ABSTRACT
Successional dynamics of plants and animals during tropical forest regeneration have been thoroughly studied, while fungal compositional dynamics during tropical forest succession remain unknown, despite the crucial roles of fungi in ecological processes. We combined tree data and soil fungal DNA metabarcoding data to compare richness and community composition along secondary forest succession in Costa Rica and assessed the potential roles of abiotic factors influencing them. We found a strong coupling of tree and soil fungal community structure in wet tropical primary and regenerating secondary forests. Forest age, edaphic variables, and regional differences in climatic conditions all had significant effects on tree and fungal richness and community composition in all functional groups. Furthermore, we observed larger site-to-site compositional differences and greater influence of edaphic and climatic factors in secondary than in primary forests. The results suggest greater environmental heterogeneity and greater stochasticity in community assembly in the early stages of secondary forest succession and a certain convergence on a set of taxa with a competitive advantage in the more persisting environmental conditions in old-growth forests. Our work provides unprecedented insights into the successional dynamics of fungal communities during secondary tropical forest succession.
ABSTRACT
Two-hundred-nine free ranging non-human primates from 31 locations throughout Costa Rica were captured and released between 1993 and 2012, and blood samples, sera or plasma were collected, to detect antigens and antibodies, and so assess the distribution of active and passive flavivirus infections over time. A competitive enzyme-linked immunoassay for the detection of antibodies was used to determine the distribution of past flavivirus infections over time, while Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect active West Nile Virus (WNV) and Dengue virus (DENV) infections. The first serological evidence of flavivirus in these animals was determined in 1993, at the same time when DENV re-emerged in humans from Costa Rica. An increase in the number of seropositive wild monkeys to flavivirus was determined over time in the country (11.3% seropositivity in 1993-1996, 20.7% in 2001-2008, and finally 52.9% in 2010-2012). Furthermore, the presence of DENV2 was detected in samples from four howler monkeys collected in 2001-2002, whereas DENV2, DENV3, and DENV4 were found in samples from four white-faced monkeys, and WNV in three howler monkeys living in the Pacific coast of Costa Rica during 2010-2012. The habitat where the positive PCR individuals lived were characterized as fragmented forests, having temperatures ranging from 26°C to 28°C, altitudes below 250 meters above sea level, high precipitation during 7 to 9 months (1500-4000 mm), and a marked dry season of 3 to 5 months. All these animals were living near mangroves; however, they did not show clinical signs of illness at the time of sampling. Results obtained show that the number of seropositive wild non-human primates to flavivirus were increasing during time in the country, longitudinal studies are needed to investigate their role as sentinels of these viruses and to determine if flavivirus infections can affect these species.
