Separating the effects of habitat amount and fragmentation on invertebrate abundance using a multi-scale framework

Context

Herbicide treatments in viticulture can generate highly contrasting mosaics of vegetated and bare vineyards, of which vegetated fields often provide better conditions for biodiversity. In southern Switzerland, where herbicides are applied at large scales, vegetated vineyards are limited in extent and isolated from one another, potentially limiting the distribution and dispersal ability of organisms.

Objectives

We tested the separate and interactive effects of habitat amount and fragmentation on invertebrate abundance using a multi-scale framework, along with additional environmental factors. We identified which variables at which scales were most important in predicting patterns of invertebrate abundance.

Methods

We used a factorial design to sample across a gradient of habitat amount (area of vegetated vineyards, measured as percentage of landscape PLAND) and fragmentation (number of vegetated patches, measured as patch density PD). Using 10 different spatial scales, we identified the factors and scales that most strongly predicted invertebrate abundance and tested potential interactions between habitat amount and fragmentation.

Results

Habitat amount (PLAND index) was most important in predicting invertebrate numbers at a field scale (50 m radius). In contrast, we found a negative effect of fragmentation (PD) at a broad scale of 450 m radius, but no interactive effect between the two.

Conclusions

The spatial scales at which habitat amount and fragmentation affect invertebrates differ, underpinning the importance of spatially explicit study designs in disentangling the effects between habitat amount and configuration. We showed that the amount of vegetated vineyards has more influence on invertebrate abundance, but that fragmentation also contributed substantially. This suggests that efforts for augmenting the area of vegetated vineyards is more beneficial for invertebrate numbers than attempts to connect them.

     

茄子株高性状鉴定与遗传分析

以长茄高代自交系125 和126 构建的茄子6 个不同世代的遗传群体〔P₁、P₂、F₁、F₂、 B₁（125×F₁）、B₂（126×F₁）〕 为试材,利用主基因+ 多基因混合数量性状遗传模型对茄子的株高性状进行多世代遗传联合分析。结果表明：供试亲本株高 性状差异显著,分离世代株高性状数值均呈单峰的偏正态分布,属于数量性状遗传。多世代遗传联合分析结果显示茄子株高 性状的最适遗传模型为C-0 模型,不存在主基因遗传效应,表现为多基因控制的加性- 显性- 上位性遗传模式。采用二阶 遗传参数进一步分析株高的多基因遗传效应,结果显示,茄子分离世代F₂、B₂ 的多基因遗传率分别为49.24%、22.77%,茄 子株高以多基因遗传为主。     

Root‐associated microbes in sustainable agriculture: models,metabolites and mechanisms

Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928 and throughout the ‘age of antibiotics’ from the 1940s until the 1980s, the detection of novel antibiotics was restricted by lack of knowledge about the distribution and ecology of antibiotic producers in nature. The discovery that a phenazine compound produced by Pseudomonas bacteria could suppress soilborne plant pathogens, and its recovery from rhizosphere soil in 1990, provided the first incontrovertible evidence that natural metabolites could control plant pathogens in the environment and opened a new era in biological control by root‐associated rhizobacteria. More recently, the advent of genomics, the availability of highly sensitive bioanalytical instrumentation, and the discovery of protective endophytes have accelerated progress toward overcoming many of the impediments that until now have limited the exploitation of beneficial plant‐associated microbes to enhance agricultural sustainability. Here, we present key developments that have established the importance of these microbes in the control of pathogens, discuss concepts resulting from the exploration of classical model systems, and highlight advances emerging from ongoing investigations. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry