Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gokhan Yucel, Volkan Bakis
Summary: Based on Kepler's data, 49 new eclipsing twin binary candidates have been identified and analyzed. F-type twins dominate the spectral type distribution, and most known binary twin systems are located within 200 pc of the galactic plane. The physical parameters and age of a twin binary system, V396 Gem, have also been successfully determined.
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Marie C. Henniges, Robyn F. Powell, Sahr Mian, Clive A. Stace, Kevin J. Walker, Richard J. Gornall, Maarten J. M. Christenhusz, Max R. Brown, Alex D. Twyford, Peter M. Hollingsworth, Laura Jones, Natasha de Vere, Alexandre Antonelli, Andrew R. Leitch, Ilia J. Leitch
Summary: This paper presents the first comprehensive data repository of native and alien vascular plant species in Britain and Ireland, providing fast and easy online access for ecological, evolutionary and conservation analyses. The resource includes a large amount of species and trait information, facilitating fundamental and applied research and enhancing our understanding of plant composition and temporal changes to inform conservation efforts in the face of ongoing climate change and biodiversity loss.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
M. Lorenzo, M. Garcia, F. Najarro, A. Herrero, M. Cervino, N. Castro
Summary: Local Group (LG) very metal-poor massive stars are essential for understanding the first stars of the Universe and the evolution of early galaxies. However, comprehensive spectroscopic studies at metallicities lower than the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) have been limited due to the great distance. This study presents a collection of low-resolution spectroscopic data of more than 150 OB stars in the galaxy Sextans A, allowing for a better understanding of the evolutionary pathways and fates of very metal-poor massive stars.
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Francesco Mugnai, Federica Costantini, Anne Chenuil, Michele Leduc, Jose Miguel Gutierrez Ortega, Emese Meglecz
Summary: In metabarcoding analyses, the use of custom subsets of a reference database improves taxonomic assignment and resolution. However, the local database needs to be enriched with new barcodes specifically obtained from the studied region and/or taxonomic group.
Article
Plant Sciences
Simone Orsenigo, Giuseppe Fenu, Domenico Gargano, Chiara Montagnani, Thomas Abeli, Alessandro Alessandrini, Gianluigi Bacchetta, Fabrizio Bartolucci, Angelino Carta, Miris Castello, Donatella Cogoni, Fabio Conti, Gianniantonio Domina, Bruno Foggi, Matilde Gennai, Daniela Gigante, Mauro Iberite, Lorenzo Peruzzi, Maria Silvia Pinna, Filippo Prosser, Annalisa Santangelo, Alberto Selvaggi, Adriano Stinca, Mariacristina Villani, Robert P. Wagensommer, Nicoletta Tartaglini, Eugenio Dupre, Carlo Blasi, Graziano Rossi
Summary: Italy possesses a rich natural heritage, but it is under significant pressure. Plants play a crucial role in ecosystem functioning and services. The updated Red List of Italian vascular flora highlights habitat modifications as the primary threat to the Italian flora.
Article
Plant Sciences
Evgeny Banaev, Maria A. Tomoshevich, Sofia A. Khozyaykina, Anna A. Erst, Andrey S. Erst
Summary: A new species, Nitraria iliensis sp. nov., is discovered in the Ili basin, Almaty region, Kazakhstan. It is similar to N. sibirica Pall in morphology and belongs to section Nitraria ser. Sibiricae. This study utilizes an integrative taxonomic approach, combining molecular, biochemical, and morphological analyses, as well as palynological data, to define this new species. The article presents illustrations of the studied species, photographs of authentic specimens of the new species, and a distribution map of the new species and related taxa. Morphological characters were examined, important identification traits were identified, and a new key to differentiate between all species of the genus was developed.
Article
Plant Sciences
Henry Vare
Summary: Anders Thiodolf Saelan was a notable non-professional botanist in Finland during the late 19th and early 20th century. He was known for his extensive botanical reviews and valid publication of 34 taxa, many of which require typification.
