245 research outputs found
FIGURE 3 in A new species of Murina (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from sub-Himalayan forests of northern Myanmar
No full textFIGURE 3. The dorsal side of the baculum of M. hkakaboraziensis sp. nov., ♂PS160218.6, holotype, from Kachin, Myanmar. Scale = 1 mm. Drawing by PS.Published as part of Renner, Swen C., 2017, A new species of Murina (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from sub-Himalayan forests of northern Myanmar, pp. 159-172 in Zootaxa 4320 (1) on page 168, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4320.1.9, http://zenodo.org/record/89162
FIGURE 1 in A new species of Murina (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from sub-Himalayan forests of northern Myanmar
No full textFIGURE 1. The appearance of the face, ear and pelage (a), dorsal pelage (b), and ventral pelage (c) of M. hkakaboraziensis sp. nov., ♂PS160218.6, holotype, from Kachin, Myanmar.Published as part of Renner, Swen C., 2017, A new species of Murina (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from sub-Himalayan forests of northern Myanmar, pp. 159-172 in Zootaxa 4320 (1) on page 165, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4320.1.9, http://zenodo.org/record/89162
Appendix C to Renner et al. 2016 Int J Para
No full textSupporting Figures S1 and S2 of Renner, Lüdtke, Kaiser, Kienle, Schaefer, Segelbacher, Tschapka, Santiago-Alarcon (2016) "Forests of opportunities and mischief: disentangling the interactions between forests, parasites and immune responses"
International Journal for Parasitolog
Comparison of Bird Communities in Primary vs. Young Secondary Tropical Montane Cloud Forest in Guatemala
No full textCloud forests in central Guatemala are fragmented and decreasing in area due to slash-and-burn agricultural activities. We studied bird species composition, abundance, guild composition, and site tenacity of a 102 ha plot located in a cloud forest region of the Sierra Yalijux in Guatemala, half of which was primary forest and half young secondary forest (< 7-years-old). Of the 100 species present 14 were restricted to the Endemic Bird Area 'Northern Central American highlands' (i.e. 66% of a total of 21 endemics). Five of the 100 analysed species, including one of the restricted-range species (Troglodytes rufociliatus), had a significantly different abundance in primary and secondary forests. Theoretical analysis suggests that seven species out of a community comprised of 141 bird species are already extirpated and only three out of the 14 present restricted-range species might survive the current state of deforestation. Insectivores were the dominant guild on the plot in terms of numbers of species, followed by omnivores, frugivores and granivores. However, in terms of individuals, omnivores made up nearly half of the bird individuals in primary forest, but declined by 44% in secondary forest, whereas granivores more than doubled in this habitat type. Numbers of species per guild were not significantly different between habitats, while numbers of individuals per guild were significantly different. In general, individuals per species are significantly different in the two habitats. Results suggest that most of the species that are currently surviving in the remnant forests of the Sierra Yalijux might be fairly well adapted to a range of forest conditions, but that populations of a number of restricted-range species might be small. Even generalists species like the Common Bush Tanager (Chlorospingus ophthalmicus) are less abundant in secondary vegetation than in primary forest of the study plot
A quantitative index of land-use intensity in grasslands: Integrating mowing, grazing and fertilization
No full textAbstract not availableNico Blüthgen, Carsten F. Dormann, Daniel Prati, Valentin H. Klaus, Till Kleinebecker, Norbert Hölzel, Fabian Alt, Steffen Boch, Sonja Gockel, Andreas Hemp, Jörg Müller, Jens Nieschulze, Swen C. Renner, Ingo Schöning, Uta Schumacher, Stephanie A. Socher, Konstans Wells, Klaus Birkhofer, François Buscot, l, Yvonne Oelmann, Christoph Rothenwöhrer, Christoph Scherber, Teja Tscharntke, Christiane N. Weiner, Markus Fischer, Elisabeth K.V. Kalko, Karl Eduard Linsenmai
Supporting bird diversity and ecological function in managed grassland and forest systems needs an integrative approach
No full textIn modified production landscapes, biodiversity faces unprecedented pressures from human actions, resulting in significant species declines of plant and animal taxa, including birds. Understanding the underlying mechanisms responsible for such declines is essential to counteract further loss and support practitioners in conserving biodiversity and associated ecosystem function. In this study, we used standardized bird monitoring data collected over 6 years in managed forest and grassland areas across different regions in Germany, Central Europe. We combined these data with morphometric, ecological, behavioral, and acoustic trait data and detailed information on local land use management practices to understand how management decisions affect species and functional diversity, as well as ecological processes shaping local species composition. Our results reveal that the ecosystem and regional context must be considered to understand how management practices affect bird diversity aspects and composition. In forests, regional management decisions related to tree species and stand age affected bird diversity, as well as community and functional composition, and indicated environmental sorting due to ecological and behavioral requirements, biotic interactions, and morphometric constraints. In grasslands, independent of local management practices, increased intensity of land use resulted in an overall loss in bird species richness and functional diversity. Predominantly, constraints due to ecological or behavioral requirements affected bird species assemblage composition. In addition, our results indicated the importance of woody vegetation near managed grasslands and of considering environmental conditions beyond the local scale to support bird diversity and associated ecosystem functions. Our results highlighted that local management decisions can support bird diversity and maintain ecological function. However, this needs a view beyond the local scale of management units. It also demands a joint effort of biologists and land managers to integrate targeted conservation actions into regional management practices and create a network of habitats within production landscapes to protect nature, guard against biotic and functional homogenization, and prevent further degradation of ecosystems in production landscapes
Forest structure, plants, arthropods, scale, or birds' functional groups: What key factor are forest birds responding to?
