TY - JOUR A1 - Plue, Jan A1 - De Frenne, Pieter A1 - Acharya, Kamal A1 - Brunet, Jörg A1 - Chabrerie, Olivier A1 - Decocq, Guillaume A1 - Diekmann, Martin A1 - Graae, Bente J. A1 - Heinken, Thilo A1 - Hermy, Martin A1 - Kolb, Annette A1 - Lemke, Isgard A1 - Liira, Jaan A1 - Naaf, Tobias A1 - Verheyen, Kris A1 - Wulf, Monika A1 - Cousins, Sara A. O. T1 - Where does the community start, and where does it end? BT - including the seed bank to reassess forest herb layer responses to the environment JF - Journal of vegetation science N2 - QuestionBelow-ground processes are key determinants of above-ground plant population and community dynamics. Still, our understanding of how environmental drivers shape plant communities is mostly based on above-ground diversity patterns, bypassing below-ground plant diversity stored in seed banks. As seed banks may shape above-ground plant communities, we question whether concurrently analysing the above- and below-ground species assemblages may potentially enhance our understanding of community responses to environmental variation. LocationTemperate deciduous forests along a 2000km latitudinal gradient in NW Europe. MethodsHerb layer, seed bank and local environmental data including soil pH, canopy cover, forest cover continuity and time since last canopy disturbance were collected in 129 temperate deciduous forest plots. We quantified herb layer and seed bank diversity per plot and evaluated how environmental variation structured community diversity in the herb layer, seed bank and the combined herb layer-seed bank community. ResultsSeed banks consistently held more plant species than the herb layer. How local plot diversity was partitioned across the herb layer and seed bank was mediated by environmental variation in drivers serving as proxies of light availability. The herb layer and seed bank contained an ever smaller and ever larger share of local diversity, respectively, as both canopy cover and time since last canopy disturbance decreased. Species richness and -diversity of the combined herb layer-seed bank community responded distinctly differently compared to the separate assemblages in response to environmental variation in, e.g. forest cover continuity and canopy cover. ConclusionsThe seed bank is a below-ground diversity reservoir of the herbaceous forest community, which interacts with the herb layer, although constrained by environmental variation in e.g. light availability. The herb layer and seed bank co-exist as a single community by means of the so-called storage effect, resulting in distinct responses to environmental variation not necessarily recorded in the individual herb layer or seed bank assemblages. Thus, concurrently analysing above- and below-ground diversity will improve our ecological understanding of how understorey plant communities respond to environmental variation. KW - Above-ground KW - Below-ground KW - Canopy KW - Disturbance KW - Diversity KW - Light availability KW - NWEurope KW - Plant community KW - Species co-existence KW - Storage effect Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12493 SN - 1100-9233 SN - 1654-1103 VL - 28 IS - 2 SP - 424 EP - 435 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koc-Januchta, Marta A1 - Höffler, Tim A1 - Thoma, Gun-Brit A1 - Prechtl, Helmut A1 - Leutner, Detlev T1 - Visualizers versus verbalizers BT - Effects of cognitive style on learning with texts and pictures - An eye-tracking study JF - Computers in human behavior N2 - This study was conducted in order to examine the differences between visualizers and verbalizers in the way they gaze at pictures and texts while learning. Using a collection of questionnaires, college students were classified according to their visual or verbal cognitive style and were asked to learn about two different, in terms of subject and type of knowledge, topics by means of text-picture combinations. Eye-tracking was used to investigate their gaze behavior. The results show that visualizers spent significantly more time inspecting pictures than verbalizers, while verbalizers spent more time inspecting texts. Results also suggest that both visualizers' and verbalizers' way of learning is active but mostly within areas providing the source of information in line with their cognitive style (pictures or text). Verbalizers tended to enter non-informative, irrelevant areas of pictures sooner than visualizers. The comparison of learning outcomes showed that the group of visualizers achieved better results than the group of verbalizers on a comprehension test. KW - Cognitive style KW - Verbalizer KW - Visualizer KW - Eye-tracking KW - Multimedia learning Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.028 SN - 0747-5632 SN - 1873-7692 VL - 68 SP - 170 EP - 179 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - THES A1 - Yang, Lei T1 - Verification of systemic mRNAs mobility and mobile functions Y1 - 2017 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reil, Daniela A1 - Imholt, Christian A1 - Rosenfeld, Ulrike M. A1 - Drewes, Stephan A1 - Fischer, S. A1 - Heuser, Emil A1 - Petraityte-Burneikiene, Rasa A1 - Ulrich, R. G. A1 - Jacob, J. T1 - Validation of the Puumala virus rapid field test for bank voles in Germany JF - Epidemiology and infection N2 - Puumala virus (PUUV) causes many human infections in large parts of Europe and can lead to mild to moderate disease. The bank vole (Myodes glareolus) is the only reservoir of PUUV in Central Europe. A commercial PUUV rapid field test for rodents was validated for bank-vole blood samples collected in two PUUV-endemic regions in Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wurttemberg). A comparison of the results of the rapid field test and standard ELISAs indicated a test efficacy of 93-95%, largely independent of the origin of the antigens used in the ELISA. In ELISAs, reactivity for the German PUUV strain was higher compared to the Swedish strain but not compared to the Finnish strain, which was used for the rapid field test. In conclusion, the use of the rapid field test can facilitate short-term estimation of PUUV seroprevalence in bank-vole populations in Germany and can aid in assessing human PUUV infection risk. KW - Antibody detection KW - early warning KW - Europe KW - hantavirus KW - Myodes glareolus Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268816002557 SN - 0950-2688 SN - 