Biodiversity, DNA barcoding data and ecological traits of caddisflies (Insecta, Trichoptera) in the catchment area of the Mediterranean karst River Cetina (Croatia)

The environmental and faunistic research conducted included defining the composition and distribution of caddisflies collected using ultraviolet (UV) light trap at 11 stations along the Cetina River, from the spring to the mouth, and also along its tributaries the Ruda River and the Grab River with two sampling stations each, and the Rumin River with one station. The research was conducted in the period from August 2004 until August 2005 on the Cetina and the Ruda rivers, and from April 2007 to September 2007 on the Grab and the Rumin rivers. A total of 71 caddisfly species and 10,048 individuals were recorded in the study area. Results of the composition and structure of caddisflies were processed with statistical methods using the NMDS analysis. There were differences in the composition of caddisflies in the upper, middle and lower reaches. The paper also presents some ecological features of caddisflies, such as seasonal dynamics and diversity of caddisflies communities. Results of this work contribute to faunistic and ecological knowledge of Croatian caddisflies.

Diversity and composition of soil bacterial community respond to A. palmeri invasion under heterogeneous habitats

The impact of A. palmeri invasion on soil bacterial community under different habitats is unclear. In this work, the influence of A. palmeri invasion on soil bacterial diversity and community structure were investigated using full-length 16S rRNA sequencing technology under four typical habitats of riverbank (A), roadside (B), wasteland (C) and farmland (D). A two-way ANOVA analysis showed that habitat, invasion and the interaction of them had little effect on alpha diversity, expect for habitat factor had a significant effect on Simpson indices (P<0.05). NMDS analysis demonstrated that soil bacterial community structures among different invasive habitats were clearly distinguished. In addition, the most abundant phyla in the non-invasive plots were Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes and Gemmatimonadetes. However, the third predominant phyla converted from Bacteroidetes to Gemmatimonadetes with the invasion of A. palmeri. LEfSe analysis revealed that the core microbiome, Burkholderiaceae and Betaproteobacteriales (riverbank habitat), Gemmatimonadetes and Gemmatimonadaceae (wasteland habitat), Sphingomonas_sediminicola (roadside habitat), Nitrosomonadaceae (farmland habitat), which played important roles in facilitating the establishment of A. palmeri to heterogeneous habitats.

Study of compositions of musks in different types secreted by forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii)

Musk is a secretion of the forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii). Normal musk is a brown solid secretion with a light fragrance. In this study, abnormal types of musk, namely, white and black musks, were discovered during the musk collection process. Researchers have long been concerned with the components of musk. Herein, GC-MS, headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME), and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) were used to analyze the nonpolar organic components, volatile organic components, and sample similarities among different musks, respectively. Abundant steroid hormones and proteins were also found in the musk. The steroid hormone concentrations were detected using a radioimmunoassay (RIA). Proteins in the samples were hydrolyzed and the amino acids concentrations were detected. The steroid hormone and amino acid concentrations in white musk were significantly lower than in normal and black musks (p<0.05). The components were subjected to NMDS analysis to understand the differences in components among different types of musk, with the results suggesting that white musk was different from normal and black musks.

AQUATIC MACROPHYTES DIVERSITY IN THE LOWER DOCE RIVER BASIN, ESPÍRITO SANTO, BRAZIL

Macrophytes are plant organisms that live partially or totally submerged in water, being fixed and free. The Doce River is one of the main rivers in southeastern Brazil and, in 2015, it was hit by ore tailings from the Fundão dam burst in Mariana, Minas Gerais. This work aims to provide a floristic survey of macrophytes in the lower Doce River basin and to compare the species composition between lentic and lotic environments. Expeditions were carried out monthly from October 2018 to September 2019, in five stations in lotic and six in lentic environments. A total of 105 species belonging to 33 families of vascular plants were recorded, among them 14 are new occurrences for Espírito Santo state. Richest families were Poaceae (23 spp.) and Cyperaceae (22 spp.). Amphibious/emerging plants were the most representative (46 spp.). NMDS analysis revealed that the composition of the lotic and lentic environments are different.

