Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2019
Sammendrag
Interspecific brood parasitism is common in many animal systems. Brood parasites enter the nests of other species and divert host resources for producing their own offspring, which can lead to strong antagonistic parasite–host coevolution. Here, we look at commonalities among social insect species that are victims of brood parasites, and use phylogenetic data and information on geographical range size to predict which species are most probably to fall victims to brood parasites in the future. In our analyses, we focus on three eusocial hymenopteran groups and their brood parasites: (i) bumblebees, (ii) Myrmica ants, and (iii) vespine and polistine wasps. In these groups, some, but not all, species are parasitized by obligate workerless inquilines that only produce reproductive-caste descendants.We find phylogenetic signals for geographical range size and the presence of parasites in bumblebees, but not in ants and wasps. Phylogenetic logistic regressions indicate that the probability of being attacked by one or more brood parasite species increases with the size of the geographical range in bumblebees, but the effect is statistically only marginally significant in ants. However, non-phylogenetic logistic regressions suggest that bumblebee species with the largest geographical range sizes may have a lower likelihood of harbouring social parasites than do hosts with medium-sized ranges. Our results provide new insights into the ecology and evolution of host–social parasite systems, and indicate that host phylogeny and geographical range size can be used to predict threats posed by social parasites, as well to design efficient conservation measures for both hosts and their parasites. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The coevolutionary biology of brood parasitism: from mechanism to pattern’.
Forfattere
Tommi Nyman Renske E Onstein Daniele Silvestro Saskia Wutke Andreas Taeger Niklas Wahlberg Stephan Martin Blank Tobias MalmSammendrag
The insect order Hymenoptera originated during the Permian nearly 300 Mya. Ancestrally herbivorous hymenopteran lineages today make up the paraphyletic suborder ‘Symphyta’, which encompasses c. 8200 species with very diverse host-plant associations. We use phylogeny-based statistical analyses to explore the drivers of diversity dynamics within the ‘Symphyta’, with a particular focus on the hypothesis that diversification of herbivorous insects has been driven by the explosive radiation of angiosperms during and after the Cretaceous. Our ancestral-state estimates reveal that the first symphytans fed on gymnosperms, and that shifts onto angiosperms and pteridophytes – and back – have occurred at different time intervals in different groups. Trait-dependent analyses indicate that average net diversification rates do not differ between symphytan lineages feeding on angiosperms, gymnosperms or pteridophytes, but trait-independent models show that the highest diversification rates are found in a few angiosperm-feeding lineages that may have been favoured by the radiations of their host taxa during the Cenozoic. Intriguingly, lineages-through-time plots show signs of an early Cretaceous mass extinction, with a recovery starting first in angiosperm-associated clades. Hence, the oft-invoked assumption of herbivore diversification driven by the rise of flowering plants may overlook a Cretaceous global turnover in insect herbivore communities during the rapid displacement of gymnosperm- and pteridophyte-dominated floras by angiosperms.
Forfattere
Robert BarneveldSammendrag
No abstract has been registered
Sammendrag
No abstract has been registered
Forfattere
Junbin ZhaoSammendrag
No abstract has been registered
Forfattere
James Fourqurean Sparkle Malone Edward Castaneda Sean Charles Carl Fitz Daniel Gann David Ho John Kominoski Christian Lopes Steven. F. Oberbauer Gregory Starr Christina Staudhammer Tiffany Troxler Bryce Van Dam Junbin ZhaoSammendrag
No abstract has been registered
Forfattere
Junbin ZhaoSammendrag
As the main drivers of climate change, greenhouse gas (e.g., CO2 and CH4) emissions have been monitored intensively across the globe. The static chamber is one of the most commonly used approaches for measuring greenhouse gas fluxes from ecosystems (e.g., stem/soil respiration, CH4 emission, etc.) because of its easy implementation, high accuracy and low cost (Pumpanen et al., 2004). To perform the measurements, a gas analyzer is usually used to measure the changes of greenhouse gas concentrations within a closed chamber that covers an area of interest (e.g., soil surface) over a certain period of time (usually several minutes). The flux rates (F) are then calculated from the recorded gas concentrations assuming that the changing rate is linear: F = vol/(R · T a · area) · dG/dt where vol is the volume of the chamber (l), R is the universal gas constant (l atm K-1 mol-1), Ta is the ambient temperature (K), area is the area of the chamber base (m2 ), and dG/dt is the rate of the measured gas concentration change over time t (ppm s-1) (i.e., the slope of the linear regression).
Forfattere
Sparkle Malone Abad Chabbi Gregory Starr Teng Hu Nicolas Puche Steven. F. Oberbauer Paulo Olivas Jessica Schedlbauer Junbin Zhao Christina Staudhammer Sean Charles Zhuoran YuSammendrag
No abstract has been registered
Forfattere
Junbin Zhao Sparkle L. Malone Steven. F. Oberbauer Paulo C. Olivas Jessica L. Schedlbauer Christina L. Staudhammer Gregory StarrSammendrag
Climate change has altered global precipitation patterns and has led to greater variation in hydrological conditions. Wetlands are important globally for their soil carbon storage. Given that wetland carbon processes are primarily driven by hydrology, a comprehensive understanding of the effect of inundation is needed. In this study, we evaluated the effect of water level (WL) and inundation duration (ID) on carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes by analysing a 10‐year (2008–2017) eddy covariance dataset from a seasonally inundated freshwater marl prairie in the Everglades National Park. Both gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) rates showed declines under inundation. While GPP rates decreased almost linearly as WL and ID increased, ER rates were less responsive to WL increase beyond 30 cm and extended inundation periods. The unequal responses between GPP and ER caused a weaker net ecosystem CO2 sink strength as inundation intensity increased. Eventually, the ecosystem tended to become a net CO2 source on a daily basis when either WL exceeded 46 cm or inundation lasted longer than 7 months. Particularly, with an extended period of high‐WLs in 2016 (i.e., WL remained >40 cm for >9 months), the ecosystem became a CO2 source, as opposed to being a sink or neutral for CO2 in other years. Furthermore, the extreme inundation in 2016 was followed by a 4‐month postinundation period with lower net ecosystem CO2 uptake compared to other years. Given that inundation plays a key role in controlling ecosystem CO2 balance, we suggest that a future with more intensive inundation caused by climate change or water management activities can weaken the CO2 sink strength of the Everglades freshwater marl prairies and similar wetlands globally, creating a positive feedback to climate change.
Sammendrag
No abstract has been registered