Reduction of inter- and intraspecific seed mass variability along a land-use intensification gradient

The functional response of natural patches to surrounding land-use changes is strongly related to variations in functional traits of coexisting species. To exemplify the effects on species of a general pattern of land-use intensification mountains-coastland, we investigated the variation of a key plant trait - seed mass - in small woodlots located along a land-use intensification gradient for two common species (Asparagus albus and Asparagus acutifolius) in the Mediterranean areas. Moreover, along this gradient, we also explored the relationship between seed mass variation and different environmental filters. Along the gradient, A. acutifolius seed mass decreased from natural and semi-natural to urban and artificial areas (higher to lower elevation), whereas A. albus seed mass increased along the same gradient, with heavier seed in patches located in the urban and artificial areas than in those located in natural and semi-natural areas. At intra-specific level, A. acutifolius seeds were significantly different at the extremes of the gradient (natural and semi-natural vs urban and artificial areas), while A. albus showed significant differences both between natural and semi-natural areas and urban and artificial areas, and between agricultural and urban and artificial areas, revealing more sensitiveness to land-use change. The land-use type influenced seed mass variability: in the small patches located in natural and semi-natural areas and in agricultural ones, we observed for both species a higher seed mass variability, being highest in the agricultural areas, while we observed a limited variability in urban and artificial areas, suggesting a homogenization in terms of seed mass within and across species in human-altered areas. Environmental drivers on the seed mass of the two species showed an opposite trend in relation to biotic, topographic and bioclimatic variables. We observed that for two common Mediterranean species, land-use type influenced one of the most important plant functional traits (i.e., seed mass), leading to a reduction of intraspecific variability in artificial context. Understanding how and why these relations occur could improve our capacity to find adaptive strategies for environmental management

The ternary diagram of functional diversity

Among the many diversity indices in the ecologist toolbox, measures that can be partitioned into additive terms are particularly useful as the different components can be related to different ecological processes shaping community structure. In this paper, an additive diversity decomposition is proposed to partition the diversity structure of a given community into three complementary fractions: functional diversity, functional redundancy and species dominance. These three components sum up to one. Therefore, they can be used to portray the community structure in a ternary diagram. Since the identification of community-level patterns is an essential step to investigate the main drivers of species coexistence, the ternary diagram of functional diversity can be used to relate different facets of diversity to community assembly processes more exhaustively than looking only at one index at a time. The value of the proposed diversity decomposition is demonstrated by the analysis of actual abundance data on plant assemblages sampled in grazed and ungrazed grasslands in Tuscany (Central Italy)

Focusing on the role of abiotic and biotic drivers on cross-taxon congruence

Diversity patterns can show congruence across taxonomic groups. Consistent diversity patterns allow the identification of indicator surrogates potentially representative of unobserved taxa or the broader biodiversity patterns. However, the effective use of biodiversity surrogates depends on underlying mechanisms driving the strength of the relationship among taxonomic groups. Here, we explored congruence patterns in community composition among taxa occupying different trophic levels, accounting for abiotic and biotic factors: vascular plants and six groups of ground-dwelling arthropods (pseudoscorpions, spiders, darkling beetles, rove beetles, ground beetles and ants) were chosen as potential indicator surrogates. We evaluated the cross-taxon relationships using Mantel test; subsequently, we investigated if these relationships could partially depend on abiotic drivers, using partial Mantel tests; then, we evaluated the partial contributions of abiotic and biotic drivers in explaining these relationships through a series of variation partitioning analyses. Our results showed that a consistent cross-taxon congruence pattern was evident across almost all group pairs: pseudoscorpions, spiders, ground beetles and vascular plants showed the largest number of significant correlations with other taxa. Environmental gradients resulted as drivers of cross-taxon congruence, shaping composition patterns. However, they were not the only ones. Biotic drivers account for part of cross-taxon congruence among vascular plants and arthropod predators (i.e., pseudoscorpions and spiders, but also ground beetles), as well as among taxa at high trophic levels. Almost all strictly predatory taxa, known as biological control agents, emerged as the best predictors of plant community composition even when the role of environmental factors was considered. Spiders/ants and spiders/ground beetles showed close relationships and congruent composition patterns, irrespective of environmental parameters. Relationships among taxa might be driven by several complex biotic interactions (e.g., non-trophic and trophic interactions, direct and indirect interactions). Bottom-up and top-down forces, consumptive and non-consumptive interactions may play a role in influencing the community composition of taxa and driving the observed relationships. Future studies should broaden knowledge about the role of these forces and interactions in determining the congruence across taxa. The multi-trophic perspective in cross-taxon studies can be promising for identifying biodiversity surrogates and their application in conservation planning

Cross Taxon Congruence Between Lichens and Vascular Plants in a Riparian Ecosystem

Despite that congruence across taxa has been proved as an effective tool to provide insights into the processes structuring the spatial distribution of taxonomic groups and is useful for conservation purposes, only a few studies on cross-taxon congruence focused on freshwater ecosystems and on the relations among vascular plants and lichens. We hypothesized here that, since vascular plants could be good surrogates of lichens in these ecosystems, it would be possible to assess the overall biodiversity of riparian habitats using plant data only. In this frame, we explored the relationship between (a) species richness and (b) community composition of plants and lichens in a wetland area located in central Italy to (i) assess whether vascular plants are good surrogates of lichens and (ii) to test the congruence of patterns of species richness and composition among plants and lichens along an ecological gradient. The general performance of plant species richness per se, as a biodiversity surrogate of lichens, had poor results. Nonetheless, the congruence in compositional patterns between lichens and vascular plants varied across habitats and was influenced by the characteristics of the vegetation. In general, we discussed how the strength of the studied relationships could be influenced by characteristics of the data (presence/absence vs. abundance), by the spatial scale, and by the features of the habitats. Overall, our data confirm that the more diverse and structurally complex the vegetation is, the more diverse are the lichen communities it hosts

Medical competence, anatomy and the polity in seventeenth-century Rome

At the centre of this article are two physicians active in Rome between 1600 and 1630 who combined medical practice with broader involvement in the dynamic cultural, economic and political scene of the centre of the Catholic world. The city's distinctive and very influential social landscape magnified issues of career-building and allows us to recapture physicians’ different strategies of self-fashioning at a time of major social and religious reorganization. At one level, reconstructing Johannes Faber and Giulio Mancini's medical education, arrival in Rome and overlapping but different career trajectories contributes to research on physicians’ identity in early modern Italian states. Most remarkable are their access to different segments of Roman society, including a dynamic art market, and their diplomatic and political role, claimed as well as real. But following these physicians from hospitals to courts, including that of the Pope, and from tribunals to the university and analysing the wide range of their writing – from medico-legal consilia to political essays and reports of anatomical investigations – also enriches our view of medical practice, which included, but went beyond, the bedside. Furthermore, their activities demand that we reassess the complex place of anatomical investigations in a courtly society, and start recovering the fundamental role played by hospitals – those quintessential Catholic institutions – as sites of routine dissections for both medical teaching and research. (pp. 551–567

Heart transplantation and biomarkers: a review about their usefulness in clinical practice

Advanced heart failure (AdvHF) can only be treated definitively by heart transplantation (HTx), yet problems such right ventricle dysfunction (RVD), rejection, cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV), and primary graft dysfunction (PGD) are linked to a poor prognosis. As a result, numerous biomarkers have been investigated in an effort to identify and prevent certain diseases sooner. We looked at both established biomarkers, such as NT-proBNP, hs-troponins, and pro-inflammatory cytokines, and newer ones, such as extracellular vesicles (EVs), donor specific antibodies (DSA), gene expression profile (GEP), donor-derived cell free DNA (dd-cfDNA), microRNA (miRNA), and soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2). These biomarkers are typically linked to complications from HTX. We also highlight the relationships between each biomarker and one or more problems, as well as their applicability in routine clinical practice