Raising and matching in Pharasiot Greek relative clauses: A diachronic reconstruction

This paper studies the structure and origin of prenominal and postnominal restrictive relative clauses in Pharasiot Greek. Though both patterns are finite and introduced by the invariant complementizer tu, they differ in two important respects. First, corpus data reveal that prenominal relatives are older than their postnominal counterparts. Second, in the present-day language only prenominal relatives involve a matching derivation, whereas postnominal ones behave like Head-raising structures. Turning to diachrony, we suggest that prenominal relatives came into being through morphological fusion of a determiner t- with an invariant complementizer u. This process entailed a reduction of functional structure in the left periphery of the relative clause, to the effect that the landing site for a raising Head was suppressed, leaving a matching derivation as the only option. Postnominal relatives are analyzed as borrowed from Standard Modern Greek. Our analysis corroborates the idea that both raising and matching derivations for relatives must be acknowledged, sometimes even within a single language.

Formation and structure of the biota of Kamchatka's natural ecosystems

The formation of the modern flora and fauna of Kamchatka, paleogeography, natural ecosystems are considered. The biological diversity of the most important groups of biota is analyzed: vascular plants, mollusks, echinoderms, crustaceans, insects, fish, birds, mammals. The most prominent representatives, including economically significant ones, are highlighted. Brief information on paleodendroflora is given, a brief analysis of currently flourishing vascular plants is given. The fossil forms of extinct and currently living animals inhabiting the natural ecosystems of Kamchatka are described. A polytomic analysis of the biota was performed and its functional structure was established. For researchers in the field of ecology and nature protection, teachers and students of relevant academic disciplines, as well as for a wide range of readers in order to learn about the nature of the region and environmental education.

Ecological constraints and trait conservatism drive functional and phylogenetic structure of amphibians larvae assemblages in the Atlantic Forest

Investigate how ecological and/or evolutionary factors could affect the structure of ecological communities is a central demand in ecology. In order to better understand that we assessed phylogenetic and functional structure of 33 tadpole communities in the Atlantic Forest coastal plains of Southeastern Brazil. We tested the assumption that phylogenetic conservatism drive tadpole traits. We identified 32 communities with positive values of phylogenetic structure, with 18 of those being significantly clustered. Twelve of 33 communities showed aggregated functional structure. Trait diversity was skewed towards the root, indicating phylogenetic trait conservatism and evolutionary factors as important drivers of tadpoles community structure. Six out of 11 environmental variables were selected in the best explanatory model of phylogenetic structure. Water conductivity, external and internal diversity of vegetation structure, canopy cover, and dissolved oxygen were negatively related with phylogenetic clustering, whereas presence of potential fish predators was positively related. Four of those environmental variables and area were also included in the best explanatory model of functional structure. All variables represent factors related to performance, survivorship, and distribution of anuran communities. From the 12 functionally structured communities, 10 were also phylogenetically structured. Thus, environmental factors may be acting as filters, interacting with phylogenetically conserved species traits, and driving linage occurrence in tadpole communities. Our study provides evidence that phylogenetic and functional structure in vertebrates are a result of interacting ecological and evolutionary agents, resulting in structured anuran assemblages.

Determination of functional structure of soft-bottom marine macrobenthic communities of the Samsun Shelf Area using biological traits analysis

Biological Traits Analysis (BTA) was used to investigate the functional structure of marine macrobenthic communities along the Samsun Shelf Area (SSA). Benthic samples were collected seasonally from five different locations and at four different depths using a Van Veen grab sampler. Macrofaunal communities distributed in the SSA were assessed using 10 biological traits to identify characteristic traits for each depth and location. It was found that variability of benthic ecosystem functions in the SSA was driven by biological traits such as maximum size, living habit, sediment position, feeding mode and type of reproductive behavior. Bivalves, polychaetes and crustaceans of small to medium size, biodepositing, burying themselves in the sediment (burrowers) and feeding in suspension were relatively more abundant at depths of 0–60 m. However, the biomass of Amphiura, Abra, Papillicardium and some polychaetes characterized by medium to large sizes, diffusive mixing, free living and feeding on deposit and subsurface deposit showed higher values at depths below 60 m. In general, it is concluded that the functional structure of the benthic infauna in the SSA has adapted to physical disturbance, and communities distributed in this area consist mainly of taxa resistant to mechanical pressure.

Changes in the functional structure of small towns in the least developed regions of Poland

The main objective of this work was to describe the functional structure of small towns located in the least-developed Polish voivodships (the so-called eastern Polish wall) and its changes between 2008 and 2018. An additional goal was to measure the diversification level of the functions performed by these towns. The results show that the structure of functions performed by small towns in eastern Poland was relatively uncompetitive and characterized by high stability over time. The structure was dominated by functions related to non-market services and industry, which in their case do not generate high added value. The studied structures were also relatively homogenous. The combination of such features in the long term may slow down the economic growth of the surveyed towns and regions in which they are located.

Responses of Functional Traits of Macrobenthic Communities to Human Activities in Daya Bay (A Subtropical Semi-Enclosed Bay), China

The biological trait analysis (BTA) is regarded as a promising approach to unravel how ecosystem functions respond to human-induced disturbances. This study considered the four sampling locations associated with different human activities in Daya Bay, that is, the domestic and industrial sewage discharge area (SED), mariculture area (MRC), nuclear power plants thermal discharge area (NTD), and an area with relatively low human disturbance as a reference (REF). Thirty modalities of nine traits were selected in BTA. Our results showed a clear shift in the functional structure of macrobenthic communities between the sampling locations, except for the case between NTD and REF. The trait composition in the communities did not highlight any seasonal patterns. Bioturbation, longevity, tolerance, body size, feeding habit, and environmental position were the key traits to characterize the functional structure of macrobenthic communities and demonstrated predictable responses along the environmental gradients. Water depth, DO, Chl-a, NH4+, and petroleum contaminants in sediments were the main variables influencing the trait composition. In addition, the taxonomic index (H′) and functional diversity index (Rao’s Q) showed clear differences among the sampling locations. Although there were no significant differences between NTD and REF in terms of the trait composition and functional diversity, a potential function loss in NTD still can be detected through the integrated analysis with taxonomic diversity. We suggest that the traits (except for fragility, larval development, and living habits) selected and the diversity indices (H′ and Rao’s Q) could serve as promising indicators of ecological conditions in Daya Bay.