Data from: Multi-scale and antagonist selection on life-history traits in parasitoids: a community ecology perspective

1) Life-history traits within ecological communities can be influenced by regional environmental conditions (external filters) and community-wide density-dependent processes (internal filters). While traits in a regional context may converge to a narrow range of values because of environmental filtering, species belonging to a guild may present contrasting traits as a means of niche differentiation, allowing coexistence whilst exploiting the same resources. 2) To disentangle the role of external and internal filters on phenotypic diversity within ecological communities, we examined the patterns of life-history trait variation within a guild of insect parasitoids during two successive years across three contrasted regions in relation to several ecological factors. 3) By combining a mean-field approach and an analysis of phenotypic variance across organizational levels (from individual to guild), we showed that the patterns of life-history trait variation across regions are consistent with local adaptation or adaptive phenotypic plasticity while the patterns of phenotypic variation within regions suggested how coexistence modulates life-history traits expression through niche differentiation. 4) Within a given region, phenotypic pattern of parasitoid life-history traits may also arise from bottom-up effects of trophic webs: insect host species could also control parasitoid life-history traits in nature. Our results also showed that parasitoid life-history traits presented contrasting variation patterns according to the sampling year, suggesting temporal variations in evolutionary and ecological dynamics of parasitoid species. 5) The application of such trait-based studies to insect parasitoids has the potential to provide further insight on how agricultural environments contribute to differential diversification among natural enemies guilds, highlighting the main role of agricultural landscape management for organisms' responses

Considerations and consequences of allowing DNA sequence data as types of fungal taxa

Nomenclatural type definitions are one of the most important concepts in biological nomenclature. Being physical objects that can be re-studied by other researchers, types permanently link taxonomy (an artificial agreement to classify biological diversity) with nomenclature (an artificial agreement to name biological diversity). Two proposals to amend the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), allowing DNA sequences alone (of any region and extent) to serve as types of taxon names for voucherless fungi (mainly putative taxa from environmental DNA sequences), have been submitted to be voted on at the 11th International Mycological Congress (Puerto Rico, July 2018). We consider various genetic processes affecting the distribution of alleles among taxa and find that alleles may not consistently and uniquely represent the species within which they are contained. Should the proposals be accepted, the meaning of nomenclatural types would change in a fundamental way from physical objects as sources of data to the data themselves. Such changes are conducive to irreproducible science, the potential typification on artefactual data, and massive creation of names with low information content, ultimately causing nomenclatural instability and unnecessary work for future researchers that would stall future explorations of fungal diversity. We conclude that the acceptance of DNA sequences alone as types of names of taxa, under the terms used in the current proposals, is unnecessary and would not solve the problem of naming putative taxa known only from DNA sequences in a scientifically defensible way. As an alternative, we highlight the use of formulas for naming putative taxa (candidate taxa) that do not require any modification of the ICN.Peer reviewe

A global meta‐analysis of the relative extent of intraspecific trait variation in plant communities

Recent studies have shown that accounting for intraspecific trait variation (ITV) may better address major questions in community ecology. However, a general picture of the relative extent of ITV compared to interspecific trait variation in plant communities is still missing. Here, we conducted a meta‐analysis of the relative extent of ITV within and among plant communities worldwide, using a data set encompassing 629 communities (plots) and 36 functional traits. Overall, ITV accounted for 25% of the total trait variation within communities and 32% of the total trait variation among communities on average. The relative extent of ITV tended to be greater for whole‐plant (e.g. plant height) vs. organ‐level traits and for leaf chemical (e.g. leaf N and P concentration) vs. leaf morphological (e.g. leaf area and thickness) traits. The relative amount of ITV decreased with increasing species richness and spatial extent, but did not vary with plant growth form or climate. These results highlight global patterns in the relative importance of ITV in plant communities, providing practical guidelines for when researchers should include ITV in trait‐based community and ecosystem studies181214061419CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP479083/2008‐8; 141451/2011‐4; 306573/2009‐1; 303534/2012‐5; 303714/2010‐7BEX 7913/13‐3; PNPD 14540132013/50169‐1; 2014/06453‐0We thank Mark Westoby, Ian Wright and three anonymous reviewers for providing valuable comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. AS was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE‐1247399) and NSF grant DEB‐03089. CV was supported by a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Program (DiversiTraits project, no. 221060) and by the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant Project ‘Ecophysiological and biophysical constraints on domestication in crop plants’ (Grant ERC‐StG‐2014‐639706‐CONSTRAINTS). LC received funding from the European Research Council under the 7th European Community Framework Program FP7/2007‐2013 Grant Agreement no. 281422 (TEEMBIO). Financial support to AF came from the Chilean Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT) project No. 1120171. FdB was supported by the Czech Science Foundation, grant P505/12/1296. LWA and BSS were supported by Discovery Grants from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. CS was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (PA00P3_136474 and PZ00P3_148261). MBC, MVC, LDSD, VDP and CRF were supported by CAPES‐Brazil (grants BEX 7913/13‐3 and PNPD #1454013) and CNPq‐Brazil (grants 479083/2008‐8, 141451/2011‐4, 306573/2009‐1, 303534/2012‐5 and 303714/2010‐7). MK received support from the JSPS as a Postdoctoral Fellow for Research Abroad. VLD was supported by Sao Paulo Research Foundation (processes: 2013/50169‐1 and 2014/06453‐0). DAP, SJR and NWHM were supported by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment core funding to Crown Research Institutes and the Ministry for the Environment. YLBP was supported by the project Postdoc USB (reg.no. CZ.1.07/2.3.00/30.0006) realised through EU Education for Competitiveness Operational Programme and received funding from the European Social Fund and Czech State Budget. The Forest Dynamics Plot of Yasuni National Park has been made possible through the generous support of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, the government of Ecuador, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the University of Aarhus of Denmar

A global meta-analysis of the relative extent of intraspecific trait variation in plant communities

International audienceRecent studies have shown that accounting for intraspecific trait variation (ITV) may better address major questions in community ecology. However, a general picture of the relative extent of ITV compared to interspecific trait variation in plant communities is still missing. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis of the relative extent of ITV within and among plant communities worldwide, using a data set encompassing 629 communities (plots) and 36 functional traits. Overall, ITV accounted for 25% of the total trait variation within communities and 32% of the total trait variation among communities on average. The relative extent of ITV tended to be greater for whole-plant (e.g. plant height) vs. organ-level traits and for leaf chemical (e.g. leaf N and P concentration) vs. leaf morphological (e.g. leaf area and thickness) traits. The relative amount of ITV decreased with increasing species richness and spatial extent, but did not vary with plant growth form or climate. These results highlight global patterns in the relative importance of ITV in plant communities, providing practical guidelines for when researchers should include ITV in trait-based community and ecosystem studies