32 results match your criteria: "Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF)[Affiliation]"

Flowering in the Northern Hemisphere is delayed by frost after leaf-out.

Nat Commun

October 2024

Key Laboratory of Bio-Resource and Eco-Environment of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.

Late spring frosts, occurring after spring phenological events, pose a dire threat to tree growth and forest productivity. With climate warming, earlier spring phenological events have become increasingly common and led to plants experiencing more frequent and severe frost damage. However, the effect of late spring frosts after leaf-out on subsequent flowering phenology in woody species remains unknown.

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Migratory insects may move in large numbers, even surpassing migratory vertebrates in biomass. Long-distance migratory insects complete annual cycles through multiple generations, with each generation's reproductive success linked to the resources available at different breeding grounds. Climatic anomalies in these grounds are presumed to trigger rapid population outbreaks.

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The world is currently facing uncertainty caused by environmental, social, and economic changes and by political shocks. Fostering social-ecological resilience by enhancing forests' ability to provide a range of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, habitat provision, and sustainable livelihoods, is key to addressing such uncertainty. However, policy makers and managers currently lack a clear understanding of how to operationalise the shaping of resilience through the combined challenges of climate change, the biodiversity crisis, and changes in societal demand.

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Weakening warming on spring freeze-thaw cycle caused greening Earth's third pole.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

February 2024

The Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.

The Tibetan Plateau, recognized as Earth's third pole and among the most responsive regions to climate shifts, profoundly influences regional and even global hydrological processes. Here, we discerned a significant weakening in the influence of temperature on the initiation of surface freeze-thaw cycle (the Start of Thawing, SOT), which can be ascribed to a multitude of climatic variables, with radiation emerging as the most pivotal factor. Additionally, we showed that the diminishing impact of warming on SOT yields amplified soil moisture within the root zone.

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Article Synopsis
  • Climate change is making droughts (periods without rain) happen more often and for longer periods of time, which is bad for ecosystems.
  • Scientists did a big experiment in many places around the world to see how one year of drought affects grasslands and shrublands.
  • They found that extreme drought can reduce plant growth much more than expected, especially in dry areas with fewer types of plants, showing that these places are more at risk.
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In structured populations, persistence under environmental change may be particularly threatened when abiotic factors simultaneously negatively affect survival and reproduction of several life cycle stages, as opposed to a single stage. Such effects can then be exacerbated when species interactions generate reciprocal feedbacks between the demographic rates of the different species. Despite the importance of such demographic feedbacks, forecasts that account for them are limited as individual-based data on interacting species are perceived to be essential for such mechanistic forecasting-but are rarely available.

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is a North African amphibian that was introduced in southern France early the 20th century and has spread south and north along the Mediterranean coastal plains up to 170 km. In order to disentangle the conservation implications of the spread of for sensitive native species, we examined the impact of long-term climate warming on the basis of niche overlap analysis, taking into account abiotic factors. The study area covered the distribution ranges of all genus species in northwestern Africa (659,784 km), Sicily (27,711 km), the Iberian Peninsula, and southern France (699,546 km).

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As individual animals are exposed to varying environmental conditions, phenotypic plasticity will occur in a vast array of physiological traits. For example, shifts in factors such as temperature and oxygen availability can affect the energy demand, cardiovascular system, and neuromuscular function of animals that in turn impact individual behavior. Here, we argue that nonlinear changes in the physiological traits and performance of animals across environmental gradients-known as physiological performance curves-may have wide-ranging effects on the behavior of individual social group members and the functioning of animal social groups as a whole.

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Climate change facilitated the early colonization of the Azores Archipelago during medieval times.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

October 2021

Geosciences Barcelona (Geo3BCN-CSIC), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Lluís Solé i Sabarís s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.

Humans have made such dramatic and permanent changes to Earth's landscapes that much of it is now substantially and irreversibly altered from its preanthropogenic state. Remote islands, until recently isolated from humans, offer insights into how these landscapes evolved in response to human-induced perturbations. However, little is known about when and how remote systems were colonized because archaeological data and historical records are scarce and incomplete.

