Article
Forestry
Xu-Xiang Weng, Yanpei Guo, Zhiyao Tang
Summary: This study explored the impact of neighborhood competition on tree growth using census data from a 50-ha plot on Barro Colorado Island. The results showed that neighborhood competition negatively affected tree growth, especially for smaller trees. The strength of this relationship was influenced by spatial and temporal factors.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Medha Bulusu, Florian Ellsasser, Christian Stiegler, Joyson Ahongshangbam, Isa Marques, Hendrayanto Hendrayanto, Alexander Roll, Dirk Holscher
Summary: This study quantified evapotranspiration (ET) from a tropical rainforest using high-resolution thermal images and a simple modeling framework. The average ET was 0.48 mm h-1 and showed spatial and temporal variations across different sites and seasons. The results improve our understanding of forest-water interactions and can aid the development of vegetation-atmosphere models.
FRONTIERS IN FORESTS AND GLOBAL CHANGE
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Xuezhao Wang, Yunyun He, Brian E. Sedio, Lu Jin, Xuejun Ge, Suphanee Glomglieng, Min Cao, Jianhong Yang, Nathan G. Swenson, Jie Yang
Summary: Metabolomics is a powerful tool to study the chemical composition of plants and its relationship with various factors in tropical forests. This study found that tree metabolomes rapidly diversify and locally co-occurring species are more chemically dissimilar. The presence of diverse secondary metabolites can reduce herbivore damage, especially by specialist insect herbivores.
Article
Ecology
Weichen Hou, Mengfei He, Yanwen Qi, Tiedong Liu, Jinhuan Luo
Summary: More than half of the world's tropical lowland rainforests have been lost due to conversion to agricultural land. Restoring soil functioning in degraded tropical lowland rainforests is crucial for ecological restoration. This study in a primary tropical lowland rainforest in China identified deterministic process (habitat filtering) as the key factor influencing nematode community assembly.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Qi Liu, Frank J. Sterck, Jiao -Lin Zhang, Lourens Poorter
Summary: This study examines the demographic processes and drivers of liana community change in a tropical rainforest in Southwest China. It found that changes in liana density were driven more by mortality than recruitment, and that liana recruitment and mortality were influenced by biotic factors, particularly functional properties. Liana growth, on the other hand, was driven by abiotic factors such as elevation and soil water availability.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Wenjie Liu, Yamin Jiang, Qiu Yang, Huai Yang, Yide Li, Zhaolei Li, Wei Mao, Yiqi Luo, Xu Wang, Zhenghong Tan
Summary: This study investigated the spatial variation and stability mechanisms of soil organic carbon (SOC) in tropical montane forests, showing that terrain, particularly convexity, plays a crucial role in influencing the distribution and accumulation of SOC. Terrain had a significant impact on the spatial variations in SOC, with convexity explaining the distribution of SOC and its physical stability fractions (HFC) best.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
James Gahan, David R. Bellwood, Leo Nankervis, Sterling B. Tebbett
Summary: This study analyzed the characteristics of zooplankton communities in the offshore regions of the Queensland shelf using Australian data and found that the composition of these communities was predictable at a broad taxonomic level, but the variation in relative abundance was unpredictable.
MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Yingchun Su, Zhonghao Liu, Jiahui Sun, Chenglai Wu, Yan Li, Chunqing Zhang, Linmao Zhao
Summary: This study identified and analyzed ZmAQPs and determined their expression patterns during seed germination and early seedling development. It found that ZmTIP3-1 improved seed vigor and played a positive role in seed germination and seedling growth. These findings provide valuable insights into the function and regulation of ZmAQPs.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Guofang Zhang, Jinzhi Zhou, Yan Peng, Zengdong Tan, Long Li, Liangqian Yu, Cheng Jin, Shuai Fang, Shaoping Lu, Liang Guo, Xuan Yao
Summary: This study investigated the genetic basis of salt stress tolerance in Brassica napus using genome-wide association studies (GWAS). It identified salt stress-related QTLs and candidate genes linked to salt stress tolerance at the germination and seedling stages. Overexpression of two candidate genes, BnCKX5 and BnERF3, increased sensitivity to salt stress during germination.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Jiang Bian, Haoyi Xiong, Zhiyuan Wang, Jingbo Zhou, Shilei Ji, Hongyang Chen, Daqing Zhang, Dejing Dou
Summary: Community sensing with aggregated sensor and location data raises concerns on privacy and data security. This paper proposes a novel community sensing paradigm AFCS that utilizes Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) in mobile devices for communication, computation, and storage, and approximates spatial-temporal data locally to avoid data aggregation.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MOBILE COMPUTING
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Valerie Kwan, Jenny Fong, Chin Soon Lionel Ng, Danwei Huang
Summary: This study estimates the carbon stock of living macroalgae in Singapore using field surveys and remote sensing data. The results show that macroalgae in Singapore contribute significantly to carbon storage and should be included in blue carbon assessments.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Agricultural Engineering
Xiaoshun Zhao, Wenjie Bai, Jincai Li, Huali Yu, Dawei Zhao, Baozhong Yin
Summary: In this paper, a positive-negative pressure wheat wide-seedling-strip-seeding precision seed metering device is designed to solve the problem of poor uniformity of wheat strip sowing. Through theoretical analysis, simulation, and experiments, the optimal structure and working parameters are determined, meeting the requirements for wheat wide-seedling-strip-seeding.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Y. Liu, C. C. Baskin, J. M. Baskin, J. Yang, M. Cao, B. Wen
Summary: Long-term forest dynamics monitoring plots were used to construct seed dormancy profiles across tropical to temperate latitudes, based on data from nine forest dynamics plots and seed dormancy information. The study revealed differences in seed dormancy levels at different latitudes, showing an increase in dormancy with increasing latitude.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sergio Nicasio-Arzeta, Isela E. Zermeno-Hernandez, Susana Maza-Villalobos, Julieta Benitez-Malvido
Summary: The study found that the diversity of animal-dispersed tree seedlings in highly deforested rainforests is strongly influenced by landscape configuration. Specifically, the amount of secondary forest influenced α-diversity, and increased species richness was mainly observed in landscapes with highly aggregated forest patches.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Hui Zhang, Mengfei He, Shree Prakash Pandey, Lan Liu, Shurong Zhou
Summary: Mining has a significant impact on tropical rainforests, leading to land degradation. Reforestation plays a crucial role in mitigating this degradation and preserving biodiversity. However, there is limited information on the influence of mining on microbial diversity, which is essential for reforestation and ecosystem functioning. This study examined the effects of mining on bacterial and fungal diversity in soil, as well as the impact of reforestation. The results showed that mining reduced soil organic matter and microbial abundances, but reforestation with fast-growing tree species restored the soil and microbial diversity to undisturbed levels.
