We tested interactive effects of warming (+2°C) and browning on periphyton accrual and pigment composition when grown on a synthetic substrate (plastic strips) in the euphotic zone of sixteen experimental ponds. We found that increased DOC alone, or in combination with warming, resulted in a substantially enhanced biomass accrual of periphyton, illustrating that periphyton is capable of using nutrients associated with DOC, and by this may affect nutrient availability for phytoplankton. However, warming weakened the...

Abstract Background Transposable elements (TEs) have been likened to parasites in the genome that reproduce and move ceaselessly in the host, continuously enlarging the host genome. However, the Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway defends animal genomes against the harmful consequences of TE invasion by imposing small-RNA-mediated silencing. Here we compare the TE activity of two grasshopper species with different genome sizes in Acrididae (Locusta migratoria manilensis♀1C = 6.60 pg, Angaracris rhodopa♀1C = 16.36 pg) to ascertain...

Supplemental Material for Infiltrating immune cells in prostate cancer tissue after androgen deprivation and radiotherapy by Ann Erlandsson, Marie Lundholm, Johan Watz, Anders Bergh, Elitsa Petrova, Farhood Alamdari, Thomas Helleday, Sabina Davidsson, Ove Andren and Firas Tarish in International Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology.

1. Coexistence of predators that share the same prey is common. This is still the case in size structured predator communities where predators consume prey species of different sizes (interspecific prey responses) or consume different size classes of the same species of prey (intraspecific prey responses). 2. A mechanism has recently been proposed to explain coexistence between predators that differ in size but share the same prey species, emergent facilitation, which is dependent on strong...

Pinus densata is an ecologically successful homoploid hybrid that inhabits vast areas of heterogeneous terrain on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau as a result of multiple waves of colonization. Its region of origin, route of colonization onto the plateau and the directions of introgression with its parental species have previously been defined, but little is known about the isolation and divergence history of its populations. In this study, we surveyed nucleotide polymorphism over eight nuclear loci...

1. Endothermic organisms can adapt to short growing seasons, low temperatures and nutrient limitation by developing high growth rates and high gross growth efficiencies (GGEs). Animals with high GGEs are better at assimilating limiting nutrients and thus should recycle (or lose) fewer nutrients. Longer guts in relation to body mass may facilitate higher GGE under resource limitation. 2. Within the context of ecological stoichiometry theory, this study combines ecology with evolution by relating latitudinal life-history...

1. Although anthropogenic edges are an important consequence of timber harvesting, edges due to natural disturbances or landscape heterogeneity are also common. Forest edges have been well-studied in temperate and tropical forests, but less so in less productive, disturbance-adapted boreal forests. 2. We synthesized data on forest vegetation at edges of boreal forests and compared edge influence among edge types (fire, cut, lake/wetland; old vs. young), forest types (broadleaf vs. coniferous) and geographic regions. Our...

Whether or not evolutionary lineages in general show a tendency to increase in body size has often been discussed. This tendency has been dubbed “Cope's rule” but because Cope never hypothesized it, we suggest renaming it after Depéret, who formulated it clearly in 1907. Depéret's rule has traditionally been studied using fossil data, but more recently a number of studies have used present-day species. While several paleontological studies of Cenozoic placental mammals have found support...

Genetic parentage analyses reveal considerable diversity in alternative reproductive behaviours (e.g. sneaking) in many taxa. However, little is known about whether these behaviours vary seasonally and between populations. Here, we investigate seasonal variation in male reproductive behaviours in a population of two-spotted gobies (Gobiusculus flavescens) in Norway. Male two-spotted gobies guard nests, attract females and care for fertilized eggs. We collected clutches and nest-guarding males early and late in the breeding season in artificial nests...

Above the alpine tree line, bryophytes cover much of the tundra soil surface in dense, often monospecific carpets. Therefore, when climate warming enables tree seedling establishment above the tree line, interaction with the bryophyte layer is inevitable. Bryophytes are known to modify their environment in various ways. However, little is known about to which extent and by which mechanisms bryophytes affect the response of tree seedlings to climate warming. We aimed to assess and understand...

Here we present the data used in the manuscript "Removal of grazers alters the response of tundra soil carbon to warming and enhanced nitrogen availability", Ecological Monograps, Early view in October 2019 by H. Ylänne, E. Kaarlejärvi, M. Väisänen, M. K. Männistö, S. H. K. Ahonen, J. Olofsson & S. Stark. In this paper we studied, how five years of experimental warming and increased soil nitrogen availability interact with both long- and short-term differences in...

A detailed understanding of pancreatic β-cell mass distribution is a key element to fully appreciate the pathophysiology of models of diabetes and metabolic stress. Commonly, such assessments have been performed by stereological approaches that rely on the extrapolation of two-dimensional data and provide very limited topological information. We present ex vivo optical tomographic data sets of the full β-cell mass distribution in cohorts of obese ob/ob mice and their lean controls, together with information about...

