| 1. |
- Kehoe, Laura, et al.
(author)
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Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable
- 2019
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In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 364:6438, s. 341-
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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| 2. |
- Dengler, Jürgen, et al.
(author)
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Working group on dry grasslands in the Nordic and Baltic region – Outline of the project and first results for the class Festuco-Brometea
- 2006
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In: Annali di Botanica N.S.. - 0365-0812. ; 6, s. 73-100
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The vegetation databank established by our working group covers the classes Festuco-Brometea, Koelerio-Corynephoretea, and Trifolio-Geranietea sanguinei in the Nordic and Baltic region, i.e. NE Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, N Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and NW Russia. We aim to use these data to develop a consistent supra-national phytosociological classification of these xerothermic vegetation types in the study area and to analyse their biodiversity patterns. Up to now, we located some 12,500 relevés meeting our criteria, and more than 3,500 of them have already been included in the databank. We give an overview of the properties of these relevés as regards coverage of syntaxa and countries, source types, plot sizes, and cryptogam treatment. We also present first analyses for the basiphilous semi-dry grasslands (Brachypodietalia pinnati) within the Festuco-Brometea. For this group of communities, many different and incompatible classification schemes have been proposed. We give an overview of the alliance and association names that have been in use for them in the study area, accompanied by a nomenclatural assessment. The relevés presently included in the databank have been tentatively assigned to those vegetation classes whose diagnostic taxa were prevailing. Accordingly, more than 2,000 relevés have been placed in the Festuco-Brometea. These show considerable floristic differences compared to stands of the southern temperate Brachypodietalia pinnati alliances Bromion erecti, Cirsio-Brachypodion pinnati, and Agrostion vinealis. The presence degrees of Avenula pratensis and Homalothecium lutescens, for instance, are significantly increased in the study area, and those of Festuca rupicola and Euphorbia cyparissias decreased. An analysis of the species-area relationship yielded a power function with z = 0.09 which is considerably lower than increments determined by nested-plot analyses of this commu-nity type, indicating the probable incompleteness of the species lists for many of the larger plots. Finally, we give an outlook on the future objectives of the working group.
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| 3. |
- Gotzenberger, Lars, et al.
(author)
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Ecological assembly rules in plant communities-approaches, patterns and prospects
- 2012
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In: Biological Reviews. - 1464-7931 .- 1469-185X. ; 87:1, s. 111-127
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Understanding how communities of living organisms assemble has been a central question in ecology since the early days of the discipline. Disentangling the different processes involved in community assembly is not only interesting in itself but also crucial for an understanding of how communities will behave under future environmental scenarios. The traditional concept of assembly rules reflects the notion that species do not co-occur randomly but are restricted in their co-occurrence by interspecific competition. This concept can be redefined in a more general framework where the co-occurrence of species is a product of chance, historical patterns of speciation and migration, dispersal, abiotic environmental factors, and biotic interactions, with none of these processes being mutually exclusive. Here we present a survey and meta-analyses of 59 papers that compare observed patterns in plant communities with null models simulating random patterns of species assembly. According to the type of data under study and the different methods that are applied to detect community assembly, we distinguish four main types of approach in the published literature: species co-occurrence, niche limitation, guild proportionality and limiting similarity. Results from our meta-analyses suggest that non-random co-occurrence of plant species is not a widespread phenomenon. However, whether this finding reflects the individualistic nature of plant communities or is caused by methodological shortcomings associated with the studies considered cannot be discerned from the available metadata. We advocate that more thorough surveys be conducted using a set of standardized methods to test for the existence of assembly rules in data sets spanning larger biological and geographical scales than have been considered until now. We underpin this general advice with guidelines that should be considered in future assembly rules research. This will enable us to draw more accurate and general conclusions about the non-random aspect of assembly in plant communities.
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| 4. |
- Harrison, Paula A., et al.
