Environmental heterogeneity and the ecology of carnivorous plants: implications for conservation

En la cuenca mediterránea, la mayoría de las plantas carnívoras pertenecientes al género Pinguicula habitan las paredes húmedas de montañas calizas. Estos escenarios rocosos condicionan la ecología de las poblaciones situadas en distintos exposiciones (solana versus umbría). Las diferencias temporales en la floración entre plantas que crecen en distintos microhábitats, unido a las diferencias espaciales en la distribución y abundancia de las especies de polinizadores, provocan barreras al flujo genico vía polen entre microhábitats soleados y umbríos. Estos mecanismos ecológicos pueden actuar sinérgicamente con otros factores que limitan el flujo génico, como distancia geográfica y la compleja orografía de las montañas, favoreciendo la diferenciación local. Las poblaciones de Pinguicula vallisneriifolia muestran también diferentes abundancias y estructuras demográficas dependiendo del microhábitat donde crecen las plantas. El carácter perenne y la reproducción asexual de esta planta le permite ralentizar la extinción poblacional, incluso en ausencia de reclutamiento via plántula en los lugares secos y soleados. Sin embargo, con la actual tendencia hacia una mayor aridez, los escasos micrositios adecuados para la germinación y establecimiento de plántulas se desplazan hacia los sectores de las paredes más umbríos y húmedos, pero donde el desarrollo reproductivo está limitado por la escasez de luz. Para la conservación de esta planta carnívora hay que llevar a cabo medidas de manejo para mantener un número mínimo de nichos de regeneración efectivos. La conservación de P. vallisneriifolia pasa por mantener la riqueza de escenarios ecológicos (i.e., mantener poblaciones de sol versus de sombra), como parte de la variabilidad total a conservar, no solo geográfica, sino también de escenario microclimático.Most carnivorous plants belonging to the Pinguicula genus inhabit mountains in the Mediterranean basin. Pinguicula vallisneriifolia inhabits wet limestone rock walls and cliffs, being able to reproduce by seeds and asexually (by stolons and axillary buds). The complex orography of Mediterranean mountains favors sunny (hot and dry) and shady (cool and wet) contrasting expositions. Along the sun-shade gradient, there were variations in plant flowering phenology, as well as in animal species that interacted with the plants (prey, pollinators and kleptoparasites), even at a very restricted spatial scale. The ecological consequence is that the marked spatial variability in abiotic conditions results in a site-specific mosaic of plant-animal interactions, and hence of selective pressures of animals upon plants. Plant populations have also different demographic structures depending on the microhabitat (sunny, dry versus wet, shady). As a result, different demographic patterns appear on different localities or different habitats within the same locality: populations living in moist, shady patches show high proportions of seedlings as plants reproduce both sexually and asexually, resulting in viable populations. On the contrary, plants living in dry, sunny rocky substrates, despite sexual and asexual reproduction, have no seedling recruitment because of wet microsite limitation. These populations are, therefore, dominated by vegetative individuals. Practical guiadance are provided in order to preserve these microclimatically structured populations

Seed dispersers, seed predators, and browsers act synergistically as biotic filters in a mosaic landscape

In this study, we analize the functional influence of animals on the plants they interact with in a mediterranean mountain. We hypothesise that seed dispersers, seed predators, and browsers can act as biotic filters for plant communities. We analyse the combined effects of mutualistic (seed dispersal) and antagonistic (seed predation, herbivory) animal interactions in a mosaic landscape of Mediterranean mountains, basing our results on observational and experimental field. Most of the dispersed seeds came from tree species, whereas the population of saplings was composed predominantly of zoochorous shrub species. Seed predators preferentially consumed seeds from tree species, whereas seeds from the dominant fleshy-fruited shrubs had a higher probability of escaping these predators. The same pattern was repeated among the different landscape units by browsers, since they browsed selectively and far more intensely on tree-species saplings than on the surrounding shrubs. In synthesis, our work identifies the major biotic processes that appear to be favoring a community dominated by shrubs versus trees because seed dispersers, predators, and herbivores together favored shrub dispersal and establishment versus trees.This work was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spanish Government) Project CGL2011-29910 to R.Z. and by EU Marie Curie Fellowship to L.M (FP7-2011-IEF-300825)