Global warming has begun to have a major impact on the species composition and functioning of plant and soil communities. However, long-term community and ecosystem responses to increased temperature are still poorly understood. In this study, we used a well-established elevational gradient in northern Sweden to elucidate how plant, microbial and nematode communities shift with elevation and associated changes in temperature in three highly contrasting vegetation types (i.e. heath, meadow and Salix vegetation). We found...

While the environmental correlates of global patterns in standing species richness are well understood, it is poorly known which environmental factors promote diversification (speciation minus extinction) in clades. We tested several hypotheses for how geographic and climatic variables should affect diversification using a large dataset of bird sister genera endemic to the New World. We found support for the area, evolutionary speed, environmental predictability and climatic stability hypotheses, but productivity and topographic complexity were rejected...

1. Plant contributions to the nitrogen (N) cycle from decomposition are likely to be altered by vegetation shifts associated with climate change. Roots account for the majority of soil organic matter input from vegetation, but little is known about differences between vegetation types in their root contributions to nutrient cycling. Here, we examine the potential contribution of fine roots to the N cycle in forest and tundra to gain insight into belowground consequences of the...

1.When tree seedlings establish beyond the current tree line due to climate warming, they encounter existing vegetation, such as bryophytes that often dominate in arctic and alpine tundra. The stress gradient hypothesis (SGH) predicts that plant interactions in tundra become increasingly negative as climate warms and conditions become less harsh. However, for seedlings climate warming might not result in lower winter stress, if insulating snow cover is reduced. 2.We aimed to understand to if bryophytes...

Although theoretical studies have shown that the mixture strategy, which uses multiple toxins simultaneously, can effectively delay the evolution of insecticide resistance, whether it is the optimal management under different insect life histories and insecticide types remains unknown. To test the robustness of the management strategy over the life histories, we developed a series of simulation models which cover almost all the diploid insect types and have the same basic structure describing pest population dynamics...

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a common cause of nosocomial diarrhea and can sometimes lead to pseudo-membranous colitis and toxic megacolon. We previously reported that the PCR ribotype 002 was a common C. difficile ribotype in Hong Kong that was associated with increased mortality. In this study, we assessed in vitro bacteriological characteristics and in vivo virulence of ribotype 002 compared to other common ribotypes, including ribotypes 012, 014 and 046. We observed significantly higher...

The relative importance of global versus local environmental factors for growth and thus carbon uptake of the bryophyte genus Sphagnum – the main peat-former and ecosystem engineer in northern peatlands – remains unclear. 2) We measured length growth and net primary production (NPP) of two abundant Sphagnum species across 99 Holarctic peatlands. We tested the importance of previously proposed abiotic and biotic drivers for peatland carbon uptake (climate, N deposition, water table depth, and vascular...

1. Many riparian ecosystems in Mediterranean Europe are affected by land use and flow alteration by dams. We focused on understanding how these stressors and their components affect riparian forests in the region. We asked: (i) are there well-defined, responsive riparian guilds?; (ii) do dam-induced stream flows determine abundance and distribution of riparian guilds? and (iii) what are the main drivers governing composition and cover of riparian guilds in regulated rivers? 2. We inventoried the...

Water relations in plant communities are influenced both by contrasting functional groups (grasses, shrubs) and by climate change via complex effects on interception, uptake and transpiration. We modelled the effects of functional group replacement and biomass increase, both of which can be outcomes of invasion and vegetation management, and climate change on ecological drought (soil water potential below which photosynthesis stops) in 340 semiarid grassland sites over 30-year periods. Relative to control vegetation (climate and...

1.Herbivory can drive vegetation into different states of productivity and community composition, and these changes may be stable over time due to historical contingency effects. Interactions with abiotic and biotic soil components can contribute to such long‐term legacies in plant communities through stabilizing positive feedbacks. 2.We studied the role of plant‐soil feedbacks in maintaining vegetation changes caused by historical (~1350‐1900 AD) reindeer herding in northern Sweden. These historical milking grounds (HMGs) consist of meadow plant...

Species interactions underlie all ecosystem goods and services and are important for understanding ecosystem changes. Representing one type of species interaction, trophic networks are able to be constructed from biodiversity monitoring data and known trophic links to understand how ecosystems have changed over time. The Baltic Sea is subject to high anthropogenic pressures, and its low species diversity makes it an ideal candidate for understanding how pressures change food webs. In this study, we used...

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a global public health challenge. Whilst the advent of genome-wide association studies has identified >400 genetic variants associated with T2D, our understanding of its biological mechanisms and translational insights is still limited. The EPIC-InterAct project, centred in 8 countries in the European Prospective Investigations into Cancer and Nutrition study, is one of the largest prospective studies of T2D. Established as a nested case-cohort study to investigate the interplay between genetic...