Environmental drivers

Multiple mating by females (polyandry) is a widespread behavior occurring in diverse taxa, species, and populations. Polyandry can also vary widely within species, and individual populations, so that both monandrous and polyandrous females occur together. Genetic differences can explain some of this intraspecific variation in polyandry, but environmental factors are also likely to play a role. One environmental factor that influences many fundamental biological processes is temperature. Higher temperatures have been shown to directly increase remating in laboratory studies of insects. In the longer term, high temperature could also help to drive the evolution of larger-scale patterns of behavior by changing the context-dependent balance of costs and benefits of polyandry across environments. We examined the relative influence of rearing and mating temperatures on female remating in populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura that show a latitudinal cline in polyandry in nature, using a range of ecologically relevant temperatures. We found that females of all genotypes remated more at cooler temperatures, which fits with the observation of higher average frequencies of polyandry at higher latitudes in this species. However, the impact of temperature was outweighed by the strong genetic control of remating in females in this species. It is likely that genetic factors provide the primary explanation for the latitudinal cline in polyandry in this species.

Since 2006, arboviruses transmitted by Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) have caused significant disruption to ruminant production in northern Europe. The most serious incursions involved strains of bluetongue virus (BTV), which cause bluetongue (BT) disease. To control spread of BTV, movement of susceptible livestock is restricted with economic and animal welfare impacts. The timing of BTV transmission in temperate regions is partly determined by the seasonal presence of adult Culicoides females. Legislative measures therefore allow for the relaxation of ruminant movement restrictions during winter, when nightly light-suction trap catches of Culicoides fall below a threshold (the 'seasonally vector free period': SVFP). We analysed five years of time-series surveillance data from light-suction trapping in the UK to investigate whether significant inter-specific and yearly variation in adult phenology exists, and whether the SVFP is predictable from environmental factors. Because female vector Culicoides are not easily morphologically separated, interspecific comparisons in phenology were drawn from male populations. We demonstrate significant inter-specific differences in Culicoides adult phenology with the season of Culicoides scoticus approximately eight weeks shorter than Culicoides obsoletus. Species-specific differences in the length of the SVFP were related to host density and local variation in landscape habitat. When the Avaritia Culicoides females were modelled as a group (as utilised in the SFVP), we were unable to detect links between environmental drivers and phenological metrics. We conclude that the current treatment of Avaritia Culicoides as a single group inhibits understanding of environmentally-driven spatial variation in species phenology and hinders the development of models for predicting the SVFP from environmental factors. Culicoides surveillance methods should be adapted to focus on concentrated assessments of species-specific abundance during the start and end of seasonal activity in temperate regions to facilitate refinement of ruminant movement restrictions thereby reducing the impact of Culicoides-borne arboviruses.

3.4.3 Formal policies and their effects on biodiversity 3.5 Policy assessment applied: some examples 3.5.1 A closer look at the scaling mismatch and the effects of globalisation on biodiversity in coastal ecosystems 3.5.2 Likely future effects of increased biodiversity protection efforts 3.5.3 A case study of biodiversity implications of biofuels policies 4 Bottlenecks and solutions 4.1.1 A closer look at possible marine ecosystem specific bottlenecks and solutions 4.1.2 A closer look at the role of governance as a potential bottleneck 4.2 Conclusions and recommendations 3

Multiple mating by females (polyandry) is a widespread behavior occurring in diverse taxa, species, and populations. Polyandry can also vary widely within species, and individual populations, so that both monandrous and polyandrous females occur together. Genetic differences can explain some of this intraspecific variation in polyandry, but environmental factors are also likely to play a role. One environmental factor that influences many fundamental biological processes is temperature. Higher temperatures have been shown to directly increase remating in laboratory studies of insects. In the longer term, high temperature could also help to drive the evolution of larger-scale patterns of behavior by changing the context-dependent balance of costs and benefits of polyandry across environments. We examined the relative influence of rearing and mating temperatures on female remating in populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura that show a latitudinal cline in polyandry in nature, using a range of ecologically relevant temperatures. We found that females of all genotypes remated more at cooler temperatures, which fits with the observation of higher average frequencies of polyandry at higher latitudes in this species. However, the impact of temperature was outweighed by the strong genetic control of remating in females in this species. It is likely that genetic factors provide the primary explanation for the latitudinal cline in polyandry in this species.

Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, countries are required to develop National Adaptation Plans. These plans must 13FOREWORD BUYING TIME: A USER'S MANUAL include strategies for natural systems, but very little work has been done thus far to ensure that these crucial natural resources are included in national adaptation strategies. It is WWF's hope that this manual will provide a tool to assist in completion of the biodiversity portion of National Adaptation Plans so that countries have strategies in place to buy time for biodiversity and natural resources. Numerous conversations are currently underway around the world noting the need for further support, both financial and intellectual, for adaptation strategies. While adaptation plans cannot in any way replace mitigation, they are vitally important to ensure that all countries receive the support necessary to protect their natural resources, especially those countries where such support is currently unavailable. Thus far support has been inadequate, especially for developing countries.

