Onthophagus taurus Increases Soil Microbes Associated with Nutrient Cycling in California Pastureland Soils
Jaw size variation is associated with a novel craniofacial function for galanin receptor 2 in an adaptive radiation of p...
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...
Invasive plant species interact with drought to shift key functions and families in the native rhizosphere
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...
Long-term integrated crop-livestock grazing stimulates soil ecosystem carbon flux, increasing subsoil carbon storage in ...
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...
Repeated manure inputs to a forage production soil increase microbial biomass and diversity and select for lower abundan...
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...
Heavy metal contamination collapses trophic interactions in the soil microbial food web via bottom-up regulation
...
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...
Building use‐inspired species distribution models: Using multiple data types to examine and improve model performance
...
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 ...
Quantifying the effectiveness of shaded fuel breaks from ground-based, aerial, and spaceborne observations
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...
Soil carbon storage and compositional responses of soil microbial communities under perennial grain IWG vs. annual wheat...
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 ...
Multi-locus genomic signatures of local adaptation to snow across the landscape in California populations of a willow le...
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...
