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| 2. |
- Ralimanana, H., et al.
(författare)
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Madagascar’s extraordinary biodiversity: Threats and opportunities
- 2022
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 378:6623
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Madagascar’s unique biota is heavily affected by human activity and is under intense threat. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the conservation status of Madagascar’s terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by presenting data and analyses on documented and predicted species-level conservation statuses, the most prevalent and relevant threats, ex situ collections and programs, and the coverage and comprehensiveness of protected areas. The existing terrestrial protected area network in Madagascar covers 10.4% of its land area and includes at least part of the range of the majority of described native species of vertebrates with known distributions (97.1% of freshwater fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals combined) and plants (67.7%). The overall figures are higher for threatened species (97.7% of threatened vertebrates and 79.6% of threatened plants occurring within at least one protected area). International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessments and Bayesian neural network analyses for plants identify overexploitation of biological resources and unsustainable agriculture as the most prominent threats to biodiversity. We highlight five opportunities for action at multiple levels to ensure that conservation and ecological restoration objectives, programs, and activities take account of complex underlying and interacting factors and produce tangible benefits for the biodiversity and people of Madagascar.
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| 3. |
- Antonelli, Alexandre, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Madagascar's extraordinary biodiversity : Evolution, distribution, and use
- 2022
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 378:6623, s. 962-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Madagascar's biota is hyperdiverse and includes exceptional levels of endemicity. We review the current state of knowledge on Madagascar's past and current terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by compiling and presenting comprehensive data on species diversity, endemism, and rates of species description and human uses, in addition to presenting an updated and simplified map of vegetation types. We report a substantial increase of records and species new to science in recent years; however, the diversity and evolution of many groups remain practically unknown (e.g., fungi and most invertebrates). Digitization efforts are increasing the resolution of species richness patterns and we highlight the crucial role of field- and collections-based research for advancing biodiversity knowledge and identifying gaps in our understanding, particularly as species richness corresponds closely to collection effort. Phylogenetic diversity patterns mirror that of species richness and endemism in most of the analyzed groups. We highlight humid forests as centers of diversity and endemism because of their role as refugia and centers of recent and rapid radiations. However, the distinct endemism of other areas, such as the grassland-woodland mosaic of the Central Highlands and the spiny forest of the southwest, is also biologically important despite lower species richness. The documented uses of Malagasy biodiversity are manifold, with much potential for the uncovering of new useful traits for food, medicine, and climate mitigation. The data presented here showcase Madagascar as a unique " living laboratory" for our understanding of evolution and the complex interactions between people and nature. The gathering and analysis of biodiversity data must continue and accelerate if we are to fully understand and safeguard this unique subset of Earth's biodiversity.
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| 4. |
- Gjesfjeld, E., et al.
(författare)
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A quantitative workflow for modeling diversification in material culture
- 2020
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Ingår i: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 15:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Questions about the evolution of material culture are widespread in the humanities and social sciences. Statistical modeling of long-term changes in material culture is less common due to a lack of appropriate frameworks. Our goal is to close this gap and provide robust statistical methods for examining changes in the diversity of material culture. We provide an open-source and quantitative workflow for estimating rates of origination, extinction, and preservation, as well as identifying key shift points in the diversification histories of material culture. We demonstrate our approach using two distinct kinds of data: age ranges for the production of American car models, and radiocarbon dates associated with archaeological cultures of the European Neolithic. Our approach improves on existing frameworks by disentangling the relative contributions of origination and extinction to diversification. Our method also permits rigorous statistical testing of competing hypotheses to explain changes in diversity. Finally, we stress the value of a flexible approach that can be applied to data in various forms; this flexibility allows scholars to explore commonalities between forms of material culture and ask questions about the general properties of cultural change.
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| 5. |
- Gjesfjeld, E, et al.