Colonization Pattern of Abandoned Croplands by Quercus pyrenaica in a Mediterranean Mountain Region

Land abandonment is a major global change driver in the Mediterranean region, where anthropic activity has played an important role in shaping landscape configuration. Understanding the woodland expansion towards abandoned croplands is critical to develop effective management strategies. In this study, we analyze the colonization pattern of abandoned croplands by Quercus pyrenaica in the Sierra Nevada mountain range (southern Spain). We aimed to assess differences among populations within the rear edge of the Q. pyrenaica distribution. For this purpose, we characterized (i) the colonization pattern of Q. pyrenaica, (ii) the structure of the seed source (surrounding forests), and (iii) the abundance of the main seed disperser (Eurasian jay, Garrulus glandarius). The study was conducted in five abandoned croplands located in two representative populations of Q. pyrenaica located on contrasting slopes. Vegetation plots within three habitat types (mature forest, edge-forest and abandoned cropland) were established to compute the abundance of oak juveniles. The abundance of European jay was determined using data of bird censuses (covering 7 years). Our results indicate that a natural recolonization of abandoned croplands by Q. pyrenaica is occurring in the rear edge of the distribution of this oak species. Oak juvenile abundance varied between study sites. Neither the surrounding-forest structure nor the abundance of jays varied significantly between study sites. The differences in the recolonization patterns seem to be related to differences in the previous- and post-abandonment management.LIFE-ADAPTAMED (LIFE14CCA/ES/000612) projectMIGRAME Project (Excellence Research Group Programme of the Andalusian Government (RNM 6734)eLTER H2020 projec

Implications of mistletoe parasitism for the host metabolome: A new plant identity in the forest canopy

Catalan Government, Grant/Award Number: SGR 2017-1005; European Research Council Synergy, Grant/Award Number: IMBALANCE-P ERC-2013-SyG-610028; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Grant/Award Numbers: CLAVINOVA CGL2011-29910, ELEMENTALSHIFT PID2019-110521GB-I00; Ministerstvo Skolstvi, Mladeze a Te. lovychovy, Grant/Award Number: SustES CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000797; Secretaria de Estado de Investigaci ~on, Desarrollo e Innovaci~on, Grant/Award Number: BES-2012-057125Mistletoe–host systems exemplify an intimate and chronic relationship where mistletoes represent protracted stress for hosts, causing long-lasting impact. Although host changes in morphological and reproductive traits due to parasitism are well known, shifts in their physiological system, altering metabolite concentrations, are less known due to the difficulty of quantification. Here, we use ecometabolomic techniques in the plant–plant interaction, comparing the complete metabolome of the leaves from mistletoe (Viscum album) and needles from their host (Pinus nigra), both parasitized and unparasitized, to elucidate host responses to plant parasitism. Our results show that mistletoe acquires metabolites basically from the primary metabolism of its host and synthesizes its own defence compounds. In response to mistletoe parasitism, pines modify a quarter of their metabolome over the year, making the pine canopy metabolome more homogeneous by reducing the seasonal shifts in topdown stratification. Overall, host pines increase antioxidant metabolites, suggesting oxidative stress, and also increase part of the metabolites required by mistletoe, which act as a permanent sink of host resources. In conclusion, by exerting biotic stress and thereby causing permanent systemic change, mistletoe parasitism generates a new host-plant metabolic identity available in forest canopy, which could have notable ecological consequences in the forest ecosystem.Catalan Government SGR 2017-1005European Research Council Synergy IMBALANCE-P ERC-2013-SyG-610028Instituto de Salud Carlos III Spanish Government European Commission CLAVINOVA CGL2011-29910ELEMENTALSHIFT PID2019-110521GB-I00Ministerstvo Skolstvi, Mladeze a Telovychovy SustES CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000797Secretaria de Estado de Investigacion, Desarrollo e Innovacion BES-2012-05712

