A high-throughput genetic screening platform in a single-celled photosynthetic eukaryote would be a transformative addition to the plant biology toolbox. Here, we present ChlaMmeSeq (Chlamydomonas MmeI-based insertion site Sequencing), a tool for simultaneous mapping of tens of thousands of mutagenic insertion sites in the eukaryotic unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. We first validated ChlaMmeSeq by in-depth characterization of individual insertion sites. We then applied ChlaMmeSeq to a mutant pool and mapped 11,478 insertions, covering 39%...

Fire is a key determinant of woody vegetation structure in savanna ecosystems, acting both independently and synergistically through interactions with herbivores. Fire influences biodiversity and ecological functioning, but quantifying its effects on woody structure is challenging at both species and community scales. Deeper insight into fire effects, and fire-herbivore interactions, can be gained through the examination of species-specific demographic and dynamic changes occurring across areas with different fire regimes in the presence of large herbivores....

Root systems develop different root types that individually sense cues from their local environment and integrate this information with systemic signals. This complex multi-dimensional amalgam of inputs enables continuous adjustment of root growth rates, direction and metabolic activity that define a dynamic physical network. Current methods for analyzing root biology balance physiological relevance with imaging capability. To bridge this divide, we developed an integrated imaging system called Growth and Luminescence Observatory for Roots (GLO-Roots) that...

1.The network of minor veins of angiosperm leaves may include loops (reticulation). Variation in network architecture has been hypothesized to have hydraulic and also structural and defensive functions. 2.We measured venation network trait space in eight dimensions for 136 biomass-dominant angiosperm tree species along a 3,300 m elevation gradient in southeastern Peru. We then examined the relative importance of multiple ecological, and evolutionary predictors of reticulation. 3.Variation in minor venation network reticulation was constrained to...

Abiotic environmental variables strongly affect the outcomes of species interactions. For example, mutualistic interactions between species are often stronger when resources are limited. The effect might be indirect: water stress on plants can lead to carbon stress, which could alter carbon-mediated plant mutualisms. In mutualistic ant–plant symbioses, plants host ant colonies that defend them against herbivores. Here we show that the partners' investments in a widespread ant–plant symbiosis increase with water stress across 26 sites...

Habitat quality is often assumed to be directly related to increased consumer density, but such assumptions cannot be made without supporting demographic data that indicate improved fitness. Habitat selection might be especially important for denning species, where vulnerable offspring are confined to a single location for extended periods, but the effect of den choice on the reproductive success of denning species is poorly understood. By combining airborne high-resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) measurements with...

Remote sensing is increasingly needed to meet the critical demand for estimates of forest structure and composition at landscape to continental scales. Hyperspectral images can detect tree canopy properties, including species identity, leaf chemistry and disease. Tree growth rates are related to these measurable canopy properties but whether growth can be directly predicted from hyperspectral data remains unknown. We used a single hyperspectral image and LiDAR-derived elevation to predict growth rates for twenty tropical tree...

Linkage mapping has been widely used to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) in many plants and usually requires a time-consuming and labor-intensive fine mapping process to find the causal gene underlying the QTL. Previously, we described QTG-Finder, a machine-learning algorithm to rationally prioritize candidate causal genes in QTLs. While it showed good performance, QTG-Finder could only be used in Arabidopsis and rice because of the limited number of known causal genes in other species. Here...

In 2008 we deployed a temporary network of four BB seismometers around Crater Lake, Oregon, to determine the background rate of seismicity and assess sites for permanent stations. Three stations returned good data - one had GPS problems resulting in unusuable data.

Distributions of foliar nutrients across forest canopies can give insight into their plant functional diversity and improve our understanding of biogeochemical cycling. We used airborne remote sensing and Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) to quantify canopy foliar nitrogen (N) across ~164 km2 of wet lowland tropical forest in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. We determined the relative influence of climate and topography on the observed patterns of canopy foliar N using a gradient boosting model...

The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a leading single-celled model for dissecting biological processes in photosynthetic eukaryotes. However, its usefulness has been limited by difficulties in obtaining mutants in genes of interest. To allow generation of large numbers of mapped mutants, we developed high-throughput methods which: (1) Enable easy propagation on agar and cryogenic maintenance of tens of thousands of C. reinhardtii strains; (2) Identify mutant insertion sites and physical coordinates in such collections; (3)...

Priority effects, in which the order of species arrival dictates community assembly, can have a major influence on species diversity, but the genetic basis of priority effects remains unknown. Here, we suggest that nitrogen scavenging genes previously considered responsible for starvation avoidance may drive priority effects by causing rapid resource depletion. Using single-molecule sequencing, we de novo assembled the genome of the nectar-colonizing yeast, Metschnikowia reukaufii, across eight scaffolds and complete mitochondrion, with gap-free coverage...

Non-mammalian model organisms have been essential for our understanding of the mechanisms that control development, disease, and physiology, but they are underutilized in pharmacological and toxicological phenotypic screening assays due to their low throughput in comparison with cell-based screens. To increase the utility of using Drosophila melanogaster in screening, we designed the Whole Animal Feeding FLat (WAFFL), a novel, flexible, and complete system for feeding, monitoring, and assaying flies in a high-throughput format. Our 3-D...

This dataset generates figures S5, S8, and S9 in N. X. Nie, D. Wang, Z. A. Torrano, R. W. Carlson, C. M. O’D. Alexander, A. Shahar (2023) Meteorites have inherited nucleosynthetic anomalies of potassium-40 produced in supernovae. The dataset contains .xlsx files presenting the output data of the nucleosynthesis of K and Mo isotopes in supernovae and AGB stars, using the existing nucleosynthesis models. The data was used to investigate the production of K and...

The widespread degradation of natural ecosystems requires cost-efficient restoration techniques that minimize risk and consider context-specific restoration conditions. However, meeting these demands can be difficult because information on ecosystem-level factors controlling vegetation and continuous spatial data on species interactions are often lacking. Using airborne LiDAR data from a Hawaiian dry forest, we delineated crowns and assessed the 3D structure of more than 700,000 shrubs and trees. We used Random Forest machine learning to assess the...

Deforestation and fragmentation influence the microclimate, vegetation structure, and composition of remaining patches of tropical forest. In the southern Amazon, at the frontier of cropland expansion, forests are converted and fragmented in a pattern that leaves standing riparian forests whose dimensions are mandated by the Brazilian National Forest Code. These altered riparian forests share many characteristics of well-studied upland forest fragments, but differ because they remain connected to larger areas of forest downstream, and because...

Plant environmental responses involve dynamic changes in growth and signaling, yet little is understood as to how progress through these events is regulated. Here, we explored the phenotypic and transcriptional events involved in the acclimation of the Arabidopsis thaliana seedling root to a rapid change in salinity. Using live-imaging analysis, we show that growth is dynamically regulated with a period of quiescence followed by recovery then homeostasis. Through the use of a new high-resolution spatio-temporal...

The relationship between reef-building corals and phototrophic dinoflagellates of the genus Symbiodinium is fundamental to the functioning of coral reef ecosystems. It has been suggested that reef corals may adapt to climate change by changing their dominant symbiont type to a more thermally tolerant one, although the capacity for such a community shift is potentially hindered by the compatibility of different host-symbiont pairings. Here we combined transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses to characterize the molecular, cellular,...

Both dispersal limitation and environmental sorting can affect genetic variation in populations, but their contribution remains unclear, particularly in microbes. We sought to determine the contribution of geographic distance (as a proxy for dispersal limitation) and phenotypic traits (as a proxy for environmental sorting), including morphology, metabolic ability, and interspecific competitiveness, to the genotypic diversity in a nectar yeast species, Metschnikowia reukaufii. To measure genotypic diversity, we sequenced the genomes of 102 strains of M....

The utility of plant functional traits for predictive ecology relies on our ability to interpret trait variation across multiple taxonomic and ecological scales. Using extensive datasets of trait variation within species, across species, and across communities, we analyzed whether and at what scales ‘leaf economics spectrum’ (LES) traits show predicted trait-trait covariation. We found that most variation in LES traits is often, but not universally, at high taxonomic levels (between families, between genera in a...

Three-month deployment of two seismic stations on Reykjanes Peninsula to record earthquakes from the Fagradalsfjall eruption