Reganmolloy6191

Compared with average reproductive success, outbreeding depression was found in progeny from crosses with the LXS and QLF populations. Reproductive success from pure self-pollination indicated S. chinensis is self-compatible. Geitonogamous selfing increased reproductive success. Based on geitonogamous selfing, the proportion of selfed offspring was relatively high. These results provide basic references for the conservation of this species.Leaf soluble sugars and starch are important components of nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs), which are crucial for plant growth, development, and reproduction. Although there is a large body of research focusing on the regulation of plant NSC (soluble sugars and starch) concentrations, the response of foliar NSC concentrations to continuous nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) addition is still unclear, especially in tropical forests. Here, we used a long-term manipulative field experiment to investigate the response of leaf NSC concentrations to continuous N and P addition (3-, 5-, and 8-year fertilization) in a tropical forest in southern China. We found significant species-specific variation in leaf NSC concentrations in this tropical forest. Phosphorus addition dramatically decreased both leaf soluble sugar and starch concentrations, while N addition had no significant effects on leaf soluble sugar and starch concentrations. These results suggest that, in plants growing in P-limiting tropical soil, leaf NSC concentrations are regulated by soil P availability rather than N availability. Moreover, the negative relationships between NSC concentrations and leaf mass per area (LMA) revealed that NSCs could supply excess carbon (C) for leaf expansion under P addition. This was further supported by the increased structural P fraction after P fertilization in our previous study at the same site. We conclude that soil P availability strongly regulates leaf starch and soluble sugar concentrations in the tropical tree species included in this study. The response of leaf NSC concentrations to long-term N and P addition can reflect the close relationships between plant C dynamics and soil nutrient availability in tropical forests. Maintaining relatively higher leaf NSC concentrations in tropical plants can be a potential mechanism for adapting to P-deficient conditions.When wildlife forage and/or live in urban habitats, they often experience a shift in resource availability and dietary quality. Some species even use human handouts, such as bread, as well as human refuse, as a large part of their new diets; yet the influences of this nutritional shift on health and survival remain unclear. American white ibises are increasingly being seen in urban areas in Florida; they collect handouts, such as bread and other food items, from humans in parks, and are also found foraging on anthropogenic sources in trash heaps. We hypothesized that the consumption of these new anthropogenic food sources may trigger increases in indicators of physiological challenge and dampen immune responses. We tested this experimentally by raising 20 white ibis nestlings in captivity, and exposing 10 to a simulated anthropogenic diet (including the addition of white bread and a reduction in seafood content) while maintaining 10 on a diet similar to what ibises consume in more natural environments. We then tested two indicators of physiological challenge (corticosterone and heat shock protein 70), assessed innate immunity in these birds via bactericidal assays and an in vitro carbon clearance assay, and adaptive immunity using a phytohemagglutinin skin test. #link# The anthropogenic diet depressed the development of the ability to kill Salmonella paratyphi in culture. Our results suggest that consuming an anthropogenic diet may be detrimental in terms of the ability to battle a pathogenic bacterial species, but there was little effect on indicators of physiological challenge and other immunological measures.Few studies have tested how plant quality and the presence of competitors interact in determining how herbivores choose between different leaves within a plant. We investigated this in two herbivorous spider mites sharing tomato plants Tetranychus urticae, which generally induces plant defenses, and Tetranychus evansi, which suppresses them, creating asymmetrical effects on coinfesting competitors. On uninfested plants, both herbivore species preferred young leaves, coinciding with increased mite performance. On plants with heterospecifics, the mites did not prefer leaves on which they had a better performance. In particular, T. urticae avoided leaves infested with T. evansi, which is in agreement with T. urticae being outcompeted by T. evansi. In contrast, T. link2 evansi did not avoid leaves with the other species, but distributed itself evenly over plants infested with heterospecifics. We hypothesize that this behavior of T. evansi may prevent further spread of T. urticae over the shared plant. Our results indicate that leaf age determines within-plant distribution of herbivores only in absence of competitors. Moreover, they show that this distribution depends on the order of arrival of competitors and on their effects on each other, with herbivores showing differences in behavior within the plant as a possible response to the outcome of those interactions.Trends in insect abundance are well established in some datasets, but far less is known about how abundance measures translate into biomass trends. Moths (Lepidoptera) provide particularly good opportunities to study trends and drivers of biomass change at large spatial and temporal scales, given the existence of long-term abundance datasets. However, data on the body masses of moths are required for these analyses, but such data do not currently exist.To address this data gap, we collected empirical data in 2018 on the forewing length and dry mass of