Co-limitation towards lower latitudes shapes global forest diversity gradients

The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is one of the most recognized global patterns of species richness exhibited across a wide range of taxa. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed in the past two centuries to explain LDG, but rigorous tests of the drivers of LDGs have been limited by a lack of high-quality global species richness data. Here we produce a high-resolution (0.025° × 0.025°) map of local tree species richness using a global forest inventory database with individual tree information and local biophysical characteristics from ~1.3 million sample plots. We then quantify drivers of local tree species richness patterns across latitudes. Generally, annual mean temperature was a dominant predictor of tree species richness, which is most consistent with the metabolic theory of biodiversity (MTB). However, MTB underestimated LDG in the tropics, where high species richness was also moderated by topographic, soil and anthropogenic factors operating at local scales. Given that local landscape variables operate synergistically with bioclimatic factors in shaping the global LDG pattern, we suggest that MTB be extended to account for co-limitation by subordinate drivers

Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon¹⁻³. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses⁴⁻⁹. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the world’s major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve ‘health’: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.Keywords: Ecology, Environmental scienc

L´Imitation de Jesus-Christ

Layoutgetreues Digitalisat der Ausg.: Ed. nouvelle. Paris : Charpentier, 1715 Standort: Bibliothek Religionswissenschaft (510) Signatur: 321 Bemerkungen: Einheitssacht. des bearb. Werkes: De imitatione Christi (Bibliothek Wittgenstein

Mapping peat thickness and carbon stocks of the central Congo Basin using field data

The world’s largest tropical peatland complex is found in the central Congo Basin. However, there is a lack of in situ measurements to understand the peatland’s distribution and the amount of carbon stored in it. So far, peat in this region has been sampled only in largely rain-fed interfluvial basins in the north of the Republic of the Congo. Here we present the first extensive field surveys of peat in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which covers two-thirds of the estimated peatland area, including from previously undocumented river-influenced settings. We use field data from both countries to compute the first spatial models of peat thickness (mean 1.7 ± 0.9 m; maximum 5.6 m) and peat carbon density (mean 1,712 ± 634 MgC ha−1; maximum 3,970 MgC ha−1) for the central Congo Basin. We show that the peatland complex covers 167,600 km2, 36% of the world’s tropical peatland area, and that 29.0 PgC is stored below ground in peat across the region (95% confidence interval, 26.3–32.2 PgC). Our measurement-based constraints give high confidence of globally significant peat carbon stocks in the central Congo Basin, totalling approximately 28% of the world’s tropical peat carbon. Only 8% of this peat carbon lies within nationally protected areas, suggesting its vulnerability to future land-use change

Literae illustriss. principis, Ludovici Borbonii, principis Condaei, etc. Ad Carolum IX Galliae regem, quibus ejus fidem implorat, et imminens toti regno ob violatas pacis conditiones periculum denuntiat. Ejusdem testificatio causarum quae eum arma sumere coegerunt. Item formula jurisjurandi quo omnes qui sub se militabant, obstrinxit. Literae Reginae Navarrae ad regem Galliae, reginam Angliae, et alios quosdam principes, quibus justas causas exponit, cur sese principi Condaeo conjunxerit. Brevis narratio caedis in eundem Lud. Borbonium summa cum perfidia et crudelitate perpetratae, praelio inter utranque aciem gallicam commisso. Varia variis linguis scripta in eundem epitaphia.

GLN-2388Adams, Cambridge, C 2498Bremme, Genfer, p. 119CDM, p. 72Shaw, Cathedral Libr., 2, L 1757STC Edinburgh, p. 22

Disrupted regulation of social exclusion in alcohol dependence : an fMRI study

Alcohol-dependence is associated with cognitive and biological alterations, and also with interpersonal impairments. Although overwhelming in clinical settings and involved in relapse, these social impairments have received little attention from researchers. Particularly, brain alterations related to social exclusion have not been explored in alcohol-dependence. Our primary purpose was to determine the neural correlates of social exclusion feelings in this population. In all, 44 participants (22 abstinent alcohol-dependent patients and 22 paired controls) played a virtual game ('cyberball') during fMRI recording. They were first included by other players, then excluded, and finally re-included. Brain areas involved in social exclusion were identified and the functional connectivity between these areas was explored using psycho-physiological interactions (PPI). Results showed that while both groups presented dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activations during social exclusion, alcohol-dependent participants exhibited increased insula and reduced frontal activations (in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) as compared with controls. Alcohol-dependence was also associated with persistent dACC and parahippocampal gyrus activations in re-inclusion. PPI analyses showed reduced frontocingulate connectivity during social exclusion in alcohol-dependence. Alcohol-dependence is thus linked with increased activation in areas eliciting social exclusion feelings (dACC-insula), and with impaired ability to inhibit these feelings (indexed by reduced frontal activations). Altered frontal regulation thus appears implied in the interpersonal alterations observed in alcohol-dependence, which seem reinforced by impaired frontocingulate connectivity. This first exploration of the neural correlates of interpersonal problems in alcohol-dependence could initiate the development of a social neuroscience of addictive states.Neuropsychopharmacology advance online publication, 18 April 2012; doi:10.1038/npp.2012.54

Author correction to "Mapping peat thickness and carbon stocks of the central Congo Basin using field data" (<i>Nature Geoscience</i>, 2022,10.1038/s41561-022-00966-7)

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