| 1. |
- Biurrun, Idoia, et al.
(författare)
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Benchmarking plant diversity of Palaearctic grasslands and other open habitats
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Vegetation Science. - Oxford : John Wiley & Sons. - 1100-9233 .- 1654-1103. ; 32:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Journal of Vegetation Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Association for Vegetation Science.Aims: Understanding fine-grain diversity patterns across large spatial extents is fundamental for macroecological research and biodiversity conservation. Using the GrassPlot database, we provide benchmarks of fine-grain richness values of Palaearctic open habitats for vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens and complete vegetation (i.e., the sum of the former three groups). Location: Palaearctic biogeographic realm. Methods: We used 126,524 plots of eight standard grain sizes from the GrassPlot database: 0.0001, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, 100 and 1,000 m2 and calculated the mean richness and standard deviations, as well as maximum, minimum, median, and first and third quartiles for each combination of grain size, taxonomic group, biome, region, vegetation type and phytosociological class. Results: Patterns of plant diversity in vegetation types and biomes differ across grain sizes and taxonomic groups. Overall, secondary (mostly semi-natural) grasslands and natural grasslands are the richest vegetation type. The open-access file ”GrassPlot Diversity Benchmarks” and the web tool “GrassPlot Diversity Explorer” are now available online (https://edgg.org/databases/GrasslandDiversityExplorer) and provide more insights into species richness patterns in the Palaearctic open habitats. Conclusions: The GrassPlot Diversity Benchmarks provide high-quality data on species richness in open habitat types across the Palaearctic. These benchmark data can be used in vegetation ecology, macroecology, biodiversity conservation and data quality checking. While the amount of data in the underlying GrassPlot database and their spatial coverage are smaller than in other extensive vegetation-plot databases, species recordings in GrassPlot are on average more complete, making it a valuable complementary data source in macroecology. © 2021 The Authors.
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| 2. |
- Ceulemans, Tobias, et al.
(författare)
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Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in European grasslands under nutrient pollution
- 2019
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Ingår i: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 28:12, s. 1796-1805
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim: Our aim was to quantify the extent to which nutrient pollution explains arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community richness and composition.Location: Europe.Time period: 2014-2016.Major taxa studied: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.Methods: We sampled soils of calcareous and acidic grasslands and roots of 34 host plant species across a large geographical gradient of atmospheric nitrogen deposition and soil phosphorus availability. Furthermore, we performed an independent pairwise comparison between fertilized and unfertilized grasslands in Belgium and Iceland to compare results.Results: We found that nitrogen deposition had a significant negative relationship to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal richness, with a negative community threshold of 7.7 kg N/ha/year corresponding to the greatest reduction in operational taxonomic units. Additionally, we found that soil phosphorus had a significant negative relationship to mycorrhizal fungal richness.Main conclusions: Our results highlight the necessity to revisit the critical loads of atmospheric nitrogen deposition used in European environmental policy, currently set at 10-15 kg N/ha/year. Importantly, our observed threshold of 7.7 kg N/ha/year does not correspond to a critical load below which there is no environmental harm, because the least negative changes in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities were observed at < 5 kg N/ha/year. Therefore, to avoid compromising the policy tenet of no environmental harm with respect to grassland mycorrhizal fungi, areas of zero tolerance to nitrogen pollution should be delimited. Our results also indicate that environmental policy biased towards reducing nitrogen pollution alone will fail to preserve mycorrhizal biodiversity in European grasslands. We advocate increased policy attention to avoid phosphorus enrichment, particularly through agricultural fertilization. Here too, areas of zero phosphorus input, ideally set in the currently unpolluted (or least polluted) areas, seem key for effective environmental policy, because elevated levels of soil phosphorus after phosphorus fertilization are known to be extremely persistent.
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| 3. |
- Idoia Biurrun, Idoia, et al.
