Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Plant Sciences

Lianas, to cut or not to cut to conserve forest biodiversity?

Ricardo A. Moreno, Gabriel Ortega-Solis, Javier Godoy, et al.

Published: 2024-03-16
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Although lianas play an important role in forest composition, structure, and functions, they are considered as structural parasites of the tree-host. Both contrasting ideas on the role of lianas in forest ecosystems challenge the practitioners and decision might be taken without specific information. Here we present a preliminary result, applied in a unique, small, old-growth forest in the [...]

Sexual system variation in the legumes (Fabaceae): prospects for morphological, evolutionary and genomic study

Quentin Cronk, Leonardo M Borges

Published: 2024-02-01
Subjects: Biology, Botany, Plant Biology, Plant Breeding and Genetics Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Although the great majority of legume species are cosexual with hemaphrodite flowers, a variety of sexual systems are observed in the family including monoecy, andromonoecy, androdioecy and dioecy. Such broad terms conceal much variation, details that may be of importance in understanding the evolutionary and ecological basis of reproductive systems. This variation is often inadequately described [...]

The role of deadwood in the carbon cycle: Implications for models, forest management, and future climates

Baptiste Joseph Wijas, Steven D Allison, Amy T Austin, et al.

Published: 2024-01-10
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Forest Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Plant Biology, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

Deadwood represents a significant carbon pool in forests and savannas. Although previous research has focused mainly on forests, we synthesise deadwood studies across all ecosystems with woody vegetation. Storage and release of carbon from deadwood is controlled by interacting decomposition drivers including biotic consumers (animals, microbes) and abiotic factors (water, fire, sunlight, [...]

The dispersal potential of endangered plants versus non-native garden escapees

Ingmar R. Staude

Published: 2023-10-30
Subjects: Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Amidst global challenges like climate change, plant dispersal corridors are essential. In human-dominated landscapes, urban and rural green spaces are key dispersal avenues. Non-native plants are known to benefit from these, yet the potential benefits for endangered plants remain unclear. To address this question, I compared dispersal traits of endangered native plants with those of [...]

Plant mutations, beyond the clichés

Thibault Leroy

Published: 2023-09-18
Subjects: Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Re-defining common mycorrhizal and fungal networks

Matthias C. Rillig, Anika Lehmann, Luisa Lanfranco, et al.

Published: 2023-09-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

The current use of the term ‘common mycorrhizal network’ (CMN) stipulates a direct link between plants formed by the mycelium of a mycorrhizal fungus. This means that a specific case (involving hyphal continuity) is used to define a much broader phenomenon of hyphae interlinking among plant roots. We here offer a more inclusive definition of the common mycorrhizal network as a network formed by a [...]

Paws for thought: Impacts of animal husbandry on tundra greening in High Arctic Svalbard

Elise Gallois, Logan Berner, Kristine Bakke Westergaard, et al.

Published: 2023-08-07
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Plant Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences

Dog sledding in High Arctic Svalbard is a key tourist attraction, and the keeping of animals and livestock has historically been in practice in the settlements of the archipelago. The resulting waste disposal practices - particularly those involving the disposal of animal faeces and fodder - hugely enrich soils with excess nutrients. Here, we explore how animal husbandry affected changes in [...]

A Comprehensive Assessment of Verticillium Wilt of Potato: Present Status and Future Prospective

Shreejana KC, Amrit Poudel, Dipiza Oli, et al.

Published: 2023-07-28
Subjects: Agricultural Science, Agriculture, Life Sciences, Plant Pathology, Plant Sciences

The fungal disease Verticillium wilt is a soil-borne pathogen that is caused by Verticillium dahliae. This disease affects a wide range of crops and can cause significant yield losses. Recent findings suggest that Verticillium wilt has been affecting potato crops in abundant demesne around the global world, including in North America, parts of Europe, and Asia. In some cases, the disease has been [...]

Collating existing evidence on cumulative impacts of invasive plant species in riparian ecosystems of British Columbia, Canada: a systematic map protocol

Fabio Mologni, Chandra E. Moffat, Jason Pither

Published: 2023-07-22
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Background Globally, the structure and functioning of foreshore and riparian ecosystems are being dramatically impacted by non-native invasive plant species. Invasive species can outcompete and replace native species, modify geochemical and hydraulic cycles, alter trophic processes, and change the composition and structure of communities above and below ground. However, these impacts are often [...]

Combining the resurrection approach with transplant experiments to investigate adaptation of plant populations to environmental change

Pascal Karitter, Martí March-Salas, Andreas Ensslin, et al.

Published: 2023-05-25
Subjects: Evolution, Plant Sciences, Population Biology

Recent climatic changes, such as more frequent droughts and heatwaves, can lead to rapid evolutionary adaptations in plant populations. Such rapid evolution can be investigated using the resurrection approach by comparing plants raised from stored ancestral and contemporary seeds from the same population. This approach has so far only been used in common garden experiments, allowing to reveal [...]

Evolution of chemodiversity - From verbal to quantitative models

Frans Matthias Thon, Caroline Müller, Meike J. Wittmann

Published: 2023-03-27
Subjects: Biology, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Plants harbour an astonishing amount of chemodiversity, i.e., diversity of specialized metabolites, at different scales. For instance, individual plants can produce a large number of different specialized metabolites and individuals in a population can differ in their metabolite composition. Given the ecological and economic importance of plant chemodiversity, it is important to understand how it [...]

Solar radiation drives potential demographic collapse in a perennial bunchgrass via dramatically reduced seedling establishment

Timothy H Parker, Alex Gerber, Erin Campbell, et al.

Published: 2023-02-20
Subjects: Biology, Desert Ecology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Plant Sciences, Plant Sciences, Population Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

Many perennial plants in semi-arid rangelands have experienced population declines, and understanding the ecological and demographic processes behind these declines is important to slowing or reversing them. Although anthropogenic disturbances drive many declines, other sorts of environmental variability, such as the differences in solar radiation with aspect, may impact population success [...]

Understanding local plant extinctions before it’s too late: bridging evolutionary genomics with global ecology.

Moises Exposito-Alonso

Published: 2022-12-01
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Understanding evolutionary genomic and population processes within a species range is key to anticipating the extinction of plant species before it is too late. However, most models of biodiversity risk projections under global change do not account for the genetic variation and local adaptation of different populations. Population diversity is critical to understanding extinction because [...]

Rethinking convergence in plant parasitism integrating molecular and population genetic processes

Liming Cai

Published: 2022-11-17
Subjects: Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Photosynthesis has shaped the body plan, physiology, as well as gene repertoire of all plants. Shifts to a parasitic lifestyle evolved at least twelve times, leading to more than four thousand extant parasitic plant species. This transition has consistently left a major evolutionary footprint among these parasites. Otherwise rare features have evolved repetitively at the molecular level and [...]

Evolutionary origins of the Mesoamerican-eastern United States floristic disjunction: current status and future prospects

Gregory W Stull

Published: 2022-11-07
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Biogeographic disjunction patterns, where multiple taxonomic groups are shared between isolated geographic areas, represent excellent systems for investigating the historical assembly of modern biotas as well as fundamental biological processes such as speciation, diversification, niche evolution, and evolutionary responses to climate change. Studies on plant genera disjunct across the Northern [...]

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