Low risk management intervention: Limited impact of remedial tillage on net ecosystem carbon balance at a commercial Miscanthus plantation.

Perennial bioenergy crops are a key tool in decarbonizing global energy systems, but to ensure the efficient use of land resources, it is essential that yields and crop longevity are maximized. Remedial shallow surface tillage is being explored in commercial Miscanthus plantations as an approach to reinvigorate older crops and to rectify poor establishment, improving yields. There are posited links, however, between tillage and losses in soil carbon (C) via increased ecosystem C fluxes to the atmosphere.

Associations between abundances of free-roaming gamebirds and common buzzards are not driven by consumption of gamebirds in the buzzard breeding season.

Releasing gamebirds in large numbers for sport shooting may directly or indirectly influence the abundance, distribution and population dynamics of native wildlife. The abundances of generalist predators have been positively associated with the abundance of gamebirds. These relationships have implications for prey populations, with the potential for indirect impacts of gamebird releases on wider biodiversity.

Location, but not defensive genotype, determines ectomycorrhizal community composition in Scots pine ( L.) seedlings.

For successful colonization of host roots, ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi must overcome host defense systems, and defensive phenotypes have previously been shown to affect the community composition of EM fungi associated with hosts. Secondary metabolites, such as terpenes, form a core part of these defense systems, but it is not yet understood whether variation in these constitutive defenses can result in variation in the colonization of hosts by specific fungal species.We planted seedlings from twelve maternal families of Scots pine () of known terpene genotype reciprocally in the field in each of six sites.

Multicentric origin and diversification of --like structures reveal mitochondrial gene flows in and .

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is a widely used genetic tool in modern hybrid rice breeding. Most genes conferring rice gametophytic CMS are homologous to and co-transcribe with . However, the origin, differentiation and flow of these mitochondrial genes in wild and cultivated rice species remain unclear.

Ecological costs of climate change on marine predator-prey population distributions by 2050.

Identifying and quantifying the effects of climate change that alter the habitat overlap of marine predators and their prey population distributions is of great importance for the sustainable management of populations. This study uses Bayesian joint models with integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA) to predict future spatial density distributions in the form of common spatial trends of predator-prey overlap in 2050 under the "business-as-usual, worst-case" climate change scenario. This was done for combinations of six mobile marine predator species (gray seal, harbor seal, harbor porpoise, common guillemot, black-legged kittiwake, and northern gannet) and two of their common prey species (herring and sandeels).

Toward a methodical framework for comprehensively assessing forest multifunctionality.

Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research has extended its scope from communities that are short-lived or reshape their structure annually to structurally complex forest ecosystems. The establishment of tree diversity experiments poses specific methodological challenges for assessing the multiple functions provided by forest ecosystems. In particular, methodological inconsistencies and nonstandardized protocols impede the analysis of multifunctionality within, and comparability across the increasing number of tree diversity experiments.

Bayesian joint models with INLA exploring marine mobile predator-prey and competitor species habitat overlap.

Understanding spatial physical habitat selection driven by competition and/or predator-prey interactions of mobile marine species is a fundamental goal of spatial ecology. However, spatial counts or density data for highly mobile animals often (1) include excess zeros, (2) have spatial correlation, and (3) have highly nonlinear relationships with physical habitat variables, which results in the need for complex joint spatial models. In this paper, we test the use of Bayesian hierarchical hurdle and zero-inflated joint models with integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA), to fit complex joint models to spatial patterns of eight mobile marine species (grey seal, harbor seal, harbor porpoise, common guillemot, black-legged kittiwake, northern gannet, herring, and sandeels).

Body macronutrient composition is predicted by lipid and not protein content of the diet.

Diet is an important determinant of fitness-related traits including growth, reproduction, and survival. Recent work has suggested that variation in protein:lipid ratio and particularly the amount of protein in the diet is a key nutritional parameter. However, the traits that mediate the link between dietary macronutrient ratio and fitness-related traits are less well understood.

Land use not litter quality is a stronger driver of decomposition in hyperdiverse tropical forest.

In hyperdiverse tropical forests, the key drivers of litter decomposition are poorly understood despite its crucial role in facilitating nutrient availability for plants and microbes. Selective logging is a pressing land use with potential for considerable impacts on plant-soil interactions, litter decomposition, and nutrient cycling. Here, in Borneo's tropical rainforests, we test the hypothesis that decomposition is driven by litter quality and that there is a significant "home-field advantage," that is positive interaction between local litter quality and land use.

Impacts of natural factors and farming practices on greenhouse gas emissions in the North China Plain: A meta-analysis.

Requirements for mitigation of the continued increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are much needed for the North China Plain (NCP). We conducted a meta-analysis of 76 published studies of 24 sites in the NCP to examine the effects of natural conditions and farming practices on GHG emissions in that region. We found that NO was the main component of the area-scaled total GHG balance, and the CH contribution was <5%.

The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) project.

The PREDICTS project-Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.

Plasma markers of oxidative stress are uncorrelated in a wild mammal.

Oxidative stress, which results from an imbalance between the production of potentially damaging reactive oxygen species versus antioxidant defenses and repair mechanisms, has been proposed as an important mediator of life-history trade-offs. A plethora of biomarkers associated with oxidative stress exist, but few ecological studies have examined the relationships among different markers in organisms experiencing natural conditions or tested whether those relationships are stable across different environments and demographic groups. It is therefore not clear to what extent studies of different markers can be compared, or whether studies that focus on a single marker can draw general conclusions regarding oxidative stress.