Large animals are important seed dispersers; however, they tend to be under a high extinction risk worldwide. There is compelling evidence that the global biodiversity crisis is leading to the deterioration of several ecosystem functions, but there is virtually no information on how large-scale refaunation efforts can reinstate seed dispersal. We evaluated the effectiveness of a 62-km wildlife sanctuary, which was established to recover populations of large mammals in Gorongosa National Park (Mozambique), in restoring seed dispersal. We collected animal scats during the dry season of 2014 (June-August) along 5 transects inside and 5 transects outside the sanctuary fence (50 km total) with the same type of plant community, identified animal and plant species in the transects, and quantified the number of seeds in each scat. Based on these data, we built bipartite networks and calculated network and species-level descriptor values, and we compared data collected inside and outside the sanctuary. There were more scats (268 vs. 207) and more scats containing seeds (132 vs. 94) inside than outside the sanctuary. The number of mammal dispersers was also higher inside (17) than outside the sanctuary (11). Similarly, more seeds (2413 vs. 2124) and plant species (33 vs. 26) were dispersed inside than outside the sanctuary. Overall, the seed-dispersal network was less specialized (0.38 vs. 0.44) and there was a greater overlap (0.16 vs. 0.07) inside than outside the sanctuary. Both networks were significantly modular and antinested. The high number and richness of seeds dispersed inside the sanctuary was explained mostly by a higher abundance of dispersers rather than by disperser identity. Our results suggest conservation efforts aimed at recovering populations of large mammals are helping to reestablish not only target mammal species but also their functional roles as seed dispersers in the ecosystem.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12782 | DOI Listing |
Environ Monit Assess
September 2024
Department of Geoinformatics, School of Natural Resource Management, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, 835222, Jharkhand, India.
Wildlife and natural resources constitute an integral part of the ecosystem, whereas human interventions dismantled the living conditions of the wildlife. This is testified in the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary (DWS) where the habitats of Asian elephants have changed due to human intervention and deforestation over the decades. The present study aimed to assess the elephant habitat suitability in the DWS of Jharkhand state (India) using the geospatial parameters such as forest density, degree of slope, proximity to water bodies, land use land cover, proximity to agricultural land, built-up density, and road density.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Chem
June 2024
Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology (MOE/NHC/CAMS), Shanghai Frontiers Science Center of Pathogenic Microorganisms and Infection, Shanghai Institute of Infectious Disease and Biosecurity, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, 131 Dong An Road, Shanghai 200032, China.
Different from most antiretroviral drugs that act as passive defenders to inhibit HIV-1 replication inside the host cell, virus inactivators can attack and inactivate HIV-1 virions without relying on their replication cycle. Herein, we describe the discovery of a hydrocarbon double-stapled helix peptide, termed D26. D26 is based on the HIV-1 gp41 protein lentiviral lytic peptide-3 motif (LLP3) sequence, which can efficiently inhibit HIV-1 infection and inactivate cell-free HIV-1 virions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPacific chub, Kyphosus sandwicensis, are typically gray but some individuals display a golden color morph. We estimated that the frequency of occurrence of the golden morphs increased significantly from 2007 (1.9%) and 2012 (2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeerJ
December 2023
Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar (CEIMAR), University of Cadiz, Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
Background: Cleaning symbiotic interactions are an important component of coral reef biodiversity and the study of the characteristics of these interacting species networks allows to assess the health of communities. The coral reefs of Jardines de la Reina National Park (JRNP) are subject to a protection gradient and there is a lack of knowledge about the effect of different levels of protection on the cleaning mutualistic networks in the area. The present study aims to characterize the mutualistic cleaning networks in the reefs of JRNP and to assess the potential effect of the protection gradient on their characteristics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Theor Biol
November 2023
Biomedical Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA. Electronic address:
Lymph nodes (LNs) serve as a sanctuary site for HIV viruses due to the heterogeneous distribution of the antiretrovirals (ARVs) inside the LNs. There is an ongoing debate whether this represents ongoing cycles of viral replication in the LNs or merely residual virus production by latently infected cells. Previous work has claimed that the measured levels of genetic variation in proviruses sampled from the blood were inconsistent with ongoing replication.
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