Although the importance of edaphic factors and habitat structure for plant growth and survival is known, both are often neglected in favor of climatic drivers when investigating the spatial patterns of plant species and diversity. Yet, especially in mountain ecosystems with complex topography, missing edaphic and habitat components may be detrimental for a sound understanding of biodiversity distribution. Here, we compare the relative importance of climate, soil and land cover variables when predicting the distributions of 2,616 vascular plant species in the European Alps, representing approximately two-thirds of all European flora. Using presence-only data, we built point-process models (PPMs) to relate species observations to different combinations of covariates. We evaluated the PPMs through block crossvalidations and assessed the independent contributions of climate, soil, and land cover covariates to predict plant species distributions using an innovative predictive partitioning approach. We found climate to be the most influential driver of spatial patterns in plant species with a relative influence of ~58.5% across all species, with decreasing importance from low to high elevations. Soil (~20.1%) and land cover (~21.4%), overall, were less influential than climate, but increased in importance along the elevation gradient. Furthermore, land cover showed strong local effects in lowlands, while the contribution of soil stabilized at mid-elevations. The decreasing influence of climate with elevation is explained by increasing endemism, and the fact that climate becomes more homogeneous as habitat diversity declines at higher altitudes. In contrast, soil predictors were found to follow the opposite trend. Additionally, at low elevations, human-mediated land cover effects appear to reduce the importance of climate predictors. We conclude that soil and land cover are, like climate, principal drivers of plant species distribution in the European Alps. While disentangling their effects remains a challenge, future studies can benefit markedly by including soil and land cover effects when predicting species distributions.

Although the importance of edaphic factors and habitat structure for plant growth and survival is known, both are often neglected in favor of climatic drivers when investigating the spatial patterns of plant species and diversity. Yet, especially in mountain ecosystems with complex topography, missing edaphic and habitat components may be detrimental for a sound understanding of biodiversity distribution. Here, we compare the relative importance of climate, soil and land cover variables when predicting the distributions of 2,616 vascular plant species in the European Alps, representing approximately two-thirds of all European flora. Using presence-only data, we built point-process models (PPMs) to relate species observations to different combinations of covariates. We evaluated the PPMs through block crossvalidations and assessed the independent contributions of climate, soil, and land cover covariates to predict plant species distributions using an innovative predictive partitioning approach. We found climate to be the most influential driver of spatial patterns in plant species with a relative influence of~58.5% across all species, with decreasing importance from low to high elevations. Soil (~20.1%) and land cover (~21.4%), overall, were less influential than climate, but increased in importance along the elevation gradient. Furthermore, land cover showed strong local effects in lowlands, while the contribution of soil stabilized at mid-elevations. The decreasing influence of climate with elevation is explained by increasing endemism, and the fact that climate becomes more homogeneous as habitat diversity declines at higher altitudes. In contrast, soil predictors were found to follow the opposite trend. Additionally, at low elevations, human-mediated land cover effects appear to reduce the importance of climate predictors. We conclude that soil and land cover are, like climate, principal drivers of plant species distribution in the European Alps. While disentangling their effects remains a challenge, future studies can benefit markedly by including soil and land cover effects when predicting species distributions.

Genetic analyses of population structure can be placed in explicit environmental contexts if appropriate environmental data are available. Here, we use high-coverage and highresolution oceanographic and genetic sequence data to assess population structure patterns and their potential environmental influences for humpback dolphins in the Western Indian Ocean. We analyzed mitochondrial DNA data from 94 dolphins from the coasts of South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Oman, employing frequencybased and maximum-likelihood algorithms to assess population structure and migration patterns. The genetic data were combined with 13 years of remote sensing oceanographic data of variables known to influence cetacean dispersal and population structure. Our analyses show strong and highly significant genetic structure between all putative populations, except for those in South Africa and Mozambique. Interestingly, the oceanographic data display marked environmental heterogeneity between all sampling areas and a degree of overlap between South Africa and Mozambique. Our combined analyses therefore suggest the occurrence of genetically isolated populations of humpback dolphins in areas that are environmentally distinct. This study highlights the utility of molecular tools in combination with highresolution and high-coverage environmental data to address questions not only pertaining to genetic population structure, but also to relevant ecological processes in marine species.

Worldwide river regulation by damming and water diversion has altered natural flow regimes (Poff et al., 1997), which negatively affects all living components of these ecosystems such as riparian vegetation, macrobenthos and fishes (Poff & Zimmerman, 2010). In the case of East Africa, rivers are less regulated compared to other parts of the world (McClain, Kashaigili, & Ndomba, 2013), but several factors, such as population growth, political stability and China's expanding interests, are triggering a significant increase in

Environmental flow assessment (EFA) involving microhabitat preference models is a common approach to set ecologically friendly flow regimes in territories with ongoing or planned projects to develop river basins, such as many rivers of Eastern Africa. However, habitat requirements of many African fish species are poorly studied, which may impair EFAs. This study investigated habitat preferences of fish assemblages, based on species presence–absence data from 300 microhabitats collected in two tributaries of the Kilombero River (Tanzania), aiming to disentangle differences in habitat preferences of African species at two levels: assemblage (i.e. between tributaries) and species (i.e. species‐specific habitat preferences). Overall, flow velocity, which implies coarser substrates and shallower microhabitats, emerged as the most important driver responsible of the changes in stream‐dwelling assemblages at the microhabitat scale. At the assemblage level, we identified two important group...

