Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 42 in total

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  1. Fulltext Increasing land-use intensity reverses the relative occupancy of two quadrupedal scavengers
    Twining JP, Bernard H, Ewers RM
    PLoS One, 2017;12(5):e0177143.
    PMID: 28494004 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177143
    Human land use is continuously altering the natural environment, yet the greater ecological implications of this change for many groups that are key to healthy ecosystem functioning remains uncharacterised in the tropics. Terrestrial scavenging vertebrates are one such group, providing integral ecosystem services through the removal of carrion which is a crucial component of both nutrient cycling and disease dynamics. To explore how anthropogenic processes may affect forest scavengers, we investigated the changes in the relative occupancy of two important terrestrial scavengers along a gradient of land use intensity, ranging from protected forest to oil palm plantation in Borneo. We found the Malay civet (Viverra tangalunga) had highest, albeit variable, occupancy in areas of low land use intensity and the Southeast Asian water monitor (Varanus salvator macromaculatus) had highest occupancy in areas of high land use intensity. Land use had no effect on the combined occupancy of the two species. In high land use intensity sites, individual water monitors were larger and had better body condition, but at population level had a highly biased sex ratio with more males than females and increased signs of intraspecific conflict. We did not assess scavenging rate or efficiency as a process, but the high occupancy rates and apparent health of the scavengers in high land use intensity landscapes suggests this ecological process is robust to land use change.
  2. Fulltext Glioblastoma multiforme: a rare manifestation of extensive liver and bone metastases
    Robert M, Wastie M
    Biomed Imaging Interv J, 2008 Jan;4(1):e3.
    PMID: 21614314 MyJurnal DOI: 10.2349/biij.4.1.e3
    Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive form of primary brain tumours known collectively as gliomas. Gliomas are graded by their microscopic appearance. As a rule, their behaviour can be predicted from histology: Grade I (pilocytic astrocytomas) and Grade II (benign astrocytomas) tumours are of low grade and grow slowly over many years. Grade IV tumours (GBM) are the most aggressive and, unfortunately, also the most common in humans, growing rapidly, invading and altering brain function. These tumours arise from the supporting glial cells of the brain during childhood and in adulthood.These growths do not spread throughout the body like other forms of cancer, but cause symptoms by invading the brain. Untreated GBMs are rapidly lethal. Most patients with GBM die of their disease in less than a year and none have long term survival.Extracranial metastases from GBM are extremely rare, with a reported frequency of only 0.44% because of the absence of lymphatics in the brain and the difficulty of tumours to penetrate blood vessels. A case of glioblastoma multiforme with the rare features of extensive liver and bone metastases is presented in this paper.
  3. Fulltext Assessing the status of wild felids in a highly-disturbed commercial forest reserve in Borneo and the implications for camera trap survey design
    Wearn OR, Rowcliffe JM, Carbone C, Bernard H, Ewers RM
    PLoS One, 2013;8(11):e77598.
    PMID: 24223717 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077598
    The proliferation of camera-trapping studies has led to a spate of extensions in the known distributions of many wild cat species, not least in Borneo. However, we still do not have a clear picture of the spatial patterns of felid abundance in Southeast Asia, particularly with respect to the large areas of highly-disturbed habitat. An important obstacle to increasing the usefulness of camera trap data is the widespread practice of setting cameras at non-random locations. Non-random deployment interacts with non-random space-use by animals, causing biases in our inferences about relative abundance from detection frequencies alone. This may be a particular problem if surveys do not adequately sample the full range of habitat features present in a study region. Using camera-trapping records and incidental sightings from the Kalabakan Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, we aimed to assess the relative abundance of felid species in highly-disturbed forest, as well as investigate felid space-use and the potential for biases resulting from non-random sampling. Although the area has been intensively logged over three decades, it was found to still retain the full complement of Bornean felids, including the bay cat Pardofelis badia, a poorly known Bornean endemic. Camera-trapping using strictly random locations detected four of the five Bornean felid species and revealed inter- and intra-specific differences in space-use. We compare our results with an extensive dataset of >1,200 felid records from previous camera-trapping studies and show that the relative abundance of the bay cat, in particular, may have previously been underestimated due to the use of non-random survey locations. Further surveys for this species using random locations will be crucial in determining its conservation status. We advocate the more wide-spread use of random survey locations in future camera-trapping surveys in order to increase the robustness and generality of inferences that can be made.