(author)
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Identifying and prioritising services in European terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems
- 2010
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In: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 19:10, s. 2791-2821
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ecosystems are multifunctional and provide humanity with a broad array of vital services. Effective management of services requires an improved evidence base, identifying the role of ecosystems in delivering multiple services, which can assist policy-makers in maintaining them. Here, information from the literature and scientific experts was used to systematically document the importance of services and identify trends in their use and status over time for the main terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems in Europe. The results from this review show that intensively managed ecosystems contribute mostly to vital provisioning services (e.g. agro-ecosystems provide food via crops and livestock, and forests provide wood), while semi-natural ecosystems (e.g. grasslands and mountains) are key contributors of genetic resources and cultural services (e.g. aesthetic values and sense of place). The most recent European trends in human use of services show increases in demand for crops from agro-ecosystems, timber from forests, water flow regulation from rivers, wetlands and mountains, and recreation and ecotourism in most ecosystems, but decreases in livestock production, freshwater capture fisheries, wild foods and virtually all services associated with ecosystems which have considerably decreased in area (e.g. semi-natural grasslands). The condition of the majority of services show either a degraded or mixed status across Europe with the exception of recent enhancements in timber production in forests and mountains, freshwater provision, water/erosion/natural hazard regulation and recreation/ecotourism in mountains, and climate regulation in forests. Key gaps in knowledge were evident for certain services across all ecosystems, including the provision of biochemicals and natural medicines, genetic resources and the regulating services of seed dispersal, pest/disease regulation and invasion resistance.
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| 5. |
- Lenoir, Jonathan, et al.
(author)
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Local temperatures inferred from plant communities suggest strong spatial buffering of climate warming across Northern Europe
- 2013
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In: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 19:5, s. 1470-1481
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent studies from mountainous areas of small spatial extent (<2500km2) suggest that fine-grained thermal variability over tens or hundreds of metres exceeds much of the climate warming expected for the coming decades. Such variability in temperature provides buffering to mitigate climate-change impacts. Is this local spatial buffering restricted to topographically complex terrains? To answer this, we here study fine-grained thermal variability across a 2500-km wide latitudinal gradient in Northern Europe encompassing a large array of topographic complexities. We first combined plant community data, Ellenberg temperature indicator values, locally measured temperatures (LmT) and globally interpolated temperatures (GiT) in a modelling framework to infer biologically relevant temperature conditions from plant assemblages within <1000-m2 units (community-inferred temperatures: CiT). We then assessed: (1) CiT range (thermal variability) within 1-km2 units; (2) the relationship between CiT range and topographically and geographically derived predictors at 1-km resolution; and (3) whether spatial turnover in CiT is greater than spatial turnover in GiT within 100-km2 units. Ellenberg temperature indicator values in combination with plant assemblages explained 4672% of variation in LmT and 9296% of variation in GiT during the growing season (June, July, August). Growing-season CiT range within 1-km2 units peaked at 6065 degrees N and increased with terrain roughness, averaging 1.97 degrees C (SD=0.84 degrees C) and 2.68 degrees C (SD=1.26 degrees C) within the flattest and roughest units respectively. Complex interactions between topography-related variables and latitude explained 35% of variation in growing-season CiT range when accounting for sampling effort and residual spatial autocorrelation. Spatial turnover in growing-season CiT within 100-km2 units was, on average, 1.8 times greater (0.32 degrees Ckm1) than spatial turnover in growing-season GiT (0.18 degrees Ckm1). We conclude that thermal variability within 1-km2 units strongly increases local spatial buffering of future climate warming across Northern Europe, even in the flattest terrains.
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| 6. |
- Luck, Gary W., et al.
(author)
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Quantifying the Contribution of Organisms to the Provision of Ecosystem Services
- 2009
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In: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 59:3, s. 223-235
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Research on ecosystem services has grown rapidly over the last decade. Two conceptual frameworks have been published to guide ecological assessments of organisms that deliver services-the concepts of service-providing units (SPUs) and ecosystem service providers (ESPs). Here, we unite these frameworks and present an SPU-ESP continuum that offers a coherent conceptual approach for synthesizing the latest developments in ecosystem service research, and can direct future studies at all levels of organization. In particular, we show how the service-provider concept call be applied tit the population, functional group, and community levels, We strongly emphasize the need to identify and quantify the organisms and their characteristics (e.g., functional traits) that provide services, and to assess service provision relative to the demands of human beneficiaries. We use key examples from the literature to illustrate the new approach and to highlight gaps in knowledge, particularly in relation to the impact of species interactions and ecosystem dynamics on service provision.
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| 7. |
- Schweiger, Oliver, et al.
(author)
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Multiple stressors on biotic interactions: how climate change and alien species interact to affect pollination
- 2010
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In: Biological Reviews. - 1469-185X .- 1464-7931. ; 85:4, s. 777-795
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Global change may substantially affect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning but little is known about its effects on essential biotic interactions. Since different environmental drivers rarely act in isolation it is important to consider interactive effects. Here, we focus on how two key drivers of anthropogenic environmental change, climate change and the introduction of alien species, affect plant-pollinator interactions. Based on a literature survey we identify climatically sensitive aspects of species interactions, assess potential effects of climate change on these mechanisms, and derive hypotheses that may form the basis of future research. We find that both climate change and alien species will ultimately lead to the creation of novel communities. In these communities certain interactions may no longer occur while there will also be potential for the emergence of new relationships. Alien species can both partly compensate for the often negative effects of climate change but also amplify them in some cases. Since potential positive effects are often restricted to generalist interactions among species, climate change and alien species in combination can result in significant threats to more specialist interactions involving native species.
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| 8. |
- Walther, Gian-Reto, et al.
(author)
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Alien species in a warmer world: risks and opportunities
- 2009
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In: Trends in Ecology & Evolution. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-8383 .- 0169-5347. ; 24:12, s. 686-693
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Climate change and biological invasions are key processes affecting global biodiversity, yet their effects have usually been considered separately. Here, we emphasise that global warming has enabled alien species to expand into regions in which they previously could not survive and reproduce. Based on a review of climate-mediated biological invasions of plants, invertebrates, fishes and birds, we discuss the ways in which climate change influences biological invasions. We emphasise the role of alien species in a more dynamic context of shifting species' ranges and changing communities. Under these circumstances, management practices regarding the occurrence of 'new' species could range from complete eradication to tolerance and even consideration of the 'new' species as an enrichment of local biodiversity and key elements to maintain ecosystem services.
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| 9. |
- Wasof, Safaa, et al.
(author)
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Disjunct populations of European vascular plant species keep the same climatic niches
- 2015
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In: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 24:12, s. 1401-1412
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aim Previous research on how climatic niches vary across species ranges has focused on a limited number of species, mostly invasive, and has not, to date, been very conclusive. Here we assess the degree of niche conservatism between distant populations of native alpine plant species that have been separated for thousands of years. Location European Alps and Fennoscandia. Methods Of the studied pool of 888 terrestrial vascular plant species occurring in both the Alps and Fennoscandia, we used two complementary approaches to test and quantify climatic-niche shifts for 31 species having strictly disjunct populations and 358 species having either a contiguous or a patchy distribution with distant populations. First, we used species distribution modelling to test for a region effect on each species' climatic niche. Second, we quantified niche overlap and shifts in niche width (i.e. ecological amplitude) and position (i.e. ecological optimum) within a bi-dimensional climatic space. Results Only one species (3%) of the 31 species with strictly disjunct populations and 58 species (16%) of the 358 species with distant populations showed a region effect on their climatic niche. Niche overlap was higher for species with strictly disjunct populations than for species with distant populations and highest for arctic-alpine species. Climatic niches were, on average, wider and located towards warmer and wetter conditions in the Alps. Main conclusion Climatic niches seem to be generally conserved between populations that are separated between the Alps and Fennoscandia and have probably been so for 10,000-15,000 years. Therefore, the basic assumption of species distribution models that a species' climatic niche is constant in space and time-at least on time scales 104 years or less-seems to be largely valid for arctic-alpine plants.
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| 10. |
- Graae, Bente J, et al.
