ABSTRACT
The use of phylogenies in ecology is increasingly common and has broadened our understanding of biological diversity. Ecological sub‐disciplines, particularly conservation, community ecology ...and macroecology, all recognize the value of evolutionary relationships but the resulting development of phylogenetic approaches has led to a proliferation of phylogenetic diversity metrics. The use of many metrics across the sub‐disciplines hampers potential meta‐analyses, syntheses, and generalizations of existing results. Further, there is no guide for selecting the appropriate metric for a given question, and different metrics are frequently used to address similar questions. To improve the choice, application, and interpretation of phylo‐diversity metrics, we organize existing metrics by expanding on a unifying framework for phylogenetic information.
Generally, questions about phylogenetic relationships within or between assemblages tend to ask three types of question: how much; how different; or how regular? We show that these questions reflect three dimensions of a phylogenetic tree: richness, divergence, and regularity. We classify 70 existing phylo‐diversity metrics based on their mathematical form within these three dimensions and identify ‘anchor’ representatives: for α‐diversity metrics these are PD (Faith's phylogenetic diversity), MPD (mean pairwise distance), and VPD (variation of pairwise distances). By analysing mathematical formulae and using simulations, we use this framework to identify metrics that mix dimensions, and we provide a guide to choosing and using the most appropriate metrics. We show that metric choice requires connecting the research question with the correct dimension of the framework and that there are logical approaches to selecting and interpreting metrics. The guide outlined herein will help researchers navigate the current jungle of indices.
Current climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. Species unable to adapt or move will face local or global extinction and this is more likely to happen to species with narrow climatic and ...habitat requirements and limited dispersal abilities, such as amphibians and reptiles. Biodiversity losses are likely to be greatest in global biodiversity hotspots where climate change is fast, such as the Iberian Peninsula. Here we assess the impact of climate change on 37 endemic and nearly endemic herptiles of the Iberian Peninsula by predicting species distributions for three different times into the future (2020, 2050 and 2080) using an ensemble of bioclimatic models and different combinations of species dispersal ability, emission levels and global circulation models. Our results show that species with Atlantic affinities that occur mainly in the North‐western Iberian Peninsula have severely reduced future distributions. Up to 13 species may lose their entire potential distribution by 2080. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that the most critical period for the majority of these species will be the next decade. While there is considerable variability between the scenarios, we believe that our results provide a robust relative evaluation of climate change impacts among different species. Future evaluation of the vulnerability of individual species to climate change should account for their adaptive capacity to climate change, including factors such as physiological climate tolerance, geographical range size, local abundance, life cycle, behavioural and phenological adaptability, evolutionary potential and dispersal ability.
The evaluation of soil erosion rate, particularly in agricultural lands, is a crucial tool for long-term land management planning. This research utilized the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) ...model to simulate soil erosion in a semiarid watershed located in South Portugal. To understand the evolution of the erosive phenomenon over time, soil erosion susceptibility maps for both historical and future periods were created. The historical period exhibited the highest average soil erosion for each land use, followed by the representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 8.5 and 4.5 scenarios. The differences in soil loss between these two RCPs were influenced by the slightly increasing trend of extreme events, particularly notable in RCP 8.5, leading to a higher maximum value of soil erosion. The research highlighted a tendency towards erosion in the agroforestry system known as “montado”, specifically on Leptosols throughout the entire basin. The study confirmed that Leptosols are most susceptible to sediment loss due to their inherent characteristics. Additionally, both “montado” and farmed systems were found to negatively impact soil erosion rates if appropriate antierosion measures are not adopted. This underscores the importance of identifying all factors responsible for land degradation in Mediterranean watersheds. In conclusion, the study highlighted the significance of assessing soil erosion rates in agricultural areas for effective land management planning in the long run. The utilization of the SWAT model and the creation of susceptibility maps provide valuable insights into the erosive phenomenon’s dynamics, urging the implementation of antierosion strategies to protect the soil and combat land degradation in the region.