1469-4409 VL - 145 IS - 3 SP - 434 EP - 439 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER - TY - THES A1 - Sedaghatmehr, Mastoureh T1 - Unraveling the regulatory mechanisms of heat stress memory in Arabidopsis thaliana Y1 - 2017 ER - TY - THES A1 - Weiß, Lina T1 - Understanding the emergence and maintenance of biodiversity in grasslands BT - linking individual plant responses to community patterns Y1 - 2017 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kehlmaier, Christian A1 - Barlow, Axel A1 - Hastings, Alexander K. A1 - Vamberger, Melita A1 - Paijmans, Johanna L. A. A1 - Steadman, David W. A1 - Albury, Nancy A. A1 - Franz, Richard A1 - Hofreiter, Michael A1 - Fritz, Uwe T1 - Tropical ancient DNA reveals relationships of the extinct bahamian giant tortoise Chelonoidis alburyorum JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society of London : Series B, Biological sciences N2 - Ancient DNA of extinct species from the Pleistocene and Holocene has provided valuable evolutionary insights. However, these are largely restricted to mammals and high latitudes because DNA preservation in warm climates is typically poor. In the tropics and subtropics, non-avian reptiles constitute a significant part of the fauna and little is known about the genetics of the many extinct reptiles from tropical islands. We have reconstructed the near-complete mitochondrial genome of an extinct giant tortoise from the Bahamas (Chelonoidis alburyorum) using an approximately 1000-year-old humerus from a water-filled sinkhole (blue hole) on Great Abaco Island. Phylogenetic and molecular clock analyses place this extinct species as closely related to Galapagos (C. niger complex) and Chaco tortoises (C. chilensis), and provide evidence for repeated overseas dispersal in this tortoise group. The ancestors of extant Chelonoidis species arrived in South America from Africa only after the opening of the Atlantic Ocean and dispersed from there to the Caribbean and the Galapagos Islands. Our results also suggest that the anoxic, thermally buffered environment of blue holes may enhance DNA preservation, and thus are opening a window for better understanding evolution and population history of extinct tropical species, which would likely still exist without human impact. KW - Bahamas KW - biogeography KW - extinction KW - palaeontology KW - phylogeny Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2235 SN - 0962-8452 SN - 1471-2954 VL - 284 PB - The Royal Society CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rojas-Jimenez, Keilor A1 - Fonvielle, Jeremy Andre A1 - Ma, Hua A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter T1 - Transformation of humic substances by the freshwater Ascomycete Cladosporium sp. JF - Waterbird N2 - The ecological relevance of fungi in freshwater ecosystems is becoming increasingly evident, particularly in processing the extensive amounts of polymeric organic carbon such as cellulose, chitin, and humic substances (HS). We isolated several fungal strains from oligo-mesotrophic Lake Stechlin, Brandenburg, Germany, and analyzed their ability to degrade polymeric-like substrates. Using liquid chromatography-organic carbon detection, we determined the byproducts of HS transformation by the freshwater fungus Cladosporium sp. KR14. We demonstrate the ability of this fungus to degrade and simultaneously synthesize HS, and that transformation processes were intensified when iron, as indicator of the occurrence of Fenton reactions, was present in the medium. Furthermore, we showed that structural complexity of the HS produced changed with the availability of other polymeric substances in the medium. Our study highlights the contribution of freshwater Ascomycetes to the transformation of complex organic compounds. As such, it has important implications for understanding the ecological contribution of fungi to aquatic food webs and related biogeochemical cycles. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.10545 SN - 1524-4695 SN - 1938-5390 VL - 40 SP - 282 EP - 288 PB - Waterbird SOC CY - Washington ER - TY - THES A1 - Loiacono, Filomena Vanessa T1 - Transfer of chloroplast RNA editing events between species BT - faithful reconstitution and fateful effects Y1 - 2017 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Weisser, Karin A1 - Stübler, Sabine A1 - Matheis, Walter A1 - Huisinga, Wilhelm T1 - Towards toxicokinetic modelling of aluminium exposure from adjuvants in medicinal products T2 - Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology : official journal of the International Society for Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology N2 - As a potentially toxic agent on nervous system and bone, the safety of aluminium exposure from adjuvants in vaccines and subcutaneous immune therapy (SCIT) products has to be continuously reevaluated, especially regarding concomitant administrations. For this purpose, knowledge on absorption and disposition of aluminium in plasma and tissues is essential. Pharmacokinetic data after vaccination in humans, however, are not available, and for methodological and ethical reasons difficult to obtain. To overcome these limitations, we discuss the possibility of an in vitro-in silico approach combining a toxicokinetic model for aluminium disposition with biorelevant kinetic absorption parameters from adjuvants. We critically review available kinetic aluminium-26 data for model building and, on the basis of a reparameterized toxicokinetic model (Nolte et al., 2001), we identify main modelling gaps. The potential of in vitro dissolution experiments for the prediction of intramuscular absorption kinetics of aluminium after vaccination is explored. It becomes apparent that there is need for detailed in vitro dissolution and in vivo absorption data to establish an in vitro-in vivo correlation (IVIVC) for aluminium adjuvants. We conclude that a combination of new experimental data and further refinement of the Nolte model has the potential to fill a gap in aluminium risk assessment. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. KW - Aluminium KW - Aluminium adjuvants KW - Absorption kinetics KW - Toxicokinetic modelling KW - In vitro dissolution Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yrtph.2017.02.018 SN - 0273-2300 SN - 1096-0295 VL - 88 SP - 310 EP - 321 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER -