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It is well known that ecological and evolutionary processes act in concert while shaping biological communities. Diversification can, for example, arise through ecological opportunity and adaptive radiations and competition play an essential role in such diversification. Eco-evolutionary components of competition are thus important for our understanding of community assembly. Such understanding in
There are fungi whose delectability and even whose shift from toxicity to edibility depends on preparation in the kitchen. The milkcaps Lactarius rufus and Lactarius trivialis and the false morel Gyromitra esculenta are three such mushrooms. The former two will burn your tongue if nibbled raw, and may bring on stomach-ache if not boiled prior to further cooking. The latter could kill you if it is
Estimation of kidney function is often part of daily clinical practice, mostly done by using the endogenous GFR-markers creatinine or cystatin C. A recommendation to use both markers in parallel in 2010 has resulted in new knowledge concerning the pathophysiology of kidney disorders by identification of a new set of kidney disorders, selective glomerular hypofiltration syndromes. These syndromes,
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were an important precursor to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, identifying the conditions that made the MDGs successful enhances our understanding of global goal-setting and informs the global endeavour to achieve the SDGs. Drawing on a comprehensive review of 316 articles published between 2009 and 2018, we identify six factors that have en
Alpine ecosystems harbor remarkably diverse and distinct plant communities that are characteristically limited to harsh, and cold climatic conditions. As a result of thermal limitation to species occurrence, mountainous ecosystems are considered to be particularly sensitive to climate change. Our understanding of the impact of climate change is mainly based on vascular plants however, whereas cryp
Ice-core timescales are vital for the understanding of past climate; hence they should be updated whenever significant amounts of new data become available. Here, the Greenland ice-core chronology GICC05 was revised for the last 3835 years by synchronizing six deep ice cores and three shallow ice cores from the central Greenland ice sheet. A new method was applied by combining automated counting o
The 1H and 13C NMR parameters, i.e., chemical shifts and coupling constants, for the pentasaccharide of the Forssman antigen and overlapping di-, tri-, and tetra-saccharide sequences thereof have been measured and assigned completely using 1D and 2D techniques, and the oligosaccharide structures have thereby been confirmed. Nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) experiments have been carried out at three
Functional overlap among species (redundancy) is considered important in shaping competitive and mutualistic interactions that determine how communities respond to environmental change. Most studies view functional redundancy as static, yet traits within species—which ultimately shape functional redundancy—can vary over seasonal or spatial gradients. We therefore have limited understanding of how
Investigating the optical properties of various chemical compounds using UV-vis spectrophotometers is an essential part of education in chemistry. However, commercial spectrophotometers are usually treated as "magic black boxes", where the dominant majority of optical elements are hidden "under the hood". This often limits understanding of the mechanisms behind the generation of spectral curves, w
Shuker points to some inconsistencies in my terminology about consequence laws in evolutionary biology, specifically that gene flow and recombination are not as easily classified as one gets the impression of after reading Sober (1984). I agree, and I also emphasize that evolutionary biology should not only focus on consequence laws, but also source laws arising from the ecological selective envir
Palaearctic steppes evolved under the Cenozoic cold arid climate and megaherbivore pressure. A large portion of the biome persisted into the Holocene but has recently been subjected to human land use alternation. Pseudophilotes bavius (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) is a steppe specialist sporadically distributed in Eastern Europe and Pontic-Caspian region (from Transylvania to Southern Urals), the Balk
Northern Yellowstone Lake is on the southeast edge of the 631-ka Yellowstone caldera and is an area with high heat flow, high seismicity, and an abundance of active hydrothermal features and structures. Several large hydrothermal explosions since the last glacial recession formed craters of more than 100 m in diameter. These large craters raise the question on how climate and hydrological changes
Aims: Although nitrogen (N) fixation by moss-associated bacteria is the main source of new N in N-limited ecosystems like arctic tundra, we do not know which nutrient, molybdenum (Mo) or phosphorus (P), is rate-limiting for sustaining this process in the long-term. Further, how moss-associated N2 fixation impacts the belowground microbial regulation of decomposition remains unresolved. Methods: Mo
The potential role of introgression in evolution has gained increased interest in recent years. Although some fascinating examples have been reported, more information is needed to generalize the importance of hybridization and introgression for adaptive divergence. As limited data exist on haploid dominant species, we analyzed genomes of three subspecies of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha. We
Alpine soils are warming strongly, leading to profound alterations in carbon cycling and greenhouse gas budgets, mediated via the soil microbiome. To explore microbial responses to global warming, we incubated eight alpine soils between 4 and 35 °C and linked the temperature dependency of bacterial growth with alterations in community structures and the identification of temperature sensitive taxa
A new project based on continuous bi-annual surveys of hectare plots is introduced with the aim to monitor future floristic changes as well as environmental conditions that may be assessed based on species-specific plant traits or ecological indicator values. As a trade-off between the needs for representativeness at the landscape scale and field work efficiency, the hectare plots have been placed
Subsidizing polluting industries generally leads to increased pollution locally. However, given the diversity of production technologies across countries and international trade, the global impact of unilateral policies is not a priori clear. We use the agricultural sector model CAPRI to simulate the impact of removing the voluntary coupled support for ruminants, presently permitted under the EU C