(author)
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On the use of weather data in ecological studies along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients
- 2012
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In: Oikos. - : Wiley. - 0030-1299 .- 1600-0706. ; 121:1, s. 3-19
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Global warming has created a need for studies along climatic gradients to assess the effects of temperature on ecological processes. Altitudinal and latitudinal gradients are often used as such, usually in combination with air temperature data from the closest weather station recorded at 1.52 m above the ground. However, many ecological processes occur in, at, or right above the soil surface. To evaluate how representative the commonly used weather station data are for the microclimate relevant for soil surface biota, we compared weather station temperatures for an altitudinal (500900 m a.s.l.) and a latitudinal gradient (4968 degrees N) with data obtained by temperature sensors placed right below the soil surface at five sites along these gradients. The mean annual temperatures obtained from weather stations and adjusted using a lapse rate of -5.5 degrees C km-1 were between 3.8 degrees C lower and 1.6 degrees C higher than those recorded by the temperature sensors at the soil surface, depending on the position along the gradients. The monthly mean temperatures were up to 10 degrees C warmer or 5 degrees C colder at the soil surface. The within-site variation in accumulated temperature was as high as would be expected from a 300 m change in altitude or from a 4 degrees change in latitude or a climate change scenario corresponding to warming of 1.63.8 degrees C. Thus, these differences introduced by the decoupling are significant from a climate change perspective, and the results demonstrate the need for incorporating microclimatic variation when conducting studies along altitudinal or latitudinal gradients. We emphasize the need for using relevant temperature data in climate impact studies and further call for more studies describing the soil surface microclimate, which is crucial for much of the biota.
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| 11. |
- Gustafsson, Christel, 1968-
(author)
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Plant Population Dynamics and Biotic Interactions in two Forest Herbs
- 2003
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In Sweden today, deciduous woodlands are often restricted to small isolated remnants of what it once was. Managing practices have changed concerning both cattle grazing and logging. Thus, dispersal, habitat requirements and their importance for forest species distributions become a relevant issue. Most of the species found in the deciduous flora are perennial herbs. I have examined population dynamics in the forest perennial Sanicula europaea, and its relation to environmental factors such as grazing, competition and spatial and temporal variation in such factors. Moreover I examined species distributions in relation to dispersal and habitat suitability in S. europaea and Dentaria bulbifera. To understand mechanisms behind the observed patterns I performed a number of experiments.The results clearly demonstrated that the distribution and abundance of S. europaea was not dispersal limited, whereas the opposite held true for D. bulbifera. Moreover, mollusc exclusion increased recruitment thus influencing population dynamics in D. bulbifera. Leaf losses had negative effects on S. europaea individuals. These negative effects depended both on the extent, frequency and timing of the leaf losses and early losses were more severe than late. Population level effects of grazing were not negative as negative direct effects were counterblanced by positive indirect effects. The positive effects of grazing were mainly in terms of an increased recruitment. In S. europaea, high variation in a life cycle transition was always coupled to low elasticity, and traits that varied much due to the examined environmental factors had little importance to population growth rate. A population level perspective is required to assess total effects of environmental factors. In perennial organisms such evaluations need to calculate integrated measures of the effects over the entire life cycle. Field studies spanning several years and demographic models are important to achieve these objectives.
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| 12. |
- Harrington, Richard, et al.
(author)
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Ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation: concepts and a glossary
- 2010
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In: Biodiversity and Conservation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0960-3115 .- 1572-9710. ; 19:10, s. 2773-2790
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The RUBICODE project draws on expertise from a range of disciplines to develop and integrate frameworks for assessing the impacts of environmental change on ecosystem service provision, and for rationalising biodiversity conservation in that light. With such diverse expertise and concepts involved, interested parties will not be familiar with all the key terminology. This paper defines the terms as used within the project and, where useful, discusses some reasoning behind the definitions. Terms are grouped by concept rather than being listed alphabetically.
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| 13. |
- Kuussaari, Mikko, et al.
