Plant Species Richness and the Root Economics Space Drive Soil Fungal Communities.

Trait-based approaches have been increasingly used to relate plants to soil microbial communities. Using the recently described root economics space as an approach to explain the structure of soil-borne fungal communities, our study in a grassland diversity experiment reveals distinct root trait strategies at the plant community level. In addition to significant effects of plant species richness, we show that the collaboration and conservation gradient are strong drivers of the composition of the different guilds of soil fungi.

Trophic Change and Community Decline in Acrobat Ants After Rainforest Conversion to Cash Crops.

The conversion of tropical rainforests to agriculture causes population declines and biodiversity loss across taxa. This impacts ants (Formicidae), a crucial tropical group for ecosystem functioning. While biodiversity loss among ants is well documented, the responses of individual ant taxa and their adjustments in trophic strategies to land-use change are little studied.

Soil community history strengthens belowground multitrophic functioning across plant diversity levels in a grassland experiment.

Biodiversity experiments revealed that plant diversity loss can decrease ecosystem functions across trophic levels. To address why such biodiversity-function relationships strengthen over time, we established experimental mesocosms replicating a gradient in plant species richness across treatments of shared versus non-shared history of (1) the plant community and (2) the soil fauna community. After 4 months, we assessed the multitrophic functioning of soil fauna via biomass stocks and energy fluxes across the food webs.

Altitudinal decline of vegetation restoration effects on soil microbial communities on high-altitude roadside slops: Environmental drivers and management implications.

Construction activities in high-altitude regions have left many bare roadside slopes vulnerable to degradation, complicating restoration efforts. Soil microorganisms are vital for plant growth and nutrient cycling, yet their responses to restoration efforts at various altitudes remains uncertain. This study investigates soil microbial composition, network properties, ecological functions, keystone taxa, and environmental drivers across three restored vegetation types: herbaceous plants (H), shrubs + herbaceous plants (SH), and trees + shrubs + herbaceous plants (TSH) at elevations from 3100 to 3800 m.

Establishment and Validation of Fecal Secretory Immunoglobulin A Measurement for Intestinal Mucosal Health Assessment in Wild Lemurs.

The measurement of biomarkers in blood and excreta can enable immune status assessment and provide prognostic information on individual health outcomes. In this respect, the fecal measurement of secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA), the primary mammalian antibody for mucosal defense, has recently received increased interest in a few anthropoid primates, but a fecal sIgA assay for use in strepsirrhine primates has not yet been reported. Here, we develop and analytically validate a cost-effective in-house sandwich enzyme immunoassay for the extraction and measurement of sIgA in feces of redfronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons).

Enhancing economic multifunctionality without compromising multidiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality via forest enrichment.

Enriching tree species-poor and less productive forests by introducing economically valuable species is a strategy proposed for achieving multipurpose forest management. However, empirical evidence from managed and mature forests on the impact of this enrichment on ecological (multidiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality) and economic dimensions remains scarce, particularly when nonnative species are used. Here, we propose and test a framework that integrates economic multifunctionality, encompassing timber production-oriented goals and resistance against disturbances, with multidiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality in European beech forest stands enriched with conifers.

Biotechnology-enhanced genetic controls of the global pest Drosophila suzukii.

Spotted wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii Matsumura, or SWD), an insect pest of soft-skinned fruits native to East Asia, has rapidly spread worldwide in the past 15 years. Genetic controls such as sterile insect technique (SIT) have been considered for the environmentally friendly and cost-effective management of this pest. In this review, we provide the latest developments for the genetic control strategies of SWD, including sperm-marking strains, CRISPR-based sex-ratio distortion, neoclassical genetic sexing strains, transgenic sexing strains, a sex-sorting incompatible male system, precision-guided SIT, and gene drives based on synthetic Maternal effect dominant embryonic arrest (Medea) or homing CRISPR systems.

The influence of forest types including native and non-native tree species on soil macrofauna depends on site conditions.

The ongoing climate change calls for managing forest ecosystems in temperate regions toward more drought-resistant and climate-resilient stands. Yet ecological consequences of management options such as planting non-native tree species and mixing coniferous and deciduous tree species have been little studied, especially on soil animal communities, key in litter decomposition and pest control. Here, we investigated the taxonomic and trophic structure of soil macrofauna communities in five forest types including native European beech (), range-expanding Norway spruce () and non-native Douglas fir () as well as conifer-beech mixtures across loamy and sandy sites in northern Germany.

Identification of unique highly hetero-substituted benzenes as chemical weapons of springtails by a combination of trace analytical methods with DFT calculations and synthesis.

Springtails (Collembola) are important members of the soil mesofauna. They are small, often less than 1-2 mm in length. A typical escape response of most surface-living species is to jump, using their furca.

Convergent evolution revealed by paraphyly and polyphyly of many taxa of oribatid mites: A molecular approach.

A reliable phylogeny is crucial for understanding the evolution and radiation of animal taxa. Phylogenies based on morphological data may be misleading due to frequent convergent evolution of traits-a problem from which molecular phylogenies suffer less. This may be particularly relevant in oribatid mites, an ancient soil animal taxon with more than 11,000 species, where the classification of species into high-ranking taxa such as superfamilies is equivocal.