(författare)
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Competition and extinction explain the evolution of diversity in American automobiles
- 2016
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Ingår i: Palgrave Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2055-1045. ; 2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of the most remarkable aspects of our species is that while we show surprisingly little genetic diversity, we demonstrate astonishing amounts of cultural diversity. Perhaps most impressive is the diversity of our technologies, broadly defined as all the physical objects we produce and the skills we use to produce them. Despite considerable focus on the evolution of technology by social scientists and philosophers, there have been few attempts to systematically quantify technological diversity, and therefore the dynamics of technological change remain poorly understood. Here we show a novel Bayesian model for examining technological diversification adopted from palaeontological analysis of occurrence data. We use this framework to estimate the tempo of diversification in American car and truck models produced between 1896 and 2014, and to test the relative importance of competition and extrinsic factors in shaping changes in macro-evolutionary rates. Our results identify a four-fold decrease in the origination and extinction rates of car models, and a negative net diversification rate over the last 30 years. We also demonstrate that competition played a more significant role in car model diversification than either changes in oil prices or gross domestic product. Together our analyses provide a set of tools that can enhance current research on technological and cultural evolution by providing a flexible and quantitative framework for exploring the dynamics of diversification.
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| 6. |
- Harmon, L. J., et al.
(författare)
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Detecting the macroevolutionary signal of species interactions
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Evolutionary Biology. - : Wiley. - 1010-061X .- 1420-9101. ; 32:8, s. 769-782
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Species interactions lie at the heart of many theories of macroevolution, from adaptive radiation to the Red Queen. Although some theories describe the imprint that interactions will have over long timescales, we are still missing a comprehensive understanding of the effects of interactions on macroevolution. Current research shows strong evidence for the impact of interactions on macroevolutionary patterns of trait evolution and diversification, yet many macroevolutionary studies have only a tenuous relationship to ecological studies of interactions over shorter timescales. We review current research in this area, highlighting approaches that explicitly model species interactions and connect them to broad-scale macroevolutionary patterns. We also suggest that progress has been made by taking an integrative interdisciplinary look at individual clades. We focus on African cichlids as a case study of how this approach can be fruitful. Overall, although the evidence for species interactions shaping macroevolution is strong, further work using integrative and model-based approaches is needed to spur progress towards understanding the complex dynamics that structure communities over time and space. © 2019 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2019 European Society For Evolutionary Biology
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| 7. |
- Pino, K., et al.
(författare)
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Regional landscape change triggered by Andean uplift: The extinction of Sparassodonta (Mammalia, Metatheria) in South America
- 2022
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Ingår i: Global and Planetary Change. - : Elsevier BV. - 0921-8181. ; 210
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sparassodonta, a Metatherian monophyletic group, was the main mammalian carnivore predator clade in South America from the Paleogene to the Early Pliocene (c. 66–3.5 Ma). However, there is still no consensus on the causes of their demise. Here, we use the fossil record and Bayesian diversification models to infer the origination and extinction rates for Sparassodonta. Then, we evaluate if their demise can be attributed to global temperature changes, Andean uplift, biotic interactions with their competitor and prey clades, and body mass evolution. That is biotic aspects in the context of the Red Queen model, abiotic aspects in the context of the Court Jester model, and an intrinsic lineage attribute. Our results show that this lineage is characterized by a positive near-zero net diversification rate indicating that the clade maintained a relatively low but stable diversity until the Middle Miocene when an increase in extinction rate drove them to decline and eventual extinction. Moreover, our results support the idea that a drastic regional landscape change triggered by the Andean uplift process affected their diversification dynamics, eventually driving them to extinction. These environmental changes could explicitly affect Sparassodonta lineages due to their ever-present vulnerability to extinction by near-zero net diversification rate and their highly specialized ecology that could have constrained adaptation to new South American landscapes. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.
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| 8. |
- Richard-Bollans, A., et al.