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The effect of drought on the interplay of processes controlling carbon partitioning into plant primary and secondary metabolisms, such as respiratory CO release and volatile organic compound (VOC) biosynthesis, is not fully understood. To elucidate the effect of drought on the fate of cellular C sources into VOCs vs CO , we conducted tracer experiments with CO and position-specific C-labelled pyruvate, a key metabolite between primary and secondary metabolisms, in Scots pine seedlings. We determined the stable carbon isotope composition of leaf exchanged CO and VOC.

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Ectomycorrhizal (EcM) and saprotrophic fungi interact in the breakdown of organic matter, but the mechanisms underlying the EcM role on organic matter decomposition are not totally clear. We hypothesized that the ecological relations between EcM and saprotroph fungi are modulated by resources availability and accessibility, determining decomposition rates. We manipulated the amount of leaf litter inputs (No-Litter, Control Litter, Doubled Litter) on Trenched (root exclusion) and Non-Trenched plots (with roots) in a temperate deciduous forest of EcM-associated trees.

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Fisheries-induced changes of shoaling behaviour: mechanisms and potential consequences.

Trends Ecol Evol

October 2021

Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Müggelseedamm 310, 12587 Berlin, Germany; Division of Integrative Fisheries Management, Department of Crop and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Philippstrasse 13, Haus 7, 10115 Berlin, Germany.

We outline key mechanisms by which fishing can change the shoaling tendency and collective behaviour of exploited species - an issue that is rarely considered and poorly understood. We highlight potential consequences for fish populations and food webs, and discuss possible repercussions for fisheries and conservation strategies.

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Temporal dimension of forest vulnerability to fire along successional trajectories.

J Environ Manage

October 2019

Joint Research Unit CTFC - AGROTECNIO, Solsona E, 25280, Spain; Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), Cerdanyola del Vallès E, 08193, Spain; Department of Agriculture and Forest Engineering (EAGROF), University of Lleida, Lleida E, 25198, Spain.

Understanding ecosystem vulnerability is essential in risk management to anticipate disasters. While valuable efforts have been made to characterize vulnerability components (exposure, sensitivity, and response capacity) at particular ecosystem stages, there is still a lack of context-specific studies accounting for the temporal dimension of vulnerability. In this study, we developed a procedure to identify the main natural dynamics of monospecific and mixed forests and to assess the variations of sensitivity and response capacity to fire along successional dynamics.

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Anuran amphibians undergo major morphological transitions during development, but the contribution of their markedly different life-history phases to macroevolution has rarely been analysed. Here we generate testable predictions for coupling versus uncoupling of phenotypic evolution of tadpole and adult life-history phases, and for the underlying expression of genes related to morphological feature formation. We test these predictions by combining evidence from gene expression in two distantly related frogs, Xenopus laevis and Mantidactylus betsileanus, with patterns of morphological evolution in the entire radiation of Madagascan mantellid frogs.

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Mediterranean Basin ecosystems, their unique biodiversity, and the key services they provide are currently at risk due to air pollution and climate change, yet only a limited number of isolated and geographically-restricted studies have addressed this topic, often with contrasting results. Particularities of air pollution in this region include high O levels due to high air temperatures and solar radiation, the stability of air masses, and dominance of dry over wet nitrogen deposition. Moreover, the unique abiotic and biotic factors (e.

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In evergreen conifers, where the foliage amount changes little with season, accurate detection of the underlying "photosynthetic phenology" from satellite remote sensing has been difficult, presenting challenges for global models of ecosystem carbon uptake. Here, we report a close correspondence between seasonally changing foliar pigment levels, expressed as chlorophyll/carotenoid ratios, and evergreen photosynthetic activity, leading to a "chlorophyll/carotenoid index" (CCI) that tracks evergreen photosynthesis at multiple spatial scales. When calculated from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer satellite sensor, the CCI closely follows the seasonal patterns of daily gross primary productivity of evergreen conifer stands measured by eddy covariance.

