- Topic:Biodiversity
The Hierarchy-of-Hypotheses approach: a synthesis method for enhancing theory development in ecology and evolution
In the current era of Big Data, synthesis tools are critical means to handle the deluge of information. The hierarchy-of-hypotheses (HoH) approach is such a tool that helps to (a) organize evidence, (b) organize theory and (c) closely connect evidence to theory. In this paper, the authors outline the HoH approach and offer guidance on how to apply it, using examples from ecology and evolution.
Combined effects of life‐history traits and human impact on extinction risk of freshwater megafauna
Freshwater megafauna are vulnerable to extinction, with over 50% of all classified species considered as threatened on the IUCN Red List. The authors found that human impact and traits related to species’ recovery potential including life span, age at maturity, and fecundity jointly determine their extinction risk. In addition, 17 out of 49 unclassified species were predicted to be threatened.
Safeguarding freshwater life beyond 2020: recommendations for the new global biodiversity framework from the European experience
The year 2020 marked the end of the "UN Decade of Biodiversity". However, the final UN report showed that none of the 20 Aichi-Biodiversity Targets, agreed in 2010, have been achieved. Recognizing the perilous state of freshwater biodiversity, a research team led by IGB has issued 14 recommendations for political follow-up agreements on the protection of biological diversity.
Revisiting global trends in freshwater insect biodiversity
The authors commented on a study (van Klink et al. 2020) on trends in insect biomass and abundance, and argue why they consider the data collected for freshwater to be non-representative and why the results shown there should not be considered indicative of an overall improvement in the condition of freshwater ecosystems.
Projecting the continental accumulation of alien species through to 2050
An international team including Jonathan Jeschke provide the first global quantitative projections of future trajectories of alien species numbers. Based on a new model and assuming a business-as-usual scenario, they project that the number of alien species will increase by 36% until 2050 worldwide and by 64% in Europe.
Zooplankton carcasses stimulate microbial turnover of allochthonous particulate organic matter
This study investigated whether the microbial degradation of more refractory organic matter (OM) is stimulated by the addition of well available OM from dead zooplankton. A significantly higher respiration was measured when zooplankton-derived OM was added to ratio of 1:1. Stimulation was stronger in a complex microbial community with eukaryotes than just bacteria.
Mesopelagic microbial carbon production correlates with diversity across different marine particle fractions
The vertical flux of marine snow reduces atmospheric CO2. In particular, particle associated prokaryotes are responsible for organic C-loss. Analysis of prokaryotic heterotrophic production a. species richness in the North Atlantic reveal that C- loss a. associated microbial richness are different with particle fractions. Especially large, fast-sinking particles drive C-flux a. -sequestration.
Drivers of spatio-temporal variation in mosquito submissions to the citizen science project ‘Mückenatlas’
A mosquito monitoring programme was initiated in Germany in 2011, which has been complemented by the citizen science project ‘Mückenatlas’ since 2012. The authors analysed the Mückenatlas dataset to investigate causes of variation in submission numbers and to reveal biases induced by opportunistic data collection.
Speaking their language – Development of a multilingual decision-support tool for communicating invasive species risks to decision makers and stakeholders
Decision-support tools have been developed mostly in English language only. To reduce language-based uncertainty, the “ecology-of-language” paradigm was applied when developing the Aquatic Species Invasiveness Screening Kit (AS-ISK), a decision-support tool that offers 32 languages in which to carry out screenings and communicate outcomes to stakeholders.
Heterozygous, polyploid, giant bacterium, Achromatium, possesses an identical functional inventory worldwide across drastically different ecosystems
The largest freshwater bacterium, Achromatium oxaliferum, is highly flexible in its requirements. The bacterial strains from the different ecosystems do not differ in their gene content, but rather choose what to express.