1. Quantifying interactive effects of environmental drivers on population dynamics can be critical for a robust analysis of population viability. Fire regimes, among the most widespread disturbances driving population dynamics, are increasingly modified by and interact with human activities. However, viability of fire-adapted species is typically assessed overlooking disturbance interactions, potentially resulting in suboptimal management actions. 2. We investigated whether increasing human disturbances in fire-prone ecosystems may pose a threat or an opportunity to improve population viability, using demographic data of the carnivorous, post-fire recruiting plant Drosophyllum lusitanicum, endemic to heathlands in the southwestern Mediterranean Basin. We built integral projection models and simulated population dynamics under different combinations of two key disturbance types affecting populations: fire and livestock browsing and trampling. We used perturbation analyses to determine potential long-term consequences of maintaining fundamentally different disturbance types. 3. Despite most populations inhabiting browsed habitats, simulations showed a greater extinction risk in populations under high livestock pressure compared with ones under low or moderate pressures. Extinction risk decreased when fire return intervals shortened in populations under low or moderate livestock pressure; however, the opposite pattern emerged in heavily browsed populations, where short intervals between fires increased extinction. 4. Elasticity analyses showed that decreases in viability under frequent disturbance interactions (heavy browsing and frequent fire) may be explained by selection against seed Accepted Article This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. dormancy in populations with frequent browsing and trampling. This may potentially cause populations to collapse when fires kill above-ground plants without populations being able to recover from a seed bank. 5. Synthesis and applications. Incorporating disturbance interactions can result in a different assessment of viability of a fire-adapted species than considering fire regimes alone. In Mediterranean ecosystems, fire management may be more effective when integrating moderate human activities. However, replacing fires by human disturbances, a currently widespread strategy in many fire-prone ecosystems, is not recommended since it may fundamentally alter population dynamics and selection pressures and decrease viability of fire-adapted species.

Since 2006, arboviruses transmitted by Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) have caused significant disruption to ruminant production in northern Europe. The most serious incursions involved strains of bluetongue virus (BTV), which cause bluetongue (BT) disease. To control spread of BTV, movement of susceptible livestock is restricted with economic and animal welfare impacts. The timing of BTV transmission in temperate regions is partly determined by the seasonal presence of adult Culicoides females. Legislative measures therefore allow for the relaxation of ruminant movement restrictions during winter, when nightly light-suction trap catches of Culicoides fall below a threshold (the 'seasonally vector free period': SVFP). We analysed five years of time-series surveillance data from light-suction trapping in the UK to investigate whether significant inter-specific and yearly variation in adult phenology exists, and whether the SVFP is predictable from environmental factors. Because female vector Culicoides are not easily morphologically separated, interspecific comparisons in phenology were drawn from male populations. We demonstrate significant inter-specific differences in Culicoides adult phenology with the season of Culicoides scoticus approximately eight weeks shorter than Culicoides obsoletus. Species-specific differences in the length of the SVFP were related to host density and local variation in landscape habitat. When the Avaritia Culicoides females were modelled as a group (as utilised in the SFVP), we were unable to detect links between environmental drivers and phenological metrics. We conclude that the current treatment of Avaritia Culicoides as a single group inhibits understanding of environmentally-driven spatial variation in species phenology and hinders the development of models for predicting the SVFP from environmental factors. Culicoides surveillance methods should be adapted to focus on concentrated assessments of species-specific abundance during the start and end of seasonal activity in temperate regions to facilitate refinement of ruminant movement restrictions thereby reducing the impact of Culicoides-borne arboviruses.

A long-term satellite-based analysis was performed to assess the impact of environmental factors on cyanobacterial harmful blooms (CyanoHABs) dynamics in a typical shallow lake, Lake Taihu. A sub-pixel approach (algae pixel-growing algorithm) was used with 13 years of MOderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data to evaluate changes in bloom extension, initiation date, duration, and occurrence frequency before and after a massive bloom event (2007). Results indicated that the conditions after this event changed, with a general delay in bloom initiation and a reduction in bloom duration. The environmental drivers of daily, monthly and inter-annual CyanoHABs dynamics were analyzed by detrended correspondence analysis, principal components analysis and redundancy analysis. This demonstrated that wind speed was the main driver for daily CyanoHABs dynamics, and COD mn , total phosphorus and water temperature were closely related to monthly CyanoHABs dynamics. For the year scale, T mean and nutrients were the main drivers of CyanoHABs initiation date and duration, and meteorological factors influenced CyanoHABs frequency for the whole lake. Regular monitoring of CyanoHABs by remote sensing has become a key element in the continued assessment of bloom conditions in Lake Taihu, and nutrient reduction policies contribute to decrease CyanoHABs occurrence.