  4. Fulltext Whole-ecosystem experimental manipulations of tropical forests
    Fayle TM, Turner EC, Basset Y, Ewers RM, Reynolds G, Novotny V
    Trends Ecol Evol, 2015 Jun;30(6):334-46.
    PMID: 25896491 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.03.010
    Tropical forests are highly diverse systems involving extraordinary numbers of interactions between species, with each species responding in a different way to the abiotic environment. Understanding how these systems function and predicting how they respond to anthropogenic global change is extremely challenging. We argue for the necessity of 'whole-ecosystem' experimental manipulations, in which the entire ecosystem is targeted, either to reveal the functioning of the system in its natural state or to understand responses to anthropogenic impacts. We survey the current range of whole-ecosystem manipulations, which include those targeting weather and climate, nutrients, biotic interactions, human impacts, and habitat restoration. Finally we describe the unique challenges and opportunities presented by such projects and suggest directions for future experiments.
  5. Fulltext Vertical stratification of adult mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) within a tropical rainforest in Sabah, Malaysia
    Brant HL, Ewers RM, Vythilingam I, Drakeley C, Benedick S, Mumford JD
    Malar J, 2016 07 19;15(1):370.
    PMID: 27430261 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-016-1416-1
    BACKGROUND: Malaria cases caused by Plasmodium knowlesi, a simian parasite naturally found in long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques, are increasing rapidly in Sabah, Malaysia. One hypothesis is that this increase is associated with changes in land use. A study was carried out to identify the anopheline vectors present in different forest types and to observe the human landing behaviour of mosquitoes.

    METHODS: Mosquito collections were carried out using human landing catches at ground and canopy levels in the Tawau Division of Sabah. Collections were conducted along an anthropogenic disturbance gradient (primary forest, lightly logged virgin jungle reserve and salvage logged forest) between 18:00 and 22:00 h.

    RESULTS: Anopheles balabacensis, a vector of P. knowlesi, was the predominant species in all collection areas, accounting for 70 % of the total catch, with a peak landing time of 18:30-20:00 h. Anopheles balabacensis had a preference for landing on humans at ground level compared to the canopy (p 

  6. Grain-dependent responses of mammalian diversity to land use and the implications for conservation set-aside
    Wearn OR, Carbone C, Rowcliffe JM, Bernard H, Ewers RM
    Ecol Appl, 2016 Jul;26(5):1409-1420.
    PMID: 27755763 DOI: 10.1890/15-1363
    Diversity responses to land-use change are poorly understood at local scales, hindering our ability to make forecasts and management recommendations at scales which are of practical relevance. A key barrier in this has been the underappreciation of grain-dependent diversity responses and the role that β-diversity (variation in community composition across space) plays in this. Decisions about the most effective spatial arrangement of conservation set-aside, for example high conservation value areas, have also neglected β-diversity, despite its role in determining the complementarity of sites. We examined local-scale mammalian species richness and β-diversity across old-growth forest, logged forest, and oil palm plantations in Borneo, using intensive camera- and live-trapping. For the first time, we were able to investigate diversity responses, as well as β-diversity, at multiple spatial grains, and across the whole terrestrial mammal community (large and small mammals); β-diversity was quantified by comparing observed β-diversity with that obtained under a null model, in order to control for sampling effects, and we refer to this as the β-diversity signal. Community responses to land use were grain dependent, with large mammals showing reduced richness in logged forest compared to old-growth forest at the grain of individual sampling points, but no change at the overall land-use level. Responses varied with species group, however, with small mammals increasing in richness at all grains in logged forest compared to old-growth forest. Both species groups were significantly depauperate in oil palm. Large mammal communities in old-growth forest became more heterogeneous at coarser spatial grains and small mammal communities became more homogeneous, while this pattern was reversed in logged forest. Both groups, however, showed a significant β-diversity signal at the finest grain in logged forest, likely due to logging-induced environmental heterogeneity. The β-diversity signal in oil palm was weak, but heterogeneity at the coarsest spatial grain was still evident, likely due to variation in landscape forest cover. Our findings suggest that the most effective spatial arrangement of set-aside will involve trade-offs between conserving large and small mammals. Greater consideration in the conservation and management of tropical landscapes needs to be given to β-diversity at a range of spatial grains.