Vascular epiphytic component of “Brejo de altitude” in northeastern Brazil: floristic composition and phytosociological structure

The Brazilian Northeastern Brejos is an important area of biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest. However, little is known about the species composition of epiphytes in this type of vegetation. The present study aims to characterize the floristic and phytosociological structure of vascular epiphytic components in an area of the Brazilian Northeastern Brejo. All epiphytes occurring in the area were collected and compared with other studies through NMDS analysis. For the epiphyte phytosociological structure, sixty 10 × 10 m sampling plots were installed. The floristic survey of epiphytes recorded 23 species, distributed in 19 genera and ten families. In plots, 65 host individuals were sampled, and the occurrence of 197 vascular epiphytes, distributed in 12 species, 12 genera and five families was recorded. The floristic composition differs from other areas of the Atlantic Forest, including the northeast, making the Brejo a very peculiar area and with the utmost need of a plan for the conservation of these species.

Distribution of Chromophytic Phytoplankton in the Eddy-Induced Upwelling Region of the West Pacific Ocean Revealed Using rbcL Genes

Marine chromophytic phytoplankton are a diverse group of algae and contribute significantly to the total oceanic primary production. However, the spatial distribution of chromophytic phytoplankton is understudied in the West Pacific Ocean (WPO). In this study, we have investigated the community structure and spatial distribution of chromophytic phytoplankton using RuBisCO genes (Form ID rbcL). Our results showed that Haptophyceae, Pelagophyceae, Cyanophyceae, Xanthophyceae, and Bacillariophyceae were the dominant groups. Further, chromophytic phytoplankton can be distinguished between upwelling and non-upwelling zones of the WPO. Surface and 75 m depths of a non-upwelling area were dominated by Prochlorococcus strains, whereas chromophytic phytoplankton were homogenously distributed at the surface layer in the upwelling zone. Meanwhile, Pelagomonas-like sequences were dominant at DCM (75 m) and 150 m depths of the upwelling zone. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis did not differentiate between chromophytic phytoplankton in the upwelling and non-upwelling areas, however, it showed clear trends of them at different depths. Further, redundancy analysis (RDA) showed the influence of physicochemical parameters on the distribution of chromophytic phytoplankton. Along with phosphate (p &lt; 0.01), temperature and other dissolved nutrients were important in driving community structure. The upwelling zone was impacted by a decrease in temperature, salinity, and re-supplement of nutrients, where Pelagomonas-like sequences outnumbered other chromophytic groups presented.

Structure of Vaginal Microbiome Community After Perineal Disinfection and Its Effects on Neonatal Oral Microbiome

Background: Vaginal microbiota is not only an important source of bacterial colonization for neonates, but also plays a key role in maternal and neonatal health. In China, povidone iodine is used to disinfect vaginal during delivery. To date there has been no comprehensive study to investigate the vaginal microbiome composition after disinfection.Results: In this study, 27 women were recruited from Bao an Maternal and Child Health Hospital (Shenzhen, China). Vaginal samples before and after delivery were collected. Neonatal oral samples were also collected right after birth. Bacterial compositions of these study subjects were investigated using 16S rRNA sequencing of V3-V4 hyper-regions based on Hiseq 2500 platform. The results showed that vaginal microbiome during pregnancy were dominated by Lactobacillus spp. The identified microbiomes were separated into three community state types (CSTs), and a new CST (dominated by L. helveticus) was observed in this study. After disinfection, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus decreased and alpha diversity increased significantly. Moreover, most CST III and CST VI during pregnancy, both them dominated by Lactobacillus, shifted to CST IV in vaginal samples after disinfection. Additionally, the similar change pattern was observed in neonatal oral microbiome, and they overlapped with vaginal samples after disinfection in NMDS analysis.Conclusions: Perineal disinfection resulted in the decrease of genus Lactobacillus and increase of alpha diversity both in maternal vaginal microbiome and neonatal oral microbiome. In further, it is vital to understand the influence on maternal and neonatal health of vaginal microbiome community structure change after disinfection.

