional diversity metrics on both shelves reflected those in taxonomic diversity metrics. However, shelf communities were more similar in functional- than in taxonomic composition. Beaufort Sea communities had higher functional dissimilarity and functional evenness driven by differences in the modalities within body form, body size, larval development, and reproductive strategy. These traits primarily affect nutrient cycling, energy turnover, and recovery from disturbances, suggesting a stronger potential for future maintenance of ecosystem function, and indicating a more even use of resources in the Beaufort Sea. The combination of functional and taxonomic diversity metrics enabled a comprehensive understanding of how ecological niche space is used and how epibenthic communities function in Alaskan Arctic shelf systems.

scholarly journals Assessing Functional Diversity-Productivity Relationships in Temperate Forests in Northern Mexico

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedicto Vargas-Larreta ◽  
Jorge O. López-Martínez ◽  
Jose Javier Corral-Rivas ◽  
Francisco Javier Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Biomass Production ◽  
Temperate Forests ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Mass Ratio ◽  
Above Ground Biomass ◽  
Northern Mexico ◽  
Ground Biomass ◽  
Diversity Metrics

Abstract Background: Studies on the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem productivity have suggested that species richness and functional diversity are the main drivers of ecosystem processes. There is no general pattern regarding the relationship found in various studies, and positive, unimodal, negative, and neutral relationships keep the issue controversial. In this study, taxonomic diversity vs functional diversity as drivers of above-ground biomass were compared, and the mechanisms that influence biomass production were investigated by testing the complementarity and the mass-ratio hypoteses.Methods: Using data from 414 permanent sampling plots, covering 23% of temperate forests in the Sierra Madre Occiental (Mexico), we estimated the above-ground biomass (AGB) for trees ≥7.5 cm d.b.h. in managed and unmanaged stands. We evaluated AGB-diversity relationships (species richness, Shannon-Wiener and Simpson indices), AGB-weighted mean community values ​​(CWM) of tree species functional traits (maximum height, leaf size, and wood density) and five measures of functional diversity (functional dispersion, functional richness, functional uniformity, functional diversity, and RaoQ index).Results: We reveal a consistent hump-shaped relationship between aboveground biomass and species richness in managen and unmanaged forest. CWM_Hmax was the most important predictor of AGB in both managed and unmanaged stands, which suggests that the mechanism that explains the above-ground biomass in these ecosystems is dominated by certain highly productive species in accordance of the mass-ratio hypothesis. There were no significant relationships between taxonomic diversity metrics (Shannon-Wiener and Simpson indices) or measures of functional diversity with AGB. The results support the mass-ratio hypothesis to explain the AGB variations.Conclusions: We concluded that diversity does not influence biomass production in the temperate mixed-species and uneven-aged forests of northern Mexico. These forests showed the classic hump-shaped productivity-species richness relationship, with biomass accumulation increasing at low to intermediate levels of species plant diversity and decreasing at high species richness. Functional diversity explains better forest productivity than classical diversity metrics.

scholarly journals Contrasting multi-taxa functional diversity patterns along vegetation structure gradients of woody pastures

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (13) ◽  
pp. 3551-3572
Author(s):  
Simon Jakobsson ◽  
Heather Wood ◽  
Johan Ekroos ◽  
Regina Lindborg
Keyword(s):  
Functional Response ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Diversity Metrics

Abstract Woody pastures represent keystone habitats for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, contributing to increased resource availability, landscape heterogeneity and structural variability. High taxonomic diversity is closely linked to vegetation structure in woody pastures, but examining functional characteristics of species assemblages can shed more light on the ecological mechanisms driving divergent responses to habitat characteristics and help guide good management practices. To this end, we use a multi-taxa approach to investigate how plant, bat and bird taxonomic and functional diversity are affected by pasture tree and shrub density, structural complexity and proximate forest cover in southern Sweden. In particular, we use a trait exclusion approach to estimate the sensitivity of diversity-environment relationships to specific traits. We found little congruence between corresponding diversity metrics across taxa. Bird species richness responded stronger to environmental variables than functional diversity metrics, whereas the functional response to the environment was stronger than the taxonomic response among plants and bats. While increasing tree densities increased the taxonomic diversity of all three taxa, a simultaneous functional response was only evident for plants. Contrasting measures of vegetation structure affected different aspects of functional diversity across taxa, driven by different traits. For plants and birds, traits linked to resource use contributed particularly to the functional response, whereas body mass had stronger influence on bat functional diversity metrics. Multi-taxa functional approaches are essential to understand the effects of woody pasture structural attributes on biodiversity, and ultimately inform management guidelines to preserve the biological values in woody pastures.

scholarly journals Phytoplankton Diversity Effect on Ecosystem Functioning in a Coastal Upwelling System

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Otero ◽  
Xosé Antón Álvarez-Salgado ◽  
Antonio Bode
Keyword(s):  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Coastal Upwelling ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Phytoplankton Diversity ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Upwelling System