  7. Fulltext Effect of tropical forest disturbance on the competitive interactions within a diverse ant community
    Gray REJ, Ewers RM, Boyle MJW, Chung AYC, Gill RJ
    Sci Rep, 2018 03 23;8(1):5131.
    PMID: 29572517 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-23272-y
    Understanding how anthropogenic disturbance influences patterns of community composition and the reinforcing interactive processes that structure communities is important to mitigate threats to biodiversity. Competition is considered a primary reinforcing process, yet little is known concerning disturbance effects on competitive interaction networks. We examined how differences in ant community composition between undisturbed and disturbed Bornean rainforest, is potentially reflected by changes in competitive interactions over a food resource. Comparing 10 primary forest sites to 10 in selectively-logged forest, we found higher genus richness and diversity in the primary forest, with 18.5% and 13.0% of genera endemic to primary and logged respectively. From 180 hours of filming bait cards, we assessed ant-ant interactions, finding that despite considered aggression over food sources, the majority of ant interactions were neutral. Proportion of competitive interactions at bait cards did not differ between forest type, however, the rate and per capita number of competitive interactions was significantly lower in logged forest. Furthermore, the majority of genera showed large changes in aggression-score with often inverse relationships to their occupancy rank. This provides evidence of a shuffled competitive network, and these unexpected changes in aggressive relationships could be considered a type of competitive network re-wiring after disturbance.
  8. Fulltext The relationship between leaf area index and microclimate in tropical forest and oil palm plantation: Forest disturbance drives changes in microclimate
    Hardwick SR, Toumi R, Pfeifer M, Turner EC, Nilus R, Ewers RM
    Agric For Meteorol, 2015 Feb 15;201:187-195.
    PMID: 28148995 DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2014.11.010
    Land use change is a major threat to biodiversity. One mechanism by which land use change influences biodiversity and ecological processes is through changes in the local climate. Here, the relationships between leaf area index and five climate variables - air temperature, relative humidity, vapour pressure deficit, specific humidity and soil temperature - are investigated across a range of land use types in Borneo, including primary tropical forest, logged forest and oil palm plantation. Strong correlations with the leaf area index are found for the mean daily maximum air and soil temperatures, the mean daily maximum vapour pressure deficit and the mean daily minimum relative humidity. Air beneath canopies with high leaf area index is cooler and has higher relative humidity during the day. Forest microclimate is also found to be less variable for sites with higher leaf area indices. Primary forest is found to be up to 2.5 °C cooler than logged forest and up to 6.5 °C cooler than oil palm plantations. Our results indicate that leaf area index is a useful parameter for predicting the effects of vegetation upon microclimate, which could be used to make small scale climate predictions based on remotely sensed data.
  9. Fulltext Land-use change alters the mechanisms assembling rainforest mammal communities in Borneo
    Wearn OR, Carbone C, Rowcliffe JM, Pfeifer M, Bernard H, Ewers RM
    J Anim Ecol, 2019 01;88(1):125-137.