No full textForest birds respond to a diverse set of environmental factors, including those altered by forest management intensity, such as resource and habitat availability in the form of food or nesting sites. Although resource/habitat availability and bird traits likely mediate responses of bird diversity to global change drivers, no study has assessed the direct and indirect effects of changes in forest management and traits on bird assemblages jointly at large spatial scales. In this context the questions remain whether (1) the birds' response to forest management changes through alterations in structural properties and/or food availability, or (2) if birds' eco-morphological traits act as environmental filters in response to environmental factors. We audio-visually recorded birds at 150 forest plots in three regions of Germany and assessed the forest structure (LiDAR) as well as the diversity of the herbaceous layer and diversity and biomass of arthropods. We further assessed eco-morphological traits of the birds and tested if effects on bird assemblages are mediated by changes in eco-morphological traits' composition. We found that abundance and species numbers of birds are explained best by models including the major environmental factors, forest structure, plants, and arthropods. Eco-morphological traits only increased model fit for indirect effects on abundance of birds. We found minor differences between the three regions in Germany, indicating spatial congruency of the processes at the local and regional scale. Our results suggest that most birds are not specialized on a particular food type, but that the size, diversity and species composition of arthropods are important. Our findings question the general view that bird traits adapt to the resources available
Environmental Factors Affect Acidobacterial Communities below the Subgroup Level in Grassland and Forest Soils
No full textIn soil, Acidobacteria constitute on average 20% of all bacteria, are highly diverse, and are physiologically active in situ. However, their individual functions and interactions with higher taxa in soil are still unknown. Here, potential effects of land use, soil properties, plant diversity, and soil nanofauna on acidobacterial community composition were studied by cultivation-independent methods in grassland and forest soils from three different regions in Germany. The analysis of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries representing all studied soils revealed that grassland soils were dominated by subgroup Gp6 and forest soils by subgroup Gp1 Acidobacteria. The analysis of a large number of sites (n = 57) by 16S rRNA gene fingerprinting methods (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism [T-RFLP] and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis [DGGE]) showed that Acidobacteria diversities differed between grassland and forest soils but also among the three different regions. Edaphic properties, such as pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen, C/N ratio, phosphorus, nitrate, ammonium, soil moisture, soil temperature, and soil respiration, had an impact on community composition as assessed by fingerprinting. However, interrelations with environmental parameters among subgroup terminal restriction fragments (T-RFs) differed significantly, e.g., different Gp1 T-RFs correlated positively or negatively with nitrogen content. Novel significant correlations of Acidobacteria subpopulations (i.e., individual populations within subgroups) with soil nanofauna and vascular plant diversity were revealed only by analysis of clone sequences. Thus, for detecting novel interrelations of environmental parameters with Acidobacteria, individual populations within subgroups have to be considered.Astrid Naether, Bärbel U. Foesel, Verena Naegele, Pia K. Wüst, Jan Weinert, Michael Bonkowski, Fabian Alt, Yvonne Oelmann, Andrea Polle, Gertrud Lohaus, Sonja Gockel, Andreas Hemp, Elisabeth K. V. Kalko, Karl Eduard Linsenmair, Simone Pfeiffer, Swen Renner, Ingo Schöning, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Konstans Wells, Markus Fischer, Jörg Overmann, and Michael W. Friedric
Analysis of the Serotonergic System in a Mouse Model of Rett Syndrome Reveals Unusual Upregulation of Serotonin Receptor 5b
No full textMutations in the transcription factor methyl-CpG-binding-protein 2 (MeCP2) cause a delayed-onset neurodevelopmental disorder known as Rett syndrome (RTT). Although alteration in serotonin levels have been reported in RTT patients, the molecular mechanisms underlying these defects are not well understood. Therefore, we chose to investigate the serotonergic system in hippocampus and brainstem of male Mecp2(-/y) knock-out mice in the B6.129P2(C)-Mecp2(tm1.1Bird) mouse model of RTT. The serotonergic system in mouse is comprised of 16 genes, whose mRNA expression profile was analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR. Mecp2(-/y) mice are an established animal model for RTT displaying most of the cognitive and physical impairments of human patients and the selected areas receive significant modulation through serotonin. Using anatomically and functional characterized areas, we found regionspecific differential expression between wild type and Mecp2(-/y) mice at post-natal day 40. In brainstem, we found five genes to be dysregulated, while in hippocampus, two genes were dysregulated. The one gene dysregulated in both brain regions was dopamine decarboxylase, but of special interest is the serotonin receptor 5b (5-ht5b), which showed 75-fold dysregulation in brainstem of Mecp2(-/y) mice. This dysregulation was not due to upregulation, but due to failure of down-regulation in Mecp2(-/y) mice during development. Detailed analysis of 5-ht5b revealed a receptor that localizes to endosomes and interacts with G(alpha i) proteins.Open-Access-Publikationsfonds 201
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