Colonization of mudflat substrate by microarthropods: the role of distance, inundation frequency and body size.

Salt marshes represent a unique ecosystem at the marine-terrestrial boundary of shallow protected coastlines. Microarthropods form an essential component of soil food webs, but how they colonize new intertidal habitats is little understood. By establishing two experimental systems without animals, we investigated microarthropod colonization (1) at the seashore from the pioneer zone to the lower and upper salt marsh and (2) at the same tidal height on artificial islands 500 m from the seashore.

The unique epicuticular chemistry of Collembola - A cross-species analysis.

Springtails (Collembola), tiny hexapod arthropods, are abundant in the soil of most ecosystems, but our knowledge of their secondary metabolites is limited, in contrast to that of insects. In insects, the outer cuticle is usually covered by mixtures of long-chain hydrocarbons serving different functions, such as water regulation or chemical communication. In contrast, the knowledge of the epicuticular chemistry of springtails is scarce.

Ant-following behavior is correlated with plumage traits in African understory birds.

Ant-following behavior is a common phenomenon in birds of Neotropical and Afrotropical rainforests but yet little is known from Central Africa. We here report on the phenomenon in lowland rainforest in Cameroon, quantifying the strength of the interaction of different ant-following bird species with driver ants and test the hypothesis that higher levels of specialization in ant-following behavior are associated with dominance or aggression-dependent plumage and other morphological traits. Flock size varied between 1 and 11 individuals with a mean size of 5.

An early-life challenge: becoming an older sibling in wild mandrills.

In monotocous mammals, most individuals experience the birth of a younger sibling. This period may induce losses in maternal care and can be physiologically, energetically and emotionally challenging for the older sibling, yet has rarely been studied in wild primates. We used behavioural data collected from a natural population of mandrills to investigate changes in maternal care and mother-juvenile relationship throughout the transition to siblinghood (TTS), by comparing juveniles who recently experienced the birth of a younger sibling, to juveniles who did not.

Divergent evolution of male-determining loci on proto-Y chromosomes of the housefly.

Houseflies provide a good experimental model to study the initial evolutionary stages of a primary sex-determining locus because they possess different recently evolved proto-Y chromosomes that contain male-determining loci (M) with the same male-determining gene, Mdmd. We investigate M-loci genomically and cytogenetically revealing distinct molecular architectures among M-loci. M on chromosome V (M) has two intact Mdmd copies in a palindrome.

Colonization ability and uniformity of resources and environmental factors determine biological homogenization of soil protists in human land-use systems.

Humans have substantially transformed the global land surface, resulting in the decline in variation in biotic communities across scales, a phenomenon known as "biological homogenization." However, different biota are affected by biological homogenization to varying degrees, but this variation and the underlying mechanisms remain little studied, particularly in soil systems. To address this topic, we used metabarcoding to investigate the biogeography of soil protists and their prey/hosts (prokaryotes, fungi, and meso- and macrofauna) in three human land-use ecosystem types (farmlands, residential areas, and parks) and natural forest ecosystems across subtropical and temperate regions in China.

Independent fitness consequences of group size variation in Verreaux's sifakas.

The costs and benefits of group living are also reflected in intraspecific variation in group size. Yet, little is known about general patterns of fitness consequences of this variation. We use demographic records collected over 25 years to determine how survival and reproductive success vary with group size in a Malagasy primate.

Species delimitation 4.0: integrative taxonomy meets artificial intelligence.

Although species are central units for biological research, recent findings in genomics are raising awareness that what we call species can be ill-founded entities due to solely morphology-based, regional species descriptions. This particularly applies to groups characterized by intricate evolutionary processes such as hybridization, polyploidy, or asexuality. Here, challenges of current integrative taxonomy (genetics/genomics + morphology + ecology, etc.

New Insights into Tetraplosphaeriaceae Based on Taxonomic Investigations of Bambusicolous Fungi and Freshwater Fungi.

Species within Tetraplosphaeriaceae have been frequently documented in recent years with the extensive investigations of microfungi along a latitudinal gradient from north to south in the Asian/Australian region. Both bamboo substrates and freshwater habitats serve as extensive reservoirs, hosting a rich diversity of fungi that exhibit broad geographical distributions. The most common fungi in these two environments are generally distributed in distinct families.

Niche dimensions in soil oribatid mite community assembly under native and introduced tree species.

Forest soils are a critical component of terrestrial ecosystems and host a large number of animal decomposer species. One diverse and abundant decomposer taxon is oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida), whose species composition varies with forest type and tree species composition. We used functional traits that indicate different niche dimensions, to infer assembly processes of oribatid mite communities in monocultures and mixed forests of native and introduced tree species.

Enhancement of soil aggregation and physical properties through fungal amendments under varying moisture conditions.

Soil structure and aggregation are crucial for soil functionality, particularly under drought conditions. Saprobic soil fungi, known for their resilience in low moisture conditions, are recognized for their influence on soil aggregate dynamics. In this study, we explored the potential of fungal amendments to enhance soil aggregation and hydrological properties across different moisture regimes.