The utility of existing passerine microsatellite markers for genetic studies in endangered species: as demonstrated for a critically endangered forest bird endemic to Réunion Island, the Réunion cuckooshrike (Coracina newtoni)

Genetic data are increasingly recognized for their utility in conservation programs. However, many endangered species belong to families that have been understudied. Due to the urgency of their conservation status it is important to quickly identify polymorphic microsatellite loci from available resources. We show for the Re´union Cuckoo shrike Coracina newtoni, that this strategy can be very useful. Using 110 passerine microsatellite primer sets we identified eighteen polymorphic loci and tested them in 25 C. newtoni individuals. Following a Bonferroni correction one pair of loci displayed linkage disequilibriu

Community structure of woody plants on islands along a bioclimatic gradient

Peer reviewe

Overview of habitat history in subtropical oceanic island summit ecosystems

Summit ecosystems of oceanic islands constitute one of the most ephemeral and isolated ecosystems existing, harboring specific features that confer on their biota an outstanding distinctness. Summits are short-lived entities, being the last ecosystems to be constructed during the growth of the new oceanic island, and the first to vanish due either to island subsidence, island erosion, or both. Whereas their geological emergence/disappearance is controlled by the volcanic/erosion activity, Pleistocene glaciations in the past million years, by forcing the altitudinal shift of the timberline, have also likely created or destroyed summit ecosystems, enabling the appearance of alpine ecosystems during glacial maxima where they were not present in interglacial periods and vice versa. On the other hand, summit ecosystems constitute islands within islands, being more isolated from climatically similar ecosystems than the coastlines of the islands containing them. Thus summit biota, frequently displaying a high endemicity, may originate either through dispersal from other close summit ecosystems during peak periods, or from the colonization of the summits and later evolution to the new conditions from mid-altitude species of the same island. Conversely, if peak periods are absent, the disappearance of summit ecosystems implies the extinction or extirpation of their constitutive species. Current summit species have likely occupied a much larger area during glacial periods. Thus the summits may be classified as climatic refuges. This is especially the case if glacial periods were associated with much drier conditions on oceanic islands as is the case on continents

Diversification des espèces et différenciation dans le point-chaud de biodiversité de Madagascar et des Iles de l Océan Indien

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Importance du processus de régénération naturelle dans le maintien de la diversité en forêt tropicale humide

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Les poissons arc-en-ciel de Papouasie (Melanotaeniidae) (evolution et systématique)

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Causes of genetic differenciation at a very small spatial scale in an island bird (zosterops borbonicus)

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Etude spatio-temporelle de la distribution de bambous dans le Sud-ouest amazonien (sud Pérou) histoire, dynamique et futur d'une végétation monodominante en forêt tropicale humide

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Etude spatio-temporelle de la distribution de bambous dans le Sud-ouest amazonien (sud Pérou) histoire, dynamique et futur d'une végétation monodominante en forêt tropicale humide

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Randomness, determinism and edification of insular ecological communities (a case of the Hawaiian and indian ocean spiders)

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF