Diversity and distributional pattern of soil microarthropods (Protura) across a transitional zone in Ukraine

2017 ◽  
Vol 149 (5) ◽  
pp. 628-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Shrubovych ◽  
Maria Sterzyńska

AbstractThe biodiversity of transitional zones is unique, due to mixing and co-occurrence of biotic elements. Despite this, our basic knowledge on distributional patterns of soil microarthropods in areas where biogeographic regions overlap is insufficient. We studied the biogeographic patterns of Protura across three natural landforms in Ukraine within the Transcarpathia (Transcarpathian Lowland, Transcarpathian foothills, and Volcanic Ukrainian Carpathian), which are influenced by adjacent biogeographic areas (mainly Alpine and Pannonian). We hypothesised that these overlaps have brought about an increase in Protura diversity, due to inclusion of faunal elements from diverse origins and differing in geographical histories. Distinct differences in the species composition of Protura were found among lowland, foothill, and mountain sites within Transcarpathia. Mountain sites mainly have Protura species with a wide continental distribution, while species of the foothills mainly stem from the Pannonian biogeographic region. The highest number of proturan endemics was associated with the Transcarpathian foothills. We conclude that the Transcarpathian region can be defined as a biogeographical transition zone for soil microarthopods, exemplified by Protura, and that foothill sites such as the volcanic-tectonic mountain Chorna Hora is a local hotspot of diversity and endemism, representing the most valuable parts of Transcarpathia with respect to diversity and endemism.

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 229 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. C. Ebach ◽  
D. J. Murphy

The Eremaean region, Australia’s arid biome and biogeographic region, has been discussed by botanists (and as the Eyrean, its counterpart for zoogeographers) for over 150 years, yet little progress was made in defining it as an area of endemism until the 2000s. As Australia’s largest biome and biogeographic region, the Eremaean has been defined in a climate sense, but is a historically composite biogeographic area. Taxa that inhabit the Eremaean (Eyrean) tend to display sister relationships to those outside the biome in temperate and monsoonal biome areas, indicating that two or more temporally discordant distributional patterns exist in the Australian flora and fauna. The future of Eremean and Eyrean bioregionalisation will need to incorporate these temporal patterns when constructing new bioregionalisations and historical and climate-based biogeographic models.


Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4337 (2) ◽  
pp. 223 ◽  
Author(s):  
CRISTIANO DE SANTANA CARVALHO ◽  
NAYLA FÁBIA FERREIRA DO NASCIMENTO ◽  
HELDER F. P. DE ARAUJO

Rivers as barriers to dispersal and past forest refugia are two of the hypotheses proposed to explain the patterns of biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest. It has recently been shown that possible past refugia correspond to bioclimatically different regions, so we tested whether patterns of shared distribution of bird taxa in the Atlantic Forest are 1) limited by the Doce and São Francisco rivers or 2) associated with the bioclimatically different southern and northeastern regions. We catalogued lists of forest birds from 45 locations, 36 in the Atlantic forest and nine in Amazon, and used parsimony analysis of endemicity to identify groups of shared taxa. We also compared differences between these groups by permutational multivariate analysis of variance and identified the species that best supported the resulting groups. The results showed that the distribution of forest birds is divided into two main regions in the Atlantic Forest, the first with more southern localities and the second with northeastern localities. This distributional pattern is not delimited by riverbanks, but it may be associated with bioclimatic units, surrogated by altitude, that maintain current environmental differences between two main regions on Atlantic Forest and may be related to phylogenetic histories of taxa supporting the two groups. 


1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 473-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Liisa Varis

Visits of honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) and bumblebees (Bombas spp.) to flowers of field bean (Vida faba L.), goat’s rue (Galega orientalis Lam.) and spring turnip rape (Brassica rapa ssp. oleifera DC.) were studied to get some basic knowledge about the species composition, abundance and daily rhythm of bees visiting these plants. The studies were made under field conditions. Only pollinating specimens were counted. Both on field bean and goat’s rue 44% of the visitors were honeybees, on turnip rape the proportion of honeybees was 96%. Field bean was visited by Bombas subterraneus (L.)/B, hortorum (L.) as well as by B. lucorum (L.). These species were also present on goat’s rue; the most numerous bumblebee species on this plant, however, was B. lapidarius (L.) which was also the only bumblebee species visiting turnip rape. The total number of bees was highest on goat’s rue. The visits of honeybees began on field bean at noon and were most numerous in the afternoon. On goat’s rue, the numbers were smaller in the mornings, whereas turnip rape was visited at a rather constant rate throughout the day. On field bean, the numbers of B. subterraneus/B. hortorum increased and those of B. lucorum decreased towards the afternoon. On goat’s rue, these species were present in the morning and in the afternoon. B. lapidarius was present on goat’s rue during the whole day, but on turnip rape only in the mornings. On the basis of these results and earlier investigations it is concluded that the numbers of natural pollinators are rather low to assure adequate pollination in turnip rape and large field bean areas under the conditions in southern Finland. If the growing of goat’s rue becomes more prevalent, its pollination requirements need further studies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changsuo Li ◽  
Chao Jia ◽  
Henghua Zhu ◽  
Weijiang Yu