ANNALES BOTANICI FENNICI
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Tingting Song, Mengyan Zhou, Yuying Yuan, Jinqiu Yu, Hua Cai, Jiawei Li, Yajun Chen, Yan Bai, Gang Zhou, Guowen Cui
Summary: The research team generated a high-quality assembly of Amphicarpaea edgeworthii and characterized its genetic diversity and population structure. Transcriptome analysis revealed that specific phenotypes are regulated by a complex network of light, hormones, and MADS-box gene families.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Henry Vare
Summary: Marten Magnus Wilhelm Brenner was a Finnish amateur botanist who published numerous articles on vascular plants in East Fennoscandia. He introduced many new taxa, particularly in the genus Hieracium, but his contributions to taxonomy were generally disregarded by Finnish botanists.
ANNALES BOTANICI FENNICI
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Miguel Murguia-Romero, Enrique Ortiz, Bernardo Serrano-Estrada, Jose Luis Villasenor
Summary: This study constructed a list of the main vascular plant collectors in Mexico, which is a useful tool for improving the quality of biodiversity databases and extracting information.
REVISTA MEXICANA DE BIODIVERSIDAD
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Mikhail Kozhin, Alexander Sennikov
Summary: This study reports 14 new non-native vascular plant species in Murmansk Region. Most of these species entered the region through escape or as contaminants, reflecting the diversity of cultivated plants in commerce and private gardens. Only one species is considered capable of further spreading.
BIODIVERSITY DATA JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Zoology
David B. Weissman, Amy G. Vandergast, Hojun Song, Seunggwan Shin, Duane D. Mckenna, Norihiro Ueshima
Summary: This study focuses on the taxonomy of New World Jerusalem crickets, redefining the boundaries of 4 genera and describing new species. It confirms 5 Mexican and Central American species and declares 13 species as nomen dubium. Furthermore, the study discusses the importance of including calling drum and DNA information in new Jerusalem cricket species descriptions.
Article
Medicine, Legal
Amaia Irizar, Hans Bender, Peter Griem, Andreas Natsch, Matthias Vey, Ian Kimber
Summary: Considerable progress has been made in designing New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) for identifying the hazards of skin sensitising chemicals. However, accurately measuring sensitising potency without animal tests has been challenging. This study developed a Reference Chemical Potency List (RCPL), based on the best available human and animal data, to evaluate the accuracy of measuring skin sensitising potency using NAMs.
REGULATORY TOXICOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Filip Verloove
Summary: Recent fieldwork by the author in Tenerife from 2014 to 2019 yielded new records of alien vascular plants, many of which were introduced as ornamentals and are now escaping cultivation. While most of these plants are ephemeral or locally established, they have the potential to naturalize in the future.
BIODIVERSITY DATA JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Lado Kutnar, Janez Kermavnar, Marko S. Sabovljevic
Summary: This study investigated the congruence between vascular plant species (VP) and bryophytes (B) in sustainably managed forests in Slovenia. The results showed a moderate positive correlation in species composition between ground-dwelling VP and B, influenced by soil reaction, nutrients, and light availability. However, a negative correlation was found between stress-tolerant VP and B hemeroby, indicating low disturbance levels in the forests.
