Assessment of the effectiveness of natural coral fragmentation as a dispersal mechanism for coral reef‐boring sponges

Eastern Pacific reefs are mostly made up of interlocking coral branches of Pocillopora, which are easily broken by physical forces associated with heavy swells and winds. In this study we investigated the potential of these coral fragments to enable propagation of boring sponges. For this, we quantified the frequency of occurrence and diversity of boring sponges in fragments of corals recently trapped among the branches of live colonies, and later tested the hypothesis that these sponges colonize new branches of corals. Nearly 80% of the coral colonies investigated had coral fragments among their branches, and 69% of these coral fragments contained boring sponges (11 species), some of these sponges in reproduction (23% of them carried oocytes). To test whether sponges inhabiting coral fragments could colonize new branching corals we transplanted them to healthy branches, and to branches whose living tissue was mechanically eliminated to simulate damage produced by grazing and death after bleaching and other causes of coral tissue mortality. All the transplanted coral fragments cemented to each new colony by means of calcification, and of the three sponge species tested (Cliona vermifera, Cliona tropicalis and Thoosa mismalolli) only C. vermifera was able to colonize both new living branches (26.9%) and cleaned branches (65.5%). The apparent capability of C. vermifera to colonize by direct contact may be another key ability of this species to maintain high frequency of occurrence in Pacific coral reefs. However, although C. tropicalis and T. mismalolli were not able to colonize new coral substrata by direct contact, coral fragments have the potential to contribute to local persistence of these sponges and to their dispersal, both by asexual (fragments) and sexual means (transport of sexual products). The present findings may partly explain the current increase of excavating sponges on deteriorating reefs with a large availability of dead branching corals.     

中国种子植物特有科属的分布型

中国种子植物特有属有２６８属，归７８科，其中有８个单种属中国特有科。本文根据特有属的地理分布及与环境的关系，区分为９个分布型和２３个亚型（包括本分布型），对各分布型和亚型进行了统计分析和详细阐述，讨论了分布区的间断和替代现象。提出特有科属分布型的主要特点。     

蒙古扁桃种子雨散布及种子萌发特性研究

以蒙古扁桃（Amygdalus mongolica Maxim）种群和种子为研究材料,通过物理特性、休眠特性、萌发特性的研究,探讨种群致濒因素。结果表明,蒙古扁桃种子比重、体积和千粒重大,散布时间较集中,散布格局是聚集型散布,散布主要依靠自身重力,靠动物散布和水力作用的散布,使种子能传播较远的距离。制约种子萌发的主要因素是种皮障碍和生理休眠（10%）,采用35 ℃条件下处理72 h后机械破除果皮可破除种子休眠,种子低温（2~5 ℃）层积处理能极显著（P <0.01）提高活力,种子变温（5~10 ℃）层积能极显著（P <0.01）提高发芽率和活力,种子萌发对光照不敏感。蒙古扁桃种子休眠较浅,种子萌发所需温度较低,冬前进入土壤库的种子迅速萌发,因不能度过严冬而死亡,是致濒的主要原因。封冻时进入土壤库的种子,在种皮保护下越冬,仍有很高成苗率,开展人工繁育是拯救蒙古扁桃资源的直接措施。     

Identification of the Askja-S Tephra in a rare turlough record from Pant-y-Llyn,south Wales

Tephrochronology and especially crypto-tephrochronology is an established chronological technique employed in a range of depositional environments in Europe and beyond. During the late Quaternary, Icelandic cryptotephra deposits are widely found in palaeorecords across northern latitudes of Europe e.g. Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands but are sporadic in southerly latitudes as distance from Iceland increases. As yet, very few Icelandic cryptotephras have been identified in Wales or southern England which may well reflect the geographical limit of Icelandic tephra distribution. Here, however, we report the discovery of an Icelandic cryptotephra deposit within a sediment sequence retrieved from the Pant-y-Llyn turlough (Carmarthenshire, south Wales), the only known turlough in Britain. Turloughs are groundwater-fed ephemeral lakes associated with limestone bedrock and can accumulate sediments that may yield records suitable for palaeoreconstructions. A discrete peak of glass shards originating from the Askja-S eruption is identified in the sediment record. This discovery extends the distribution of this early Holocene eruption giving new insight into its dispersal patterns and also indicates that sedimentary sequences from sites in these more southerly latitudes are valuable repositories for ash preservation. Furthermore, its discovery within a carbonate-rich sequence provides a minimum age constraint on the timing of sediment accumulation and provides an alternative tool for what is typically a problematic dating environment.     

