Your browser doesn't support javascript.
loading
Show: 20 | 50 | 100
Results 1 - 2 de 2
Filter
Add more filters










Database
Language
Publication year range
1.
Nat Commun ; 9(1): 3684, 2018 09 11.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30206214

ABSTRACT

Increasing evidence suggests that community-level responses to human-induced biodiversity loss start with a decrease of interactions among communities and between them and their abiotic environment. The structural and functional consequences of such interaction losses are poorly understood and have rarely been tested in real-world systems. Here, we analysed how 5 years of progressive, size-selective exclusion of large, medium, and small vertebrates and invertebrates-a realistic scenario of human-induced defaunation-impacts the strength of relationships between above- and belowground communities and their abiotic environment (hereafter ecosystem coupling) and how this relates to ecosystem functionality in grasslands. Exclusion of all vertebrates results in the greatest level of ecosystem coupling, while the additional loss of invertebrates leads to poorly coupled ecosystems. Consumer-driven changes in ecosystem functionality are positively related to changes in ecosystem coupling. Our results highlight the importance of invertebrate communities for maintaining ecological coupling and functioning in an increasingly defaunated world.


Subject(s)
Body Size , Grassland , Animals , Conservation of Natural Resources , Invertebrates/physiology , Switzerland , Vertebrates/physiology
2.
Appl Environ Microbiol ; 55(10): 2431-6, 1989 Oct.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-16348021

ABSTRACT

Isolates of Rhizobium meliloti, representing antigenically distinct indigenous serogroups 31 and 17, were grown in yeast extract-mannitol broth (YEM) containing NaCl or polyethylene glycol (PEG) to provide external water potentials ranging from -0.15 to -1.5 MPa. Several differences were found between representatives of the two groups in their abilities to adapt to water stress induced by the nonpermeating solute PEG. At potentials below -0.5 MPa, strain 31 had a lower specific growth rate than strain 17 and an irregular cell morphology. In contrast, neither growth nor cell morphology of either strain was affected significantly over the same range of water potentials created by a permeating solute, NaCl. Despite the superior growth of strain 17 at the low water potentials imposed by PEG, upshock of water-stressed cells (-1.0 MPa; PEG) into normal YEM (-0.15 MPa) resulted in a faster recovery of growth by strain 31 than by strain 17. Different responses of the two strains to a water potential increase were also revealed in nodulation studies. Strain 31 required significantly fewer days to nodulate alfalfa than strain 17 did when the strains were transferred from YEM with PEG at -1.0 MPa onto the roots of alfalfa seedlings in plant growth medium (-0.1 MPa). The addition of supplemental calcium (0.1 mM) to growth medium with PEG (-1.0 MPa) reduced the differences between strains in their responses to water stress. The severe growth restriction and morphological abnormalities shown by strain 31 were corrected, and the prolonged recovery time shown by water-stressed cells (-1.0 MPa; PEG) of strain 17 upon transfer to normal YEM was shortened. The latter strain also nodulated earlier and more rapidly after growth in PEG medium at -1.0 MPa in the presence of supplemental calcium ions. These results indicate that the efficacy of osmoregulation can vary among strains of the same species and that the mechanism of osmoregulation may differ depending on the nature of the water stress.

SELECTION OF CITATIONS
SEARCH DETAIL
...