Since 2006, arboviruses transmitted by Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) have caused significant disruption to ruminant production in northern Europe. The most serious incursions involved strains of bluetongue virus (BTV), which cause bluetongue (BT) disease. To control spread of BTV, movement of susceptible livestock is restricted with economic and animal welfare impacts. The timing of BTV transmission in temperate regions is partly determined by the seasonal presence of adult Culicoides females. Legislative measures therefore allow for the relaxation of ruminant movement restrictions during winter, when nightly light-suction trap catches of Culicoides fall below a threshold (the 'seasonally vector free period': SVFP). We analysed five years of time-series surveillance data from light-suction trapping in the UK to investigate whether significant inter-specific and yearly variation in adult phenology exists, and whether the SVFP is predictable from environmental factors. Because female vector Culicoides are not easily morphologically separated, interspecific comparisons in phenology were drawn from male populations. We demonstrate significant inter-specific differences in Culicoides adult phenology with the season of Culicoides scoticus approximately eight weeks shorter than Culicoides obsoletus. Species-specific differences in the length of the SVFP were related to host density and local variation in landscape habitat. When the Avaritia Culicoides females were modelled as a group (as utilised in the SFVP), we were unable to detect links between environmental drivers and phenological metrics. We conclude that the current treatment of Avaritia Culicoides as a single group inhibits understanding of environmentally-driven spatial variation in species phenology and hinders the development of models for predicting the SVFP from environmental factors. Culicoides surveillance methods should be adapted to focus on concentrated assessments of species-specific abundance during the start and end of seasonal activity in temperate regions to facilitate refinement of ruminant movement restrictions thereby reducing the impact of Culicoides-borne arboviruses.

AimWithin C3 plants, photosynthesis is a balance between CO2 supply from the atmosphere via stomata and demand by enzymes within chloroplasts. This process is dynamic and a complex but crucial aspect of photosynthesis. We sought to understand the spatial pattern in CO2 supply–demand balance on a global scale, via analysis of stable isotopes of carbon within leaves (Δ13C), which provide an integrative record of CO2 drawdown during photosynthesis.LocationGlobalTime period1951–2011.Major taxa studiedVascular plants.MethodsWe assembled a database of leaf carbon isotope ratios containing 3,979 species–site combinations from across the globe, including 3,645 for C3 species. We examined a wide array of potential climate and soil drivers of variation in Δ13C.ResultsThe strongest drivers of carbon isotope discrimination at the global scale included atmospheric pressure, potential evapotranspiration and soil pH, which explained 44% of the variation in Δ13C. Addition of eight more climate and ...

, http://ingridolivares.com Highlights • We modelled the effect of regional factors on local species turnover, an original approach in relation to previous studies. • The variation in regional species richness explains almost all of the variation in local species turnover. • The effect of regional environmental factors on local species turnover is indirect and mediated by regional species richness. • The effect of local environmental factors on the variation of local species turnover is minimal when compared to the effect of regional richness. • Because ferns are an indicator group in tropical ecosystems and our dataset spans a vast elevational gradient, our results are relevant for a better understanding of the spatial distribution of plant diversity in general.

Today, based on the best scientific knowledge available, the main concerns regarding nature are the rampant ongoing destruction of Earth’s ecosystems and the increasing global warming, which threaten the very survival of the human species. The main reason is that the current functioning of the complex global socioeconomic-ecological systems of the world is driving the planet, with high certainty, towards a completely unsustainable deterioration of its natural capital, biodiversity, and atmosphere. This is the result of the manipulation of the power mechanisms within the socioeconomic-ecological systems of every country by the small powerful elites with the purpose of appropriating for themselves the enormous economic rents generated by the overexploitation of the planet’s natural resources and ecosystems. The monumental challenges of climate change, global warming, and nature deterioration are just the physical symptoms of the underlying unsustainable operation of the world’s socioe...

Aim: Within C 3 plants, photosynthesis is a balance between CO 2 supply from the atmosphere via stomata and demand by enzymes within chloroplasts. This process is dynamic and a complex but crucial aspect of photosynthesis. We sought to understand the spatial pattern in CO 2 supply-demand balance on a global scale, via | 1057 CORNWELL et al.

This study explores individual and country-level environmental drivers of informal "seed" investment. We examine four types of informal investors based on business ownership experience (or no such experience) and close family relationship with investee (or no such relationship): "classic love money", "outsider", "kin owner" and "classic business angel" investors. At the environmental level, we are interested in the role of economic development, income tax policies, start-up costs, pro-enterrise government programmes, availability of debt financing, entrepreneurship education and culture. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from telephone interiews with 257,793 individuals in 31 countries, including 5,960 informal investors, we report drivers for the four types of seed investment. Descriptive statistics are consistent with prior research: informal investors are likely to be older males who work full-time, earn high incomes, perceive start-up opportunities in the environment, and believe that they have the skills to start their own businesses. At the environmental level, we find that countries with higher percentages of informal investors are significantly likely to have higher levels of economic development, higher business start-up costs, higher levels of entrepreneurship education, lower income taxes and lower power distance. Other environmental effects on the four populations of informal investors are reported and discussed, as well as implications for practice, policy and future research.

Recent studies of informal investment have focused on individual characteristics and behaviour. Behavioural features are important drivers of the decision to invest in others' businesses, and the heterogeneity of informal investors in terms of age, education, income, and working status has also been noted. While the decision to invest in another person's business is an individual behaviour, it is embedded in the larger environmental context. However, to date, there has been a lack of investigation into how different environmental factors in the form of economic, political, educational, or societal attributes affect the level of informal investment decision. The main reason is limited data sets. The GEM adult population survey of nearly 300,000 individuals in 29 countries enables an investigation the significance of both the individual and environmental factors driving informal investment.