    PMID: 30178485 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12903
    The assembly of species communities at local scales is thought to be driven by environmental filtering, species interactions and spatial processes such as dispersal limitation. Little is known about how the relative balance of these drivers of community assembly changes along environmental gradients, especially man-made environmental gradients associated with land-use change. Using concurrent camera- and live-trapping, we investigated the local-scale assembly of mammal communities along a gradient of land-use intensity (old-growth forest, logged forest and oil palm plantations) in Borneo. We hypothesised that increasing land-use intensity would lead to an increasing dominance of environmental control over spatial processes in community assembly. Additionally, we hypothesised that competitive interactions among species might reduce in concert with declines in α-diversity (previously documented) along the land-use gradient. To test our first hypothesis, we partitioned community variance into the fractions explained by environmental and spatial variables. To test our second hypothesis, we used probabilistic models of expected species co-occurrence patterns, in particular focussing on the prevalence of spatial avoidance between species. Spatial avoidance might indicate competition, but might also be due to divergent habitat preferences. We found patterns that are consistent with a shift in the fundamental mechanics governing local community assembly. In support of our first hypothesis, the importance of spatial processes (dispersal limitation and fine-scale patterns of home-ranging) appeared to decrease from low to high intensity land-uses, whilst environmental control increased in importance (in particular due to fine-scale habitat structure). Support for our second hypothesis was weak: whilst we found that the prevalence of spatial avoidance decreased along the land-use gradient, in particular between congeneric species pairs most likely to be in competition, few instances of spatial avoidance were detected in any land-use, and most were likely due to divergent habitat preferences. The widespread changes in land-use occurring in the tropics might be altering not just the biodiversity found in landscapes, but also the fundamental mechanics governing the local assembly of communities. A better understanding of these mechanics, for a range of taxa, could underpin more effective conservation and management of threatened tropical landscapes.
  10. Forest conversion to oil palm compresses food chain length in tropical streams
    Wilkinson CL, Chua KWJ, Fiala R, Liew JH, Kemp V, Hadi Fikri A, et al.
    Ecology, 2021 01;102(1):e03199.
    PMID: 32969053 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3199
    In Southeast Asia, biodiversity-rich forests are being extensively logged and converted to oil palm monocultures. Although the impacts of these changes on biodiversity are largely well documented, we know addition to samples we collected in 201 little about how these large-scale impacts affect freshwater trophic ecology. We used stable isotope analyses (SIA) to determine the impacts of land-use changes on the relative contribution of allochthonous and autochthonous basal resources in 19 stream food webs. We also applied compound-specific SIA and bulk-SIA to determine the trophic position of fish apex predators and meso-predators (invertivores and omnivores). There was no difference in the contribution of autochthonous resources in either consumer group (70-82%) among streams with different land-use type. There was no change in trophic position for meso-predators, but trophic position decreased significantly for apex predators in oil palm plantation streams compared to forest streams. This change in maximum food chain length was due to turnover in identity of the apex predator among land-use types. Disruption of aquatic trophic ecology, through reduction in food chain length and shift in basal resources, may cause significant changes in biodiversity as well as ecosystem functions and services. Understanding this change can help develop more focused priorities for mediating the negative impacts of human activities on freshwater ecosystems.
  11. The spatial distribution of physicochemical parameters in coastal sediments along the Bay of Bengal Coastal Zone with statistical analysis
    Pandion K, Arunachalam KD, Dowlath MJH, Chinnapan S, Chang SW, Chang W, et al.
    Environ Monit Assess, 2022 Nov 19;195(1):126.
    PMID: 36401680 DOI: 10.1007/s10661-022-10568-w
    The current study focused on the monitoring of pollution loads in the Kalpakkam coastal zone of India in terms of physico-chemical characteristics of sediment. The investigation took place at 12 sampling points around the Kalpakkam coastal zone for one year beginning from 2019. The seasonal change of nutrients in the sediment, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, total organic carbon, and particles size distribution, was calculated. Throughout the study period, the pH (7.55 to 8.99), EC (0.99 to 4.98 dS/m), nitrogen (21.74 to 58.12 kg/ha), phosphorus (7.5 to 12.9 kg/ha), potassium (218 to 399 kg/ha), total organic carbon (0.11 to 0.88%), and particle size cumulative percent of sediments (from 9.01 to 9.39%) was observed. A number of multivariate statistical techniques were used to examine the changes in sediment quality. The population means were substantially different according to the three-way ANOVA test at the 0.05 level. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis showed a substantial association with all indicators throughout all seasons, implying contamination from both natural and anthropogenic causes. The ecosystem of the Kalpakkam coastal zone has been affected by nutrient contamination.
  12. Anisotropic reversed micelles with fluorocarbon-hydrocarbon hybrid surfactants in supercritical CO2
    Sagisaka M, Ono S, James C, Yoshizawa A, Mohamed A, Guittard F, et al.
    Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces, 2018 Aug 01;168:201-210.
    PMID: 29276082 DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2017.12.012
    Previous work (M. Sagisaka, et al. Langmuir 31 (2015) 7479-7487), showed the most effective fluorocarbon (FC) and hydrocarbon (HC) chain lengths in the hybrid surfactants FCm-HCn (sodium 1-oxo-1-[4-(perfluoroalkyl)phenyl]alkane-2-sulfonates, where m = FC length and n = HC length) were m and n = 6 and 4 for water solubilization, whereas m 6 and n 6, or m 6 and n 5, were optimal chain lengths for reversed micelle elongation in supercritical CO2. To clarify why this difference of only a few methylene chain units is so effective at tuning the solubilizing power and reversed micelle morphology, nanostructures of water-in-CO2 (W/CO2) microemulsions were investigated by high-pressure small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements at different water-to-surfactant molar ratios (W0) and surfactant concentrations. By modelling SANS profiles with cylindrical and ellipsoidal form factors, the FC6-HCn/W/CO2 microemulsions were found to increase in size with increasing W0 and surfactant concentration. Ellipsoidal cross-sectional radii of the FC6-HC4/W/CO2 microemulsion droplets increased linearly with W0, and finally reached ∼39 Å and ∼78 Å at W0 = 85 (close to the upper limit of solubilizing power). These systems appear to be the largest W/CO2 microemulsion droplets ever reported. The aqueous domains of FC6-HC6 rod-like reversed micelles increased in size by 3.5 times on increasing surfactant concentration from 35 mM to 50 mM: at 35 mM, FC6-HC5 formed rod-like reversed micelles 5.3 times larger than FC6-HC6. Interestingly, these results suggest that hybrid HC-chains partition into the microemulsion aqueous cores with the sulfonate headgroups, or at the W/CO2 interfaces, and so play important roles for tuning the W/CO2 interfacial curvature. The super-efficient W/CO2-type solubilizer FC6-HC4, and the rod-like reversed micelle forming surfactant FC6-HC5, represent the most successful cases of low fluorine content additives. These surfactants facilitate VOC-free, effective and energy-saving CO2 solvent systems for applications such as extraction, dyeing, dry cleaning, metal-plating, enhanced oil recovery and organic/inorganic or nanomaterial synthesis.
  13. Fulltext A large-scale forest fragmentation experiment: the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems Project
    Ewers RM, Didham RK, Fahrig L, Ferraz G, Hector A, Holt RD, et al.
    Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 2011 Nov 27;366(1582):3292-302.