The ‘suitcase hypothesis’: Can entrainment of meroplankton by eddies provide a pathway for gene flow between Madagascar and KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa?

Similarities in the marine fauna found off the coasts of southern Madagascar and KwaZulu-Natal Province (KZN), South Africa, led to the development of the ‘suitcase project,’ with the aim of establishing whether eddies that form off southern Madagascar may package and transport biological material across the Mozambique Channel, facilitating connectivity and gene flow. Meroplankton (larval stages of fishes and benthic invertebrates) were collected on the Madagascan shelf and along a transect through a cyclonic eddy in the Mozambique Channel. The samples were analysed using microscopy and DNA barcoding, seeking to identify species known to be common to both the southeast coast of Madagascar and the east coast of South Africa and thereby to reveal potential indicators of connectivity between these regions. The greatest zooplankton biovolume in the upper 200 m occurred on the shelf, followed by in the western part of the eddy and in the region outside the eddy to the west, and was lowest in the region outside the eddy to the east. The meroplankton were dominated by taxa of coastal origin and these were also most abundant on the shelf and in the western part of the eddy, with the lowest abundances in the region outside the eddy to the east. The findings show greater zooplankton biovolumes and larval abundances and the presence of reef-associated larval assemblages on the Madagascan shelf and along the transect through the cyclonic eddy, providing support for the suitcase hypothesis that planktonic organisms are entrained within eddies as they propagate south-westwards of the Madagascan shelf.     

What Determines the Distribution of Coastal Hydrobiid Mudsnails Within North-Western Europe?

The three north-west European species of Hydrobia are often partially segregated along salinity gradients and/or sympatric in the nontidal eastern Danish waters and Baltic Sea, but are rarely sympatric and are confined either to nontidal coastal lagoons ( Hydrobia ventrosa and Hydrobia neglecta ) or to the marine/estuarine intertidal zone ( Hydrobia ulvae ) along the macrotidal Atlantic and North Sea coasts. Significant interspecific competition has been found in Danish waters but not elsewhere in the Atlantic and North-Sea Europe. The two nontidal species and H. ulvae also possess contrasting reproductive strategies. The roles of life-history strategy, interspecific competition and between-habitat dispersal in restricting these mudsnails to their differing habitats are evaluated in the light of these and other findings. It is concluded that all are likely to be relevant, especially dispersal in maintaining and interspecific competition in opposing, mixed populations in the Kattegat-Baltic, and life-history strategy in maintaining the lagoonal versus intertidal dichotomy in the rest of north-west Europe. This dichotomy prevents segregation of species along common salinity gradients outside the Baltic region and restricts potential interspecific competition to within lagoons, where H. ulvae is at a recruitment disadvantage.     

Spatial processes determine planktonic diatom metacommunity structure of headwater streams

Headwater streams are interesting ecological systems for studies of metacommunities given their high degrees of isolation, unidirectionality of water flow and hierarchical organization in the drainage network. In addition, for passively dispersing aquatic organisms (e.g. planktonic diatoms), connectivity between sites is unidirectional, which implies a higher isolation of headwaters, leading to a greater dispersal limitation between streams. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relative importance of local environmental (i.e., physicochemical variables) and spatial (i.e., distance between sites) components to the planktonic diatom community in 28 headwater streams of the Cerrado, central region of Brazil. Due the fact that each sampling point was located in a different headwater stream, we expected that spatial components (a proxy for diatom dispersal) were more important than local environmental conditions to the structure of the diatom metacommunity. We found 51 morphospecies of diatoms (Bacillariophyceae). The community composition of diatoms showed strong spatial variation, which was also indicated by high beta diversity (mainly contributed by the turnover component). The variation in diatom community composition, species richness, total density, and Local Contribution to Beta Diversity (LCBD) of headwaters streams was explained solely by spatial factors. Based on these results, we inferred that due to dispersal limitation, the diatom communities of these headwaters tend to show distinct species composition, with high species turnover among the local communities. We highlight the importance of headwater streams as reservoirs of biodiversity for a riverine diatom metacommunity.