The gut bacterial diversity of sheep associated with different breeds in Qinghai province

Background: Gut microbiota play important roles in their co-evolution with mammals. However, little is understood about gut bacterial community of Tibetan sheep compared with other sheep breeds. In this study, we investigated the gut bacterial community in 4 different sheep breeds living in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) of China using high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technique. Results: The results suggested that bacterial community abundance and breeds diversity of Tibetan sheep (TS) were significantly lower than that of the other three breeds of sheep [Dorset sheep (DrS), Dorper sheep (DrS) and Small Tail Han sheep (STHS)] (p < 0.05). Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis indicated that microbiome composition of TS was significantly different from that of other three sheep breeds (p < 0.01). Firmicutes was the most predominant microbial phylum in the gut, followed by Bacteroidetes. The gut bacterial community of TS showed higher proportions of phylum Spirochaetes, Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, compared to the other three sheep breeds, but the Deferribacteres was absent in TS. At the genus level, Treponema, Succinivibrio, 5-7N15 and Prevotella showed significantly higher abundance in TS than in the other three sheep breeds (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In this study, we first employed HTS to understand the gut microbiomes among different sheep breeds in QTP of China.

The recolonisation of volcanically disturbed Eocene habitats of Central Europe: the maar lakes of Messel and Offenthal (SW Germany) compared

To reconstruct the palaeoenvironment and changes within the vegetation, 68 core samples were analysed palynologically from the lacustrine filling of the Eocene maar lake of Offenthal (Hesse, SW Germany). The lacustrine succession includes 16 m of clastic sediments overlain by 13 m of finely laminated bituminous shale. Based on a revised 40Ar/39Ar age of ~ 47.8 ± 0.3 Ma, the lacustrine filling at Offenthal can be dated as uppermost lower Eocene to lowermost middle Eocene which is almost coeval to part of the nearby lacustrine succession at Messel. Cluster and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analyses of well-preserved palynomorph assemblages reveal successional stages during the recolonisation of the maar lake and its surroundings which are related to lithological changes. Furthermore, the palynomorph assemblages from Offenthal are compared with assemblages from Messel by NMDS analysis to find similarities and differences during the recolonisation of volcanically disturbed habitats in Central Europe during Paleogene greenhouse conditions. Based on the similar succession in the vegetation at both lakes, four different phases can be distinguished during recolonisation and reestablishment of the vegetation at these sites: (1) an initial phase, (2) a recolonisation phase, (3) a recovery phase, (4) a climax phase.

The Macroptilium gracile species complex (Fabaceae, Papilionoideae): an integrative taxonomic study based on morphological, molecular and ecological data

Macroptilium gracile (Phaseolinae, Fabaceae) sensu lato is an extremely diverse species distributed from Mexico to Argentina. The taxonomic and nomenclatural history of the species is confusing, due to existing contrasting treatments. All 15 names corresponding to 12 taxa that have often been considered akin to M. gracile were selected here to clarify the identity of this taxonomic aggregate, using morphological, molecular and biogeographical analyses. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses (nMDS and cluster) of 67 morphological traits were performed on a sample of 109 herbarium sheets. Maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference analyses were conducted using plastid (rpl32-trnL(UAG), trnK-matK-trnK) and nuclear (ITS/5.8S) DNA sequence data on a sample of 31 accessions belonging to taxa of the M. gracile complex and other Macroptilium spp., using three members of related genera (Phaseolus and Vigna) as outgroups. A database with plant locations per taxa was used to elaborate a distribution map, and the potential habitats were estimated through nMDS analysis. Our morphological, molecular and biogeographic results suggest that members of the M. gracile complex belong to three taxonomic entities, for which a new arrangement is proposed accepting Macroptilium gracile (with two varieties) and M. campestre, including two new nomenclatural combinations (M. gracile var. subcoriaceum and M. campestre). Types for all cited names are indicated where available (with a new lectotype designation). Morphological, ecological and distributional data are reported for each accepted taxon.