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Adaptation and the Geographic Spread of Crop Species.
No full textCrops are plant species that were domesticated starting about 11,000 years ago from several centers of origin, most prominently the Fertile Crescent, East Asia, and Mesoamerica. From their domestication centers, these crops spread across the globe and had to adapt to differing environments as a result of this dispersal. We discuss broad patterns of crop spread, including the early diffusion of crops associated with the rise and spread of agriculture, the later movement via ancient trading networks, and the exchange between the Old and New Worlds over the last ∼550 years after the European colonization of the Americas. We also examine the various genetic mechanisms associated with the evolutionary adaptation of crops to their new environments after dispersal, most prominently seasonal adaptation associated with movement across latitudes, as well as altitudinal, temperature, and other environmental factors.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Plant Biology, Volume 75 is May 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates
The origin of excavator nesting behavior and its impact on the evolution of Neotropical parrots.
No full textHow the origin of novel behaviors can shape the evolutionary trajectory of organisms in response to environmental change remains poorly understood. Birds, especially those with big brains like parrots, are benchmarks for their behavioral innovation capacity in novel environments. Here, we assess whether and how the emergence of open areas in the Neotropics that started in the middle Miocene influenced the evolution of nesting behavior in parrots and how they triggered changes in other life‐history traits. To address these questions, we use a phylogenetic‐based analyses of trait evolution in the subfamily (Neotropical parrots), focusing on habitat, nesting behavior, morphology, and life‐history traits (clutch size, incubation period and fledging period). Evolutionary reconstructions show that transitions to excavating behavior mostly happened when species colonized open areas, providing evidence that this behavior originated in open environments. Evolutionary models suggest that the new open areas and the excavator nesting behavior exerted new selective pressures on morphology and life‐history traits, leading to evolutionary changes towards larger clutch sizes and shorter fledging periods in excavator parrots. Our study indicates that excavator nesting behavior in Neotropical parrots has likely played a key role in allowing them to exploit the ecological opportunities available in newly formed open biomes
Making places: Scotland's jewellery craft in the age of industry
No full textSarah Laurenson shares examples of beautiful jewellery created during the 'age of industry' and invites us to imagine the lives of the craftspeople behinf these exquisite pieces, using their skills and ingenuity in the age of growing mechanisation and standardisatio
Seeking a Hideout: Caves as Refuges for Various Functional Groups of Bryophytes from Terceira Island (Azores, Portugal).
No full textCaves represent sites of great geological and biological interest. For most taxonomic groups, caves represent one of the most challenging ecosystems due to their extreme conditions. However, these places are rich in biodiversity, and some groups, such as bryophytes, can take advantage of these conditions. Bryophytes from twelve caves on Terceira Island (Azores archipelago) were sampled and compared in terms of species richness, abundance, and composition. The results revealed a high species richness of bryophytes, with one-fifth of the species being threatened and one-third endemic. Moreover, the dominance of bryophyte species, as determined by different functional groups, varies depending on the sampled cave and, consequently, the environmental variables. This is evident from the high β-diversity values obtained, demonstrating significant dissimilarities in species composition among the surveyed caves. Both macro- and microclimatic variables significantly influenced the richness and abundance of bryophyte species in different ways, depending on the functional group studied. Highlighting bryophyte diversity in cave environments, this study points to the need for effective management strategies to preserve and protect these unique and ecologically significant communities. These places can serve as refuges for some species, even for bryophytes, a taxonomic group with a long-distance dispersal strategy
The genus Carex (Cyperaceae) in Chile: a general update of its knowledge, with an identification key.
No full textScattered about the Streets: George Thomason’s Annotations and Ephemeral Print during the English Revolution
No full textThomason is rightly famous for his tendency to annotate individual pamphlets, and his notes have long been exploited by scholars in order to trace his connections with various authors, to contextualise individual items, and to enhance our appreciation of writers and the debates in which they participated. This chapter subjects such annotations to closer scrutiny, in order to highlight Thomason’s determination to interrogate the print revolution, difficult though this clearly proved to be. What emerges is a deeper understanding of something that clearly became evident to Thomason: that the English Revolution witnessed not just a major transformation in the commercial basis of the book trade, and the dramatic rise of ‘cheap’ print, but also a range of more or less innovative uses of print that involved non-commercial practices, from organisational tickets and forms to handbills and flyers, and material that could be posted in public or even scattered about the streets. Attending to such phenomena, and to the ways in which Thomason made them visible, enhances our appreciation of how everyday politics was transformed during the mid-seventeenth century, not least in terms of the possibilities that emerged for novel kinds of mobilisation and popular participation
New evidence on the previously unknown gynoecium of Araripia florifera (Araripiaceae, fam. nov.), a magnoliid angiosperm from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) of the Crato Konservat-Lagerstätte (Araripe Basin), northeastern Brazil.
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Using morphometrics to distinguish the restinga and cerrado ecotypes of wild Anacardium occidentale (Anacardiaceae): a preliminary study in northeastern Brazil.
No full textThe cashew tree is a globally important food species and in Brazil is a natural component of cerrado and restinga vegetation and has an important role in local economies as a food and medicinal plant. Nevertheless, diversity studies of wild populations—the most important reservoir of natural variation—of this naturally widespread species are urgently needed for conservation strategies because of human impact on tropical American ecosystems where it occurs. Here, we sought to differentiate the previously recognized restinga and cerrado ecotypes using multivariate morphometrics of wild populations in a limited area of northeast Brazil (northern Piauí and northeastern Maranhão states). Thirty individuals were sampled for 47 vegetative and reproductive descriptors from six wild populations (three of each ecotype). Data analysis included principal component analysis and three classification methods (linear discriminant analysis, k-nearest neighbour analysis and classification and regression tree analysis); cross-validation tests were applied to classification results. Univariate statistics obtained for each population and ecotype were found to be consistent with the previously proposed distinction between the two ecotypes. Although principal component analysis showed extensive variation and overlap between populations, cross-validations of classification analyses showed strong differentiation between ecotypes and between most populations; vegetative and reproductive variables were equally important for discrimination. Cerrado populations were more variable and somewhat less distinct than restinga ones. New molecular genetic investigations of wild populations are needed to provide genetic support for the morphological differentiation of the ecotypes reported here