Mangroves are among the most well described and widely studied wetland communities in the world. The greatest threats to mangrove persistence are deforestation and other anthropogenic disturbances that can compromise habitat stability and resilience to sea-level rise. To persist, mangrove ecosystems must adjust to rising sea level by building vertically or become submerged. Mangroves may directly or indirectly influence soil accretion processes through the production and accumulation of organic matter, as well as the trapping and retention of mineral sediment. In this review, we provide a general overview of research on mangrove elevation dynamics, emphasizing the role of the vegetation in maintaining soil surface elevations (i.e. position of the soil surface in the vertical plane). We summarize the primary ways in which mangroves may influence sediment accretion and vertical land development, for example, through root contributions to soil volume and upward expansion of the soil surface. We also examine how hydrological, geomorphological and climatic processes may interact with plant processes to influence mangrove capacity to keep pace with rising sea level. We draw on a variety of studies to describe the important, and often under-appreciated, role that plants play in shaping the trajectory of an ecosystem undergoing change.

Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) form symbioses with a few plant species that comprise a large fraction of the arctic vegetation. Despite their importance, the identity, abundance and distribution of EMF in the Arctic, as well as the key drivers controlling their community composition are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the diversity and structure of EMF communities across a bioclimatic gradient spanning much of the North American Arctic. We collected roots from two principal arctic ectomycorrhizal host plants, Salix arctica and Dryas integrifolia, typically growing intermingled, at 23 locations stratified across the five bioclimatic subzones of the Arctic. DNA was extracted from ectomycorrhizal root tips and the ITS region was sequenced and phylogenetically analyzed. A total of 242 fungal Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) were documented, with 203 OTUs belonging to the Basidiomycota and 39 to the Ascomycota, exceeding the number of previously morphologically described EMF in the Arctic. EMF communities were dominated by a few common and species-rich families such as Thelephoraceae, Inocybaceae, Sebacinaceae, Cortinariaceae, and Pyronemataceae. Both host plants showed similar species richness, with 176 OTUs on Salix arctica and 154 OTUs on Dryas integrifolia. Host plant identity did not affect EMF community composition. The ten most abundant OTUs had a wide geographic distribution throughout the Arctic, and were also found in boreal, temperate and Mediterranean regions, where they were associated with a variety of hosts. Species richness did not decline with increasing latitude. However, EMF community structure changed gradually across the bioclimatic gradient with the greatest similarity between neighboring bioclimatic subzones and locations. EMF community structure was correlated with environmental factors at a regional scale, corresponding to a complex of glaciation history, geology, soil properties, plant productivity and climate. This is the first large-scale study of EMF communities across all five bioclimatic subzones of the North American Arctic, accompanied by an extensive set of environmental factors analyzed to date. While our study provides baseline data to assess shifts of plant and fungi distribution in response to climate change, it also suggests that with ongoing climate warming, EMF community composition may be affected by northward shifts of some taxa.

ature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it. […] It is essential to seek comprehensive solutions which consider the interactions within natural systems themselves and with social systems. […] Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature (LS § 139).

Jayne Belnap (USA), Laura K. Brown (Canada), Ernesto Brugnoli (Uruguay), Jana E. Compton (USA), Richard H. Coupe (USA), Marcello Hernández-Blanco (Costa Rica), Forest Isbell (USA), Julie Lockwood (USA), Juan Pablo Lozoya Azcárate (Uruguay), David McGuire (USA), Anibal Pauchard (Chile), Ramon Pichs-Madruga (Cuba), Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues (Brazil), Gerardo Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa (Costa Rica/Canada), Alvaro Soutullo (Uruguay), Avelino Suarez (Cuba), Elizabeth Troutt (Canada)

Environmental changes alter the diversity and structure of communities. By shifting the range of species traits that will be successful under new conditions, environmental drivers can also dramatically impact ecosystem functioning and resilience. Above and belowground communities jointly regulate whole-ecosystem processes and responses to change, yet they are frequently studied separately. To determine whether these communities respond similarly to environmental changes, we measured taxonomic and trait-based responses of plant and soil microbial communities to four years of experimental warming and nitrogen deposition in a temperate grassland. Plant diversity responded strongly to N addition, whereas soil microbial communities responded primarily to warming, likely via an associated decrease in soil moisture. These above and belowground changes were associated with selection for more resource-conservative plant and microbe growth strategies, which reduced community functional divers...

Dynamika rostlinných populací je ovlivňována klimatickými faktory a faktory prostředí. Pro pochopení chování rostlinných populací a zjištění jejich vývoje je klíčové identifikovat tyto faktory a popsat jejich vliv na populační dynamiku rostlin. V populační biologii jsou využívány modely, které dokáží odhadnout vývoj populace na základě dat o chování jedinců v populaci. V současné době je snaha o zahrnutí faktorů prostředí a klimatu těchto modelů, což činí odhady vývoje populací přesnější a reálnější a současně umožní předpovídat vliv měnících se podmínek na dynamiku populací. Tvorba reálných modelů je důležitá při definování vhodného managementu na lokalitách s výskytem ohrožených druhů, kdy je třeba cílit management na kritické přechody mezi stádii životního cyklu. Odpověď na otázku, který životní přechod mezi stádii je nejzranitelnější, dávají výše zmíněné modely. Tato bakalářská práce je literární rešerší, která uvádí stručný přehled aktuálně využívaných populačních modelů a snaž...