field-sampled moths, and used these to train and test a statistical model that predicts the body mass of moth species from their forewing lengths (with refined parameters for Crambidae, Erebidae, Geometridae and Noctuidae).Modeled biomass was positively correlated, with high explanatory power, with measured biomass of moth species (R2 = 0.886 ± 0.0006, across 10,000 bootstrapped replicates) and of mixed-species samples of moths (R2 = 0.873 ± 0.0003), showing that it is possible to predict biomass to an informative level of accuracy, and prediction error was smaller with larger sample sizes.Our model allows biomass to be estimated for historical moth abundance datasets, and so our approach will create opportunities to investigate trends and drivers of insect biomass change over long timescales and broad geographic regions.Understanding both sides of host-parasite relationships can provide more complete insights into host and parasite biology in natural systems. For example, phylogenetic and population genetic comparisons between a group of hosts and their closely associated parasites can reveal patterns of host dispersal, interspecies interactions, and population structure that might not be evident from host data alone. These comparisons are also useful for understanding factors that drive host-parasite coevolutionary patterns (e.g., codivergence or host switching) over different periods of time. However, few studies have compared the evolutionary histories between multiple groups of parasites from the same group of hosts at a regional geographic scale. Here, we used genomic data to compare phylogenomic and population genomic patterns of Alaska ptarmigan and grouse species (Aves Tetraoninae) and two genera of their associated feather lice Lagopoecus and Goniodes. We used whole-genome sequencing to obtain hundreds of genes and thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for the lice and double-digest restriction-associated DNA sequences to obtain SNPs from Alaska populations of two species of ptarmigan. We found that both genera of lice have some codivergence with their galliform hosts, but these relationships are primarily characterized by host switching and phylogenetic incongruence. Population structure was also uncorrelated between the hosts and lice. These patterns suggest that grouse, and ptarmigan in particular, share habitats and have likely had historical and ongoing dispersal within Alaska. However, the two genera of lice also have sufficient dissimilarities in the relationships with their hosts to suggest there are other factors, such as differences in louse dispersal ability, that shape the evolutionary patterns with their hosts.Cat predation upon bat species has been reported to have significant effects on bat populations in both rural and urban areas. The majority of research in this area has focussed on observational data from bat rehabilitators documenting injuries, and cat owners, when domestic cats present prey. However, this has the potential to underestimate the number of bats killed or injured by cats. Here, selleck chemicals use forensic DNA analysis techniques to analyze swabs taken from injured bats in the United Kingdom, mainly including Pipistrellus pipistrellus (40 out of 72 specimens). Using quantitative PCR, cat DNA was found in two-thirds of samples submitted by bat rehabilitators. Of these samples, short tandem repeat analysis produced partial DNA profiles for approximately one-third of samples, which could be used to link predation events to individual cats. The use of genetic analysis can complement observational data and potentially provide additional information to give a more accurate estimation of cat predation.Phenotypic divergence in response to divergent natural selection between environments is a common phenomenon in species of freshwater fishes. Intraspecific differentiation is often pronounced between individuals inhabiting lakes versus stream habitats. The different hydrodynamic regimes in the contrasting habitats may promote a variation of body shape, but this could be intertwined with morphological adaptations to a specific foraging mode. Herein, I studied the divergence pattern of the European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus), a common freshwater fish that has received little attention despite its large distribution. In many Scandinavian mountain lakes, European minnows are considered as being invasive and were found to pose threats to the native fish populations due to resource competition. Minnows were recently found to show phenotypic adaptations in lake versus stream habitats, but the question remained if this divergence pattern is related to differences in resource use. I therefore studied the patterns of montrasting habitats.Recurring glacial cycles through the Quaternary period drastically altered the size and distribution of natural populations of North American flora and fauna. link3 The "southerly refugia model" has been the longstanding framework for testing the effects of glaciation on contemporary genetic patterns; however, insights from ancient DNA have contributed to the reconstruction of more complex histories for some species. The American badger, Taxidea taxus, provides an interesting species for exploring the genetic legacy of glacial history, having been hypothesized to have postglacially emerged from a single, southerly refugium to recolonize northern latitudes. However, previous studies have lacked genetic sampling from areas where distinct glacial refugia have been hypothesized, including the Pacific Northwest and American Far North (Yukon, Alaska). In order to further investigate the phylogeographic history of American badgers, we collected mitochondrial DNA sequence data from ancient subfossil material collected within the historical range (Alaska, Yukon) and combined them with new and previously published data from across the species' contemporary distribution (n = 1,207).