Publications by authors named "F Dalerum"
Predation is an important ecological process that can significantly impact the maintenance of ecosystem services. In arctic environments, the relative ecological importance of predation is thought to be increasing due to climate change, partly because of increased productivity with rising temperatures. Therefore, understanding predator-prey interactions in arctic ecosystems is vital for the sustainable management of these northern regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species' population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate 'intactness scores': the remaining proportion of an 'intact' reference population of a species group in a particular land use, on a scale from 0 (no remaining individuals) to 1 (same abundance as the reference) and, in rare cases, to 2 (populations that thrive in human-modified landscapes). The resulting bii4africa dataset contains intactness scores representing terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods: ±5,400 amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and vascular plants (±45,000 forbs, graminoids, trees, shrubs) in sub-Saharan Africa across the region's major land uses (urban, cropland, rangeland, plantation, protected, etc.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - Genomic studies on endangered species help us understand how they evolve and survive despite population declines and bottlenecks, offering clues on avoiding extinction.
- - The researchers focused on the muskox, which nearly went extinct after the last Ice Age but is now thriving, examining 108 whole genomes from current populations and an ancient specimen.
- - They found that past climate changes influenced muskox demographics, with the white-faced subspecies showing extremely low genetic variation without signs of inbreeding depression, suggesting that gradual population declines might have removed harmful mutations.
Both abiotic and biotic conditions may be important for biodiversity. However, their relative importance may vary among different diversity dimensions as well as across spatial scales. Spiders (Araneae) offer an ecologically relevant system for evaluating variation in the relative strength abiotic and biotic biodiversity regulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The Hyaenidae family, once diverse during the Miocene, has narrowed down to four species: spotted, striped, and brown hyenas, and the aardwolf, with a focus on understanding their evolutionary relationships and genomic traits related to scavenging and insectivory.
- The study reveals phylogenetic discordance, gene flow between aardwolves and brown/striped hyenas, and significant genetic selections linked to adaptations for feeding on carrion and termites.
- Findings indicate low genetic diversity in brown and striped hyenas over the past 2 million years, while spotted hyenas and aardwolves show higher genetic diversity, highlighting the influence of ecological specialization on evolutionary history.