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Central America and the western Caribbean regions form a center of freshwater and marine biodiversity that is increasingly becoming the focus of ecological and evolutionary studies. We conducted an integrated ecological study of Amatique Bay, Guatemala, a major estuary la goon connected to the low-lying Lake Izabal and to the Mesoamerican Reef System, and provide novel information for the management and conservation of similar systems across the Caribbean. Precipitation and wind regimes constitute important environmental drivers of ecosystem functioning, which partially compensate for the weak tidal-forcing that is characteristic of the Caribbean Sea. Seasonal peaks in temperature and precipitation were strongly correlated to the reproduction of marine, catadromous and estuarine fish species, suggesting that the ensuing increase in primary production provides larval fish with an abundant food source. Increased abundances of transient marine species were observed during the dry season, which may be explained by passive transport, feeding migration, or both, considering that prey may be more abundant inshore and that environmental conditions are dominated by higher salinity and stronger onshore winds during this period. Despite being a stopover site for many long-range migrating shorebird species, the Bay serves primarily as a resting place since it lacks extensive tides and tidal flats, and thus provides limited access to invertebrate prey. Furthermore, this sheltered environment, featuring abundant freshwater, seasonally high water clarity, and low tidal amplitude, is likely to provide good habitat for abundant seagrasses and manatees. The Lake Izabal-Amatique Bay complex demonstrates a wide range of teleconnections and connectivity among terrestrial, freshwater, and marine oceanic and reef ecosystems. Understanding the evolution and ecology underlying this highly connected system is required for the management of the multi-trophic, small-scale fisheries it sustains.

Genetic analyses of population structure can be placed in explicit environmental contexts if appropriate environmental data are available. Here, we use high-coverage and highresolution oceanographic and genetic sequence data to assess population structure patterns and their potential environmental influences for humpback dolphins in the Western Indian Ocean. We analyzed mitochondrial DNA data from 94 dolphins from the coasts of South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Oman, employing frequencybased and maximum-likelihood algorithms to assess population structure and migration patterns. The genetic data were combined with 13 years of remote sensing oceanographic data of variables known to influence cetacean dispersal and population structure. Our analyses show strong and highly significant genetic structure between all putative populations, except for those in South Africa and Mozambique. Interestingly, the oceanographic data display marked environmental heterogeneity between all sampling areas and a degree of overlap between South Africa and Mozambique. Our combined analyses therefore suggest the occurrence of genetically isolated populations of humpback dolphins in areas that are environmentally distinct. This study highlights the utility of molecular tools in combination with highresolution and high-coverage environmental data to address questions not only pertaining to genetic population structure, but also to relevant ecological processes in marine species.

Esra Başak Dessane (Turkey), Pam Berry (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Claire Chenu (France), Mike Christie (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Magali Gerino (France), Hans Keune (Belgium), Elisa OterosRozas (Spain), Sandrine Paillard (France), Axel G. Rossberg (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland/Germany), Matthias Schröter (Germany), Alexander P. E. van Oudenhoven (The Netherlands)

This study is one of four studies of New Zealand agribusiness success. In 2006 and 2007, The Agribusiness Research and Education Network researched the success of the New Zealand dairy, kiwifruit, sheepmeat and venison industries. These studies are all business ...

Jayne Belnap (USA), Laura K. Brown (Canada), Ernesto Brugnoli (Uruguay), Jana E. Compton (USA), Richard H. Coupe (USA), Marcello Hernández-Blanco (Costa Rica), Forest Isbell (USA), Julie Lockwood (USA), Juan Pablo Lozoya Azcárate (Uruguay), David McGuire (USA), Anibal Pauchard (Chile), Ramon Pichs-Madruga (Cuba), Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues (Brazil), Gerardo Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa (Costa Rica/Canada), Alvaro Soutullo (Uruguay), Avelino Suarez (Cuba), Elizabeth Troutt (Canada)

The upwelling of deep waters from the oxygen minimum zone in the Northeast Pacific from the continental slope to the shelf and into the Salish Sea during spring and summer offers a unique opportunity to study ecosystem functioning in the form of benthic fluxes along natural gradients. Using the ROV ROPOS we collected sediment cores from 10 sites in May and July 2011, and September 2013 to perform shipboard incubations and flux measurements. Specifically, we measured benthic fluxes of oxygen and nutrients to evaluate potential environmental drivers of benthic flux variation and ecosystem functioning along natural gradients of temperature and bottom water dissolved oxygen concentrations. The range of temperature and dissolved oxygen encountered across our study sites allowed us to apply a suite of multivariate analyses rarely used in flux studies to identify bottom water temperature as the primary environmental driver of benthic flux variation and organic matter remineralization. Redundancy analysis revealed that bottom water characteristics (temperature and dissolved oxygen), quality of organic matter (chl a:phaeo and C:N ratios) and sediment characteristics (mean grain size and porosity) explained 51.5% of benthic flux variation. Multivariate analyses identified significant spatial and temporal variation in benthic fluxes, demonstrating key differences between the Northeast Pacific and Salish Sea. Moreover, Northeast Pacific slope fluxes were generally lower than shelf fluxes. Spatial and temporal variation in benthic fluxes in the Salish Sea were driven primarily by differences in temperature and quality of organic matter on the seafloor following phytoplankton blooms. These results demonstrate the utility of multivariate approaches in differentiating among potential drivers of seafloor ecosystem functioning, and indicate that current and future predictive models of organic matter remineralization and ecosystem functioning of soft-muddy shelf and slope seafloor habitats should consider bottom water temperature variation. Bottom temperature has important implications for estimates of seasonal and spatial benthic flux variation, benthic-pelagic coupling, and impacts of predicted ocean warming at high latitudes.