(författare)
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GrassPlot v. 2.00 – first update on the database of multi-scale plant diversity in Palaearctic grasslands
- 2019
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Ingår i: Palaearctic Grasslands. - : Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG). - 2627-9827. ; :44, s. 26-47
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- GrassPlot is a collaborative vegetation-plot database organised by the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) and listed in the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD ID EU-00-003). Following a previous Long Database Report (Dengler et al. 2018, Phytocoenologia 48, 331–347), we provide here the first update on content and functionality of GrassPlot. The current version (GrassPlot v. 2.00) contains a total of 190,673 plots of different grain sizes across 28,171 independent plots, with 4,654 nested-plot series including at least four grain sizes. The database has improved its content as well as its functionality, including addition and harmonization of header data (land use, information on nestedness, structure and ecology) and preparation of species composition data. Currently, GrassPlot data are intensively used for broad-scale analyses of different aspects of alpha and beta diversity in grassland ecosystems.
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| 4. |
- Palmer, Elizabeth E., et al.
(författare)
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Functional and clinical studies reveal pathophysiological complexity of CLCN4-related neurodevelopmental condition
- 2023
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Ingår i: Molecular Psychiatry. - : SPRINGERNATURE. - 1359-4184 .- 1476-5578. ; 28:2, s. 668-697
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Missense and truncating variants in the X-chromosome-linked CLCN4 gene, resulting in reduced or complete loss-of-function (LOF) of the encoded chloride/proton exchanger ClC-4, were recently demonstrated to cause a neurocognitive phenotype in both males and females. Through international clinical matchmaking and interrogation of public variant databases we assembled a database of 90 rare CLCN4 missense variants in 90 families: 41 unique and 18 recurrent variants in 49 families. For 43 families, including 22 males and 33 females, we collated detailed clinical and segregation data. To confirm causality of variants and to obtain insight into disease mechanisms, we investigated the effect on electrophysiological properties of 59 of the variants in Xenopus oocytes using extended voltage and pH ranges. Detailed analyses revealed new pathophysiological mechanisms: 25% (15/59) of variants demonstrated LOF, characterized by a "shift" of the voltage-dependent activation to more positive voltages, and nine variants resulted in a toxic gain-of-function, associated with a disrupted gate allowing inward transport at negative voltages. Functional results were not always in line with in silico pathogenicity scores, highlighting the complexity of pathogenicity assessment for accurate genetic counselling. The complex neurocognitive and psychiatric manifestations of this condition, and hitherto under-recognized impacts on growth, gastrointestinal function, and motor control are discussed. Including published cases, we summarize features in 122 individuals from 67 families with CLCN4-related neurodevelopmental condition and suggest future research directions with the aim of improving the integrated care for individuals with this diagnosis.
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| 5. |
- Van Geel, Maarten, et al.
(författare)
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Abiotic rather than biotic filtering shapes the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities of European seminatural grasslands
- 2018
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Ingår i: New Phytologist. - : Wiley. - 0028-646X .- 1469-8137. ; 220:4, s. 1262-1272
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although it is well known that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play a key role in the functioning of natural ecosystems, the underlying drivers determining the composition of AMF communities remain unclear. In this study, we established 138 sampling plots at 46 grassland sites, consisting of 26 acidic grasslands and 20 calcareous grasslands spread across eight European countries, to assess the relative importance of abiotic and biotic filtering in driving AMF community composition and structure in both the grassland soils and in the roots of 13 grassland plant species. Soil AMF communities differed significantly between acidic and calcareous grasslands. In root AMF communities, most variance was attributable to soil variables while very little variation was explained by host plant identity. Root AMF communities in host plant species occurring in only one grassland type closely resembled the soil AMF communities of that grassland type and the root AMF communities of other host plant species occurring in the same grassland type. The observed AMF-host plants networks were not modular but nested. Our results indicate that abiotic conditions, rather than biotic filtering through host plant specificity, are the most important drivers in shaping AMF communities in European seminatural grasslands.
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