Evaluation of relative pollen productivities in temperate China for reliable pollen-based quantitative reconstructions of Holocene plant cover.

The Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm (LRA) is regarded as the soundest approach for quantifying taxon-specific plant cover from pollen data. The reliability of relative pollen productivity (RPP) estimates is fundamental in the accuracy of quantitative vegetation reconstruction using the LRA approach. Inconsistent RPP estimates produced by different studies can cast doubt on the reliability and applicability of quantitative vegetation reconstruction.

Application of image analysis technique for measurement of sand grains in sediments.

This paper provides a methodological protocol for measuring diameter and other properties of mineral sand grains using an image analysis technique. The aeolian sand influx (ASI) from coastal bogs has been used to reconstruct changes in the past storminess. However, concentrations of sand grains in peat deposits, from which the ASI is calculated, tend to be low, and sieving and laser diffractometry cannot be applied.

Unique Hydrogen Bonds in Membrane Protein Monitored by Whole Mid-IR ATR Spectroscopy in Aqueous Solution.

Protein function is coupled to its structural changes, for which stimulus-induced difference Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a powerful method. By optimizing the attenuated total reflection (ATR)-FTIR analysis on sodium-pumping rhodopsin KR2 in aqueous solution, we first measured the accurate difference spectra upon sodium binding in the whole IR region (4000-1000 cm). The new spectral window allows the analysis of not only the fingerprint region (1800-1000 cm) but also the hydrogen-bonding donor region (4000-1800 cm), revealing an unusually strong hydrogen bond of Tyr located in the sodium binding site of KR2.

FTIR Analysis of a Light-driven Inward Proton-pumping Rhodopsin at 77 K.

Parvularcula oceani xenorhodopsin (PoXeR) is a light-driven inward proton pump that was discovered from deep ocean marine bacteria. PoXeR is categorized into the same family of Anabaena sensory rhodopsin (ASR) that functions as a photochromic sensor. In this study, we applied light-induced difference Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to PoXeR at 77 K, and the obtained spectra were compared with those of ASR.

Historical land-use and landscape change in southern Sweden and implications for present and future biodiversity.

The two major aims of this study are (1) To test the performance of the Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm (LRA) to quantify past landscape changes using historical maps and related written sources, and (2) to use the LRA and map reconstructions for a better understanding of the origin of landscape diversity and the recent loss of species diversity. Southern Sweden, hemiboreal vegetation zone. The LRA was applied on pollen records from three small bogs for four time windows between AD 1700 and 2010.

Southward Pleistocene migration of Douglas-fir into Mexico: phylogeography, ecological niche modeling, and conservation of 'rear edge' populations.

• Poleward Pleistocene plant migration has been an important process structuring modern temperate and boreal plant communities, but the contribution of equatorward migration remains poorly understood. Paleobotanical evidence suggests Miocene or Pleistocene origin for temperate 'sky island' plant taxa in Mexico. These 'rear edge' populations situated in a biodiversity hotspot may be an important reserve of genetic diversity in changing climates.

A framework for sustainable invasive species management: Environmental, social, and economic objectives.

Applying the concept of sustainability to invasive species management (ISM) is challenging but necessary, given the increasing rates of invasion and the high costs of invasion impacts and control. To be sustainable, ISM must address environmental, social, and economic factors (or "pillars") that influence the causes, impacts, and control of invasive species across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Although these pillars are generally acknowledged, their implementation is often limited by insufficient control options and significant economic and political constraints.

Phylogeography of Douglas-fir based on mitochondrial and chloroplast DNA sequences: testing hypotheses from the fossil record.

The integration of fossil and molecular data can provide a synthetic understanding of the ecological and evolutionary history of an organism. We analysed range-wide maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA and paternally inherited chloroplast DNA sequence data with coalescent simulations and traditional population genetic methods to test hypotheses of population divergence generated from the fossil record of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), an ecologically and economically important western North American conifer. Specifically, we tested (i) the hypothesis that the Pliocene orogeny of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada caused the divergence of coastal and Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir varieties; and (ii) the hypothesis that multiple glacial refugia existed on the coast and in the Rocky Mountains.

Supply pre-emption, not concentration reduction, is the mechanism of competition for nutrients.

Concentration reduction theory is the leading theory regarding the mechanism of competition for nutrients in soils among plants, yet it has not been rigorously tested. Here we used a spatially explicit, fine-scale grid-based model that simulated diffusion and plant uptake of nutrients by plants in soil to test whether concentration reduction theory was appropriate for terrestrial plant competition for nutrients. In the absence of competition, increasing the rate of diffusion allows a plant to maintain positive growth rates below the lowest average concentration to which it can reduce nutrients in soil solution (R*).