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Positive biodiversity-productivity relationship predominant in global forests.

Science

October 2016

Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond NSW 2753, Australia. Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.

The biodiversity-productivity relationship (BPR) is foundational to our understanding of the global extinction crisis and its impacts on ecosystem functioning. Understanding BPR is critical for the accurate valuation and effective conservation of biodiversity. Using ground-sourced data from 777,126 permanent plots, spanning 44 countries and most terrestrial biomes, we reveal a globally consistent positive concave-down BPR, showing that continued biodiversity loss would result in an accelerating decline in forest productivity worldwide.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study investigates the assumption that island colonization leads to significant phenotypic diversity, using a group of geckos called Hemidactylus as a case study.
  • The researchers created a molecular phylogeny and analyzed body size and head proportions to compare evolutionary patterns between island and mainland species.
  • Findings show that while island species exhibit greater size variations and faster evolutionary rates, head proportions evolved at consistent rates, suggesting that not all traits evolve similarly in mainland versus island systems.
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Social evolution. Genomic signatures of evolutionary transitions from solitary to group living.

Science

June 2015

China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China. Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, Universitetsparken 15, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.

The evolution of eusociality is one of the major transitions in evolution, but the underlying genomic changes are unknown. We compared the genomes of 10 bee species that vary in social complexity, representing multiple independent transitions in social evolution, and report three major findings. First, many important genes show evidence of neutral evolution as a consequence of relaxed selection with increasing social complexity.

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Do close relatives make bad neighbors?

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

February 2014

Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF)/Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193 Catalonia, Spain.

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Land use and land cover change (LUCC) is an acknowledged cause of the current biodiversity crisis, but the link between LUCC and biodiversity conservation remains largely unknown at the regional scale, especially due to the traditional lack of consistent biodiversity data. We provide a methodological approach for assessing this link through defining a set of major pressures on biodiversity from LUCC and evaluating their extent, distribution, and association with a set of physical factors. The study was performed in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (MRB, NE of Spain) between 1956 and 2000.

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Surface water chemistry has changed in response to reduced atmospheric deposition of sulphur and acidity in many regions of Europe and North America. Most of these studies come from acidic or low-alkalinity surface waters under high acidic deposition. Mediterranean climates offer a different biogeochemical context, characterised by streamwaters of higher alkalinity and low acid inputs.

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Effectiveness of the photochemical reflectance index to track photosynthetic activity over a range of forest tree species and plant water statuses.

Funct Plant Biol

April 2011

Department of Crop Systems, Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Basilicata, viale dell'Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy.

In this study, we investigated the potential of the photochemical resistance index (PRI) to track photosynthetic activity under water stress conditions by measuring PRI, leaf fluorescence, the xanthophyll cycle and photosynthetic activity in different forest tree species subjected to progressive drought. The PRI declined with pre-dawn water potential and a significant relationship between PRI and the xanthophyll de-epoxidation state (DEPS) was observed, although with large interspecific variability in the sensitivity of PRI to changes in DEPS. For single tree species, a strong relationship was observed on either PRI light saturated photosynthesis or PRI maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII (ΔF/Fm'); a larger variability in both relationships was apparent when data from different species were pooled together.

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Soil bioassays as tools for sludge compost quality assessment.

Waste Manag

March 2011

Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), Facultat de Ciències i Biociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.

Composting is a waste management technology that is becoming more widespread as a response to the increasing production of sewage sludge and the pressure for its reuse in soil. In this study, different bioassays (plant germination, earthworm survival, biomass and reproduction, and collembolan survival and reproduction) were assessed for their usefulness in the compost quality assessment. Compost samples, from two different composting plants, were taken along the composting process, which were characterized and submitted to bioassays (plant germination and collembolan and earthworm performance).

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Ecology. Phenology feedbacks on climate change.

Science

May 2009

Global Ecology Unit, Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF-CEAB-CSIC), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.

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