1. There is a fundamental trade-off between leaf traits associated with either resource acquisition or resource conservation. This gradient of trait variation, called the economics spectrum also applies to fine roots but whether it is consistent for coarse roots or at the plant community level remains untested. 2. We measured a set of morphological and chemical root traits at a community level (functional parameters; FP) in 20 plant communities located along land-use intensity gradients and...

Background: Molecular typing of pathogen populations is an important tool for the development of effective strategies for disease control. Diverse molecular markers have been used to characterize populations of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam), the main bacterial pathogen of cassava. Recently, diversity and population dynamics of Xam in the Colombian Caribbean coast were estimated using AFLPs, where populations were found to be dynamic, diverse and with haplotypes unstable across time. Aiming to examine the current...

Current population genetic models fail to cope with genetic differentiation for species with large, contiguous and heterogeneous distribution. We show that in such a case, genetic differentiation can be predicted at equilibrium by circuit theory, where conductance corresponds to abundance in species distribution models (SDM). Circuit-SDM approach was used for the phylogeographic study of the lepidopteran cereal stemborer Busseola fusca Füller (Noctuidae) across sub-Saharan Africa. Species abundance was surveyed across its distribution range. SDM models...

Understanding how divergent selection generates adaptive phenotypic and population diversification provides a mechanistic explanation of speciation in recently separated species pairs. Toward this goal, we sought ecological gradients of divergence between the cryptic malaria vectors Anopheles coluzzii and An. gambiae, and then looked for a physiological trait that may underlie such divergence. Using a large set of occurrence records and eco-geographical information, we built a distribution model to predict the predominance of the two species...

Hosts have evolved two distinct defence strategies against parasites: resistance (which prevents infection or limit parasite growth) and tolerance (which alleviates the fitness consequences of infection). However, heritable variation in resistance and tolerance and the genetic correlation between these two traits have rarely been characterized in wild host populations. Here, we estimate these parameters for both traits in Leuciscus burdigalensis, a freshwater fish parasitized by Tracheliastes polycolpus. We used a genetic database to construct a...