    PMID: 22006969 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0049
    Opportunities to conduct large-scale field experiments are rare, but provide a unique opportunity to reveal the complex processes that operate within natural ecosystems. Here, we review the design of existing, large-scale forest fragmentation experiments. Based on this review, we develop a design for the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) Project, a new forest fragmentation experiment to be located in the lowland tropical forests of Borneo (Sabah, Malaysia). The SAFE Project represents an advance on existing experiments in that it: (i) allows discrimination of the effects of landscape-level forest cover from patch-level processes; (ii) is designed to facilitate the unification of a wide range of data types on ecological patterns and processes that operate over a wide range of spatial scales; (iii) has greater replication than existing experiments; (iv) incorporates an experimental manipulation of riparian corridors; and (v) embeds the experimentally fragmented landscape within a wider gradient of land-use intensity than do existing projects. The SAFE Project represents an opportunity for ecologists across disciplines to participate in a large initiative designed to generate a broad understanding of the ecological impacts of tropical forest modification.
  14. Fulltext The effects of catchment and riparian forest quality on stream environmental conditions across a tropical rainforest and oil palm landscape in Malaysian Borneo
    Luke SH, Barclay H, Bidin K, Chey VK, Ewers RM, Foster WA, et al.
    Ecohydrology, 2017 06;10(4):e1827.
    PMID: 28706573 DOI: 10.1002/eco.1827
    Freshwaters provide valuable habitat and important ecosystem services but are threatened worldwide by habitat loss and degradation. In Southeast Asia, rainforest streams are particularly threatened by logging and conversion to oil palm, but we lack information on the impacts of this on freshwater environmental conditions, and the relative importance of catchment versus riparian-scale disturbance. We studied 16 streams in Sabah, Borneo, including old-growth forest, logged forest, and oil palm sites. We assessed forest quality in riparian zones and across the whole catchment and compared it with stream environmental conditions including water quality, structural complexity, and organic inputs. We found that streams with the highest riparian forest quality were nearly 4 °C cooler, over 20 cm deeper, had over 40% less sand, greater canopy cover, more stored leaf litter, and wider channels than oil palm streams with the lowest riparian forest quality. Other variables were significantly related to catchment-scale forest quality, with streams in the highest quality forest catchments having 40% more bedrock and 20 times more dead wood, along with higher phosphorus, and lower nitrate-N levels compared to streams with the lowest catchment-scale forest quality. Although riparian buffer strips went some way to protecting waterways, they did not maintain fully forest-like stream conditions. In addition, logged forest streams still showed signs of disturbance 10-15 years after selective logging. Our results suggest that maintenance and restoration of buffer strips can help to protect healthy freshwater ecosystems but logging practices and catchment-scale forest management also need to be considered.
  15. Fulltext Recovery of logged forest fragments in a human-modified tropical landscape during the 2015-16 El Niño
    Nunes MH, Jucker T, Riutta T, Svátek M, Kvasnica J, Rejžek M, et al.
    Nat Commun, 2021 03 09;12(1):1526.
    PMID: 33750781 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20811-y
    The past 40 years in Southeast Asia have seen about 50% of lowland rainforests converted to oil palm and other plantations, and much of the remaining forest heavily logged. Little is known about how fragmentation influences recovery and whether climate change will hamper restoration. Here, we use repeat airborne LiDAR surveys spanning the hot and dry 2015-16 El Niño Southern Oscillation event to measure canopy height growth across 3,300 ha of regenerating tropical forests spanning a logging intensity gradient in Malaysian Borneo. We show that the drought led to increased leaf shedding and branch fall. Short forest, regenerating after heavy logging, continued to grow despite higher evaporative demand, except when it was located close to oil palm plantations. Edge effects from the plantations extended over 300 metres into the forests. Forest growth on hilltops and slopes was particularly impacted by the combination of fragmentation and drought, but even riparian forests located within 40 m of oil palm plantations lost canopy height during the drought. Our results suggest that small patches of logged forest within plantation landscapes will be slow to recover, particularly as ENSO events are becoming more frequent.
  16. Fulltext Euarchontan Opsin Variation Brings New Focus to Primate Origins
    Melin AD, Wells K, Moritz GL, Kistler L, Orkin JD, Timm RM, et al.
    Mol Biol Evol, 2016 Apr;33(4):1029-41.