Integrative and proactive conservation approaches are critical to the long-term persistence of biodiversity. Molecular data can provide important information on evolutionary processes necessary for ...conserving multiple levels of biodiversity (genes, populations, species, and ecosystems). However, molecular data are rarely used to guide spatial conservation decision-making. Here, we bridge the fields of molecular ecology (ME) and systematic conservation planning (SCP) (the ‘why’) to build a foundation for the inclusion of molecular data into spatial conservation planning tools (the ‘how’), and provide a practical guide for implementing this integrative approach for both conservation planners and molecular ecologists. The proposed framework enhances interdisciplinary capacity, which is crucial to achieving the ambitious global conservation goals envisioned for the next decade.
Molecular ecology (ME) and systematic conservation planning (SCP) have seen rapid technological advancements in recent decades, but the use of molecular data to conserve different aspects of biodiversity remains operationally illusive.Here, the core principles of ME and SCP are combined in a novel way, showcasing how themes and corresponding data types from each field can complement each other.A framework, including five practical steps, is provided to guide both molecular ecologists and conservation planners to build systematic conservation plans that effectively integrate evolutionary features.
ABSTRACT
Deserts and arid regions are generally perceived as bare and rather homogeneous areas of low diversity. The Sahara is the largest warm desert in the world and together with the arid Sahel ...displays high topographical and climatic heterogeneity, and has experienced recent and strong climatic oscillations that have greatly shifted biodiversity distribution and community composition. The large size, remoteness and long‐term political instability of the Sahara‐Sahel, have limited knowledge on its biodiversity. However, over the last decade, there have been an increasing number of published scientific studies based on modern geomatic and molecular tools, and broad sampling of taxa of these regions. This review tracks trends in knowledge about biodiversity patterns, processes and threats across the Sahara‐Sahel, and anticipates needs for biodiversity research and conservation. Recent studies are changing completely the perception of regional biodiversity patterns. Instead of relatively low species diversity with distribution covering most of the region, studies now suggest a high rate of endemism and larger number of species, with much narrower and fragmented ranges, frequently limited to micro‐hotspots of biodiversity. Molecular‐based studies are also unravelling cryptic diversity associated with mountains, which together with recent distribution atlases, allows identifying integrative biogeographic patterns in biodiversity distribution. Mapping of multivariate environmental variation (at 1 km × 1 km resolution) of the region illustrates main biogeographical features of the Sahara‐Sahel and supports recently hypothesised dispersal corridors and refugia. Micro‐scale water‐features present mostly in mountains have been associated with local biodiversity hotspots. However, the distribution of available data on vertebrates highlights current knowledge gaps that still apply to a large proportion of the Sahara‐Sahel. Current research is providing insights into key evolutionary and ecological processes, including causes and timing of radiation and divergence for multiple taxa, and associating the onset of the Sahara with diversification processes for low‐mobility vertebrates. Examples of phylogeographic patterns are showing the importance of allopatric speciation in the Sahara‐Sahel, and this review presents a synthetic overview of the most commonly hypothesised diversification mechanisms. Studies are also stressing that biodiversity is threatened by increasing human activities in the region, including overhunting and natural resources prospection, and in the future by predicted global warming. A representation of areas of conflict, landmines, and natural resources extraction illustrates how human activities and regional insecurity are hampering biodiversity research and conservation. Although there are still numerous knowledge gaps for the optimised conservation of biodiversity in the region, a set of research priorities is provided to identify the framework data needed to support regional conservation planning.