The aim of this chapter is to assess evidence of the status and trends of the drivers that affect biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. There are three wider categories of nature’s contributions to people: regulating, material and non-material contributions, that are similar to, but not identical to classifications of ecosystem services (see Chapter 1). Ecosystems are dynamic interacting networks of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms, above and below ground and water-surfaces. These biodiverse networks of interacting organisms respond to a set of environmental factors such as climate, soil, or water conditions. Social-ecological systems also include human activities (direct drivers) that modify almost all of these ecosystem interactions and environmental factors, and the underlying societal (indirect) drivers of these activities. It is thus important to understand the status and trends of the direct and indirect drivers that affect biodiversity, including ecosys...

Jayne Belnap (USA), Laura K. Brown (Canada), Ernesto Brugnoli (Uruguay), Jana E. Compton (USA), Richard H. Coupe (USA), Marcello Hernández-Blanco (Costa Rica), Forest Isbell (USA), Julie Lockwood (USA), Juan Pablo Lozoya Azcárate (Uruguay), David McGuire (USA), Anibal Pauchard (Chile), Ramon Pichs-Madruga (Cuba), Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues (Brazil), Gerardo Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa (Costa Rica/Canada), Alvaro Soutullo (Uruguay), Avelino Suarez (Cuba), Elizabeth Troutt (Canada)

Due to the impelling urgency of plant conservation and the increasing availability of high resolution spatially interpolated (e.g. climate variables) and categorical data (e.g. land cover and vegetation type), many recent studies have examined relationships among plant species distributions and a diversified set of explanatory factors; nevertheless, global and regional patterns of endemic plant richness remain in many cases unexplained. One such pattern is the 294 endemic vascular plant taxa recorded on a 1 km resolution grid on the environmentally heterogeneous island of Sardinia. Sixteen predictors, including topo-graphic, geological, climatic and anthropogenic factors, were used to model local (number of taxa inside each 1 km grid cell) Endemic Vascular Plant Richness (EVPR). Generalized Linear Models were used to evaluate how each factor affected the distribution of local EVPR. Significant relationships with local EVPR and topographic, geological, climatic and anthropo-genic fac...

Due to the impelling urgency of plant conservation and the increasing availability of high resolution spatially interpolated (e.g. climate variables) and categorical data (e.g. land cover and vegetation type), many recent studies have examined relationships among plant species distributions and a diversified set of explanatory factors; nevertheless, global and regional patterns of endemic plant richness remain in many cases unexplained. One such pattern is the 294 endemic vascular plant taxa recorded on a 1 km resolution grid on the environmentally heterogeneous island of Sardinia. Sixteen predictors, including topographic, geological, climatic and anthropogenic factors, were used to model local (number of taxa inside each 1 km grid cell) Endemic Vascular Plant Richness (EVPR). Generalized Linear Models were used to evaluate how each factor affected the distribution of local EVPR. Significant relationships with local EVPR and topographic, geological, climatic and anthropogenic factors were found. In particular, elevation explained the larger fraction of variation in endemic richness but other environmental factors (e.g. precipitation seasonality and slope) and human-related factors (e.g. the Human Influence Index (HII) and the proportion of anthropogenic land uses) were, respectively, positively and negatively correlated with local EVPR. Regional EVPR (number of endemic taxa inside each 100 m elevation interval) was also measured to compare local and regional EVPR patterns along the elevation gradient. In contrast to local, regional EVPR tended to decrease with altitude partly due to the decreasing area covered along altitude. The contrasting results between local and regional patterns suggest that local richness increases as a result of increased interspecific aggregation along altitude, whereas regional richness may depend on the interaction between area and altitude. This suggests that the shape and magnitude of the species-area relationship might vary with elevation. This work provides-for the first time in Sardinia-a comprehensive analysis of the influence of environmental factors on the pattern of EVPR in the entire territory, from sea level to the highest peaks. Elevation, as well as other environmental and human-related variables, were confirmed to be influencing factors. In addition, variations of EVPR patterns at regional-to-local spatial scales inspire next investigations on the possible interaction between elevation and area in explaining patterns of plant species richness.

The aim of this chapter is to assess evidence of the status and trends of the drivers that affect biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. There are three wider categories of nature’s contributions to people: regulating, material and non-material contributions, that are similar to, but not identical to classifications of ecosystem services (see Chapter 1). Ecosystems are dynamic interacting networks of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms, above and below ground and water-surfaces. These biodiverse networks of interacting organisms respond to a set of environmental factors such as climate, soil, or water conditions. Social-ecological systems also include human activities (direct drivers) that modify almost all of these ecosystem interactions and environmental factors, and the underlying societal (indirect) drivers of these activities. It is thus important to understand the status and trends of the direct and indirect drivers that affect biodiversity, including ecosystems and, thereby, affect nature’s contributions to people.