(author)
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Extinction debt: a challenge for biodiversity conservation
- 2009
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In: Trends in Ecology & Evolution. - : Elsevier BV. - 0169-5347 .- 1872-8383. ; 24:10, s. 564-571
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Local extinction of species can occur with a substantial delay following habitat loss or degradation. Accumulating evidence suggests that such extinction debts pose a significant but often unrecognized challenge for biodiversity conservation across a wide range of taxa and ecosystems. Species with long generation times and populations near their extinction threshold are most likely to have an extinction debt. However, as long as a species that is predicted to become extinct still persists, there is time for conservation measures such as habitat restoration and landscape management. Standardized long-term monitoring, more high-quality empirical studies on different taxa and ecosystems and further development of analytical methods will help to better quantify extinction debt and protect biodiversity.
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| 14. |
- Mikryukov, Vladimir, et al.
(author)
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Connecting the multiple dimensions of global soil fungal diversity
- 2023
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In: Science advances. - 2375-2548. ; 9:48
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- How the multiple facets of soil fungal diversity vary worldwide remains virtually unknown, hindering the management of this essential species-rich group. By sequencing high-resolution DNA markers in over 4000 topsoil samples from natural and human-altered ecosystems across all continents, we illustrate the distributions and drivers of different levels of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of fungi and their ecological groups. We show the impact of precipitation and temperature interactions on local fungal species richness (alpha diversity) across different climates. Our findings reveal how temperature drives fungal compositional turnover (beta diversity) and phylogenetic diversity, linking them with regional species richness (gamma diversity). We integrate fungi into the principles of global biodiversity distribution and present detailed maps for biodiversity conservation and modeling of global ecological processes.
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| 15. |
- Moora, Mari, et al.
(author)
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AM fungal communities inhabiting the roots of submerged aquatic plant Lobelia dortmanna are diverse and include a high proportion of novel taxa
- 2016
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In: Mycorrhiza. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0940-6360 .- 1432-1890. ; 26:7, s. 735-745
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- While the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is known to be widespread in terrestrial ecosystems, there is growing evidence that aquatic plants also form the symbiosis. It has been suggested that symbiosis with AM fungi may represent an important adaptation for isoA << tid plants growing on nutrient-poor sediments in oligotrophic lakes. In this study, we address AM fungal root colonization intensity, richness and community composition (based on small subunit (SSU) ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing) in five populations of the isoA << tid plant species Lobelia dortmanna inhabiting oligotrophic lakes in Southern Sweden. We found that the roots of L. dortmanna hosted rich AM fungal communities and about 15 % of the detected molecular taxa were previously unrecorded. AM fungal root colonization intensity and taxon richness varied along an environmental gradient, being higher in oligotrophic and lower in mesotrophic lakes. The overall phylogenetic structure of this aquatic fungal community differed from that described in terrestrial systems: The roots of L. dortmanna hosted more Archaeosporaceae and fewer Glomeraceae taxa than would be expected based on global data from terrestrial AM fungal communities.
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| 16. |
- Partel, Meelis, et al.
(author)
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Historical biome distribution and recent human disturbance shape the diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
- 2017
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In: New Phytologist. - : Wiley. - 0028-646X .- 1469-8137. ; 216:1, s. 227-238
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The availability of global microbial diversity data, collected using standardized metabarcoding techniques, makes microorganisms promising models for investigating the role of regional and local factors in driving biodiversity. Here we modelled the global diversity of symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi using currently available data on AM fungal molecular diversity (small subunit (SSU) ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences) in field samples. To differentiate between regional and local effects, we estimated species pools (sets of potentially suitable taxa) for each site, which are expected to reflect regional processes. We then calculated community completeness, an index showing the fraction of the species pool present, which is expected to reflect local processes. We found significant spatial variation, globally in species pool size, as well as in local and dark diversity (absent members of the species pool). Species pool size was larger close to areas containing tropical grasslands during the last glacial maximum, which are possible centres of diversification. Community completeness was greater in regions of high wilderness (remoteness from human disturbance). Local diversity was correlated with wilderness and current connectivity to mountain grasslands. Applying the species pool concept to symbiotic fungi facilitated a better understanding of how biodiversity can be jointly shaped by large-scale historical processes and recent human disturbance.
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| 17. |
- Potts, Simon G., et al.
(author)
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Developing European conservation and mitigation tools for pollination services: approaches of the STEP (Status and Trends of European Pollinators) project
- 2011
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In: Journal of Apicultural Research. - 0021-8839 .- 2078-6913. ; 50:2, s. 152-164
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Pollinating insects form a key component of European biodiversity, and provide a vital ecosystem service to crops and wild plants. There is growing evidence of declines in both wild and domesticated pollinators, and parallel declines in plants relying upon them. The STEP project (Status and Trends of European Pollinators, 2010-2015, www.step-project.net) is documenting critical elements in the nature and extent of these declines, examining key functional traits associated with pollination deficits, and developing a Red List for some European pollinator groups. Together these activities are laying the groundwork for future pollinator monitoring programmes. STEP is also assessing the relative importance of potential drivers of pollinator declines, including climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation, agrochemicals, pathogens, alien species, light pollution, and their interactions. We are measuring the ecological and economic impacts of declining pollinator services and floral resources, including effects on wild plant populations, crop production and human nutrition. STEP is reviewing existing and potential mitigation options, and providing novel tests of their effectiveness across Europe. Our work is building upon existing and newly developed datasets and models, complemented by spatially-replicated campaigns of field research to fill gaps in current knowledge. Findings are being integrated into a policy-relevant framework to create evidence-based decision support tools. STEP is establishing communication links to a wide range of stakeholders across Europe and beyond, including policy makers, beekeepers, farmers, academics and the general public. Taken together, the STEP research programme aims to improve our understanding of the nature, causes, consequences and potential mitigation of declines in pollination services at local, national, continental and global scales.
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| 18. |
- Sabatini, F. M., et al.
(author)
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sPlotOpen - An environmentally balanced, open-access, global dataset of vegetation plots
- 2021
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In: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Motivation Assessing biodiversity status and trends in plant communities is critical for understanding, quantifying and predicting the effects of global change on ecosystems. Vegetation plots record the occurrence or abundance of all plant species co-occurring within delimited local areas. This allows species absences to be inferred, information seldom provided by existing global plant datasets. Although many vegetation plots have been recorded, most are not available to the global research community. A recent initiative, called 'sPlot', compiled the first global vegetation plot database, and continues to grow and curate it. The sPlot database, however, is extremely unbalanced spatially and environmentally, and is not open-access. Here, we address both these issues by (a) resampling the vegetation plots using several environmental variables as sampling strata and (b) securing permission from data holders of 105 local-to-regional datasets to openly release data. We thus present sPlotOpen, the largest open-access dataset of vegetation plots ever released. sPlotOpen can be used to explore global diversity at the plant community level, as ground truth data in remote sensing applications, or as a baseline for biodiversity monitoring. Main types of variable contained Vegetation plots (n = 95,104) recording cover or abundance of naturally co-occurring vascular plant species within delimited areas. sPlotOpen contains three partially overlapping resampled datasets (c. 50,000 plots each), to be used as replicates in global analyses. Besides geographical location, date, plot size, biome, elevation, slope, aspect, vegetation type, naturalness, coverage of various vegetation layers, and source dataset, plot-level data also include community-weighted means and variances of 18 plant functional traits from the TRY Plant Trait Database. Spatial location and grain Global, 0.01-40,000 m(2). Time period and grain 1888-2015, recording dates. Major taxa and level of measurement 42,677 vascular plant taxa, plot-level records. Software format Three main matrices (.csv), relationally linked.
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| 19. |
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| 20. |
- Tedersoo, Leho, et al.
(author)
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Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi.
- 2022
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In: Global change biology. - : Wiley. - 1365-2486 .- 1354-1013. ; 28:22, s. 6696-6710
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fungi are highly diverse organisms, which provide multiple ecosystem services. However, compared with charismatic animals and plants, the distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been little explored. Here, we examined endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high-resolution, long-read metabarcoding approach. We found that the endemicity of all fungi and most functional groups peaks in tropical habitats, including Amazonia, Yucatan, West-Central Africa, Sri Lanka, and New Caledonia, with a negligible island effect compared with plants and animals. We also found that fungi are predominantly vulnerable to drought, heat and land-cover change, particularly in dry tropical regions with high human population density. Fungal conservation areas of highest priority include herbaceous wetlands, tropical forests, and woodlands. We stress that more attention should be focused on the conservation of fungi, especially root symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi in tropical regions as well as unicellular early-diverging groups and macrofungi in general. Given the low overlap between the endemicity of fungi and macroorganisms, but high conservation needs in both groups, detailed analyses on distribution and conservation requirements are warranted for other microorganisms and soil organisms.
