The chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has caused the most prominent loss of vertebrate diversity ever recorded, which peaked in the 1980s. Recent incursion by its sister species B. salamandrivorans in Europe raised the alarm for a new wave of declines and extinctions in western Palearctic urodeles. The European Commission has responded by restricting amphibian trade. However, private amphibian collections, the main end consumers, were exempted from the European legislation. Here, we report how invasion by a released, exotic newt coincided with B. salamandrivorans invasion at over 1000 km from the nearest natural outbreak site, causing mass mortality in indigenous marbled newts (Triturus marmoratus), and posing an acute threat to the survival of nearby populations of the most critically endangered European newt species (Montseny brook newt, Calotriton arnoldi). Disease management was initiated shortly after detection in a close collaboration between policy and science and included drastic on site measures and intensive disease surveillance. Despite these efforts, the disease is considered temporarily contained but not eradicated and continued efforts will be necessary to minimize the probability of further pathogen dispersal. This precedent demonstrates the importance of tackling wildlife diseases This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Questions: What is the community-level consequence of biotic processes, in particular the importance of facilitation, in determining patterns of diversity in alpine plant communities of the Himalayan Hengduan Mountains? Does facilitation intensity change with environmental severity, and are these changes due to environmental severity or nurse trait effects?Location: Eleven alpine plant communities dominated by cushion plants in the Himalayan Hengduan Mountains, within the mountain system of south-central China.Methods: We determined plant species richness and abundance in habitats created by cushions and cushion-free areas, and assessed the cushion effects on species richness and abundance with rarefaction curves and the relative interaction index, respectively. We examined the relationship between cushion effects on diversity and habitat severity and tested if changes in the net cushion effects along the severity gradient were due to a change in the performance of species without cushions (environmental severity effect) and/or with cushions (nurse trait-mediated effect). Results:The presence of cushion plants increased species richness and abundance in most studied plant communities. The net facilitation effect of cushions increased with increasing habitat severity, an effect that could be attributed mainly to a reduction in species richness in cushion-free areas with increasing severity. However, the changes in magnitude of facilitation of particular cushion species growing in high and low severity habitats could be attributed to both environmental severity and neighbour trait effects. Despite the overall positive effect of cushion plants on plant species richness, not all cushion species contributed to higher species richness. The deviation of individual cushion species from the general pattern of increasing facilitation with increasing severity indicated the species specificity of facilitation depends on the traits of nurse species. Conclusion: The presence of cushion plants generally increased species richnessin alpine plant communities of the Himalayan Hengduan Mountains, with the importance of the cushion effect increasing with habitat severity due to a buffering effect by cushions of the negative effect of habitat severity on species richness observed in cushion-free areas. This indicates the pivotal role of facilitative interactions among plant species in supporting high diversity in these severe environments.

Primula beesiana Forr. is an attractive wildflower endemically distributed in the wet habitats of subalpine/alpine regions of southwestern China. This study is an attempt to understand how this plant adapts to wet habitats and high altitudes. Specifically, we examined the effects of cold stratification, light, GA 3 , KNO 3 , and temperature on P. beesiana seed germination. KNO 3 and GA 3 increased germination percentage and germination rate compared to control treatments at 15/5 and 25/15 °C. Untreated seeds germinated well (> 80%) at higher temperatures (20, 25 and 28 °C), whereas at lower (5, 10 and 15 °C) and extremely high temperatures (30 and 32 °C) germination decreased significantly. However, after cold stratification (4–16 weeks), the germination percentage of P. beesiana seeds at low temperatures (5–15 °C) and the germination rate at high temperatures (30 °C) increased significantly, suggesting that P. beesiana has type 3 non-deep physiological dormancy. The base temperature and thermal time for germination decreased in seeds that were cold stratified for 16 weeks. Cold-stratified seeds incubated at fluctuating temperatures (especially at 15/5 °C) had significantly high germination percentages and germination rates in light, but not in dark, compared to the corresponding constant temperature (10 °C). Seeds had a strict light requirement at all temperatures, even after experiencing cold stratification; however, the combinations of cold stratification and fluctuating temperature increased germination when seeds were transferred from dark to light. Such dormancy/germination responses to light and temperature are likely mechanisms that ensure germination occurs only in spring and at/near the soil surface, thus avoiding seedling death by freezing, inundation and/or germination deep in the soil.

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As a result of the pressure from population explosion, agricultural land resources require further protecting and rationally utilizing. Intercropping technique has been widely applied for agricultural production to save cultivated area, improve crop quality, and promote agriculture economy. In this study, we employed high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) combined with chemometrics for determination and qualitative evaluation of several kinds of intercropping system with Gentiana rigescens Franch. ex Hemsl. (GR), which is used as an hepatic protector in local communities in China. Results revealed that GR in a Camellia sinensis intercropping system contained most gentiopicroside, sweroside, and total active constituents (six chemical indicators), whose content reached 91.09 ± 3.54, 1.03 ± 0.06, and 104.05 ± 6.48 mg g(-1), respectively. The two applied quantitative and qualitative methods reciprocally verified that GR with 2 years of growth period performed better in terms of quality than 1 year, collectively.