Systematics, natural history, and conservation of (Ericaceae).

Worldwide, many tens of thousands of plant species are threatened with extinction in the wild. Those that are naturally rare or have narrow distributions are particularly vulnerable. The flowering plant genus is a prime example, its numerous species presenting additional challenges associated with conserving large, complex, plant groups.

Moving towards the ecological intensification of tree plantations.

The growing demand for timber and the boom in massive tree-planting programs could mean the spreading of mismanaged tree plantations worldwide. Here, we apply the concept of ecological intensification to forestry systems as a viable biodiversity-focused strategy that could be critical to develop productive, yet sustainable, tree plantations. Tree plantations can be highly productive if tree species are properly combined to complement their ecological functions.

Volatile and Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds May Help Reduce Pollinator-Prey Overlap in the Carnivorous Plant Drosophyllum lusitanicum (Drosophyllaceae).

Most carnivorous plants show a conspicuous separation between flowers and leaf-traps, which has been interpreted as an adaptive response to minimize pollinator-prey conflicts which will reduce fitness. Here, we used the carnivorous subshrub Drosophyllum lusitanicum (Drosophyllaceae) to explore if and how carnivorous plants with minimal physical separation of flower and trap avoid or reduce a likely conflict of pollinator and prey. We carried out an extensive field survey in the Aljibe Mountains, at the European side of the Strait of Gibraltar, of pollinating and prey insects of D.

An ecological perspective on 'plant carnivory beyond bogs': nutritional benefits of prey capture for the Mediterranean carnivorous plant Drosophyllum lusitanicum.

Background And Aims: Little is known about the evolutionary and ecological drivers of carnivory in plants, particularly for those terrestrial species that do not occur in typical swamp or bog habitats. The Mediterranean endemic Drosophyllum lusitanicum (Drosophyllaceae) is one of very few terrestrial carnivorous plant species outside of Australia to occur in seasonally dry, fire-prone habitats, and is thus an ecological rarity. Here we assess the nutritional benefits of prey capture for D.

Defining the role of fire in alleviating seed dormancy in a rare Mediterranean endemic subshrub.

Fire is a topical issue in the management of many ecosystems globally that face a drying climate. Understanding the role of fire in such ecosystems is critical to inform appropriate management practices, particularly in the case of rare and ecologically specialized species. The Mediterranean heathlands are highly fire-prone and occur in a biodiversity hotspot increasingly threatened by human activities, and determining the reproductive thresholds of at-risk heathland species is critical to ensuring the success of future conservation initiatives.

Seed Pubescence and Shape Modulate Adaptive Responses to Fire Cues.

Post-fire recruitment by seeds is regarded as an adaptive response in fire-prone ecosystems. Nevertheless, little is known about which heritable seed traits are functional to the main signals of fire (heat and smoke), thus having the potential to evolve. Here, we explored whether three seed traits (pubescence, dormancy and shape) and fire regime modulate seed response to fire cues(heat and smoke).

Study of Spectral Modifications in Acidified Ignitable Liquids by Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy.

In this work, the spectral characteristics of two types of acidified gasoline and acidified diesel fuel are discussed. Neat and acidified ignitable liquids (ILs) infrared absorption spectra obtained by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were compared in order to identify the modifications produced by the reaction of the ILs with sulfuric acid. Several bands crucial for gasoline identification were modified, and new bands appeared over the reaction time.

Effective prey attraction in the rare Drosophyllum lusitanicum, a flypaper-trap carnivorous plant.

Premise Of The Study: Carnivorous plants have unusually modified leaves to trap insects as an adaptation to low-nutrient environments. Disparate mechanisms have been suggested as luring traits to attract prey insects into their deadly leaves, ranging from very elaborate to none at all. Drosophyllum lusitanicum is a rare carnivorous plant with a common flypaper-trap mechanism.

Population genetic structure of a sandstone specialist and a generalist heath species at two levels of sandstone patchiness across the Strait of Gibraltar.

Many habitat specialist species are originally composed of small, discontinuous populations because their habitats are naturally fragmented or patchy. They may have suffered the long-term effects of natural patchiness. Mediterranean heathlands, a representative habitat in the Strait of Gibraltar region, are associated with nutrient-poor, acidic sandstone soils.

Postfire response and genetic diversity in Erica coccinea: connecting population dynamics and diversification in a biodiversity hotspot.

Understanding the processes of biological diversification is a central topic in evolutionary biology. The South African Cape fynbos, one of the major plant biodiversity hotspots out of the tropics, has prompted several hypotheses about the causes of generation and maintenance of biodiversity. Fire has been traditionally invoked as a key element to explain high levels of biodiversity in highly speciose fynbos taxa, such as the genus Erica.

Soil shapes community structure through fire.

Recurrent wildfires constitute a major selecting force in shaping the structure of plant communities. At the regional scale, fire favours phenotypic and phylogenetic clustering in Mediterranean woody plant communities. Nevertheless, the incidence of fire within a fire-prone region may present strong variations at the local, landscape scale.

Burning phylogenies: fire, molecular evolutionary rates, and diversification.

Mediterranean-type ecosystems are among the most remarkable plant biodiversity "hot spots" on the earth, and fire has traditionally been invoked as one of the evolutionary forces explaining this exceptional diversity. In these ecosystems, adult plants of some species are able to survive after fire (resprouters), whereas in other species fire kills the adults and populations are only maintained by an effective post-fire recruitment (seeders). Seeders tend to have shorter generation times than resprouters, particularly under short fire return intervals, thus potentially increasing their molecular evolutionary rates and, ultimately, their diversification.

Fire, rain and the selection of seeder and resprouter life-histories in fire-recruiting, woody plants.

Several Cape species of the genus Erica are known to present seeder and resprouter phenotypes, and this variation seems to have a genetic basis. Therefore, this genus provides ideal model systems for using to elucidate the evolution of nonsprouting or seeder and resprouter life-histories in woody, fire-recruiting plants. A simple simulation model was developed to identify, under life-history optimality, the ecological conditions (viz.

Evolutionary transition from resprouter to seeder life history in two Erica (Ericaceae) species: insights from seedling axillary buds.

Background And Aims: The genus Erica represents the epitome of plant biodiversity in the South African Cape region. It includes seeder and resprouter species, but both species diversity and narrow endemism are tightly associated with the seeder habit. It also includes 'mixed' species, in which both seeder and resprouter life histories are found.

Root starch storage and allocation patterns in seeder and resprouter seedlings of two Cape Erica (Ericaceae) species.

Post-fire sprouting of dormant buds in resprouter plants is facilitated by stored carbohydrate reserves, with starch being the critical reserve. Starch is mainly stored in xylem parenchyma ray tissue of woody underground organs, such as burls, lignotubers, and roots. We carried out a comparative analysis of the pattern of starch storage and the proportion of parenchymatic ray tissue in the upper root or cotyledonary region of seedlings from seeder and resprouter forms within two Cape Erica (Ericaceae) species: E.