TY - JOUR A1 - Eccard, Jana T1 - Can rolling composite wildflower blocks increase biodiversity in agricultural landscapes better than wildflowers strips? JF - Journal of applied ecology : an official journal of the British Ecological Society N2 - Biodiversity and abundance of wildlife has dramatically declined in agricultural landscapes. Sown, short-lived wildflower (WF) strips along the margins of crop fields are a widespread and often subsidised in agri-environmental schemes, intended to enhance biodiversity, provide refuges for wild plant and arthropod populations and to provide ecosystem services to crops. Meanwhile, WF elements are also criticised, since their functionality decreases with plant succession, the removal of aged WF strip poses an ecological trap for the attracted arthropod populations and only common and mobile species benefit. Further, insects in WF strips are impacted by pesticides from agricultural fields due to shared boundaries with crop fields and by edge effects. The performance of the measure could be improved by combining several WF strips of different successional stages, each harbouring a unique community of plants and arthropods, into persistent, composite WF block, where successional stages exist in parallel. Monitoring data on many taxa in the literature shows, that a third of species are temporarily present in an ageing WF stip, thus offering composite WF blocks should increase cumulative species richness by 28%-39% compared to annual richness in WF strips. Persistence of composite WF blocks would offer reliable refuge for animal and plant populations, also supporting their predators and herbivores. Further, WF blocks have less boundaries to crops compared to WF strips of the same area, and are less impacted by edge effects and pesticides. Policy implications. Here I suggest a change of conservation practice changing from successional WF strips to composite WF blocks. By regular removal and replacement of aged WF strips either within the block (rotational) or at its margins (rolling), the habitat heterogeneity in composite WF block could be perpetuated. Rolling composite WF blocks change locations over years, and the original location can be reconverted to arable land while a nearby WF block is still available to wildlife. A change in agricultural schemes would be necessary, since in some European countries clustered WF strips are explicitly not subsidised. KW - AES KW - agriculture KW - biodiversity KW - CAP KW - conservation scheme KW - field margins KW - insects Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14147 SN - 0021-8901 SN - 1365-2664 VL - 59 IS - 5 SP - 1172 EP - 1177 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bachmann, Jennifer A1 - Heimbach, Tabea A1 - Hassenrück, Christiane A1 - Kopprio, German A. A1 - Iversen, Morten Hvitfeldt A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Gärdes, Astrid T1 - Environmental Drivers of Free-Living vs. Particle-Attached Bacterial Community Composition in the Mauritania Upwelling System JF - Frontiers in microbiology N2 - Saharan dust input and seasonal upwelling along North-West Africa provide a model system for studying microbial processes related to the export and recycling of nutrients. This study offers the first molecular characterization of prokaryotic particle-attached (PA; > 3.0 mu m) and free-living (FL; 0.2-3.0 mu m) players in this important ecosystem during August 2016. Environmental drivers for alpha-diversity, bacterial community composition, and differences between FL and PA fractions were identified. The ultra-oligotrophic waters off Senegal were dominated by Cyanobacteria while higher relative abundances of Alphaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia, and Planctomycetes (known particle-degraders) occurred in the upwelling area. Temperature, proxy for different water masses, was the best predictor for changes in FL communities. PA community variation was best explained by temperature and ammonium. Bray Curtis dissimilarities between FL and PA were generally very high and correlated with temperature and salinity in surface waters. Greatest similarities between FL and PA occurred at the deep chlorophyll maximum, where bacterial substrate availability was likely highest. This indicates that environmental drivers do not only influence changes among FL and PA communities but also differences between them. This could provide an explanation for contradicting results obtained by different studies regarding the dissimilarity/similarity between FL and PA communities and their biogeochemical functions. KW - prokaryotes KW - biodiversity KW - microbial ecology KW - alpha diversity KW - Bray Curtis dissimilarity KW - temperature KW - salinity KW - 16S rRNA Illumina amplicon sequencing Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.02836 SN - 1664-302X VL - 9 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rojas-Jimenez, Keilor