Understanding the factors that determine species' geographical distributions is important for addressing a wide range of biological questions, including where species will be able to maintain populations following environmental change. New methods for modelling species distributions include the effects of biotic interactions alongside more commonly used abiotic variables such as temperature and precipitation; however, it is not clear which types of interspecific relationship contribute to shaping species distributions and should therefore be prioritized in models. Even if some interactions are known to be influential at local spatial scales, there is no guarantee they will have similar impacts at macroecological scales. Here we apply a novel method based on information theory to determine which types of interspecific relationship drive species distributions. Our results show that negative biotic interactions such as competition have the greatest effect on model predictions for species from a California grassland community. This knowledge will help focus data collection and improve model predictions for identifying at-risk species. Furthermore, our methodological approach is applicable to any kind of species distribution model that can be specified with and without interspecific relationships.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0426 | DOI Listing |
Environ Microbiome
January 2025
Université de Caen Normandie, Laboratoire MERSEA UR 7482, Centre de Recherches en Environnement Côtier, 14530, Luc-sur-Mer, France.
Background: Estuaries are complex ecosystems linking river and marine environments, where microorganisms play a key role in maintaining ecosystem functions. In the present study, we investigated monthly 8 sites at two depth layers and over a one-year period the bacterial and eukaryotic community dynamics along the Seine macrotidal estuary (Normandy, France). To date, the taxonomy of the microbial diversity present in this anthropized estuary remains elusive and the drivers of the microbial community structure are still unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFToxicol Res (Camb)
February 2025
Department of Bioinformatics, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu 620024, India.
Sugar substitutes are mostly artificial, man-made industrial products used as additives in food and beverages. Most of these substances flow through the digestive tract and food chains, becoming emerging organic contaminants in various abiotic and biotic environmental media. Here, we predict the mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of commonly used sugar substitutes using in silico based methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcol Lett
January 2025
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.
Biotic interactions play an important role in species diversification and maintenance and, thus, are regarded as the architecture of biodiversity. Since Darwin and Wallace, biologists have debated whether biotic interactions are stronger towards the tropics and on continents, when compared to temperate regions and islands. Here, based on 354 avian frugivory networks accounting for 22,199 interactions between 1247 bird species and 2126 plant species, we quantified trait matching strength, which reflects interaction strength and specificity, across gradients of latitude and insularity globally.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmall
January 2025
Department of Nanoscience, Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, 27401, USA.
The chemistry of the extracellular electron transfer (EET) process in microorganisms can be understood by interfacing them with abiotic materials that act as external redox mediators. These mediators capture and transfer extracellular electrons through redox reactions, bridging the microorganism and the electrode surface. Understanding this charge transfer process is essential for designing biocapacitors capable of modulating and storing charge signatures as capacitance at the electrode interface.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
January 2025
Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Biological Resources and Genetic Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, China. Electronic address:
Small signaling peptides (SSPs), short proteins of fewer than 100 amino acids, serve as pivotal signaling molecules with diverse structural features, post-translational modifications, and functional roles. They regulate various aspects of plant growth and development by modulating specific cellular signaling pathways. Research has shown that many SSPs are essential for mediating responses to environmental stresses.
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