    PMID: 26739880 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msv346
    Debate on the adaptive origins of primates has long focused on the functional ecology of the primate visual system. For example, it is hypothesized that variable expression of short- (SWS1) and middle-to-long-wavelength sensitive (M/LWS) opsins, which confer color vision, can be used to infer ancestral activity patterns and therefore selective ecological pressures. A problem with this approach is that opsin gene variation is incompletely known in the grandorder Euarchonta, that is, the orders Scandentia (treeshrews), Dermoptera (colugos), and Primates. The ancestral state of primate color vision is therefore uncertain. Here, we report on the genes (OPN1SW and OPN1LW) that encode SWS1 and M/LWS opsins in seven species of treeshrew, including the sole nocturnal scandentian Ptilocercus lowii. In addition, we examined the opsin genes of the Central American woolly opossum (Caluromys derbianus), an enduring ecological analogue in the debate on primate origins. Our results indicate: 1) retention of ultraviolet (UV) visual sensitivity in C. derbianus and a shift from UV to blue spectral sensitivities at the base of Euarchonta; 2) ancient pseudogenization of OPN1SW in the ancestors of P. lowii, but a signature of purifying selection in those of C. derbianus; and, 3) the absence of OPN1LW polymorphism among diurnal treeshrews. These findings suggest functional variation in the color vision of nocturnal mammals and a distinctive visual ecology of early primates, perhaps one that demanded greater spatial resolution under light levels that could support cone-mediated color discrimination.
  17. Fulltext Reductive Coupling of Diynes at Rhodium Gives Fluorescent Rhodacyclopentadienes or Phosphorescent Rhodium 2,2'-Biphenyl Complexes
    Sieck C, Tay MG, Thibault MH, Edkins RM, Costuas K, Halet JF, et al.
    Chemistry, 2016 Jul 18;22(30):10523-32.
    PMID: 27355689 DOI: 10.1002/chem.201601912
    Reactions of [Rh(κ(2) -O,O-acac)(PMe3 )2 ] (acac=acetylacetonato) and α,ω-bis(arylbutadiynyl)alkanes afford two isomeric types of MC4 metallacycles with very different photophysical properties. As a result of a [2+2] reductive coupling at Rh, 2,5-bis(arylethynyl)rhodacyclopentadienes (A) are formed, which display intense fluorescence (Φ=0.07-0.54, τ=0.2-2.5 ns) despite the presence of the heavy metal atom. Rhodium biphenyl complexes (B), which show exceptionally long-lived (hundreds of μs) phosphorescence (Φ=0.01-0.33) at room temperature in solution, have been isolated as a second isomer originating from an unusual [4+2] cycloaddition reaction and a subsequent β-H-shift. We attribute the different photophysical properties of isomers A and B to a higher excited state density and a less stabilized T1 state in the biphenyl complexes B, allowing for more efficient intersystem crossing S1 →Tn and T1 →S0 . Control of the isomer distribution is achieved by modification of the bis- (diyne) linker length, providing a fundamentally new route to access photoactive metal biphenyl compounds.
  18. Fulltext Logged tropical forests have amplified and diverse ecosystem energetics
    Malhi Y, Riutta T, Wearn OR, Deere NJ, Mitchell SL, Bernard H, et al.
    Nature, 2022 Dec;612(7941):707-713.
    PMID: 36517596 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05523-1
    Old-growth tropical forests are widely recognized as being immensely important for their biodiversity and high biomass1. Conversely, logged tropical forests are usually characterized as degraded ecosystems2. However, whether logging results in a degradation in ecosystem functions is less clear: shifts in the strength and resilience of key ecosystem processes in large suites of species have rarely been assessed in an ecologically integrated and quantitative framework. Here we adopt an ecosystem energetics lens to gain new insight into the impacts of tropical forest disturbance on a key integrative aspect of ecological function: food pathways and community structure of birds and mammals. We focus on a gradient spanning old-growth and logged forests and oil palm plantations in Borneo. In logged forest there is a 2.5-fold increase in total resource consumption by both birds and mammals compared to that in old-growth forests, probably driven by greater resource accessibility and vegetation palatability. Most principal energetic pathways maintain high species diversity and redundancy, implying maintained resilience. Conversion of logged forest into oil palm plantation results in the collapse of most energetic pathways. Far from being degraded ecosystems, even heavily logged forests can be vibrant and diverse ecosystems with enhanced levels of ecological function.
