This week in ecologies & evolutions:
- Free living (not viling) eucaryotes species can last a long time (over a decade!) under hard drought conditions, without being specifically adapted to dryness or flood (when it happens). Calls for inherent resilience of [Australian] semi-arid floodplain soil communities under increasing pressure from climatic induced changes in water availability. Soils probably suit for enduring changes, which is good news.
Baldwin D S, Colloff M J, Rees G N, Chariton A A, Watson G O, Court L N, Hartley D M, Morgan M j, King A J, Wilson J S, Hodda M, Hardy C M (2013). Impacts of inundation and drought on eukaryote biodiversity in semi-arid floodplain soils. Molecular Ecology 1365-294X DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mec.12190
- Traditional experiments on pathogen growth curves relied on air temperature. This study suggests we better use leaf temperature instead. Certainly will lead to arrays of follow ups…
Bernard F, Sache I, Suffert F, Chelle M (2013). The development of a foliar fungal pathogen does react to leaf temperature! New Phytologist 1469-8137 - This wins the funny title, as it may be misleading by jargonry. The “ecosystem engineer” plays a key role in food webs, being a common foodstuff for a number of marine birds including the oystercatcher. Hope you didn’t want to apply for the job. Climate change will alter ecosystem functionning, and has begun to impact the spawning period in the cockle, which extended over a greater number of months compared with previous studies.
Morgan E, O’ Riordan R M, Culloty S C (2013). Climate change impacts on potential recruitment in an ecosystem engineer. Ecology and Evolution 2045-7758 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.419
And that’s it for this week.