LAND DEGRADATION & DEVELOPMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Danilo Boscolo, Barbara Nobrega Rodrigues, Patricia Alves Ferreira, Luciano Elsinor Lopes, Vinicius Rodrigues Tonetti, Isabela Cristhina Reis dos Santos, Juliana Akemi Hiruma-Lima, Laura Nery, Karoline Baptista de Lima, Jessica Perozi, Andre Victor Lucci Freitas, Blandina Felipe Viana, Caio Antunes-Carvalho, Dalton de Souza Amorim, Favizia Freitas de Oliveira, Milton Groppo, Maria Lucia Absy, Renata Jimenez de Almeida-Scabbia, Anderson Alves-Araujo, Felipe Wanderley de Amorim, Pablo Augusto Poleto Antiqueira, Yasmine Antonini, Camila Aoki, Daniele dos Santos Aragao, Tais Cristina Teixeira Balbino, Michele da Silva Ferreira Bandeira, Bruno Correa Barbosa, Maria Regina de Vasconcellos Barbosa, Gudryan Jackson Baronio, Levi Oliveira Barros, Mariana Beal-Neves, Victor Martins Bertollo, Antonio Diego de Melo Bezerra, Cristiano Roberto Buzatto, Liedson Tavares Carneiro, Edilson Caron, Camila Silva Carpim, Emanuela Simoura Carvalho, Tuane Leticia Carvalho, Ludimila Juliele Carvalho-Leite, Mainara Figueiredo Cascaes, Flavio Siqueira de Castro, Adriano Cavalleri, Eliana Cazetta, Monise Terra Cerezini, Luis Francisco Mello Coelho, Renato Colares, Guaraci Duran Cordeiro, Juliana Hipolito, Angela Maria da Silva Correa, Fernanda Vieira da Costa, Cleber Covre, Renata Drummond Marinho Cruz, Oswaldo Cruz-Neto, Leo Correia-da-Rocha-Filho, Jacques Hubert Charles Delabie, Marcos da Costa Dorea, Viviany Teixeira do-Nascimento, Jean Miguel Alves dos-Santos, Marcelo Duarte, Marilia Cristina Duarte, Olivia Maria Pereira Duarte, Julie Henriette Antoinette Dutilh, Betina Pereira Emerick, Gabrielly dos Santos Fabiano, Fernando Henrique Antoniolli Farache, Ana Paula Gelli de Faria, Geraldo Wilson Fernandes, Pedro Maria Abreu Ferreira, Maria Juliana Ferreira-Caliman, Livia Maria Negrini Ferreira, Tulio Freitas Filgueira de Sa, Edivani Villaron Franceschinelli, Greice Ayra Franco-Assis, Frederico de Siqueira Neves, Breno Magalhaes Freitas, Joelcio Freitas, Natalia Arias Galastri, Leonardo Galetto, Caroline Tito Garcia, Maria Teresa Amela Garcia, Nicole Luize Garcia, Carlos Alberto Garofalo, Irene Gelvez-Zuniga, Camila da Silva Goldas, Tadeu Jose Guerra, Tania Mara Guerra, Birgit Harter-Marques, Juliana Hipolito, Rafael Martins, Ricardo Pablo Klein, Elmo Borges de Azevedo Koch, Paulo Landgref-Filho, Sebastiao Laroca, Cristiane Martins Leandro, Reinanda Lima, Taysla Roberta Almeida de Lima, Luiz Wilson Lima-Verde, Elton John de Lirio, Ariadna Valentina Lopes, Andrea Pereira Luizi-Ponzo, Isabel Cristina Sobreira Machado, Tatiana Machado, Fabricio Severo Magalhaes, Thiago Mahlmann, Clea dos Santos Ferreira Mariano, Thamy Evellini Dias Marques, Felipe Martello, Celso Feitosa Martins, Mauricio Nogueira Martins, Rafael Martins, Andre Luiz Santos Mascarenhas, Geovana de Assis Mendes, Milton de Souza Mendonca, Luiz Menini Neto, Michaele Alvim Milward-de-Azevedo, Adrianne Oliveira Miranda, Paula Maria Montoya-Pfeiffer, Andreza Magro Moraes, Bruna Borges Moraes, Eduardo Freitas Moreira, Maria Santina Morini, Diego Moure-Oliveira, Leticia Fabri De Nadai, Victor Hideki Nagatani, Michelle Helena Nervo, Frederico de Siqueira Neves, Jailson Santos de Novais, Evellyn Silva Araujo-Oliveira, Joao Henrique Figueredo de Oliveira, Alipio Jose de Souza Pacheco-Filho, Luciano Palmieri, Martin Pareja, Marcella de Almeida Passarella, Nayra da Mata Passos, Hipolito Ferreira Paulino-Neto, Ariane Luna Peixoto, Luciana Carvalho Pereira, Rodrigo Augusto Santinelo Pereira, Brenda Pereira-Silva, Jimmy Pincheira-Ulbrich, Mardiore Pinheiro, Augusto Joao Piratelli, Luciana Regina Podgaiski, Diego Santos Polizello, Livia Pires do Prado, Fabio Prezoto, Franciele Rosset de Quadros, Elisa Pereira Queiroz, Zelma Glebya Maciel Quirino, Ananza Mara Rabello, Gabriela Beatriz Pereira Rabeschini, Monna Myrnna Mangueira Ramalho, Flavio Nunes Ramos, Ludmila Rattis, Luiz Henrique Goncalves de Rezende, Caroline Ribeiro, Lizandra Jaqueline Robe, Ely Marley de Souza Ribeiro Rocha, Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues, Gustavo Quevedo Romero, Nadia Roque, William de Oliveira Sabino, Paulo Takeo Sano, Patricia da Silva Santana Reis, Fernando Silva dos Santos, Isabel Alves dos Santos, Francisco de Assis Ribeiro dos Santos, Igor Silva dos Santos, Ricardo Sartorello, Hermes Jose Schmitz, Maria Rosangela Sigrist, Juvenal Cordeiro Silva Junior, Ana Carolina Granero e Silva, Carolina Veronese Correa da Silva, Beatriz Symara Alves Vieira Silva, Bruna Leticia de Freitas Silva, Claudia Ines Silva, Fabiana Oliveira da Silva, Jessica Luiza Souza e Silva, Nathalia Sampaio Silva, Otavio Guilherme Morais da Silva, Carlos de Melo e Silva Neto, Edito Romao Silva Neto, Denise Silveira, Maxwell Souza Silveira, Rodrigo Bustos Singer, Leiza Aparecida Souza Serafim Soares, Evelise Marcia Locatelli de Souza, Jana Magaly Tesserolli de Souza, Josefina Steiner, Mara Cristina Teixeira-Gamarra, Bruno Alves Trentin, Isabela Galarda Varassin, Gabriel Vila-Verde, Vania Nobuko Yoshikawa, Elisabete Maria Zanin, Mauro Galetti, Milton Cezar Ribeiro