Due to the impelling urgency of plant conservation and the increasing availability of high resolution spatially interpolated (e.g. climate variables) and categorical data (e.g. land cover and vegetation type), many recent studies have examined relationships among plant species distributions and a diversified set of explanatory factors; nevertheless, global and regional patterns of endemic plant richness remain in many cases unexplained. One such pattern is the 294 endemic vascular plant taxa recorded on a 1 km resolution grid on the environmentally heterogeneous island of Sardinia. Sixteen predictors, including topo-graphic, geological, climatic and anthropogenic factors, were used to model local (number of taxa inside each 1 km grid cell) Endemic Vascular Plant Richness (EVPR). Generalized Linear Models were used to evaluate how each factor affected the distribution of local EVPR. Significant relationships with local EVPR and topographic, geological, climatic and anthropo-genic factors were found. In particular, elevation explained the larger fraction of variation in endemic richness but other environmental factors (e.g. precipitation seasonality and slope) and human-related factors (e.g. the Human Influence Index (HII) and the proportion of anthropogenic land uses) were, respectively, positively and negatively correlated with local EVPR. Regional EVPR (number of endemic taxa inside each 100 m elevation interval) was also measured to compare local and regional EVPR patterns along the elevation gradient. In contrast to local, regional EVPR tended to decrease with altitude partly due to the decreasing area covered along altitude. The contrasting results between local and regional patterns suggest that local richness increases as a result of increased interspecific aggregation along altitude, whereas regional richness may depend on the interaction between area and altitude. This suggests that the shape and magnitude of the species-area relationship might vary with elevation. This work provides—for the first time in Sardinia—a comprehensive analysis of the influence of environmental factors on the pattern of EVPR in the entire territory , from sea level to the highest peaks. Elevation, as well as other environmental and human-related variables, were confirmed to be influencing factors. In addition, variations of EVPR patterns at regional-to-local spatial scales inspire next investigations on the possible interaction between elevation and area in explaining patterns of plant species richness.

The structure of 40 real food webs , represent ing aquatic and terrestrial communities fro~ all latitudes, is found to be markedly affected by the degree of variability of (he physical environme nt. In particular, food webs in flu ctuating ecosystems are characterized by a significantl y lower conn e cta!l~e than webs representative of more constant systems. This is interpreted within the context of stabil Ity theory as a means 10 optimize feedi ng in the face of increasing distu rbance. It is sh own further that the nature of the habitat itself imposes addition al constraints on food web structu re in interti dal, pelagic, estuarine, and forest ecosystems .

This study explores individual and country level environmental drivers of informal ‘seed’ investment. We examine four types of informal investors based on business ownership experience (or no such experience) and close family relationship with investee (or no such
relationship): ‘classic love money’, ‘outsider’, ‘kin owner’ and ‘classic business angel’ investors. At the environmental level, we are interested in the role of economic development, income tax policies, start-up costs, pro-enterprise government programmes, availability of debt financing, entrepreneurship education and culture. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from telephone
interviews with 257 793 individuals in 31 countries, including 5 960 informal investors, we report drivers for the four types of seed investment. Descriptive statistics are consistent with prior research: informal investors are likely to be older males who work full-time, earn high incomes,
perceive start-up opportunities in the environment, and believe that they have the skills to start their own businesses. At the environmental level, we find that countries with higher percentages of informal investors are significantly likely to have higher levels of economic development, higher business start-up costs, higher levels of entrepreneurship education, lower income taxes and lower power distance. Other environmental effects on the four populations of informal investors are reported and discussed, as well as implications for practice, policy and future research.

The upwelling of deep waters from the oxygen minimum zone in the Northeast Pacific from the continental slope to the shelf and into the Salish Sea during spring and summer offers a unique opportunity to study ecosystem functioning in the form of benthic fluxes along natural gradients. Using the ROV ROPOS we collected sediment cores from 10 sites in May and July 2011, and September 2013 to perform shipboard incubations and flux measurements. Specifically, we measured benthic fluxes of oxygen and nutrients to evaluate potential environmental drivers of benthic flux variation and ecosystem functioning along natural gradients of temperature and bottom water dissolved oxygen concentrations. The range of temperature and dissolved oxygen encountered across our study sites allowed us to apply a suite of multivariate analyses rarely used in flux studies to identify bottom water temperature as the primary environmental driver of benthic flux variation and organic matter reminer-alization. Redundancy analysis revealed that bottom water characteristics (temperature and dissolved oxygen), quality of organic matter (chl a:phaeo and C:N ratios) and sediment characteristics (mean grain size and porosity) explained 51.5% of benthic flux variation. Multivariate analyses identified significant spatial and temporal variation in benthic fluxes, demonstrating key differences between the Northeast Pacific and Salish Sea. Moreover, Northeast Pacific slope fluxes were generally lower than shelf fluxes. Spatial and temporal variation in benthic fluxes in the Salish Sea were driven primarily by differences in temperature and quality of organic matter on the seafloor following phytoplankton blooms. These results demonstrate the utility of multivariate approaches in differentiating among potential drivers of seafloor ecosystem functioning, and indicate that current and future predictive models of organic matter remineralization and ecosystem functioning of soft-muddy shelf and slope seafloor habitats should consider bottom water temperature variation. Bottom temperature has important implications for estimates of seasonal and spatial benthic flux variation, benthic–pelagic coupling, and impacts of predicted ocean warming at high latitudes.