Species composition plays a key role in ecosystem functioning. Theoretical, experimental and field studies show positive effects of biodiversity on ecosystem processes. However, this link can differ between taxonomic and functional diversity components and also across trophic levels. These relationships have been hardly studied in planktonic communities of coastal upwelling systems. Using a 28-year time series of phytoplankton and zooplankton assemblages, we examined the effects of phytoplankton diversity on resource use efficiency (RUE, ratio of biomass to limiting resource) at the two trophic levels in the Galician upwelling system (NW Iberian peninsula). By fitting generalized least square models, we show that phytoplankton diversity was the best predictor for RUE across planktonic trophic levels. This link varied depending on the biodiversity component considered: while the effect of phytoplankton richness on RUE was positive for phytoplankton RUE and negative for zooplankton RUE, phytoplankton evenness effect was negative for phytoplankton RUE and positive for zooplankton RUE. Overall, taxonomic diversity had higher explanatory power than functional diversity, and variability in phytoplankton and zooplankton RUE decreased with increasing phytoplankton taxonomic diversity. Phytoplankton used resources more efficiently in warmer waters and at greater upwelling intensity, although these effects were not as strong as those for biodiversity. These results suggest that phytoplankton species numbers in highly dynamic upwelling systems are important for maintaining the planktonic biomass production leading us to hypothesize the relevance of complementarity effects. However, we further postulate that a selection effect may operate also because assemblages with low evenness were dominated by diatoms with specific functional traits increasing their ability to exploit resources more efficiently.

Metagenomics Study To Compare The Taxonomy And Metabolism of a Lignocellulolytic Microbial Consortium Cultured in Different Carbon Conditions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qinggeer BORJIGIN ◽  
Bizhou ZHANG ◽  
Xiaofang Yu ◽  
Julin Gao ◽  
Xin ZHANG ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Consortium ◽  
Agricultural Waste ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Taxonomic Composition ◽  
Microbial Consortia ◽  
Rich Diversity ◽  
Cazy Database ◽  
Taxonomic Affiliation ◽  
In Situ Biodegradation

Abstract A lignocellulolytic microbial consortium holds promise for the in situ biodegradation of crop straw and the comprehensive and effective utilization of agricultural waste. In this study, we applied metagenomics technology to comprehensively explore the metabolic functional potential and taxonomic diversity of the microbial consortia CS (cultured on corn stover) and FP (cultured on filter paper).Analyses of the metagenomics taxonomic affiliation data showed considerable differences in the taxonomic composition and functional profile of the microbial consortia CS and FP. The microbial consortia CS primarily contained members from the genera Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, Achromobacter, Dysgonomonas, Flavobacterium and Sphingobacterium, as well as Cellvibrio, Azospirillum, Pseudomonas, Dysgonomonas and Cellulomonas in FP. The COG and KEGG annotation analyses revealed considerable levels of diversity. Further analysis determined that the CS consortium had an increase in the acid and ester metabolism pathways, while carbohydrate metabolism was enriched in the FP consortium. Furthermore, a comparison against the CAZy database showed that the microbial consortia CS and FP contain a rich diversity of lignocellulose degrading families, in which GH5, GH6, GH9, GH10, GH11, GH26, GH42, and GH43 were enriched in the FP consortium, and GH44, GH28, GH2, and GH29 increased in the CS consortium. The degradative mechanism of lignocellulose metabolism by the two microbial consortia is similar, but the annotation of quantity of genes indicated that they are diverse and vary greatly. The lignocellulolytic microbial consortia cultured under different carbon conditions (CS and FP) differed substantially in their composition of the microbial community at the genus level. The changes in functional diversity were accompanied with variation in the composition of microorganisms, many of which are related to the degradation of lignocellulolytic materials. The genera Pseudomonas, Dysgonomonas and Sphingobacterium in CS and the genera Cellvibrio and Pseudomonas in FP exhibited a much wider distribution of lignocellulose degradative ability.

Antarctic notothenioid fishes as subjects for research in evolutionary biology

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph T. Eastman
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Fish Fauna ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Late Eocene ◽  
Taxonomic Composition ◽  
Species Flock ◽  
Subzero Temperatures ◽  
Key Innovation ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Upper Slope

Antarctica is a continental island and the waters of its shelf and upper slope are an insular evolutionary site. The shelf waters resemble a closed basin in the Southern Ocean, separated from other continents by distance, current patterns and subzero temperatures. The benthic fish fauna of the shelf and upper slope of the Antarctic Region includes 213 species with higher taxonomic diversity confined to 18 families. Ninety-six notothenioids, 67 liparids and 23 zoarcids comprise 45%, 32% and 11% of the fauna, a combined total of 88%. In high latitude (71–78°S) shelf areas notothenioids dominate abundance and biomass at levels of 90–95%. Notothenioids are also morphologically and ecologically diverse. Although they lack a swim bladder, the hallmark of the notothenioid radiation has been repeated diversification into water column habitats. There are pelagic, semipelagic, cryopelagic and epibenthic species. Notothenioids exhibit the disproportionate speciosity and high endemism characteristic of fish species flock. Antifreeze glycopeptides originating from a transformed trypsinogen gene are a key innovation. It is not known when the modern Antarctic shelf fauna assumed its current taxonomic composition. A late Eocene fossil fauna was taxonomically diverse and cosmopolitan. There was a subsequent faunal replacement with little carryover of families into the modern fauna. Basal notothenioid clades probably diverged in Gondwanan shelf locations during the early Tertiary. Dates inferred from molecular sequences suggest that phyletically derived Antarctic clades arose 15–5 m.y.a.