Summary: Encounters between flowers and invertebrates play a crucial role in tropical forest ecosystems. This study aims to provide a comprehensive database of flower-invertebrate interactions in the Atlantic Forest. The dataset includes over 18,000 interaction records forming 482 networks, involving 641 plant genera and 581 invertebrate genera. The study highlights the knowledge gap in canopy flower-invertebrate interactions and the need for further research in remote forested areas.
Article
Ecology
Elena Quintero, Francisco Rodriguez-Sanchez, Pedro Jordano
Summary: Mutualistic interactions among free-living species involve low-frequency interactions and asymmetric dependence. Using a fleshy-fruited plant and its frugivore assemblage as a model, researchers found that interaction effectiveness was mainly driven by interaction frequency. Despite asymmetric dependences, reciprocity in rewards between partners was determined by the quantity of fruit consumed. They anticipate that reciprocity will emerge in low-intimacy mutualisms where interaction frequency plays a crucial role.
Article
Ecology
Blanca Arroyo-Correa, Pedro Jordano, Ignasi Bartomeus
Summary: Patterns of resource use at the species level are influenced by individual differences in exploiting available resources, such as pollinator use by plants. Our study used detailed data on plant-pollinator interactions to examine how variation in pollinator use among individual plants impacts community structure and dynamics. We found that all co-occurring plant species consisted of specialists interacting with subsets of pollinators that visited generalists, and the differences in interaction patterns were driven by variation in traits among individuals. Furthermore, communities with higher levels of variation in plant traits and pollinator use showed a nested structure and were more feasible. Our research highlights the importance of preserving intraspecific variation in traits and resource use within populations.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tatiana Cabral de Vasconcelos, Vinicius Londe, Elena Velasquez, Patrick Lavelle, Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues
Summary: Ecological restoration can improve soil quality to mitigate global soil degradation. However, soil monitoring is often overlooked, hindering the understanding of restoration effects and recovery time. A study in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest found that moderately assisted restoration and unassisted natural recovery areas had lower soil quality compared to the reference ecosystem, indicating the need for long-term restoration efforts.
LAND DEGRADATION & DEVELOPMENT
(2023)
Letter
Biodiversity Conservation
Raoni Raja, Antonio Donato Nobre, Evandro L. T. P. Cunha, Tiago Ribeiro Duarte, Camilla Marcolino, Britaldo S. Soares-Filho, Gerd Sparovek, Ricardo R. Rodrigues, Carlos Valera, Mercedes Bustamante, Carlos Nobre, Leticia Santos de Lima
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Giovanna Collyer, Daniel M. Perkins, Danielle K. Petsch, Tadeu Siqueira, Victor Saito
Summary: Land-use and land-cover transitions have various effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, including energy transfer within food webs. Our study examined changes in the size spectrum of aquatic macroinvertebrates along a land-use intensification gradient in Brazilian streams. We found that disturbed streams had fewer small organisms but more efficient energy transfer compared to pristine forest streams. Despite this efficiency, disturbed streams had lower taxonomic diversity and supported fewer large organisms and shorter food chains.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Editorial Material
Biodiversity Conservation
Rafael D. Zenni, Jos Barlow, Nathalie Pettorelli, Phil Stephens, Romina Rader, Tadeu Siqueira, Rowena Gordon, Thomas Pinfield, Martin A. Nunez
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Cristina Mariana Jacobi, Tadeu Siqueira
Summary: By studying multiple datasets on fish abundance in 541 streams, we found that communities composed of small populations are more spatially variable and less related to the environment variation than communities composed of large populations. Our results indicate that community size affects the strength of ecological drift and environmental selection in metacommunities, and further declines in population and ecosystem size can make spatial variation in biodiversity more unpredictable.
