More Like this

1. Species Diversity Associated with Foundation Species in Temperate and Tropical Forests

   https://doi.org/10.3390/f10020128  

   Ellison, Aaron; Buckley, Hannah; Case, Bradley; Cardenas, Dairon; Duque, Álvaro; Lutz, James; Myers, Jonathan; Orwig, David; Zimmerman, Jess (February 2019, Forests)

   Foundation species define and structure ecological communities but are difficult to identify before they are declining. Yet, their defining role in ecosystems suggests they should be a high priority for protection and management while they are still common and abundant. We used comparative analyses of six large forest dynamics plots spanning a temperate-to-tropical gradient in the Western Hemisphere to identify statistical “fingerprints” of potential foundation species based on their size-frequency and abundance-diameter distributions, and their spatial association with five measures of diversity of associated woody plant species. Potential foundation species are outliers from the common “reverse-J” size-frequency distribution, and have negative effects on alpha diversity and positive effects on beta diversity at most spatial lags and directions. Potential foundation species also are more likely in temperate forests, but foundational species groups may occur in tropical forests. As foundation species (or species groups) decline, associated landscape-scale (beta) diversity is likely to decline along with them. Preservation of this component of biodiversity may be the most important consequence of protecting foundation species while they are still common. 

   more » « less
2. Genomic delineation and description of species and within-species lineages in the genus Pantoea

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1254999  

   Crosby, Katherine C; Rojas, Mariah; Sharma, Parul; Johnson, Marcela A; Mazloom, Reza; Kvitko, Brian H; Smits, Theo_H M; Venter, Stephanus N; Coutinho, Teresa A; Heath, Lenwood S; et al (November 2023, Frontiers in Microbiology)

   As the name of the genusPantoea(“of all sorts and sources”) suggests, this genus includes bacteria with a wide range of provenances, including plants, animals, soils, components of the water cycle, and humans. Some members of the genus are pathogenic to plants, and some are suspected to be opportunistic human pathogens; while others are used as microbial pesticides or show promise in biotechnological applications. During its taxonomic history, the genus and its species have seen many revisions. However, evolutionary and comparative genomics studies have started to provide a solid foundation for a more stable taxonomy. To move further toward this goal, we have built a 2,509-gene core genome tree of 437 public genome sequences representing the currently known diversity of the genusPantoea. Clades were evaluated for being evolutionarily and ecologically significant by determining bootstrap support, gene content differences, and recent recombination events. These results were then integrated with genome metadata, published literature, descriptions of named species with standing in nomenclature, and circumscriptions of yet-unnamed species clusters, 15 of which we assigned names under the nascent SeqCode. Finally, genome-based circumscriptions and descriptions of each species and each significant genetic lineage within species were uploaded to the LINbase Web server so that newly sequenced genomes of isolates belonging to any of these groups could be precisely and accurately identified. 

   more » « less
3. Flock-species richness influences node importance and modularity in mixed-species flock networks

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-05053-z  

   Bangal, Priti; Sridhar, Hari; Shizuka, Daizaburo; Vander Meiden, Laura N.; Shanker, Kartik (February 2022, Oecologia)
4. Species differences in learning about gustatory and visual stimuli in two recently diverged species of Drosophila

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.07.009  

   Burns, Madeline P; Saltz, Julia B (September 2024, Animal Behaviour)

   Learning is central to our understanding of how behaviour is shaped by the environment. A key open question is whether learning across contexts evolves as an integrated process, or whether learning in each context is free to evolve separately. Here, we measured learning in two sensory contexts in multiple genotypes and both sexes of two closely related, but ecologically divergent, species of fruit flies, Drosophila simulans and Drosophila sechellia. These species are morphologically very similar but differ dramatically in ecology and population biology. We tested how flies from each genotype, sex and species responded to and learned about different gustatory and visual cues. This approach allowed us to test whether species differences in learning were independent or correlated across contexts. Surprisingly, we found no evidence that D. simulans learned in any of our treatments. In contrast, D. sechellia learned to avoid gustatory stimuli that were paired with an aversive stimulus, as predicted, but unexpectedly learned to approach visual stimuli that were paired with the aversive stimulus. At the genotype level, genotypes, but not species, differed in their naïve responses to stimuli, but genotypes did not differ in learning in either species. Our results demonstrate that D. sechellia indeed differs from D. simulans in both learning contexts, but in a stimulus-dependent way. We suggest that studies of additional species or population pairs that employ this framework will be critical for evaluating the dimensionality of learning and its evolution. 

   more » « less
5. Species tree analyses and speciation-based species delimitation support new species in the relict catfish family Diplomystidae and provide insights on recent glacial history in Patagonia

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107932  

   Muñoz-Ramírez, Carlos P; Colin, Nicole; Canales-Aguirre, Cristian B; Manosalva, Aliro; López-Rodríguez, Ruby; Sukumaran, Jeet; Górski, Konrad (December 2023, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution)