| 1. |
- De Frenne, Pieter, et al.
(författare)
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Plant movements and climate warming : intraspecific variation in growth responses to nonlocal soils
- 2014
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Ingår i: New Phytologist. - : Wiley. - 0028-646X .- 1469-8137. ; 202:2, s. 431-441
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Most range shift predictions focus on the dispersal phase of the colonization process. Because moving populations experience increasingly dissimilar nonclimatic environmental conditions as they track climate warming, it is also critical to test how individuals originating from contrasting thermal environments can establish in nonlocal sites. We assess the intraspecific variation in growth responses to nonlocal soils by planting a widespread grass of deciduous forests (Milium effusum) into an experimental common garden using combinations of seeds and soil sampled in 22 sites across its distributional range, and reflecting movement scenarios of up to 1600km. Furthermore, to determine temperature and forest-structural effects, the plants and soils were experimentally warmed and shaded. We found significantly positive effects of the difference between the temperature of the sites of seed and soil collection on growth and seedling emergence rates. Migrant plants might thus encounter increasingly favourable soil conditions while tracking the isotherms towards currently colder' soils. These effects persisted under experimental warming. Rising temperatures and light availability generally enhanced plant performance. Our results suggest that abiotic and biotic soil characteristics can shape climate change-driven plant movements by affecting growth of nonlocal migrants, a mechanism which should be integrated into predictions of future range shifts.
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| 2. |
- Acharya, Kamal Prasad, et al.
(författare)
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Latitudinal variation of life-history traits of an exotic and a native impatiens species in Europe
- 2017
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Ingår i: Acta Oecologica. - : Elsevier BV. - 1146-609X .- 1873-6238. ; 81, s. 40-47
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding the responses of invasive and native populations to environmental change is crucial for reliable predictions of invasions in the face of global change. While comparisons of responses across invasive species with different life histories have been performed before, comparing functional traits of congeneric native and invasive species may help to reveal driving factors associated with invasion. Here we compared morphological functional trait patterns of an invasive species (Impatiens parviflora) with its congeneric native species (I. noli-tangere) along an approximately 1600 km European latitudinal gradient from France (49 degrees 34'N) to Norway (63 degrees 40'N). Soil nitrogen was recorded during six weeks of the growing season, and light, soil moisture, and nutrient availability were estimated for each sampled population using community weighted means of indicator values for co-occurring species. Temperature data were gathered from nearby weather stations. Both the native and invasive species are taller at higher latitudes and this response is strongest in the invasive species. Seed mass and number of seeds per capsule increase in I. noli-tangere but decrease in I. parviflora towards higher latitudes. Surprisingly, plant height in the invasive I. parviflora decreases with increasing soil nitrogen availability. The latitudinal pattern in seed mass is positively related to temperature in I. noli-tangere and negatively in I. parviflora. Leaf area of both species decreases with increasing Ellenberg indicator values for nitrogen and light but increases with increasing soil moisture. Soil nitrogen concentrations and Ellenberg indicator values for nitrogen have significant positive (I. nolitangere) and negative (I. parviflora) effects on the number of seeds per capsule. Our results show that the native I. noli-tangere has efficient reproduction at its range edge while the invasive I. parviflora shows a marked decrease in seed size and seed number per capsule. These patterns are unrelated to the growth and obtained size of the plants: even low soil nitrogen availability in the north seemed not to limit plant growth and size. Our results suggest that the invasive I. parviflora tends to become more invasive at lower latitudes by producing heavier seeds and more seeds per capsule.
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| 3. |
- Albert, Aurélie, et al.
(författare)
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Seed dispersal by ungulates as an ecological filter : a trait-based meta-analysis
- 2015
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Ingår i: Oikos. - : Wiley. - 0030-1299 .- 1600-0706. ; 124:9, s. 1109-1120
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Plant communities are often dispersal-limited and zoochory can be an efficient mechanism for plants to colonize new patches of potentially suitable habitat. We predicted that seed dispersal by ungulates acts as an ecological filter - which differentially affects individuals according to their characteristics and shapes species assemblages - and that the filter varies according to the dispersal mechanism (endozoochory, fur-epizoochory and hoof-epizoochory). We conducted two-step individual participant data meta-analyses of 52 studies on plant dispersal by ungulates in fragmented landscapes, comparing eight plant traits and two habitat indicators between dispersed and non-dispersed plants. We found that ungulates dispersed at least 44% of the available plant species. Moreover, some plant traits and habitat indicators increased the likelihood for plant of being dispersed. Persistent or nitrophilous plant species from open habitats or bearing dry or elongated diaspores were more likely to be dispersed by ungulates, whatever the dispersal mechanism. In addition, endozoochory was more likely for diaspores bearing elongated appendages whereas epizoochory was more likely for diaspores released relatively high in vegetation. Hoof-epizoochory was more likely for light diaspores without hooked appendages. Fur-epizoochory was more likely for diaspores with appendages, particularly elongated or hooked ones. We thus observed a gradient of filtering effect among the three dispersal mechanisms. Endozoochory had an effect of rather weak intensity (impacting six plant characteristics with variations between ungulate-dispersed and non-dispersed plant species mostly below 25%), whereas hoof-epizoochory had a stronger effect (eight characteristics included five ones with above 75% variation), and fur-epizoochory an even stronger one (nine characteristics included six ones with above 75% variation). Our results demonstrate that seed dispersal by ungulates is an ecological filter whose intensity varies according to the dispersal mechanism considered. Ungulates can thus play a key role in plant community dynamics and have implications for plant spatial distribution patterns at multiple scales.
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| 4. |
- Auffret, Alistair G., et al.
(författare)
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HistMapR : Rapid digitization of historical land-use maps in R
- 2017
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Ingår i: Methods in Ecology and Evolution. - 2041-210X. ; 8:11, s. 1453-1457
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Habitat destruction and degradation represent serious threats to biodiversity, and quantification of land-use change over time is important for understanding the consequences of these changes to organisms and ecosystem service provision. Comparing land use between maps from different time periods allows estimation of the magnitude of habitat change in an area. However, digitizing historical maps manually is time-consuming and analyses of change are usually carried out at small spatial extents or at low resolutions. HistMapR contains a number of functions that can be used to semi-automatically digitize historical land use according to a map's colours, as defined by the RGB bands of the raster image. We test the method on different historical land-use map series and compare results to manual digitizations. Digitization is fast, and agreement with manually digitized maps of around 80-90% meets common targets for image classification. We hope that the ability to quickly classify large areas of historical land use will promote the inclusion of land-use change into analyses of biodiversity, species distributions and ecosystem services.
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| 5. |
- Auffret, Alistair G., et al.
(författare)
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More warm-adapted species in soil seed banks than in herb layer plant communities across Europe
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Ecology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0022-0477 .- 1365-2745. ; 111:5, s. 1009-1020
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Responses to climate change have often been found to lag behind the rate of warming that has occurred. In addition to dispersal limitation potentially restricting spread at leading range margins, the persistence of species in new and unsuitable conditions is thought to be responsible for apparent time-lags. Soil seed banks can allow plant communities to temporarily buffer unsuitable environmental conditions, but their potential to slow responses to long-term climate change is largely unknown. As local forest cover can also buffer the effects of a warming climate, it is important to understand how seed banks might interact with land cover to mediate community responses to climate change. We first related species-level seed bank persistence and distribution-derived climatic niches for 840 plant species. We then used a database of plant community data from grasslands, forests and intermediate successional habitats from across Europe to investigate relationships between seed banks and their corresponding herb layers in 2763 plots in the context of climate and land cover. We found that species from warmer climates and with broader distributions are more likely to have a higher seed bank persistence, resulting in seed banks that are composed of species with warmer and broader climatic distributions than their corresponding herb layers. This was consistent across our climatic extent, with larger differences (seed banks from even warmer climates relative to vegetation) found in grasslands. Synthesis. Seed banks have been shown to buffer plant communities through periods of environmental variability, and in a period of climate change might be expected to contain species reflecting past, cooler conditions. Here, we show that persistent seed banks often contain species with relatively warm climatic niches and those with wide climatic ranges. Although these patterns may not be primarily driven by species’ climatic adaptations, the prominence of such species in seed banks might still facilitate climate-driven community shifts. Additionally, seed banks may be related to ongoing trends regarding the spread of widespread generalist species into natural habitats, while cool-associated species may be at risk from both short- and long-term climatic variability and change.
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| 6. |
- Auffret, Alistair G., et al.
(författare)
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Scale-dependent diversity effects of seed dispersal by a wild herbivore in fragmented grasslands
- 2014
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Ingår i: Oecologia. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0029-8549 .- 1432-1939. ; 175:1, s. 305-313
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dispersal limitation between habitat fragments is a known driver of landscape-scale biodiversity loss. In Europe, agricultural intensification during the twentieth century resulted in losses of both grassland habitat and traditional grassland seed dispersal vectors such as livestock. During the same period, populations of large wild herbivores have increased in the landscape. Usually studied in woodland ecosystems, these animals are found to disperse seeds from grasslands and other open habitats. We studied endozoochorous seed dispersal by roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in fragmented grasslands and grassland remnants, comparing dispersed subcommunities of plant species to those in the established vegetation and the seed bank. A total of 652 seedlings of 67 species emerged from 219 samples of roe deer dung. This included many grassland species, and several local grassland specialists. Dispersal had potentially different effects on diversity at different spatial scales. Almost all sites received seeds of species not observed in the vegetation or seed bank at that site, suggesting that local diversity might not be dispersal limited. This pattern was less evident at the landscape scale, where fewer new species were introduced. Nonetheless, long-distance dispersal by large wild herbivores might still provide connectivity between fragmented habitats within a landscape in the areas in which they are active. Finally, as only a subset of the available species were found to disperse in space as well as time, the danger of future biodiversity loss might still exist in many isolated grassland habitats.
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| 7. |
- Auffret, Alistair G., et al.