Abstract Sea-level rise due to global warming and over-exploitation of groundwater resources in coastal areas will induce seawater intrusion into inland groundwater which is leading to the migration of the transition zone, and is affecting the security of regional social economy and water resources. Taking the blue economic zone of Shandong Peninsula as the research background, selecting the coastal area of Longkou and Zhaoyuan as the study area, this paper firstly depicts the groundwater flow field pattern in the research area, and then carries out the quantitative analysis for the migration patterns of the transition zone under changing groundwater levels. The results demonstrate that the width of sea-land transitional zone in the research area is about 1.5–4.5 km. The groundwater level is higher, the migration speed of the sea-land transitional zone is smaller. The results are of significance to study the migration of the sea-land transitional zone in the blue economic zone of Shandong peninsula.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian M. Ibáñez ◽  
Melany Waldisperg ◽  
Felipe I. Torres ◽  
Sergio A. Carrasco ◽  
Javier Sellanes ◽  
...  

Abstract Intertidal communities’ composition and diversity usually exhibit strong changes in relation to environmental gradients at different biogeographical scales. This study represents the first comprehensive diversity and composition description of polyplacophoran assemblages along the Peruvian Province (SE Pacific, 12°S–39°S), as a model system for ecological latitudinal gradients. A total of 4,775 chitons from 21 species were collected on twelve localities along the Peruvian Province. This sampling allowed us to quantitatively estimate the relative abundance of the species in this assemblage, and to test whether chitons conform to elementary predictions of major biogeographic patterns such as a latitudinal diversity gradient. We found that the species composition supported the division of the province into three ecoregional faunal groups (i.e. Humboldtian, Central Chile, and Araucanian). Though chiton diversity did not follow a clear latitudinal gradient, changes in species composition were dominated by smaller scale variability in salinity and temperature. Body size significantly differed by ecoregions and species, indicating latitudinal size-structure assamblages. In some localities body size ratios differed from a random assemblage, evidencing competition at local scale. Changes in composition between ecoregions influence body size structure, and their overlapping produce vertical size segregation, suggesting that competition coupled with environmental conditions structure these assemblages.


Medicina ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kęstutis Vaičiūnas ◽  
Stasys Auškalnis ◽  
Aivaras Matjošaitis ◽  
Darius Trumbeckas ◽  
Mindaugas Jievaltas

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relevance of prostate gland volume, transitional zone volume, and transitional zone index for the detection of prostate cancer by the first sextant biopsy. Material and methods. A total of 121 men with high risk of prostate cancer were included in our study (prostate-specific antigen level higher than 4 ng/mL and/or pathological digital rectal examination). We consulted the patients in Outpatient Department of Kaunas University of Medicine Hospital during 2003–2006. Total prostate volume and transition zone volume were measured, and all patients underwent transrectal ultrasoundguided sextant biopsy of the prostate. According to histological results of prostate biopsy, patients were divided into two groups: benign group (benign prostate hyperplasia and high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia) and prostate cancer group. Statistical analysis was made by SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 12.0.1 for Windows. Results. After histological examination, prostate cancer was detected in 20.7% of patients (n=25). Prostate cancer was found in 24.6% of patients with a total prostate volume of less than 60 cm3 and only in 8.2% of patients with a total prostate volume greater than 60 cm3 (P=0.026). Prostate cancer was found in 27.1% of patients with transition zone volume smaller than 30 cm3 and only in 7.5% of patients with transition zone volume greater than 30 cm3 (P=0.007). A statistically significant difference was found when patients were divided into the groups according to transition zone index: when transition zone index was lower than 0.45, prostate cancer was detected in 37.1% of patients, and when transition zone index was higher than 0.45, prostate cancer was observed in 9.1% of patients (P=0.001). The possibility to detect prostate cancer was 5.9 times higher in patients with transition zone index lower than 0.45. Conclusions. Prostate cancer detection rate by first sextant prostate biopsy in patients with elevated prostate-specific antigen level and/or pathological digital rectal examination was higher when total prostate volume was less than 60 cm3, transition zone was less than 30 cm3, and transition zone index was less than 0.45.