Article
Biology
Jorge Isla, Miguel Jacome-Flores, Juan M. Arroyo, Pedro Jordano
Summary: This study investigates the plant-frugivore interactions in the rapid population expansion of a Mediterranean juniper. The researchers found that these interactions are reconfigured to adapt to the expansion landscape template, and this reconfiguration accelerates plant colonization.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Janneke Scheeres, Johan de Jong, Benjamin Brede, Pedro H. S. Brancalion, Eben Noth Broadbent, Angelica Maria Almeyda Zambrano, Eric Bastos Gorgens, Carlos Alberto Silva, Ruben Valbuena, Paulo Molin, Scott Stark, Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues, Ribeiro Rodrigues, Giulio Brossi Santoro, Catherine Torres de Almeida, Danilo Roberti Alves de Almeida
Summary: By using UAV-borne LiDAR, it is possible to distinguish different forest types in restoration landscapes in southeastern Brazil. Using a random forest classification model, the study successfully classified conservation and production forests with a high accuracy. However, classifying all six forest types proved to be more challenging due to their similarities in management, regeneration dynamics, and structure.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Gedimar Pereira Barbosa, Tadeu Siqueira
Summary: Climate and land use change have direct and indirect impacts on freshwater food web structure. Understanding their relationships is crucial for assessing the effects of global changes on freshwater biodiversity.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Wanderlei Bieluczyk, Fernanda Ometto Asselta, Deisi Navroski, Julia Brandao Gontijo, Andressa Monteiro Venturini, Lucas William Mendes, Carla Penha Simon, Plinio Barbosa de Camargo, Amanda Maria Tadini, Ladislau Martin -Neto, Jose Albertino Bendassolli, Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues, Wim H. van der Putten, Siu Mui Tsai
Summary: Forest restoration plays a significant role in mitigating climate change by removing CO2 and storing carbon in terrestrial ecosystems. This study provides an integrated assessment of carbon storage in restored tropical forests, including its impact on greenhouse gas fluxes and the characteristics of soil organic matter. The findings highlight the importance of soil health indicators and the need for restoration techniques to improve long-term carbon storage.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Review
Ecology
Debora C. Rother, Joao P. Romanelli, Ricardo R. Rodrigues
Summary: This study provides an overview of the historical development of forest restoration in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, with a focus on methodological and technical assumptions. By gathering information from primary and secondary studies, the evolution of forest restoration concepts and strategies is shown. The study offers a summarized information on forest restoration approaches or practices, which can be helpful for practitioners and non-initiated individuals in understanding the development of this field in Brazil and how the lessons learned can be applied to forest restoration in other countries.
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Wanderlei Bieluczyk, Luis Fernando Merloti, Mauricio Roberto Cherubin, Lucas William Mendes, Jose Albertino Bendassolli, Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues, Plinio Barbosa de Camargo, Wim H. van der Putten, Siu Mui Tsai
Summary: In this study, riparian zones were reforested to mitigate the negative impacts of long-term sugarcane cultivation on soil multifunctionality. The restoration process successfully recovered soil functions and reached a similar level as the primary forest after 30 years of active restoration.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Leandro G. Cosmo, Ana Paula A. Assis, Marcus A. M. de Aguiar, Mathias M. Pires, Alfredo Valido, Pedro Jordano, John N. Thompson, Jordi Bascompte, Paulo R. Guimaraes Jr
Summary: Ecological interactions are vital for maintaining biodiversity on Earth. This study investigates the impact of direct and indirect effects in mutualistic networks, showing that indirect effects play a major role in determining species fitness. Indirect effects prevent coevolving species from adapting to their mutualistic partners and other environmental pressures, resulting in decreased fitness. The topological effect of peripheral species experiencing more indirect effects and greater reduction in fitness compared to central species is evident. The study also highlights how honeybees as a central species in pollination networks increase indirect effects, thus reducing the fitness of other species.