Onthophagus taurus Increases Soil Microbes Associated with Nutrient Cycling in California Pastureland Soils
Understanding the genetic basis of novel adaptations in new species is a fundamental question in biology. Here we demonstrate a new role for galr2 in vertebrate craniofacial development using an adaptive radiation of trophic specialist pupfishes endemic to San Salvador Island, Bahamas. We confirmed the loss of a putative Sry transcription factor bi...
Abstract: Background and aims: Interactions between species invasions and climate change have the potential to drive changes in plant communities more than either factor alone. One pathway through which these effects can occur is via changes to the rhizosphere microbial community. Invasive plants can alter these microbial communities affecting nati...
The strategic use of ruminant grazing in perennial cropland is steadily increasing throughout Mediterranean perennial agroecosystems. Integrated sheep-vineyard (ISV) management, where small ruminant livestock graze on understory vegetation, is viewed by some practitioners as a feasible transition opportunity to facilitate less petrochemically inten...
Adding manure to croplands restores carbon and nutrients in depleted soils, while addressing a waste disposal need. This practice depends on the abundance and activity of microbial communities to break down manure inputs, which provide carbon for microbial growth and release nutrients for plant and microbial uptake. In a 2-year field study, we meas...
The soil microbial food web plays a vital role in soil health, nutrient cycling and agricultural productivity. Notably, there is a distinct paucity of information regarding the effects of heavy metal contamination on trophic-level interactions within the microbial food web of agricultural soils, which experience appreciably metal contamination worl...
Species distribution models (SDMs) are becoming an important tool for marine conservation and management. Yet while there is an increasing diversity and volume of marine biodiversity data for training SDMs, little practical guidance is available on how to leverage distinct data types to build robust models. We explored the effect of different data ...
Shaded fuel breaks are treatments that aim to mitigate wildfires by establishing linearly aligned locations where wildfire suppression efforts can be more effective at stopping wildfires. Despite the potential of fuel breaks to alter fire behavior, there have been limited quantitative assessments of their effectiveness following exposure to wildfir...
The introduction of novel perennial grains into annual row crop rotations is proposed to increase soil ecosystem services and enhance plant-soil-microbial linkages because perennials provide deeper root systems and more continuous ground cover than annuals. While soil microbial communities underpin many ecosystem services, we know little about how ...
Organisms living in mountains contend with extreme climatic conditions, including short growing seasons and long winters with extensive snow cover. Anthropogenic climate change is driving unprecedented, rapid warming of montane regions across the globe, resulting in reduced winter snowpack. Loss of snow as a thermal buffer may have serious conseque...