Topographic information improves simulated patterns of post-fire conifer regeneration in the southwest United States.

The western United States is projected to experience more frequent and severe wildfires in the future due to drier and hotter climate conditions, exacerbating destructive wildfire impacts on forest ecosystems such as tree mortality and unsuccessful post-fire regeneration. While empirical studies have revealed strong relationships between topographical information and plant regeneration, ecological processes in ecosystem models have either not fully addressed topography-mediated effects on the probability of plant regeneration, or the probability is only controlled by climate-related factors, for example, water and light stresses. In this study, we incorporated seedling survival data based on a planting experiment in the footprint of the 2011 Las Conchas Fire into the Photosynthesis and EvapoTranspiration (PnET) extension of the LANDIS-II model by adding topographic and an additional climatic variable to the probability of regeneration.

Long-term measurements in a mixed-grass prairie reveal a change in soil organic carbon recalcitrance and its environmental sensitivity under warming.

Soil respiration, the major pathway for ecosystem carbon (C) loss, has the potential to enter a positive feedback loop with the atmospheric CO due to climate warming. For reliable projections of climate-carbon feedbacks, accurate quantification of soil respiration and identification of mechanisms that control its variability are essential. Process-based models simulate soil respiration as functions of belowground C input, organic matter quality, and sensitivity to environmental conditions.

Gene-informed decomposition model predicts lower soil carbon loss due to persistent microbial adaptation to warming.

Soil microbial respiration is an important source of uncertainty in projecting future climate and carbon (C) cycle feedbacks. However, its feedbacks to climate warming and underlying microbial mechanisms are still poorly understood. Here we show that the temperature sensitivity of soil microbial respiration (Q) in a temperate grassland ecosystem persistently decreases by 12.

Drought mildly reduces plant dominance in a temperate prairie ecosystem across years.

Shifts in dominance and species reordering can occur in response to global change. However, it is not clear how altered precipitation and disturbance regimes interact to affect species composition and dominance.We explored community-level diversity and compositional similarity responses, both across and within years, to a manipulated precipitation gradient and annual clipping in a mixed-grass prairie in Oklahoma, USA.

Successional change in species composition alters climate sensitivity of grassland productivity.

Succession theory predicts altered sensitivity of ecosystem functions to disturbance (i.e., climate change) due to the temporal shift in plant community composition.

Enhanced decomposition of stable soil organic carbon and microbial catabolic potentials by long-term field warming.

Quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition under warming is critical to predict carbon-climate feedbacks. According to the substrate regulating principle, SOC decomposition would decrease as labile SOC declines under field warming, but observations of SOC decomposition under warming do not always support this prediction. This discrepancy could result from varying changes in SOC components and soil microbial communities under warming.

Molecular dissection of a rice microtubule-associated RING finger protein and its potential role in salt tolerance in Arabidopsis.

Although a number of RING E3 ligases in plants have been demonstrated to play key roles in a wide range of abiotic stresses, relatively few studies have detailed how RING E3 ligases exert their cellular actions. We describe Oryza sativa RING finger protein with microtubule-targeting domain 1 (OsRMT1), a functional RING E3 ligase that is likely involved in a salt tolerance mechanism. Functional characterization revealed that OsRMT1 undergoes homodimer formation and subsequently autoubiquitination-mediated protein degradation under normal conditions.

Molecular characterization of the cold- and heat-induced Arabidopsis PXL1 gene and its potential role in transduction pathways under temperature fluctuations.

LRR-RLK (Leucine-Rich Repeat Receptor-Like Kinase) proteins are believed to play essential roles in cell-to-cell communication during various cellular processes including development, hormone perception, and abiotic stress responses. We isolated an LRR-RLK gene previously named Arabidopsis PHLOEM INTERCALATED WITH XYLEM-LIKE 1 (AtPXL1) and examined its expression patterns. AtPXL1 was highly induced by cold and heat stress, but not by drought.

Comprehensive analysis of the rice RING E3 ligase family reveals their functional diversity in response to abiotic stress.

A large number of really interesting new gene (RING) E3 ligases contribute to the post-translational modification of target proteins during plant responses to environmental stresses. However, the physical interactome of RING E3 ligases in rice remains largely unknown. Here, we evaluated the expression patterns of 47 Oryza sativa RING finger protein (OsRFP) genes in response to abiotic stresses via semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and in silico analysis.

Molecular characterization and concerted evolution of two genes encoding RING-C2 type proteins in rice.

RING (Really Interesting New Gene) finger proteins are believed to play a critical role in mediating the transfer of ubiquitin to heterogeneous substrate(s). While the two canonical types, RING-H2 and RING-HC, have been well-characterized, the molecular functions of the modified types, particularly the RING-C2 types, remain elusive. We isolated two rice genes harboring the RING-C2 domain on the distal parts of rice chromosomes 11 and 12, termed OsRINGC2-1 and OsRINGC2-2, respectively.