  19. Fulltext 5' isomiR variation is of functional and evolutionary importance
    Tan GC, Chan E, Molnar A, Sarkar R, Alexieva D, Isa IM, et al.
    Nucleic Acids Res, 2014 Aug;42(14):9424-35.
    PMID: 25056318 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gku656
    We have sequenced miRNA libraries from human embryonic, neural and foetal mesenchymal stem cells. We report that the majority of miRNA genes encode mature isomers that vary in size by one or more bases at the 3' and/or 5' end of the miRNA. Northern blotting for individual miRNAs showed that the proportions of isomiRs expressed by a single miRNA gene often differ between cell and tissue types. IsomiRs were readily co-immunoprecipitated with Argonaute proteins in vivo and were active in luciferase assays, indicating that they are functional. Bioinformatics analysis predicts substantial differences in targeting between miRNAs with minor 5' differences and in support of this we report that a 5' isomiR-9-1 gained the ability to inhibit the expression of DNMT3B and NCAM2 but lost the ability to inhibit CDH1 in vitro. This result was confirmed by the use of isomiR-specific sponges. Our analysis of the miRGator database indicates that a small percentage of human miRNA genes express isomiRs as the dominant transcript in certain cell types and analysis of miRBase shows that 5' isomiRs have replaced canonical miRNAs many times during evolution. This strongly indicates that isomiRs are of functional importance and have contributed to the evolution of miRNA genes.
  20. Fulltext Imaging spectroscopy reveals the effects of topography and logging on the leaf chemistry of tropical forest canopy trees
    Swinfield T, Both S, Riutta T, Bongalov B, Elias D, Majalap-Lee N, et al.
    Glob Chang Biol, 2020 02;26(2):989-1002.
    PMID: 31845482 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14903
    Logging, pervasive across the lowland tropics, affects millions of hectares of forest, yet its influence on nutrient cycling remains poorly understood. One hypothesis is that logging influences phosphorus (P) cycling, because this scarce nutrient is removed in extracted timber and eroded soil, leading to shifts in ecosystem functioning and community composition. However, testing this is challenging because P varies within landscapes as a function of geology, topography and climate. Superimposed upon these trends are compositional changes in logged forests, with species with more acquisitive traits, characterized by higher foliar P concentrations, more dominant. It is difficult to resolve these patterns using traditional field approaches alone. Here, we use airborne light detection and ranging-guided hyperspectral imagery to map foliar nutrient (i.e. P, nitrogen [N]) concentrations, calibrated using field measured traits, over 400 km2 of northeastern Borneo, including a landscape-level disturbance gradient spanning old-growth to repeatedly logged forests. The maps reveal that canopy foliar P and N concentrations decrease with elevation. These relationships were not identified using traditional field measurements of leaf and soil nutrients. After controlling for topography, canopy foliar nutrient concentrations were lower in logged forest than in old-growth areas, reflecting decreased nutrient availability. However, foliar nutrient concentrations and specific leaf area were greatest in relatively short patches in logged areas, reflecting a shift in composition to pioneer species with acquisitive traits. N:P ratio increased in logged forest, suggesting reduced soil P availability through disturbance. Through the first landscape scale assessment of how functional leaf traits change in response to logging, we find that differences from old-growth forest become more pronounced as logged forests increase in stature over time, suggesting exacerbated phosphorus limitation as forests recover.
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