Soil macroinvertebrate communities have been assessed worldwide using the standard ISO/TSBF sampling procedure. The Macrofauna database currently comprises 3694 sites distributed throughout 41 countries, from 55º S latitude to 57ºN, sea level to over 4000m in elevation, in total annual total rainfall regimes between 500 and >3000mm and 5 to 32ºC mean temperature. These communities are significantly influenced by climatic parameters, soil texture and vegetation cover. Abundance and diversity were highest in tropical rain forests...

The present study describes the cleaning interactions among species of cleaner gobies Tigrigobius spp. and Elacatinus puncticulatus (family Gobiidae) and the client fish species they clean in a coral reef of Gorgona Island, Colombia. In 419 cleaning events, we observed 27 species acting as clients of Tigrigobius spp., whereas only nine were clients of E. puncticulatus. Paranthias colonus and Cephalopholis panamensis were the species most commonly cleaned by Tigrigobius spp., while Ophioblennius steindachneri and Stegastes...

Functional traits can determine pairwise species interactions, such as those between plants and pollinators. However, the effects of biogeography and evolutionary history on trait-matching and trait-mediated resource specialization remain poorly understood. We compiled a database of 93 mutualistic hummingbird-plant networks (including 181 hummingbird and 1,256 plant species), complemented by morphological measures of hummingbird bill and floral corolla length. We divided the hummingbirds into their principal clades and used knowledge on hummingbird biogeography to divide the...

Aim: Viviparity has evolved more times in squamates than in any other vertebrate group. Therefore, squamates offer an excellent model system to study the patterns, drivers, and implications of reproductive mode evolution. Based on current species distributions we examined three selective forces hypothesized to drive squamate viviparity evolution: (1) cold climate, (2) variable climate, and (3) hypoxic conditions, and tested whether viviparity is associated with larger body size. Location: Global. Time period: present day. Taxon:...

1. Physiological traits can influence individual fitness and evolutionary changes in stress-related physiological traits have been hypothesized to mediate the evolution of life-history traits and trade-offs. The hypothesis that such physiological variation could drive ongoing life-history evolution requires non-zero additive genetic variance in individual stress-related physiological traits. However, the magnitude of genetic and environmental components of phenotypic variation in stress-related physiological traits has not been estimated in fully developed vertebrates under natural environmental conditions. 2....

Ecological network approaches may contribute to conservation practices by quantifying within-community importance of species. In mutualistic plant-pollinator systems, such networks reflect potential pollination of the plants and a considerable portion of the energy consumption by the pollinators, two key components for each party. Here, we used two different sampling approaches to describe mutualistic plant-hummingbird networks from a cloud forest in the Colombian Western Andes, home to the Colorful Puffleg Eriocnemis mirabilis, an endemic and critically...

There is an increasing evidence that populations of ectotherms can diverge genetically in response to different climatic conditions, both within their native range and (in the case of invasive species) in their new range. Here, we test for such divergence in invasive whitefly Bemisia tabaci populations in tropical Colombia, by considering heritable variation within and between populations in survival and fecundity under temperature stress, and by comparing population differences with patterns established from putatively neutral...

Many studies have focused on the impacts of climate change on biological assemblages, yet little is known about how climate interacts with other major anthropogenic influences on biodiversity, such as habitat disturbance. Using a unique global database of 1128 local ant assemblages, we examined whether climate mediates the effects of habitat disturbance on assemblage structure at a global scale. Species richness and evenness were associated positively with temperature, and negatively with disturbance. However, the interaction...

We present the first phylogenomic analysis of relationships among all ten families of Liliales, based on 75 plastid genes from 35 species in 29 genera, and 97 additional plastomes stratified across angiosperm lineages. We used a supermatrix approach to extend our analysis to 58 of 64 genera of Liliales, and calibrated the resulting phylogeny against 17 fossil dates to produce a new timeline for monocot evolution. Liliales diverged from other monocots 124 Mya and began...

Some of the major impacts of climate change are expected in the poorest regions of the world where drought stress and nutrient deficiency are already a main issue. Legumes are an essential food crop for the poorest because of their high dietary protein and micronutrient contents. However, they are generally drought susceptible. Therefore, our goal in this study was to explore allele diversity at abiotic stress responsive candidate genes in the only drought tolerant cultivated...

Some of the largest impacts of climate change are expected in the environmentally heterogeneous and species rich high mountain ecosystems. Among those, the Neotropical alpine grassland above the tree line (c. 2,800 m), known as Páramo, is the fastest evolving biodiversity hotspot on earth, and one of the most threatened. Yet, predicting climate responses of typically slow-growing, long-lived plant linages in this unique high mountain ecosystem remains challenging. Here we coupled climate sensitivity modeling and...