Zootaxa ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 1157 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
FABIO PENATI ◽  
PIERPAOLO VIENNA

The histerid fauna of the Arabian Peninsula is evaluated. As a result of the study of specimens recently collected in Oman by the scientific expeditions of the Museum of Natural History and Territory of Calci (University of Pisa, Italy), and compiling new data from 15 public and private collections, and literature records, the total number of Histeridae known from the Arabian Peninsula now stands at 67 species, without taking into account dubious species and undetermined taxa (9).Of these 67 species, in total 18 are reported for the first time: 4 for the Arabian Peninsula [Teretrius (Neotepetrius) parasita Marseul, Saprinus (Saprinus) flexuosofasciatus Motschulsky, Chalcionellus hauseri (Schmidt), Hypocacculus (Nessus) hosseinius (Théry)], 9 for Oman [Pachylister luctuosus (Marseul), Hister castus Lewis, Atholus bimaculatus Linnaeus, Atholus scutellaris (Erichson), Saprinus (Saprinus) splendens (Paykull), Hypocacculus (Colpellus) praecox (Erichson), Hypocacculus (Hypocacculus) harmonicus (Marseul), Hypocacculus (Hypocacculus) metallescens (Erichson), Hypocaccus (Hypocaccus) fochi (Auzat)], 2 for Yemen [Saprinus (Saprinus) tenuistrius tenuistrius Marseul, Chalcionellus tunisius (Marseul)] and 3 for Kuwait [Saprinus (Saprinus) moyses Marseul, Pholioxenus mesopotamicus Olexa, Paravolvulus syphax (Reitter)].Histeridae are now known for four national states (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and Kuwait), while there are no records for Qatar or United Arab Emirates. An updated comprehensive catalogue of the histerid fauna of the Arabian Peninsula is provided.Analysis of faunal affinities shows that it mostly consists of Palearctic species (24 species, equal to 35.9%), followed by Afrotropical and Afrotropico-Mediterranean species (22 species, 32.8%), and cosmopolitan/subcosmopolitan species (7 species, 10.4%); endemics stand at 5 species (7.5%), while species of undefined chorology at 9 (13.4%). On the whole these numbers fit well the largely accepted biogeographical assumption that indicates the Arabian Peninsula as a transitional zone between the Regions Palearctic, Afrotropic and, to a lesser degree, Indo-Malay (e.g., Büttiker 1979). Moreover, a distinctive distributional pattern has been recognised: “Afrotropical” Histeridae are almost exclusively present in the southern and south-western parts of the peninsula, while “Palearctic” Histeridae are mostly present in the inner central and south-eastern parts of the peninsula.Finally, the synonymy Saprinus (Saprinus) osiris Marseul, 1862 = Saprinus (Saprinus) ornatus Erichson, 1834 stated by Müller (1933), but neglected by Mazur (1976, 1984, 1994, 1997), is considered valid.


2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1770) ◽  
pp. 20131733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Friedman ◽  
Benjamin P. Keck ◽  
Alex Dornburg ◽  
Ron I. Eytan ◽  
Christopher H. Martin ◽  
...  

Cichlid fishes are a key model system in the study of adaptive radiation, speciation and evolutionary developmental biology. More than 1600 cichlid species inhabit freshwater and marginal marine environments across several southern landmasses. This distributional pattern, combined with parallels between cichlid phylogeny and sequences of Mesozoic continental rifting, has led to the widely accepted hypothesis that cichlids are an ancient group whose major biogeographic patterns arose from Gondwanan vicariance. Although the Early Cretaceous ( ca 135 Ma) divergence of living cichlids demanded by the vicariance model now represents a key calibration for teleost molecular clocks, this putative split pre-dates the oldest cichlid fossils by nearly 90 Myr. Here, we provide independent palaeontological and relaxed-molecular-clock estimates for the time of cichlid origin that collectively reject the antiquity of the group required by the Gondwanan vicariance scenario. The distribution of cichlid fossil horizons, the age of stratigraphically consistent outgroup lineages to cichlids and relaxed-clock analysis of a DNA sequence dataset consisting of 10 nuclear genes all deliver overlapping estimates for crown cichlid origin centred on the Palaeocene ( ca 65–57 Ma), substantially post-dating the tectonic fragmentation of Gondwana. Our results provide a revised macroevolutionary time scale for cichlids, imply a role for dispersal in generating the observed geographical distribution of this important model clade and add to a growing debate that questions the dominance of the vicariance paradigm of historical biogeography.


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