Review
Ecology
Matthias Grenie, Emilio Berti, Juan Carvajal-Quintero, Gala Mona Louise Daedlow, Alban Sagouis, Marten Winter
Summary: Translation: Taxonomic name harmonization is necessary for merging data in ecological studies, but there are various challenges. This review categorizes major taxonomic databases and related R packages and presents the findings in a web application. It also provides general guidelines, best practices, and practical solutions.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Francesco Belluardo, A. Jesus Munoz-Pajares, Aurelien Miralles, Daniele Silvestro, Walter Cocca, Fanomezana Mihaja Ratsoavina, Andrea Villa, Sam Hyde Roberts, Marcello Mezzasalma, Alexander Zizka, Alexandre Antonelli, Angelica Crottini
Summary: The unique and diverse vertebrate fauna in Madagascar has resulted from in situ diversification from colonisers that reached the island through overseas dispersal. The endemic Malagasy Scincinae lizards have colonised all bioclimatic zones and display many ecomorphological adaptations to a fossorial lifestyle. This study proposes a new phylogenetic hypothesis for their diversification and finds that diversification rate has decreased over time, with fossoriality evolving independently at least five times.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Editorial Material
Plant Sciences
Alexander Zizka, Theresa Joerger-Hickfang, Stephan Imhof, Laura Mendez
Summary: Handheld LiDAR devices have the potential to collect detailed 3D models of specimen habitat, opening up new possibilities for plant specimen research.
Letter
Ecology
Fons van der Plas, Thomas Schroeder-Georgi, Alexandra Weigelt, Kathryn Barry, Sebastian Meyer, Adriana Alzate, Romain L. Barnard, Nina Buchmann, Hans de Kroon, Anne Ebeling, Nico Eisenhauer, Christof Engels, Markus Fischer, Gerd Gleixner, Anke Hildebrandt, Eva Koller-France, Sophia Leimer, Alexandru Milcu, Liesje Mommer, Pascal A. Niklaus, Yvonne Oelmann, Christiane Roscher, Christoph Scherber, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Stefan Scheu, Bernhard Schmid, Ernst-Detlef Schulze, Vicky Temperton, Teja Tscharntke, Winfried Voigt, Wolfgang Weisser, Wolfgang Wilcke, Christian Wirth
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Jose G. Macia-Vicente, Davide Francioli, Alexandra Weigelt, Cynthia Albracht, Kathryn E. Barry, Francois Buscot, Anne Ebeling, Nico Eisenhauer, Justus Hennecke, Anna Heintz-Buschart, Jasper van Ruijven, Liesje Mommer
Summary: Root-associated fungi play a role in determining the positive relationship between plant diversity and productivity in experimental grasslands, and this relationship strengthens over time. Fungal diversity increases with plant diversity, but this relationship weakens over time, while fungal community composition becomes more closely associated with plant diversity. Pathogenic fungi have a stronger impact on the diversity-productivity relationship than other root-associated partners.
Article
Plant Sciences
David Schellenberger Costa, Gerhard Boehnisch, Martin Freiberg, Rafael Govaerts, Matthias Grenie, Michael Hassler, Jens Kattge, Alexandra N. Muellner-Riehl, Blanca M. Rojas Andres, Marten Winter, Mark Watson, Alexander Zizka, Christian Wirth
Summary: Taxonomic checklists are crucial in biological research, and there are four global authoritative checklists for vascular plants. In this study, we compared these checklists in terms of size, taxonomic differences, and geographic and phylogenetic patterns of variance. The results show that these checklists differ significantly from each other and from The Plant List (TPL). Geographically, differences in checklists increase from low to high latitudes, and there is strong variability across families phylogenetically. The study highlights the importance of understanding the differences across checklists and proposes ideas for harmonizing them.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Victor Cazalis, Luca Santini, Pablo M. Lucas, Manuela Gonzalez-Suarez, Michael Hoffmann, Ana Benitez-Lopez, Michela Pacifici, Aafke M. Schipper, Monika Boehm, Alexander Zizka, Viola Clausnitzer, Carsten Meyer, Martin Jung, Stuart H. M. Butchart, Pedro Cardoso, Giordano Mancini, H. Resit Akcakaya, Bruce E. Young, Guillaume Patoine, Moreno Di Marco
Summary: The usefulness of the IUCN Red List is hindered by the lack of data on 14% of species. This study proposes a reproducible method to help prioritize the reassessment of data-deficient species and provides a list of species likely to have sufficient data, thereby improving the comprehensiveness of the IUCN Red List.