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| 21. |
- Vahter, Tanel, et al.
(author)
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Co-introduction of native mycorrhizal fungi and plant seeds accelerates restoration of post-mining landscapes
- 2020
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In: Journal of Applied Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0021-8901 .- 1365-2664. ; 57:9, s. 1741-1751
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Grasslands are among the most threatened terrestrial biomes, and habitat conservation alone will be insufficient to meet biodiversity goals. While restoration of indigenous grasslands is a priority, conflict with economic objectives means that incorporation of alternative habitats is necessary to offset grassland loss. With up to 800,000 km2 of land affected by mining globally, there is an opportunity to create additional grassland habitat in post-mining landscapes. We aimed to assess whether co-introduction of native arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and plants is an efficient means of initializing species-rich vegetation recovery in barren post-mining landscapes. We established an experiment in three post-mining areas in Estonia, where we seeded plots with native plant seeds and inoculated them with trap-cultured native AM fungi from a similar habitat. We measured the abundance and composition of soil AM fungal and above-ground plant communities in two consecutive years using relevés, high-throughput sequencing and fatty acid profiling. Our results demonstrate that co-introduction of native plants and AM fungi is an effective way to establish species-rich vegetation in post-mining areas. Co-introduction of symbiotic partners resulted in higher richness, diversity and abundance of plants and AM fungi than when either partner was introduced individually. However, the plant and AM fungal communities in sown and inoculated plots were not distinct from those in uninoculated treatments; they rather formed a subset of all taxa present on the sites but exhibited higher diversity than in uninoculated plots. Synthesis and applications. This study shows that managing the below-ground microbiome is an essential part of vegetation restoration. The availability of symbiotic partners can be considered a key aspect determining the diversity of restored vegetation. Targeted inoculations with native and habitat-specific native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi could therefore increase restoration success.
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| 22. |
- Öster, Mathias, 1975-
(author)
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Biological diversity values in semi-natural grasslands : indicators, landscape context and restoration
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Semi-natural grasslands, which are a declining and fragmented habitat in Europe, contain a high biodiversity, and are therefore of interest to conservation. This thesis examines how plant diversity is influenced by the landscape context, and how plant and fungal diversity can be targeted by practical conservation using indicator species and congruence between species groups. Reproduction and recruitment of the dioecious herb Antennaria dioica was also investigated, providing a case study on how fragmentation and habitat degradation may affect grassland plants.Grassland size and heterogeneity were of greater importance for plant diversity in semi-natural grassland, than present or historical connectivity to other grasslands, or landscape characteristics. Larger grasslands were more heterogeneous than smaller grasslands, being the likely reason for the species-area relationship.A detailed study on A. dioica discovered that sexual reproduction and recruitment may be hampered due to skewed sex-ratios. Sex-ratios were more skewed in small populations, suggesting that dioecious plants are likely to be particularly sensitive to reduced grassland size and fragmentation.A study on indicators of plant species richness, used in a recent survey of remaining semi-natural grasslands in Sweden, revealed several problems. A high percentage of all indicator species were missed by the survey, removing an otherwise significant correlation between indicator species and plant species richness. Also, a null model showed that the chosen indicator species did not perform significantly better than species chosen at random from the available species pool, questioning the selection of the indicators in the survey. Diversity patterns of the threatened fungal genus Hygrocybe were not congruent with plant species richness or composition. Plants are thus a poor surrogate group for Hygrocybe fungi, and probably also for other grassland fungi. Implications from this thesis are that conservation of semi-natural grasslands should target several species groups, and that an appropriate scale for plant conservation may be local rather than regional.
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