A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Cordes, Erik A1 - Cortés, Jorge T1 - Fungal Communities in Sediments Along a Depth Gradient in the Eastern Tropical Pacific JF - Frontiers in Microbiology N2 - Deep waters represent the largest biome on Earth and the largest ecosystem of Costa Rica. Fungi play a fundamental role in global biogeochemical cycling in marine sediments, yet, they remain little explored. We studied fungal diversity and community composition in several marine sediments from 16 locations sampled along a bathymetric gradient (from a depth of 380 to 3,474 m) in two transects of about 1,500 km length in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) of Costa Rica. Sequence analysis of the V7-V8 region of the 18S rRNA gene obtained from sediment cores revealed the presence of 787 fungal amplicon sequence variants (ASVs). On average, we detected a richness of 75 fungal ASVs per sample. Ascomycota represented the most abundant phylum with Saccharomycetes constituting the dominant class. Three ASVs accounted for ca. 63% of all fungal sequences: the yeast Metschnikowia (49.4%), Rhizophydium (6.9%), and Cladosporium (6.7%). We distinguished a cluster composed mainly by yeasts, and a second cluster by filamentous fungi, but we were unable to detect a strong effect of depth and the overlying water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), and pH on the composition of fungal communities. We highlight the need to understand further the ecological role of fungi in deep-sea ecosystems. KW - deep-sea KW - aquatic fungi KW - biodiversity KW - Metschnikowia KW - Costa Rica Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.575207 SN - 1664-302X VL - 11 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Darwall, William A1 - Bremerich, Vanessa A1 - De Wever, Aaike A1 - Dell, Anthony I. A1 - Freyhof, Joerg A1 - Gessner, Mark O. A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Harrison, Ian A1 - Irvine, Ken A1 - Jähnig, Sonja C. A1 - Jeschke, Jonathan M. A1 - Lee, Jessica J. A1 - Lu, Cai A1 - Lewandowska, Aleksandra M. A1 - Monaghan, Michael T. A1 - Nejstgaard, Jens C. A1 - Patricio, Harmony A1 - Schmidt-Kloiber, Astrid A1 - Stuart, Simon N. A1 - Thieme, Michele A1 - Tockner, Klement A1 - Turak, Eren A1 - Weyl, Olaf T1 - The alliance for freshwater life BT - a global call to unite efforts for freshwater biodiversity science and conservation JF - Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems N2 - 1. Global pressures on freshwater ecosystems are high and rising. Viewed primarily as a resource for humans, current practices of water use have led to catastrophic declines in freshwater species and the degradation of freshwater ecosystems, including their genetic and functional diversity. Approximately three-quarters of the world's inland wetlands have been lost, one-third of the 28 000 freshwater species assessed for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List are threatened with extinction, and freshwater vertebrate populations are undergoing declines that are more rapid than those of terrestrial and marine species. This global loss continues unchecked, despite the importance of freshwater ecosystems as a source of clean water, food, livelihoods, recreation, and inspiration. 2. The causes of these declines include hydrological alterations, habitat degradation and loss, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution, and the multiple impacts of climate change. Although there are policy initiatives that aim to protect freshwater life, these are rarely implemented with sufficient conviction and enforcement. Policies that focus on the development and management of fresh waters as a resource for people almost universally neglect the biodiversity that they contain. 3. Here we introduce the Alliance for Freshwater Life, a global initiative, uniting specialists in research, data synthesis, conservation, education and outreach, and policymaking. This expert network aims to provide the critical mass required for the effective representation of freshwater biodiversity at policy meetings, to develop solutions balancing the needs of development and conservation, and to better convey the important role freshwater ecosystems play in human well-being. Through this united effort we hope to reverse this tide of loss and decline in freshwater biodiversity. We introduce several short- and medium-term actions as examples for making positive change, and invite individuals, organizations, authorities, and governments to join the Alliance for Freshwater Life. KW - biodiversity KW - conservation evaluation KW - endangered species KW - fish KW - invertebrates KW - macrophytes Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.2958 SN - 1052-7613 SN - 1099-0755 VL - 28 IS - 4 SP - 1015 EP - 1022 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER -