Prince Degny Vale, Ernest Dadis Bush Fotsing, Samedi Jean Pierre Mucyo, Williams Danladi Abwage, Serge Ely Dibakou, Kouame Paul N'Goran, Tenekwetche Sop, Yntze van der Hoek, Stefanie Heinicke, Lars Kulik, Inza Kone, Hjalmar Kuehl
{"title":"Great ape abundance and per capita carbon storage in their habitats.","authors":"Prince Degny Vale, Ernest Dadis Bush Fotsing, Samedi Jean Pierre Mucyo, Williams Danladi Abwage, Serge Ely Dibakou, Kouame Paul N'Goran, Tenekwetche Sop, Yntze van der Hoek, Stefanie Heinicke, Lars Kulik, Inza Kone, Hjalmar Kuehl","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02327-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02327-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The ecological importance of great apes is widely recognised, yet few studies have highlighted the role of protecting great apes' habitats in mitigating climate change, particularly through carbon sequestration. This study used GIS tools to extract data from various sources, including the International Union for Conservation of Nature database, to examine carbon quantity and great ape abundance in African great ape habitats. Subsequently, we employed a generalised linear model to assess the relationship between locally measured great ape populations abundance and carbon storage across areas with different levels of protection. Our findings showed a positive relationship between the abundance of great apes in their habitats and carbon storage, likely since conservation efforts in great apes habitats may be strengthened with higher great ape populations. The results reveal that gorilla habitats exhibited higher carbon storage than chimpanzee habitats. Specifically, the areas inhabited by gorillas are associated with a mean increase of 27.47 t/ha in carbon storage. Additionally, we observed a positive association between highly protected areas and carbon storage within great ape habitats. Our model indicates that highly protected areas increase the mean carbon stored by 1.13 t/ha compared to medium protected areas, which show a reduction of 15.49 t/ha. This highlights the critical role that protected areas play in both species conservation and carbon sequestration, contributing significantly to climate mitigation efforts. Furthermore, our study underscores the significant contribution of great ape habitats, extending beyond protected areas, to carbon storage, highlighting the potential for synergistic conservation strategies targeting both great apes and carbon sequestration. Protecting great apes is vital for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and boosting tropical forest carbon sinks. Since nearly 90% of great apes live outside protected areas, targeted conservation in these low-protected areas is also crucial.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"137"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11542465/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142607617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Livia Sinigaglia, L Baptista, C Alves, F Feldmann, C Sacchetti, C Rupprecht, T Vijayan, E Martín-González, S P Ávila, A M Santos, M Curto, H Meimberg
{"title":"Oceanic islands act as drivers for the genetic diversity of marine species: Cardita calyculata (Linnaeus, 1758) in the NE Atlantic as a case-study.","authors":"Livia Sinigaglia, L Baptista, C Alves, F Feldmann, C Sacchetti, C Rupprecht, T Vijayan, E Martín-González, S P Ávila, A M Santos, M Curto, H Meimberg","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02322-2","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02322-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Geographic distribution, as well as evolutionary and biogeographic processes and patterns of marine invertebrate benthic species are strongly shaped by dispersal ability during the life cycle. Remote oceanic islands lie at the brink of complex biotic and abiotic interactions which have significantly influenced the biodiversity patterns we see today. The interaction between geological environmental change and taxon-specific dispersal modes can influence species evolutionary patterns, eventually delimiting species-specific biogeographic regions. In this study, we compare the population genetic patterns of the marine bivalve Cardita calyculata in the northeast Atlantic, discussing the role of Macaronesian islands during past climatic cycles. The genetic structure and diversity patterns were outlined based on SSR-GBAS loci of 165 individuals and on the mitochondrial COI marker of 22 individuals from the Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores and the Mediterranean. The highly structured genetic pattern found among regions and within archipelagos suggests the central role of oceanic islands in promoting the divergence of the species in both the NE Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The high degree of divergence in the COI dataset (> 7%) suggests the existence of potential cryptic speciation that needs to be further explored with a more comprehensive sampling. Such patterns are only congruent with a scenario where C. calyculata populations were maintained during glacial/interglacial cycles, supporting the role of the studied archipelagos as drivers of diversity for marine biota. We stress the importance of developing studies for species with various life history and dispersal modes. In such a way, a more profound understanding of the biogeographic and evolutionary significance of oceanic islands can catalyse directed conservation efforts, especially in the context of the ongoing climate crisis.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"138"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11542354/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142607618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Joshua Pritchard Cairns, Pedro Henrique Negreiros de Bragança, Josie South
{"title":"A systematic review of poeciliid fish invasions in Africa.","authors":"Joshua Pritchard Cairns, Pedro Henrique Negreiros de Bragança, Josie South","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02321-3","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02321-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>This review compiles and synthesises the existing information concerning non-native poeciliid introductions to Africa. The recent upsurge in research on invasive poeciliids has revealed their widespread occurrence in Africa.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Within the 87 relevant articles, 74% reported on the presence of Gambusia spp., 33% on P. reticulata, 19% on X. hellerii, 11% on X. maculatus, and 5% on other ornamental poeciliids. Overall, poeciliids have been documented as introduced to 25 different countries in Africa. With Gambusia spp. being introduced to 16 countries and P. reticulata to 19 countries. Our results are representative of the current state of research on invasive poeciliids in Africa. There was a concentration of studies in South Africa, with limited research elsewhere. Current distribution data is relatively patchy, although widespread surveys of multiple river systems in Morocco and South Africa, confirmed widespread and abundant established poeciliid populations. The ecological impacts of invasive poeciliids in Africa remain understudied but evidence indicates deleterious effects on native fish, invertebrates, and amphibians, many of which are critically endangered or endemic.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Current research is limited in reporting from certain countries and ecological impacts. An increased effort to monitor species composition in vulnerable waterbodies, especially in the many African countries where invasive poeciliids are reported, should be completed to reveal further established populations. Future research should prioritise quantifying the ecological impacts of invasive poeciliids in the field and identifying both vulnerable and resistant native ecosystems to guide future management decisions.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"136"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11539733/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142592407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Terraces in species tree inference from gene trees.","authors":"Mursalin Habib, Kowshic Roy, Saem Hasan, Atif Hasan Rahman, Md Shamsuzzoha Bayzid","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02309-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02309-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A terrace in a phylogenetic tree space is a region where all trees contain the same set of subtrees, due to certain patterns of missing data among the taxa sampled, resulting in an identical optimality score for a given data set. This was first investigated in the context of phylogenetic tree estimation from sequence alignments using maximum likelihood (ML) and maximum parsimony (MP). It was later extended to the species tree inference problem from a collection of gene trees, where a set of equally optimal species trees was referred to as a \"pseudo\" species tree terrace which does not consider the topological proximity of the trees in terms of the induced subtrees resulting from certain patterns of missing data. In this study, we mathematically characterize species tree terraces and investigate the mathematical properties and conditions that lead multiple species trees to induce/display an identical set of locus-specific subtrees owing to missing data. We report that species tree terraces are agnostic to gene tree heterogeneity. Therefore, we introduce and characterize a special type of gene tree topology-aware terrace which we call \"peak terrace\". Moreover, we empirically investigated various challenges and opportunities related to species tree terraces through extensive empirical studies using simulated and real biological data. We demonstrate the prevalence of species tree terraces and the resulting ambiguity created for tree search algorithms. Remarkably, our findings indicate that the identification of terraces could potentially lead to advances that enhance the accuracy of summary methods and provide reasonably accurate branch support.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"135"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11533290/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142577186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Comparative analysis of chloroplast genomes in ten holly (Ilex) species: insights into phylogenetics and genome evolution.","authors":"Jiaxin Hu, Daoliang Yan, Huwei Yuan, Jianhong Zhang, Bingsong Zheng","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02318-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02318-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In order to clarify the chloroplast genomes and structural features of ten Ilex species and provide insights into the phylogeny and genome evolution of the genus Ilex, we conducted a comparative analysis of chloroplast genomes using bioinformatics methods. The chloroplast genomes of ten Ilex species were obtained, and their structural features and variations were compared. The results indicated that all chloroplast genomes in the genus Ilex exhibit a double-stranded circular structure, with sizes ranging from 157,356 to 158,018 bp, showing minimal differences in size. The chloroplast genomes of the ten Ilex species have a relatively conservative gene count, with a total of 134 to 135 genes, including 88 or 89 protein-coding genes, and a conserved number of 8 rRNA genes. Each chloroplast genome contains 3 to 123 SSR (Simple Sequence Repeat) sites, predominantly composed of mononucleotide and trinucleotide repeats, with no detection of pentanucleotide or hexanucleotide repeats. The variation in dispersed repeat sequences among Ilex species is minimal, with a total repeat sequence number ranging from 1 to 14, concentrated in the length range of 30 to 42 base pairs. The expansion and contraction of chloroplast genome boundaries among Ilex species are relatively stable, with only minor variations observed in individual species. Variations in non-coding regions are more pronounced than those in coding regions, with the variability in the Large Single Copy region (LSC) being the highest, while the variability in the Inverted Repeat region A (IRa) is the lowest. The divergence time among Ilex species was estimated using the MCMC-tree module, revealing the evolutionary relationships among these species, their common ancestors, and their differentiation throughout the evolutionary process. The research findings provide a valuable reference for the systematic study and molecular marker development of Ilex plants.