CONSERVATION BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Francisco J. Velasquez-Puentes, Benjamin M. Torke, Christopher D. Barratt, Kyle G. Dexter, Toby Pennington, Flavia Fonseca Pezzini, Alexander Zizka, Renske E. Onstein
Summary: Functional traits shape the distribution of Swartzia species across different environments. Leaflet and petal size are strongly correlated with climate, while fruit size is not. The evolution of small leaflets is conditional on transitions to low rainfall and low temperature environments, whereas the evolution of larger leaflets precedes transitions to wet and warm environments. These findings are important for understanding the broad-scale distribution of Swartzia across various habitats.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Letter
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Alexandra Weigelt, Liesje Mommer, Karl Andraczek, Colleen M. Iversen, Joana Bergmann, Helge Bruelheide, Gregoire T. Freschet, Nathaly R. Guerrero-Ramirez, Jens Kattge, Thom W. Kuyper, Daniel C. Laughlin, Ina C. Meier, Fons van der Plas, Hendrik Poorter, Catherine Roumet, Jasper van Ruijven, Francesco Maria Sabatini, Marina Semchenko, Christopher J. Sweeney, Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes, Larry M. York, M. Luke McCormack
Editorial Material
Plant Sciences
Alexandre Antonelli, Rafael Govaerts, Eimear Nic Lughadha, Renske E. Onstein, Rhian J. Smith, Alexander Zizka
Article
Ecology
Ingmar R. Staude, Alexandra Weigelt, Christian Wirth
Summary: This article discusses key research findings in global change ecology from the past decade, considering the possibility that natural succession contributes as a driving force of directional change. The authors propose that incorporating succession theory into global change ecology could provide a baseline for understanding natural biodiversity change and help isolate the impact of human activities.
Article
Biology
Solveig Franziska Bucher, Lia Uhde, Alexandra Weigelt, Simone Cesarz, Nico Eisenhauer, Alban Gebler, Christopher Kyba, Christine Roemermann, Tom Shatwell, Jes Hines
Summary: Artificial light at night (ALAN) has significant impacts on plant communities, resulting in reduced biomass, decreased diversity, and changes in functional traits. These findings highlight the need for conservation and management strategies that consider the effects of ALAN on plant ecology.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Karl Andraczek, Alexandra Weigelt, Judith G. Hinderling, Lena G. Kretz, Daniel G. Prati, Fons G. van der Plas
Summary: Land-use intensification is a major driver threatening biodiversity in managed grasslands. In this study, we investigated the interactive effects of different land-use components on plant composition and diversity using structural equation modelling. We found that biomass removal had larger direct and indirect effects on plant biodiversity than fertilization, and these effects varied significantly between seasons. Our findings also showed that changes in light availability and soil moisture mediated the indirect effects of biomass removal on plant biodiversity.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Marius Munschek, Reinhard Witt, Katrin Kaltofen, Josiane Segar, Christian Wirth, Alexandra Weigelt, Rolf A. Engelmann, Ingmar R. Staude
Summary: Conservation gardening is a socio-ecological approach to address the decline of native plant species and transform the gardening industry into a conservation tool. However, information on suitable plants, their ecological requirements, and commercial availability is limited. This study used Germany as a case study and developed a workflow to bridge this knowledge gap. The findings reveal a significant number of red-listed plant species suitable for conservation gardening and the potential for long-term urban planning and climate adaptation.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Jessica A. Berasategui, Anze Zerdoner Calasan, Alexander Zizka, Gudrun Kadereit
Summary: C-4 is a photosynthetic process in flowering plants that enhances plant productivity under warm and light-rich conditions. It has evolved independently in multiple angiosperm lineages and shows diverse structural and ecological characteristics. The diversity of C-4 eudicots is concentrated in arid regions of Mexico/Southern United States, Australia, South Africa, West Africa, Patagonia, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean. C-4 eudicots are found in areas with less annual precipitation compared to C-4 grasses, indicating adaptations to drought stress.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
