Habitat filtering across tree life stages in tropical forest communities

Tropical tree communities are shaped by local-scale habitat heterogeneity in the form of topographic and edaphic variation, but the life-history stage at which habitat associations develop remains poorly understood. This is due, in part, to the fact that previous studies have not accounted for the widely disparate sample sizes number of stems that result when trees are divided into size classes. We demonstrate that the observed habitat structuring of a community is directly related to the number of individuals in the community. We then compare the relative importance of habitat heterogeneity to tree community structure for saplings, juveniles and adult trees within seven large 24-50 ha tropical forest dynamics plots while controlling for sample size. Changes in habitat structuring through tree life stages were small and inconsistent among life stages and study sites. Where found, these differences were an order of magnitude smaller than the findings of previous studies that did not control for sample size. Moreover, community structure and composition were very similar among tree sub-communities of different life stages. We conclude that the structure of these tropical tree communities is established by the time trees are large enough to be included in the census 1 cm diameter at breast height, which indicates that habitat filtering occurs during earlier life stages. © 2013 The Authors Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved

An ethylene-glycol decorated ruthenium(ii) complex for two-photon photodynamic therapy

International audienceA novel water-soluble Ru(ii) complex has been prepared, which represents a promising new class of selective two-photon sensitizers for use in photodynamic therapy within a confined space

New insight in boron chemistry: Application in two-photon absorption:

Two groups of one-dimensional (1D) boron containing two-photon absorbing fluorophores have been prepared and characterized. One group includes boron atoms incorporated in the conjugated or pseudo conjugated central core and the other contain a boron cluster as an acceptor group at one end of the fluorophores. Two boron containing central cores (with two boron atoms) have been explored: the cyclodiborazane and the pyrazabole moieties. The chosen boron cluster, p-carborane, contains 10 boron atoms. All the prepared fluorophores present high two-photon absorption cross-sections. Some water-soluble as well as lipophylic dyes have been prepared and used in bio-imaging. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved