At least some protist species are not ubiquitous

Body size is one of the main regulators of the ecological characteristics of living organisms, including their biogeography. The \u27ubiquity hypothesis\u27 for microorganisms states that they are widely distributed, if not cosmopolitan, due to their small size that allows passive dispersal, in contrast to large organisms that are limited by geographical barriers in their active dispersal. Such idea, summarized in the tenet \u27Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects\u27, has driven most of the research in biogeography for microscopic organisms in the last decades, spurring a debate on whether there are fundamental differences in the biogeography of small and large organisms or not (Fenchel & Finlay 2004; Foissner 2008; Hortal 2011). The strong focus on the ubiquity hypothesis may have been often abused to provide a rationale for otherwise descriptive work on the spatial distribution of microscopic organisms; nevertheless, such focus also provides a framework to understand the mechanisms originating and maintaining biodiversity in space. The reliability of the analyses on unknown and understudied organisms is improving, and Heger et al. (2013) is a splendid example on small unicellular eukaryotes of what should be done to overcome the major problems and ambiguities that heated the debate on the ubiquity hypothesis

Epiphytic bryophytes of Quercus forests in Central and North inland Iberian Peninsula

Frontiers of Biogeography 7.1 (2015): 21-28 This Document is Protected by copyright and was first published by Frontiers. All rights reserved. It is reproduced with permissionDiversity patterns are governed by a complex network of interacting factors. Studies directed to disentangle the most important factors affecting diversity have frequently shown divergent results, which has encouraged a rewarding debate about the relative importance of each factor. Scale dependency has been identified as a direct cause of at least part of such divergences. However, studies with spatially-explicit measurements at different scales are costly and therefore they are relatively scarce despite their importance. Here, we present a database to disentangle the cross-scale variation in the importance of factors affecting the diversity of epiphytic bryophyte communities in Quercus dominated forests (Quercus ilex L., Quercus pyrenaica Willd. and Quercus faginea Lam.) in the North-western region of the Iberian Peninsula. We provide species-per-site abundance information with more than 9000 entries and an environmental table containing 20 in situ measured variables at three different scales (forest, stand, and sample). The database will help to advance the research of cross-scale effects of diversity patterns while at the same time providing valuable information on the distribution of a poorly known group of organismsThe fieldwork was funded by the Spanish Government through grants CGL2007-61389, CGL2010-15693 and CGL2011-28857. N.G.M. was supported by a PhD grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education (grant number AP2007-00905

Global Island Monitoring Scheme (GIMS) : a proposal for the long-term coordinated survey and monitoring of native island forest biota

Islands harbour evolutionary and ecologically unique biota, which are currently disproportionately threatened by a multitude of anthropogenic factors, including habitat loss, invasive species and climate change. Native forests on oceanic islands are important refugia for endemic species, many of which are rare and highly threatened. Long-term monitoring schemes for those biota and ecosystems are urgently needed: (i) to provide quantitative baselines for detecting changes within island ecosystems, (ii) to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation and management actions, and (iii) to identify general ecological patterns and processes using multiple island systems as repeated 'natural experiments'. In this contribution, we call for a Global Island Monitoring Scheme (GIMS) for monitoring the remaining native island forests, using bryophytes, vascular plants, selected groups of arthropods and vertebrates as model taxa. As a basis for the GIMS, we also present new, optimized monitoring protocols for bryophytes and arthropods that were developed based on former standardized inventory protocols. Effective inventorying and monitoring of native island forests will require: (i) permanent plots covering diverse ecological gradients (e.g. elevation, age of terrain, anthropogenic disturbance); (ii) a multiple-taxa approach that is based on standardized and replicable protocols; (iii) a common set of indicator taxa and community properties that are indicative of native island forests' welfare, building on, and harmonized with existing sampling and monitoring efforts; (iv) capacity building and training of local researchers, collaboration and continuous dialogue with local stakeholders; and (v) long-term commitment by funding agencies to maintain a global network of native island forest monitoring plots.Peer reviewe

New records and detailed distribution and abundance of selected arthropod species collected between 1999 and 2011 in Azorean native forests.

Of the total 286 species identified, 81% were captured between 1999 and 2000, a period during which only 39% of all the samples were collected. On average, arthropod richness for each island increased by 10% during the time frame of these projects. The classes Arachnida, Chilopoda and Diplopoda represent the most remarkable cases of new island records, with more than 30% of the records being novelties. This study stresses the need to expand the approaches applied in these projects to other habitats in the Azores, and more importantly to other less surveyed taxonomic groups (e.g. Diptera and Hymenoptera). These steps are fundamental for getting a more accurate assessment of biodiversity in the archipelago