By 2030, United Nations members should modernize their manufacturing systems to make them more sustainable and resilient. In machining this includes, managing consciously the type and amounts of ...metalworking fluids (MWFs), as well as the delivery systems. Indeed, shifting from flood cooling with mineral-based emulsions to near-dry methods, such as minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) is crucial to increase sustainability. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the conditions (feed and speed) for Ti6Al4V orthogonal turning where the use of MQL was found to be more effective than flood cooling. To attain that, digital twins were created to study key process responses, such as cutting force, cutting power, specific cutting force, peak tool temperature, chip curling radius, and material removal rate. The numerical database was used to find optimal conditions, which were reproduced experimentally. The friction coefficient, tool-chip contact length, and chip morphology were studied experimentally and used to validate the digital twins. It was observed that the influence of the cutting speed and feed rate was two-folded, as they not only directly impacted the alloy thermo-mechanical response (exerting a more pronounced effect than the use of lubrication) but also played a crucial role in the effectiveness of the MQL system. Indeed, the MQL system performed better when low feed and/or speed were combined. Situated within the broader framework of cleaner production, the research highlights the transformative potential of process virtualization with digital twins in facilitating the planning and adoption of responsible fluid practices in industrial machining, essential for reducing the environmental impact of industrial machining.
•Combines digital twins, DIP, and optimization for accessing sustainable machining.•Addresses literature gap by incorporating MQL-assisted digital twin.•Presents an experimental methodology for modelling MQL mist.•Uses digital microscopy and 3D reconstruction for measuring the cutting edge radius.•The hybrid approach enhances sustainability, productivity, and resilience.
The quantification of realized niche overlap and the integration of species distribution models (SDMs) with calibrated phylogenies to study niche evolution are becoming not only powerful tools to ...understand speciation events, but can also be used as proxies regarding the delimitation of cryptic species. We applied these techniques in order to unravel how the fundamental niche evolved during cladogenesis within the Tarentola mauritanica species-complex. Our results suggest that diversification within this complex, during the Miocene and Pleistocene, is associated with both niche divergence and niche conservatism, with a pattern that varies depending on whether the variables involved are related to the mean or seasonality of temperature and humidity. Moreover, climatic variables related to humidity and temperature seasonality were involved in the niche shift and genetic diversification of the European/North African clade during the Pleistocene and in its maintenance in a fundamental niche distinct from that of the remaining members of the group. This study further highlights the need for a taxonomic revision of the T. mauritanica species-complex.
1. The importance of monitoring biodiversity to detect and understand changes throughout time and to inform management is increasingly recognized. Monitoring schemes should be globally unified, ...spatially integrated across scales, long term, and cost-efficient. 2. We propose a framework to design optimized multispecies-targeted monitoring networks over large areas. The method builds upon previous developments on systematic conservation planning in terms of optimizing resource allocation in space, and comprises seven steps: (a) determine which questions will be addressed, (b) define species to be monitored, (c) compile occurrence data for all defined species, (d) predict the overall distribution of each species, (e) collect relevant environmental data and identify homogeneous strata, (f) set targets for the minimum number of monitoring sites per species and/or stratum and (g) identify optimal monitoring sites. 3. We tested whether the monitoring networks designed with our framework have increased performance when compared to networks obtained with simple-random or stratified-random sampling by using a set of different indicators. To that end, we designed monitoring networks using optimized and non-optimized sampling schemes, applied to a case study in Portugal, where the goal was to design a monitoring network for amphibians and reptiles, to complement the one currently established in Spain. 4. Results allowed us to conclude that monitoring networks designed with our method tend to outperform the non-optimized ones, in terms of higher species diversity (i.e. higher number of species and equity across monitoring sites), higher representation of environmental strata, and particularly higher coverage of rare species, with less survey effort. 5. Synthesis and applications. We developed a framework to allocate monitoring sites for multiple species at broad scales using predictive models and optimization algorithms currently applied in systematic conservation planning. This framework presents field survey cost-efficiency advantages when compared to other standard sampling designs and can significantly contribute to improving the design of monitoring schemes. Thus, we recommend its application to design new multispecies monitoring networks or to extend existing ones.
Connectivity plays a key role in biodiversity conservation as it sustains ecological processes, such as migrations, important for the maintenance of populations. Connectivity is especially relevant ...for species that rely on different realms during their life cycle or use different realms daily or seasonally (multi‐realm species). However, efforts to address conservation across multiple realms have focused on identifying priority areas for conservation in a single realm (mostly marine) while accounting for threats propagating from other realms or single species needs.