(författare)
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Spatial scale and specialization affect how biogeography and functional traits predict long-term patterns of community turnover
- 2017
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Ingår i: Functional Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0269-8463 .- 1365-2435. ; 31:2, s. 436-443
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1. Immigration, extirpation and persistence of individual populations of species are key processes determining community responses to environmental change. However, they are difficult to study over long time periods without corresponding historical and modern-day species occurrences.2. We used historical and present-day plant species occurrence data from two different spatial scales (resolutions) to investigate the plant community turnover during the 20th century in a Baltic Sea archipelago. Patterns of turnover were analysed in relation to plant functional traits relating to dispersal and competition/persistence, as well as biogeographical variables.3. Turnover was largely driven by interactions between functional traits and measures of area, connectivity and distance to mainland. However, the combinations of traits and biogeographical variables that were most important for predicting immigration and extirpation differed between data sets, and between species associated with grassland management and the entire species pool.4. Taller plants were more likely to persist regardless of scale and biogeography, reflecting the grazing abandonment that occurred in the study area. Interactions between dispersal traits and biogeography were related to immigrations when the entire species pool was considered. However, increased dispersal potential, a smaller island size and increasing distance to mainland combined to promote extirpations in management-associated species. A perennial life span and seed banking contributed to species persistence. At the larger spatial scale, trait-driven turnover was not mediated by the biogeographical context.5. We showed that it is important to consider functional traits, biogeographical variables and their interactions when analysing community turnover over time. Furthermore, we found that the understanding of how combinations of traits and biogeography predict turnover depends on the source and spatial scale of the available data, and the species pool analysed.
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| 8. |
- Auffret, Alistair G., et al.
(författare)
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Super-regional land-use change and effects on the grassland specialist flora
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2041-1723. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Habitat loss through land-use change is the most pressing threat to biodiversity worldwide. European semi-natural grasslands have suffered an ongoing decline since the early twentieth century, but we have limited knowledge of how grassland loss has affected biodiversity across large spatial scales. We quantify land-use change over 50-70 years across a 175,000 km(2) super-region in southern Sweden, identifying a widespread loss of open cover and a homogenisation of landscape structure, although these patterns vary considerably depending on the historical composition of the landscape. Analysing species inventories from 46,796 semi-natural grasslands, our results indicate that habitat loss and degradation have resulted in a decline in grassland specialist plant species. Local factors are the best predictors of specialist richness, but the historical landscape predicts present-day richness better than the contemporary landscape. This supports the widespread existence of time-lagged biodiversity responses, indicating that further species losses could occur in the future.
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| 9. |
- Auffret, Alistair G., et al.
(författare)
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The spatial and temporal components of functional connectivity in fragmented landscapes
- 2015
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Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 44, s. s51-S59
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Connectivity is key for understanding how ecological systems respond to the challenges of land-use change and habitat fragmentation. Structural and functional connectivity are both established concepts in ecology, but the temporal component of connectivity deserves more attention. Whereas functional connectivity is often associated with spatial patterns (spatial functional connectivity), temporal functional connectivity relates to the persistence of organisms in time, in the same place. Both temporal and spatial processes determine biodiversity responses to changes in landscape structure, and it is therefore necessary that all aspects of connectivity are considered together. In this perspective, we use a case study to outline why we believe that both the spatial and temporal components of functional connectivity are important for understanding biodiversity patterns in the present-day landscape, and how they can also help us to make better-informed decisions about conserving and restoring landscapes and improving resilience to future change.
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| 10. |
- Bagger-Sjöbäck, Dan, et al.
(författare)
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A Randomised, Double Blind Trial of N-Acetylcysteine for Hearing Protection during Stapes Surgery
- 2015
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 10:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Otosclerosis is a disorder that impairs middle ear function, leading to conductive hearing loss. Surgical treatment results in large improvement of hearing at low sound frequencies, but high-frequency hearing often suffers. A likely reason for this is that inner ear sensory cells are damaged by surgical trauma and loud sounds generated during the operation. Animal studies have shown that antioxidants such as N-Acetylcysteine can protect the inner ear from noise, surgical trauma, and some ototoxic substances, but it is not known if this works in humans. This trial was performed to determine whether antioxidants improve surgical results at high frequencies. Methods We performed a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled parallel group clinical trial at three Swedish university clinics. Using block-stratified randomization, 156 adult patients undergoing stapedotomy were assigned to intravenous N-Acetylcysteine (150 mg/kg body weight) or matching placebo (1:1 ratio), starting one hour before surgery. The primary outcome was the hearing threshold at 6 and 8 kHz; secondary outcomes included the severity of tinnitus and vertigo. Findings One year after surgery, high-frequency hearing had improved 2.7 +/- 3.8 dB in the placebo group (67 patients analysed) and 2.4 +/- 3.7 dB in the treated group (72 patients; means +/- 95% confidence interval, p = 0.54; linear mixed model). Surgery improved tinnitus, but there was no significant intergroup difference. Post-operative balance disturbance was common but improved during the first year, without significant difference between groups. Four patients receiving N-Acetylcysteine experienced mild side effects such as nausea and vomiting. Conclusions N-Acetylcysteine has no effect on hearing thresholds, tinnitus, or balance disturbance after stapedotomy.
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