scholarly journals A meta-analysis of the effect of organic and mineral fertilizers on soil microbial diversity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Bebber ◽  
Victoria R. Richards
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Biomass ◽  
Microbial Diversity ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Mineral Fertilizers ◽  
Soil Microbial Diversity ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Fertilizer Regimes ◽  
Diversity Metrics

ABSTRACTThe Green Revolution of agriculture was in part driven by application of synthetic mineral fertilizers, largely supplanting organic manure as a source of the major nutrients nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK). Though enhancing crop production and global food security, fertilizers have contributed to soil acidification, eutrophication of water bodies, and greenhouse gas emissions. Organic agriculture, employing manures or composts, has been proposed as a way of mitigating these undesirable effects. Of particular interest is the effect of fertilizer regime on soil microbes, which are key to nutrient cycling, plant health and soil structure. Meta-analyses of experimental studies indicate that mineral fertilizer increases soil microbial biomass over unfertilized controls, and that organic fertilizers increase microbial biomass and activity over mineral fertilizers. However, the effect of fertilizers on soil microbial diversity remains poorly understood. Since biological diversity is an important determinant of ecosystem function and a fundamental metric in community ecology, the effects of fertilizer regimes on soil microbial diversity are of theoretical and applied interest. Here, we conduct a meta-analysis of 31 studies reporting microbial diversity metrics in mineral fertilized (NPK), organically fertilized (ORG) and unfertilized control (CON) soils. Of these studies, 26 reported taxonomic diversity derived from sequencing, gradient gel electrophoresis, RFLP, or dilution plate assay. Functional diversity, derived from Biolog Ecoplate™ measures of carbon substrate metabolism, was reported in 8 studies, with 3 studies reporting both diversity metrics. We found that functional diversity was on average 2.6 % greater in NPK compared with CON, 6.8 % greater in ORG vs CON and 3.6 % greater in ORG vs NPK. Prokaryote taxonomic diversity was not significantly different between NPK and CON, 4.2 % greater in ORG vs CON and 4.6 % greater in ORG vs. NPK. Fungal taxonomic diversity was not significantly different between NPK or ORG vs CON, but 5.4 % lower between ORG and NPK. There was very high residual heterogeneity in all meta-analyses of soil diversity, suggesting that a large amount of further research with detailed analysis of soil properties is required to fully understand the influence of fertilizer regimes on microbial diversity and ecosystem function.

scholarly journals Impact of urbanization on functional diversity in macromycete communities along an urban ecosystem in Southwest Mexico

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e12191
Author(s):  
Marko Gómez-Hernández ◽  
Emily Avendaño-Villegas ◽  
María Toledo-Garibaldi ◽  
Etelvina Gándara
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Niche Space ◽  
Urbanization Gradient ◽  
Urbanization Level ◽  
Functional Value ◽  
Functional Richness ◽  
Available Resources

Macromycetes are a group of fungi characterized by the production of fruit bodies and are highly relevant in most terrestrial ecosystems as pathogens, mutualists, and organic matter decomposers. Habitat transformation can drastically alter macromycete communities and diminish the contribution of these organisms to ecosystem functioning; however, knowledge on the effect of urbanization on macrofungal communities is scarce. Diversity metrics based on functional traits of macromycete species have shown to be valuable tools to predict how species contribute to ecosystem functionality since traits determine the performance of species in ecosystems. The aim of this study was to assess patterns of species richness, functional diversity, and composition of macrofungi in an urban ecosystem in Southwest Mexico, and to identify microclimatic, environmental, and urban factors related to these patterns in order to infer the effect of urbanization on macromycete communities. We selected four oak forests along an urbanization gradient and established a permanent sampling area of 0.1 ha at each site. Macromycete sampling was carried out every week from June to October 2017. The indices used to measure functional diversity were functional richness (FRic), functional divergence (FDig), and functional evenness (FEve). The metric used to assess variation of macrofungal ecological function along the study area was the functional value. We recorded a total of 134 macromycete species and 223 individuals. Our results indicated a decline of species richness with increased urbanization level related mainly to microclimatic variables, and a high turnover of species composition among study sites, which appears to be related to microclimatic and urbanization variables. FRic decreased with urbanization level, indicating that some of the available resources in the niche space within the most urbanized sites are not being utilized. FDig increased with urbanization, which suggests a high degree of niche differentiation among macromycete species within communities in urbanized areas. FEve did not show notable differences along the urbanization gradient, indicating few variations in the distribution of abundances within the occupied sections of the niche space. Similarly, the functional value was markedly higher in the less urbanized site, suggesting greater performance of functional guilds in that area. Our findings suggest that urbanization has led to a loss of macromycete species and a decrease in functional diversity, causing some sections of the niche space to be hardly occupied and available resources to be under-utilized, which could, to a certain extent, affect ecosystem functioning and stability.

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