What determines the impact of alien birds and mammals in Europe?

An often-cited reason for studying the process of invasion by alien species is that the understanding sought can be used to mitigate the impacts of the invaders. Here, we present an analysis of the correlates of local impacts of established alien bird and mammal species in Europe, using a recently described metric to quantify impact. Large-bodied, habitat generalist bird and mammal species that are widespread in their native range, have the greatest impacts in their alien European ranges, supporting our hypothesis that surrogates for the breadth and the amount of resources a species uses are good indicators of its impact. However, not all surrogates are equally suitable. Impacts are generally greater for mammal species giving birth to larger litters, but in contrast are greater for bird species laying smaller clutches. There is no effect of diet breadth on impacts in birds or mammals. On average, mammals have higher impacts than birds. However, the relationships between impact and several traits show common slopes for birds and mammals, and relationships between impact and body mass and latitude do not differ between birds and mammals. These results may help to anticipate which species would have large impacts if introduced, and so direct efforts to prevent such introductions.

Non-naturalized alien plants receive fewer flower visits than naturalized and native plants in a Swiss botanical garden

Many animal-pollinated plant species have been introduced to non-native regions without their usual pollinators. Nevertheless, some of these alien species managed to establish reproducing naturalized populations, which might negatively affect native plants. Recent studies have shown that many naturalized alien species can readily attract native pollinators. However, it is not known whether alien species that have not established naturalized populations are less successful in attracting pollinators. Therefore, we tested whether flower-visitation rates are lower for non-naturalized aliens than for naturalized alien and native species. We conducted a comparative study on flower visitation of 185 native, 37 naturalized alien and 224 non-naturalized alien plant species in the Botanical Garden of Bern, Switzerland. Our phylogenetically corrected analyses showed that non-naturalized alien species received fewer flower visitors than both naturalized alien and native species. Native, naturalized alien and non-naturalized alien species were visited by similar flower-visitor communities. Furthermore, among the naturalized alien species, the ones with a broader distribution range in Switzerland received a more diverse set of flower visitors. Although it has been suggested that most alien plants can readily integrate into native plant–pollinator networks, we show evidence that the capacity to attract flower visitors in non-native regions is different for naturalized and non-naturalized alien plants. Therefore, we conclude that successful naturalization of alien plants may be related to flower visitation.

Direct and indirect effects of invasion by the alien tree Ailanthus altissima on riparian plant communities and ecosystem multifunctionality

Most existing studies addressing the effects of invasive species on biodiversity focus on species richness ignoring better indicators of biodiversity and better predictors of ecosystem functioning such as the diversity of evolutionary histories (phylodiversity). Moreover, no previous study has separated the direct effect of alien plants on multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously (multifunctionality) from those indirect ones mediated by the decrease on biodiversity caused by alien plants. We aimed to analyze direct and indirect effects, mediated or not by its effect on biodiversity, of the invasive tree Ailanthus altissima on ecosystem multifunctionality of riparian habitats under Mediterranean climate. We measured vegetation attributes (species richness and phylodiversity) and several surrogates of ecosystem functioning (understory plant biomass, soil enzyme activities, available phosphorous and organic matter) in plots infested by A. altissima and in control (non-invaded) ones. We used structural equation modelling to tease apart the direct and indirect effects of A. altissima on ecosystem multifunctionality. Our results suggest that lower plant species richness, phylodiversity and multifunctionality were associated to the presence of A. altissima. When analyzing each function separately, we found that biodiversity has the opposite effect of the alien plant on all the different functions measured, therefore reducing the strength of the effect (either positive or negative) of A. altissima on them. This is one of the few existing studies addressing the effect of invasive species on phylodiversity and also studying the effect of invasive species on multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously.

Der Bericht der "Alien Immigration-Kommission"

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La palabra del antropólogo es la palabra que nombra al mundo : Construcción de la cultura alien en El nombre del mundo es bosque de Ursula K

Fil: Lozano, Patricia Lilián. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

La palabra del antropólogo es la palabra que nombra al mundo : Construcción de la cultura alien en El nombre del mundo es bosque de Ursula K

Fil: Lozano, Patricia Lilián. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

La palabra del antropólogo es la palabra que nombra al mundo : Construcción de la cultura alien en El nombre del mundo es bosque de Ursula K

Fil: Lozano, Patricia Lilián. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

Further expansion of the alien seaweed Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla (Sonder) Verlaque, Huisman & Procacini (Ulvophyceae, Bryopsidales) in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Date of Acceptance: 27/04/2015 We are grateful to Andreas Antoniou (Dep. of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development & Environment, Cyprus) for his assistance in the preparation of the illustrations. We would also like to thank Dr. Sotiris Orfanidis (NAGREF – Fisheries Research Institute, Kavala, Greece) for his valuable advice and both the DFMR and HSR / HCMR Rhodes crew and George Hatiris for their help in samplings. Special thanks are due to Dinos Leonidou (SeaQuest Divers Cyprus) for accompanying the deep dive for sampling Caulerpa at Cavo Greco. We are grateful to the Total Foundation (Paris) for its funding support to this study within the framework of the project “Brown algal ecology and biodiversity in the eastern Mediterranean Sea” and to the MASTS pooling initiative (Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland, funded by the Scottish Funding Council and contributing institutions; grant reference HR09011).

Highly expressed and alien genes of the Synechocystis genome

Comparisons of codon frequencies of genes to several gene classes are used to characterize highly expressed and alien genes on the Synechocystis PCC6803 genome. The primary gene classes include the ensemble of all genes (average gene), ribosomal protein (RP) genes, translation processing factors (TF) and genes encoding chaperone/degradation proteins (CH). A gene is predicted highly expressed (PHX) if its codon usage is close to that of the RP/TF/CH standards but strongly deviant from the average gene. Putative alien (PA) genes are those for which codon usage is significantly different from all four classes of gene standards. In Synechocystis, 380 genes were identified as PHX. The genes with the highest predicted expression levels include many that encode proteins vital for photosynthesis. Nearly all of the genes of the RP/TF/CH gene classes are PHX. The principal glycolysis enzymes, which may also function in CO2 fixation, are PHX, while none of the genes encoding TCA cycle enzymes are PHX. The PA genes are mostly of unknown function or encode transposases. Several PA genes encode polypeptides that function in lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis. Both PHX and PA genes often form significant clusters (operons). The proteins encoded by PHX and PA genes are described with respect to functional classifications, their organization in the genome and their stoichiometry in multi-subunit complexes.

Predicted highly expressed and putative alien genes of Deinococcus radiodurans and implications for resistance to ionizing radiation damage

Predicted highly expressed (PHX) and putative alien genes determined by codon usages are characterized in the genome of Deinococcus radiodurans (strain R1). Deinococcus radiodurans (DEIRA) can survive very high doses of ionizing radiation that are lethal to virtually all other organisms. It has been argued that DEIRA is endowed with enhanced repair systems that provide protection and stability. However, predicted expression levels of DNA repair proteins with the exception of RecA tend to be low and do not distinguish DEIRA from other prokaryotes. In this paper, the capability of DEIRA to resist extreme doses of ionizing and UV radiation is attributed to an unusually high number of PHX chaperone/degradation, protease, and detoxification genes. Explicitly, compared with all current complete prokaryotic genomes, DEIRA contains the greatest number of PHX detoxification and protease proteins. Other sources of environmental protection against severe conditions of UV radiation, desiccation, and thermal effects for DEIRA are the several S-layer (surface structure) PHX proteins. The top PHX gene of DEIRA is the multifunctional tricarboxylic acid (TCA) gene aconitase, which, apart from its role in respiration, also alerts the cell to oxidative damage.