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"133"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11526546/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142549529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sequencing the orthologs of human autosomal forensic short tandem repeats provides individual- and species-level identification in African great apes.","authors":"Ettore Fedele, Jon H Wetton, Mark A Jobling","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02324-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02324-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Great apes are a global conservation concern, with anthropogenic pressures threatening their survival. Genetic analysis can be used to assess the effects of reduced population sizes and the effectiveness of conservation measures. In humans, autosomal short tandem repeats (aSTRs) are widely used in population genetics and for forensic individual identification and kinship testing. Traditionally, genotyping is length-based via capillary electrophoresis (CE), but there is an increasing move to direct analysis by massively parallel sequencing (MPS). An example is the ForenSeq DNA Signature Prep Kit, which amplifies multiple loci including 27 aSTRs, prior to sequencing via Illumina technology. Here we assess the applicability of this human-based kit in African great apes. We ask whether cross-species genotyping of the orthologs of these loci can provide both individual and (sub)species identification.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The ForenSeq kit was used to amplify and sequence aSTRs in 52 individuals (14 chimpanzees; 4 bonobos; 16 western lowland, 6 eastern lowland, and 12 mountain gorillas). The orthologs of 24/27 human aSTRs amplified across species, and a core set of thirteen loci could be genotyped in all individuals. Genotypes were individually and (sub)species identifying. Both allelic diversity and the power to discriminate (sub)species were greater when considering STR sequences rather than allele lengths. Comparing human and African great-ape STR sequences with an orangutan outgroup showed general conservation of repeat types and allele size ranges. Variation in repeat array structures and a weak relationship with the known phylogeny suggests stochastic origins of mutations giving rise to diverse imperfect repeat arrays. Interruptions within long repeat arrays in African great apes do not appear to reduce allelic diversity.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Orthologs of most human aSTRs in the ForenSeq DNA Signature Prep Kit can be analysed in African great apes. Primer redesign would reduce observed variability in amplification across some loci. MPS of the orthologs of human loci provides better resolution for both individual and (sub)species identification in great apes than standard CE-based approaches, and has the further advantage that there is no need to limit the number and size ranges of analysed loci.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"134"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11526555/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142559730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Changping Jiang, Fengming Liu, Jiao Qin, Nicolas Hubert, Bin Kang, Liangliang Huang, Yunrong Yan
{"title":"DNA barcode reference library of the fish larvae and eggs of the South China Sea: taxonomic effectiveness and geographic structure.","authors":"Changping Jiang, Fengming Liu, Jiao Qin, Nicolas Hubert, Bin Kang, Liangliang Huang, Yunrong Yan","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02316-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02316-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Fish early-stages constitute useful indicators of the states of marine ecosystems, as well as important fishery resources. Given the spectacular phenotypic changes during ontogeny, and the paucity of diagnostic morphological characters at the species level, the identification of fish early-stages is a challenging task. DNA barcoding, the use of the mitochondrial gene of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) as an internal species tag, opened new perspectives for the identifications of both larval fish and fish eggs. However, the accuracy of the identifications assisted by DNA barcoding are dependent of the completeness of the DNA barcode reference libraries used to assigned unknown sequences to known species. Here, we built a DNA barcode reference library for 113 species of larval fish and 85 species of fish eggs involving the production of 741 newly generated DNA barcodes from South China Sea (63 localities). Together with 514 DNA barcodes mined from Genbank for 116 species from the South China Sea regions, a reference library including 1255 DNA barcodes for 308 species (248 locations) was assembled. The present study emphasizes the importance of integrating DNA barcoding to large scale inventories of early stages, as DNA-based species delimitation analyses delimited 305 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) and multiple cases of discordance with morphological identifications were detected. Cryptic diversity is detected with 14 species displaying two MOTUs and a total of 23 species were lumped into 11 MOTUs due to low interspecific divergence and/or mixed lineages.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"132"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11514968/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142523839","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Daniel Sebastián Rodríguez-León, Aleksandar Uzunov, Cecilia Costa, Dylan Elen, Leonidas Charistos, Thomas Galea, Martin Gabel, Ricarda Scheiner, M Alice Pinto, Thomas Schmitt
{"title":"Deciphering the variation in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of six European honey bee subspecies.","authors":"Daniel Sebastián Rodríguez-León, Aleksandar Uzunov, Cecilia Costa, Dylan Elen, Leonidas Charistos, Thomas Galea, Martin Gabel, Ricarda Scheiner, M Alice Pinto, Thomas Schmitt","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02325-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02325-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) subspecies exhibit local adaptive traits that evolved in response to the different environments that characterize their native distribution ranges. An important trait is the cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profile, which helps to prevent desiccation and mediate communication. We compared the CHC profiles of six European subspecies (A. m. mellifera, A. m. carnica, A. m. ligustica, A. m. macedonica, A. m. iberiensis, and A. m. ruttneri) and investigated potential factors shaping their composition. We did not find evidence of adaptation of the CHC profiles of the subspecies to the climatic conditions in their distribution range. Subspecies-specific differences in CHC composition might be explained by phylogenetic constraints or genetic drift. The CHC profiles of foragers were more subspecies-specific than those of nurse bees, while the latter showed more variation in their CHC profiles, likely due to the lower desiccation stress exerted by the controlled environment inside the hive. The strongest profile differences appeared between nurse bees and foragers among all subspecies, suggesting an adaptation to social task and a role in communication. Foragers also showed an increase in the relative amount of alkanes in their profiles compared to nurses, indicating adaptation to climatic conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"131"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11520070/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142523838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thies H Büscher, Stanislav N Gorb, Monika J B Eberhard
{"title":"Diversity of attachment systems in heelwalkers (Mantophasmatodea) - highly specialized, but uniform.","authors":"Thies H Büscher, Stanislav N Gorb, Monika J B Eberhard","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02319-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12862-024-02319-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Heelwalkers possess a highly modified tarsal attachment system. All extant species lift the distalmost tarsomere permanently off the substrate and primarily use their euplantulae for locomotion. The combination of a smooth adhesive pad (arolium) on the pretarsus and fibrillary attachment pads on the euplantulae offers valuable insights for translational approaches, but its infra-order diversity remains unexplored.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We explored the morphology of the tarsal attachment apparatus of Mantophasmatodea based on a representative taxon sampling spanning a large fraction of species of this group and compared morphological differences in the specialized morphology of this system across species and sexes. Our scanning electron microscope investigation of the tarsi of 11 species (52% of all described extant species) revealed an overall very consistent ground pattern and almost no specific adaptations. There are only minor, but mostly clade-specific differences in the shape of the adhesive setae on the tarsal euplantulae and in the morphology and density of the acanthae on the pretarsal arolium. Both features differ primarily between Austrophasmatidae in comparison to the remaining Mantophasmatodea taxa.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>We conclude that the strong specialization of the mantophasmatodean tarsal attachment sufficiently copes with the diversity of substrates the insects are exposed to.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"130"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11515392/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142514613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zheng Xiong, Zongsheng Xie, Haochen Li, Chunyan Peng, Jixin Jia, Xiaobo Liu, Jingjing Song, Ying Liu, Yuyue Qin, Bin Gong
{"title":"The influence of temperature and river runoff on phytoplankton community diversity in Beibu Gulf: insight from 18 S rDNA metabarcoding analysis.","authors":"Zheng Xiong, Zongsheng Xie, Haochen Li, Chunyan Peng, Jixin Jia, Xiaobo Liu, Jingjing Song, Ying Liu, Yuyue Qin, Bin Gong","doi":"10.1186/s12862-024-02315-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-024-02315-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Sanniang Bay (SNB) and Dafeng River (DFR), located in the northern Beibu Gulf, is well-known as one of the eight habitats for humpback dolphins in China. This region is representative of typical estuarine and bay ecosystems and produce complex hydrodynamic seawater conditions. Moreover, anthropogenic pressure, such as eutrophication and large-scale infrastructure projects, have caused ongoing habitat deterioration and loss. It is urgent to know the phytoplankton community and their relationships with environmental factors in this region.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In this study, we assessed the diversity and assembly mechanisms of phytoplankton communities, as well as their relationship with the physicochemical characteristics of seawater in SNB and DFR region using 18 S rDNA metabarcoding analysis. The results showed that seasonal changes markedly impacted the alpha diversity of the phytoplankton community. From March to July, with the average temperature increasing from 25.2℃ to 28.1℃,the Shannon or Species Richness were negatively correlated with temperature. During hot season (in Sep, average temperature 32.1℃), phytoplankton diversity was negatively correlated with nutrients (NH<sub>4 </sub><sup>+</sup>, NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup>, PO<sub>4</sub><sup>3-</sup>, TN). Additionally, during the rainy season, the Bray-Curtis similarity of the phytoplankton community was significantly lower than during the dry season. In March, the distance among the sampling sites was most strongly and positively correlated with the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity. Stochastic processes, specifically dispersal limitation and ecological drift, are the primary drivers of community assembly, while deterministic assembly processes (mainly heterogeneous selection) contribute a relatively minor portion (< 17%).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Rising temperature diminished the diversity of phytoplankton in SNB and DFR, and nutrient inputs and eutrophication in estuarine areas will aggravate the loss of phytoplankton diversity.</p>","PeriodicalId":93910,"journal":{"name":"BMC ecology and evolution","volume":"24 1","pages":"129"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11494792/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142514614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}