(författare)
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Machine learning enhances prediction of plants as potential sources of antimalarials
- 2023
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Plant Science. - 1664-462X. ; 14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Plants are a rich source of bioactive compounds and a number of plant-derived antiplasmodial compounds have been developed into pharmaceutical drugs for the prevention and treatment of malaria, a major public health challenge. However, identifying plants with antiplasmodial potential can be time-consuming and costly. One approach for selecting plants to investigate is based on ethnobotanical knowledge which, though having provided some major successes, is restricted to a relatively small group of plant species. Machine learning, incorporating ethnobotanical and plant trait data, provides a promising approach to improve the identification of antiplasmodial plants and accelerate the search for new plant-derived antiplasmodial compounds. In this paper we present a novel dataset on antiplasmodial activity for three flowering plant families - Apocynaceae, Loganiaceae and Rubiaceae (together comprising c. 21,100 species) - and demonstrate the ability of machine learning algorithms to predict the antiplasmodial potential of plant species. We evaluate the predictive capability of a variety of algorithms - Support Vector Machines, Logistic Regression, Gradient Boosted Trees and Bayesian Neural Networks - and compare these to two ethnobotanical selection approaches - based on usage as an antimalarial and general usage as a medicine. We evaluate the approaches using the given data and when the given samples are reweighted to correct for sampling biases. In both evaluation settings each of the machine learning models have a higher precision than the ethnobotanical approaches. In the bias-corrected scenario, the Support Vector classifier performs best - attaining a mean precision of 0.67 compared to the best performing ethnobotanical approach with a mean precision of 0.46. We also use the bias correction method and the Support Vector classifier to estimate the potential of plants to provide novel antiplasmodial compounds. We estimate that 7677 species in Apocynaceae, Loganiaceae and Rubiaceae warrant further investigation and that at least 1300 active antiplasmodial species are highly unlikely to be investigated by conventional approaches. While traditional and Indigenous knowledge remains vital to our understanding of people-plant relationships and an invaluable source of information, these results indicate a vast and relatively untapped source in the search for new plant-derived antiplasmodial compounds.
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| 9. |
- Rolland, J., et al.
(författare)
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Conceptual and empirical bridges between micro- and macroevolution
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nature Ecology and Evolution. - 2397-334X. ; 7, s. 1181-1193
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This Perspective discusses four questions of evolutionary biology that bridge macro and microevolution perspectives and proposes future research avenues to link evolutionary mechanisms and processes. Explaining broad molecular, phenotypic and species biodiversity patterns necessitates a unifying framework spanning multiple evolutionary scales. Here we argue that although substantial effort has been made to reconcile microevolution and macroevolution, much work remains to identify the links between biological processes at play. We highlight four major questions of evolutionary biology whose solutions require conceptual bridges between micro and macroevolution. We review potential avenues for future research to establish how mechanisms at one scale (drift, mutation, migration, selection) translate to processes at the other scale (speciation, extinction, biogeographic dispersal) and vice versa. We propose ways in which current comparative methods to infer molecular evolution, phenotypic evolution and species diversification could be improved to specifically address these questions. We conclude that researchers are in a better position than ever before to build a synthesis to understand how microevolutionary dynamics unfold over millions of years.
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| 10. |
- Rozzi, R., et al.
(författare)
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Dwarfism and gigantism drive human-mediated extinctions on islands
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 379:6636, s. 1054-1058
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Islands have long been recognized as distinctive evolutionary arenas leading to morphologically divergent species, such as dwarfs and giants. We assessed how body size evolution in island mammals may have exacerbated their vulnerability, as well as how human arrival has contributed to their past and ongoing extinctions, by integrating data on 1231 extant and 350 extinct species from islands and paleo islands worldwide spanning the past 23 million years. We found that the likelihood of extinction and of endangerment are highest in the most extreme island dwarfs and giants. Extinction risk of insular mammals was compounded by the arrival of modern humans, which accelerated extinction rates more than 10-fold, resulting in an almost complete demise of these iconic marvels of island evolution.
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