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We analyze how the content of ecosystem service research has evolved since the early 1990s. Conducting a computational bibliometric content analysis we process a corpus of 14,118 peer-reviewed scientific article abstracts on ecosystem services (ES) from Web of Science records. To provide a comprehensive content analysis of ES research literature, we employ a latent Dirichlet allocation algorithm.
Heracula discivitta Moore is an uncommon moth species currently recorded from India, Nepal and China. Although this species has traditionally been placed in Lymantriinae, its systematic position in Macroheterocera has been enigmatic due to its unique morphological features. Here we used molecular and morphological data to explore the systematic position of H. discivitta. Our molecular phylogenetic
Local agri-environmental schemes, including hedgerows, flowering strips, organic management, and a landscape rich in semi-natural habitat patches, are assumed to enhance the presence of beneficial arthropods and their contribution to biological control in fruit crops. We studied the influence of local factors (orchard management and adjacent habitats) and of landscape composition on the abundance
Development of mobile phone game. To make science available and fun for a wider audience.
Niche expansion is attained by adaptations in two generalized phenotypical traits - niche position and niche width. This gives room for a wide range of conceptual ways of niche filling. The niche variation hypothesis reduces the range by predicting that expansion occurs by increasing variation in niche position, which has been debated on empirical and theoretical grounds as also other options seem
Large herbivores can control plant community composition and, under certain conditions, even induce vegetation shifts to alternative ecosystem states. As different plant assemblages maintain contrasting carbon (C) cycling patterns, herbivores have the potential to alter C sequestration at regional scales. Their influence is of particular interest in the Arctic tundra, where a large share of the wo
Amphipyrinae have long been a catchall taxon for Noctuidae, with most members lacking discernible morphological synapomorphies that would allow their assignment to one of the many readily diagnosable noctuid subfamilies. Here data from seven gene regions (> 5500 bp) for more than 120 noctuid genera are used to infer a phylogeny for Amphipyrinae and related subfamilies. Sequence data for 57 amphipy
The genetic diversity, morphology and biogeography of Ammonia specimens was investigated across the Northeast (NE) Atlantic margins, to enhance the regional (palaeo)ecological studies based on this genus. Living specimens were collected from 22 sampling locations ranging from Shetland to Portugal to determine the distribution of Ammonia genetic types across the NE Atlantic shelf biomes. We success
In order to evaluate the traditional morphological characters commonly used to distinguish the taxonomically problematic species of Legousia, we carried out a morphometric study with univariate analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), discriminant analysis (DA) and cluster analysis (UPGMA). The analyses were based on data from 436 individuals on 207 herbarium specimens from 18 countries in Eu
Losses and gains in species diversity affect ecological stability1–7 and the sustainability of ecosystem functions and services8–13. Experiments and models have revealed positive, negative and no effects of diversity on individual components of stability, such as temporal variability, resistance and resilience2,3,6,11,12,14. How these stability components covary remains poorly understood15. Simila
The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is one of the most widely studied patterns in ecology, yet no consensus has been reached about its underlying causes. We argue that the reasons for this are the verbal nature of existing hypotheses, the failure to mechanistically link interacting ecological and evolutionary processes to the LDG, and the fact that empirical patterns are often consistent with
Building the Tree of Life (ToL) is a major challenge of modern biology, requiring advances in cyberinfrastructure, data collection, theory, and more. Here, we argue that phylogenomics stands to benefit by embracing the many heterogeneous genomic signals emerging from the first decade of large-scale phylogenetic analysis spawned by high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Such signals include those most c
Arguably among the most globally impactful climate changes in Earth's past million years are the glacial terminations that punctuated the Pleistocene epoch. With the acquisition and analysis of marine and continental records, including ice cores, it is now clear that the Earth's climate was responding profoundly to changes in greenhouse gas
Climate change is expected to have profound ecological effects, yet shifts in competitive abilities among species are rarely studied in this context. Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and great tits (Parus major) compete for food and roosting sites, yet coexist across much of their range. Climate change might thus change the competitive relationships and coexistence between these two species. Analys
The biogeography of speciation and what can be learned about the past mode of speciation from current biogeography of sister species are recurrent problems in evolution. We used a trait- and individual-based, eco-evolutionary model to simulate adaptive radiations and recorded the geographical overlap of species during and after evolutionary branching (speciation). We compared the spatial overlap a
Background: The forests of western Amazonia are known to be more dynamic that the better-studied forests of eastern Amazonia, but there has been no comprehensive description of the carbon cycle of a western Amazonian forest. Aims: We present the carbon budget of two forest plots in Tambopata in south-eastern Peru, western Amazonia. In particular, we present, for the first time, the seasonal variat
Background: The impact of fire on carbon cycling in tropical forests is potentially large, but remains poorly quantified, particularly in the locality of the transition forests that mark the boundaries between humid forests and savannas. Aims: To present the first comprehensive description of the impact of repeated low intensity, understorey fire on carbon cycling in a semi-deciduous, seasonally d
The annual fixation of dissolved Si (DSi) into terrestrial vegetation has been estimated to range from 60 to 200 Tmole, or 10-40 times more than the yearly export of DSi and biogenic Si (BSi) from the terrestrial geobiosphere to the coastal zone. Ecosystems form a large filter between primary mobilization of DSi from silicate weathering and its eventual export to the oceans, and a large reservoir
