Land‐use change is reshaping terrestrial ecosystems world‐wide and is recognized as a key driver of biodiversity loss with negative consequences on ecosystem functioning. Understanding how species use resources across landscapes is essential for the design of effective management strategies. Despite recent advances in network ecology, there is still a gap between theory and applied ecological science, and we lack the information to manage entire landscapes to maximize biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service delivery. While several pioneering approaches have tried to link ecological networks and conservation science, applied ecologists still struggle to incorporate these models into research due to their inherent complexity. We propose the application of bipartite networks principles to create species–habitat networks. This approach explicitly links multiple species and habitat resources, provides tools to estimate the importance of particular species or specific habitat in a given landscape, and quantifies emerging properties of entire habitat networks. Most existing metrics used to study properties of bipartite ecological networks can easily be adapted to investigate species–habitat relationships. The tool use is relatively simple and does not require advanced computational expertise. Synthesis and applications. One of the biggest challenges in applied ecology is managing multiple habitats for the effective conservation of multiple species. One key advantage of this proposed approach is that the scale of the derived ecological information could match the scale of landscape management interventions. The versatility, visualization power and ease of interpretation of these networks will enable application of the species–habitat network concept to a wide array of real‐world problems, such as multispecies conservation, habitat restoration, ecosystem services management or invasion ecology. In particular, species–habitat networks could be applied to identify optimal landscape compositions and configurations to design effective interventions at the landscape scale. This approach also enables the detection of emerging network properties that could also be used to test the effects of large‐scale drivers of global change upon ecosystem structure and stability.
Yield production in flowering crops depends on both nutrient availability and pollination, but their relative roles and potential interactions are poorly understood. We measured pollination benefits to yield in sunflower, combining a gradient in insect pollination (0, 25, 50, 100%) with a continuous gradient in nitrogen (N) fertilization (from 0 to 150 kg N ha) in an experiment under realistic soil field conditions. We found that pollination benefits to yield were maximized at intermediate levels of N availability, bolstering yield by approximately 25% compared with complete pollinator exclusion. Interestingly, we found little decrease in yield when insect visits were reduced by 50%, indicating that the incremental contribution of pollination by insects to yield is greater when the baseline pollination service provision is very low. Our findings provide strong evidence for interactive, nonlinear effects of pollination and resource availability on seed production. Our results support ecological intensification as a promising strategy for sustainable management of agroecosystems. In particular, we found optimal level of pollination to potentially compensate for lower N applications.
In the present work Trichodina reticulata and T. nobilis (Ciliophora: Trichodinidae) are morphologically characterised from ornamental freshwater fish culture in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The prevalence of infection and a list of comparative measurements are discussed. We examined "southern platyfish" Xiphophorus maculatus (n = 35), "goldfish" Carassius auratus (n = 31), "guppy" Poecilia reticulata (n = 20), "sailfin molly" Poecilia latipinna (n = 6), "beta" Betta splendens (n = 2) and "spotted headstander" Chilodus punctatus (n = 1). After being anesthetised in a benzocaine solution, fishes were examined for parasitological evaluation. A total of 51.57% fishes were parasitised by Trichodina spp. Carassius auratus was the most parasitised species, followed by X. maculatus and P. reticulata. Beta splendens, C. punctatus and P. latipinna were not parasitised by any trichodinid species. Two species of Trichodina were collected from the skin of fish: T. nobilis was found in C. auratus, P. reticulata and X. maculatus and T. reticulata was only observed in C. auratus. The importance of adequate handling in ornamental fish culture are also discussed.Keywords: ornamental fish, parasites, Trichodina nobilis, Trichodina reticulate. Trichodina nobilis Chen, 1963 e Trichodina reticulata Hirschmann et Partsch, 1955 de peixes ornamentais de água doce no Brasil ResumoNo presente trabalho Trichodina reticulata e T. nobilis (Ciliophora: Trichodinidae) de peixes ornamentais de água doce cultivados no estado de Santa Catarina, Brasil são caracterizadas morfologicamente. A prevalência de infecção e uma lista comparative de medidas são discutidas. Foram examinados "platis" Xiphophorus maculatus (n = 35), "kinguios" Carassius auratus (n = 31), "guppys" Poecilia reticulata (n = 20), "molinésias" Poecilia latipinna (n = 6), "betas" Betta splendens (n = 2) e "espada" Chilodus punctatus (n = 1). Após a anestesia com solução de benzocaína, os peixes foram submetidos à avaliação parasitológca. Um total de 51,57% peixes estavam parasitados por Trichodina spp. Carassius auratus foi a espécie mais parasitada, seguida por X. maculatus e P. reticulata. Beta splendens, C. punctatus e P. latipinna não estavam parasitados por tricodinídeos. Duas species de Trichodina foram coletadas da superfície corporal dos peixes: T. nobilis foi encontrada em C. auratus, P. reticulata e X. maculatus e T. reticulata foi observada apenas em C. auratus. A importância do manejo adequado em cultivos de peixes ornamentais também foi discutida.
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