The effects of deer exclusion on the development of a Mediterranean plant community affected by a wildfire

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 760-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquim S. Silva ◽  
Filipe X. Catry ◽  
Francisco Moreira ◽  
Miguel N. Bugalho
Keyword(s):  
Plant Community ◽  
Mediterranean Plant

scholarly journals Floral Complexity Traits as Predictors of Plant-Bee Interactions in a Mediterranean Pollination Web

Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1432
Author(s):  
Alon Ornai ◽  
Tamar Keasar
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Classification Accuracy ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Shape Parameters ◽  
Julian Date ◽  
Machine Learning Model ◽  
Reproductive Unit ◽  
Shape Class ◽  
Mediterranean Plant

Despite intensive research, predicting pairwise species associations in pollination networks remains a challenge. The morphological fit between flowers and pollinators acts as a filter that allows only some species within the network to interact. Previous studies emphasized the depth of floral tubes as a key shape trait that explains the composition of their animal visitors. Yet, additional shape-related parameters, related to the handling difficulty of flowers, may be important as well. We analyzed a dataset of 2288 visits by six bee genera to 53 flowering species in a Mediterranean plant community. We characterized the plant species by five discrete shape parameters, which potentially affect their accessibility to insects: floral shape class, tube depth, symmetry, corolla segmentation and type of reproductive unit. We then trained a random forest machine-learning model to predict visitor identities, based on the shape traits. The model’s predictor variables also included the Julian date on which each bee visit was observed and the year of observation, as proxies for within- and between-season variation in flower and bee abundance. The model attained a classification accuracy of 0.86 (AUC = 0.96). Using only shape parameters as predictors reduced its classification accuracy to 0.76 (AUC = 0.86), while using only the date and year variables resulted in a prediction accuracy of 0.69 (AUC = 0.80). Among the shape-related variables considered, flower shape class was the most important predictor of visitor identity in a logistic regression model. Our study demonstrates the power of machine-learning algorithms for understanding pollination interactions in a species-rich plant community, based on multiple features of flower morphology.

Effects of deer on the post-fire recovery of a Mediterranean plant community in Central Portugal

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquim S. Silva ◽  
Filipe X. Catry ◽  
Francisco Moreira ◽  
Tito Lopes ◽  
Tiago Forte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Community ◽  
Central Portugal ◽  
Mediterranean Plant

Temporal dynamics of mycorrhizal fungal communities and co-associations with grassland plant communities following experimental manipulation of rainfall

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coline Deveautour ◽  
Sally Power ◽  
Kirk Barnett ◽  
Raul Ochoa-Hueso ◽  
Suzanne Donn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Fungal Community ◽  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal ◽  
Fungal Communities ◽  
Plant Responses ◽  
Rainfall Regimes

Climate models project overall a reduction in rainfall amounts and shifts in the timing of rainfall events in mid-latitudes and sub-tropical dry regions, which threatens the productivity and diversity of grasslands. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi may help plants to cope with expected changes but may also be impacted by changing rainfall, either via the direct effects of low soil moisture on survival and function or indirectly via changes in the plant community. In an Australian mesic grassland (former pasture) system, we characterised plant and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal communities every six months for nearly four years to two altered rainfall regimes: i) ambient, ii) rainfall reduced by 50% relative to ambient over the entire year and iii) total summer rainfall exclusion. Using Illumina sequencing, we assessed the response of AM fungal communities sampled from contrasting rainfall treatments and evaluated whether variation in AM fungal communities was associated with variation in plant community richness and composition. We found that rainfall reduction influenced the fungal communities, with the nature of the response depending on the type of manipulation, but that consistent results were only observed after more than two years of rainfall manipulation. We observed significant co-associations between plant and AM fungal communities on multiple dates. Predictive co-correspondence analyses indicated more support for the hypothesis that fungal community composition influenced plant community composition than vice versa. However, we found no evidence that altered rainfall regimes were leading to distinct co-associations between plants and AM fungi. Overall, our results provide evidence that grassland plant communities are intricately tied to variation in AM fungal communities. However, in this system, plant responses to climate change may not be directly related to impacts of altered rainfall regimes on AM fungal communities. Our study shows that AM fungal communities respond to changes in rainfall but that this effect was not immediate. The AM fungal community may influence the composition of the plant community. However, our results suggest that plant responses to altered rainfall regimes at our site may not be resulting via changes in the AM fungal communities.

Classification of woody-shrub vegetation of the forest-steppe complex of Privolzhskaya Upland

2009 ◽  
pp. 27-53
Author(s):  
A. Yu. Kudryavtsev
Keyword(s):  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Dominant Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Nature Reserve ◽  
Vegetation Mapping ◽  
Vegetation Classification ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Mapping Data

Diversity of plant communities in the nature reserve “Privolzhskaya Forest-Steppe”, Ostrovtsovsky area, is analyzed on the basis of the large-scale vegetation mapping data from 2000. The plant community classi­fication based on the Russian ecologic-phytocoenotic approach is carried out. 12 plant formations and 21 associations are distinguished according to dominant species and a combination of ecologic-phytocoenotic groups of species. A list of vegetation classification units as well as the characteristics of theshrub and woody communities are given in this paper.

Response of a Wetland Plant Community to Management of Phragmites Australis (Poaceae) in Southwestern Connecticut

Rhodora ◽  
10.3119/19-05 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (989) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Edward K. Faison ◽  
Geordie Elkins ◽  
Kathleen Kitka ◽  
David R. Foster
Keyword(s):  
Plant Community ◽  
Phragmites Australis ◽  
Wetland Plant
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