Mistletoe generates non-trophic and trait-mediated indirect interactions through a shared host of herbivore consumers

Indirect interactions emerge among a wide range of herbivores sharing the same plant resource. Consumers usually belong to different trophic guilds, from folivores and sapsuckers to parasitic plants. We propose that mistletoes parasitizing pines could play a key role acting as herbivores on host pines and coming indirectly into competition with other herbivores feeding on the same host. Changes caused by mistletoes on its host have been well studied, but its effects running across trophic webs remain unrevealed. In this study, we investigate the effect of European mistletoe (Viscum album subsp. austriacum) on the host-feeding herbivores via trait-mediated indirect interactions (TMIIs) across their shared pine host (Pinus nigra subsp. salzmannii). We performed field and laboratory experiments, and analyzed the net effect of different mistletoe parasite loads on three host-phytophagous species: the sapsucker Cinara pini (Aphididae), the winter folivore Thaumetopoea pityocampa (Thaumetopoeidae), and the summer folivore Brachyderes sp. (Curculionidae), all being members of different functional feeding groups (FFGs). We summarize the mistletoe–host–herbivore interactions by means of a TMII, where mistletoe parasitism causes non-trophic links and detrimental indirect interactions on pine-feeding herbivores across its shared host, suggesting a worsening of host quality as food. These indirect interactions vary according to three parameters. First, the intensity has a non-proportional relation with parasite load, showing an impact threshold on highly parasitized pines. Second, the movement capacity of insect herbivores determines their response, by decreasing the abundance of herbivores with low movement ability (aphids and pine processionary caterpillars) while altering the behavior (plant selection) of more mobile herbivores (pine weevils). Finally, FFG determines the intensity of mistletoe parasitism effects, folivores being more responsive than sapsuckers. Overall, mistletoe generates non-trophic interaction linkages in the forest able to modify community structure by becoming a nexus of the entire herbivore community of the pine canopy.This study was supported by project CLAVINOVA CGL2011-29910 to Regino Zamora from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and FPI predoctoral grant BES-2012-057125 to Alba Lázaro- González from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness

Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory. Structure and basic data

This book shows the structure of the Sierra Nevada Global Change Obsservator

Sierra Nevada Global-Change Observatory. Monitoring methodologies

This book compiles detailed descriptions of the monitoring methodologies used for monitoring the global change impacts on ecosystems of Sierra Nevada

Dataset of Phenology of Mediterranean high-mountain meadows flora (Sierra Nevada, Spain)

Sierra Nevada mountain range (southern Spain) hosts a high number of endemic plant species, being one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the Mediterranean basin. The high-mountain meadow ecosystems (borreguiles) harbour a large number of endemic and threatened plant species. In this data paper, we describe a dataset of the flora inhabiting this threatened ecosystem in this Mediterranean mountain. The dataset includes occurrence data for flora collected in those ecosystems in two periods: 1988–1990 and 2009–2013. A total of 11002 records of occurrences belonging to 19 orders, 28 families 52 genera were collected. 73 taxa were recorded with 29 threatened taxa. We also included data of cover-abundance and phenology attributes for the records. The dataset is included in the Sierra Nevada Global-Change Observatory (OBSNEV), a long-term research project designed to compile socio-ecological information on the major ecosystem types in order to identify the impacts of global change in this area.This research work was conducted in the collaborative framework of the “Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory” Project funded by the Environment Department of Andalusian Regional Government and the Sierra Nevada National Park. A. J. Pérez-Luque would like to thank the MICINN of the Government of Spain for the financial support (PTA 2011-6322-I)

Observatorio de Cambio Global en Sierra Nevada. Estructura y contenidos básicos

En este trabajo se describe la estructura y los datos básicos del Observatorio de Cambio Global de Sierra Nevada