Here, we demonstrate how to identify priority areas for conservation across three different realms (freshwater–terrestrial, estuary and marine) for multiple species, including some multi‐realm species, that inhabit or move across the three realms, using the Tagus River (Western Iberian Peninsula), its estuary and nearby marine area as a case study. We integrated multiple types of connectivity in the selection of priority areas for conservation, each of them customised to depict important drivers of movement within each realm and across realms: longitudinal connectivity along rivers or multidimensional connectivity in the estuary and marine realms, guided by currents and depth similarity, respectively. We compared the allocation of priority areas and spatial connectivity achieved under three scenarios: no‐connectivity, within‐realm and cross‐realm connectivity scenarios.
There were differences in the spatial allocation of priority areas across scenarios. The most remarkable difference laid on the connectivity achieved under each scenario, which experienced a threefold increase when considering connectivity across realms, compared to solutions that considered only connectivity within each realm independently. This improvement in connectivity was especially marked for species that occur across different realms. There were, however, trade‐offs between this improvement in connectivity and the increase in the number of planning units selected, especially in the estuary.
Synthesis and applications. Addressing connectivity across realms deserves special attention when planning for the conservation of multi‐realm species to ensure the adequacy of conservation recommendations to respond to the needs of multi‐realm species. Given the potential trade‐offs between enhanced cross‐realm connectivity and total area needed or internal within‐realm connectivity, consideration of cross‐realm connectivity must be cautiously evaluated and integrated in multi‐realm conservation plans.
Addressing connectivity across realms deserves special attention when planning for the conservation of multi‐realm species to ensure the adequacy of conservation recommendations to respond to the needs of multi‐realm species. Given the potential trade‐offs between enhanced cross‐realm connectivity and total area needed or internal within‐realm connectivity, consideration of cross‐realm connectivity must be cautiously evaluated and integrated in multi‐realm conservation plans.
The possibility that a multi-host wildlife reservoir is responsible for maintaining transmission of Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis causing human cutaneous and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis is tested ...by comparative analysis of infection progression and infectiousness to sandflies in rodent host species previously shown to have high natural infection prevalences in both sylvatic or/and peridomestic habitats in close proximity to humans in northeast Brazil.
The clinical and parasitological outcomes, and infectiousness to sandflies, were observed in 54 colonized animals of three species (18 Necromys lasiurus, 18 Nectomys squamipes and 18 Rattus rattus) experimentally infected with high (5.5 × 10(6)/ml) or low (2.8 × 10(5)/ml) dose L. (V.) braziliensis (MBOL/BR/2000/CPqAM95) inoculum. Clinical signs of infection were monitored daily. Whole animal xenodiagnoses were performed 6 months post inoculation using Lutzomyia longipalpis originating from flies caught in Passira, Pernambuco, after this parasite evaluation was performed at necropsy. Heterogeneities in Leishmania parasite loads were measured by quantitative PCR in ear skin, liver and spleen tissues.
All three rodent species proved to establish infection characterized by short-term self-resolving skin lesions, located on ears and tail but not on footpads (one site of inoculation), and variable parasite loads detected in all three tissues with maximum burdens of 8.1 × 10(3) (skin), 2.8 × 10(3) (spleen), and 8.9 × 10(2) (liver). All three host species, 18/18 N. lasiurus, 10/18 N. squamipes and 6/18 R. rattus, also proved infectious to sandflies in cross-sectional study. R. rattus supported significantly lower tissue parasite loads compared to those in N. lasiurus and N. squamipes, and N. lasiurus appeared to be more infectious, on average, than either N. squamipes or R. rattus.
A multi-host reservoir of cutaneous leishmaniasis is indicated in this region of Brazil, though with apparent differences in the competence between the rodent species. The results provide preliminary insights into links between sylvatic and peri-domestic transmission cycles associated with overlaps in the rodent species' ecological niches.
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