Some records of wood-inhabiting fungi on Fagus sylvatica in northern Spain

Es presenta una llista d'algunes recol·leccions interessants de macromicets sobre Fagus, fetes en algunes prospeccions a Astúries i Navarra, en novembre de 2005 . Pel cap baix, Antrodiella fissiliformis, Nemania carbonacea y Phellinus cavicola representen les primeres citacions per a l 'estat espanyol. Des del punt de vista de l' interès per a la conservació de la biodiversitat fúngica, les reserves integrals de Lizardoia i Aztaparreta, a Navarra, es consideren d'especial importància per a la conservació dels fongs saproxílics fagícoles del sud-oest d'Europa. Aquest treball vol estimular també l 'estudi continuat dels fongs lignícoles a les fagedes de l 'estat espanyol.A list is given of some interesting records of lignicolous macrofungi found on Fagus during some excursions in Asturias and Navarra in November 2005 . At least Antrodiella fissiliformis, Nemania carbonacea and Phellinus cavicola represent frrst records for the country. In a conservation perspective, the strict forest reserves Lizardoia and Aztaparreta in Navarra are considered to be important for the conservation of saproxylic fungi on beech in south western Europe. It is our hope that the paper will inspire to continued studies of wood-inhabiting fungi in beech forests in Spain.Se presenta una lista de algunos allaazgos interesantes de macromicetes lignícolas sobre Fagus, realizados durante las prospecciones en Asturias y Navarra, en noviembre de 2005. Por lo menos Antrodiella fissiliformis, Nemania carbonacea y Phellinus cavicola representan primeras citas para España. desde una prespectiva de la conservación de la biodiversidad fúngica, las reservas integrales de L izardoia i Aztaparreta, en Navarra, se consideran de especial importancia para la conservación de los hongos saproxílicos fagícolas en el sudoeste de Europa. Este trabajo esta orientado también a fomentar el estudio continuado de los hongos lignícolas en los hayedos de España

Some records of wood-inhabiting fungi on Fagus sylvatica in northern Spain

Es presenta una llista d'algunes recol·leccions interessants de macromicets sobre Fagus, fetes en algunes prospeccions a Astúries i Navarra, en novembre de 2005 . Pel cap baix, Antrodiella fissiliformis, Nemania carbonacea y Phellinus cavicola representen les primeres citacions per a l 'estat espanyol. Des del punt de vista de l' interès per a la conservació de la biodiversitat fúngica, les reserves integrals de Lizardoia i Aztaparreta, a Navarra, es consideren d'especial importància per a la conservació dels fongs saproxílics fagícoles del sud-oest d'Europa. Aquest treball vol estimular també l 'estudi continuat dels fongs lignícoles a les fagedes de l 'estat espanyol.Se presenta una lista de algunos allaazgos interesantes de macromicetes lignícolas sobre Fagus, realizados durante las prospecciones en Asturias y Navarra, en noviembre de 2005. Por lo menos Antrodiella fissiliformis, Nemania carbonacea y Phellinus cavicola representan primeras citas para España. desde una prespectiva de la conservación de la biodiversidad fúngica, las reservas integrales de L izardoia i Aztaparreta, en Navarra, se consideran de especial importancia para la conservación de los hongos saproxílicos fagícolas en el sudoeste de Europa. Este trabajo esta orientado también a fomentar el estudio continuado de los hongos lignícolas en los hayedos de España.A list is given of some interesting records of lignicolous macrofungi found on Fagus during some excursions in Asturias and Navarra in November 2005 . At least Antrodiella fissiliformis, Nemania carbonacea and Phellinus cavicola represent frrst records for the country. In a conservation perspective, the strict forest reserves Lizardoia and Aztaparreta in Navarra are considered to be important for the conservation of saproxylic fungi on beech in south western Europe. It is our hope that the paper will inspire to continued studies of wood-inhabiting fungi in beech forests in Spain

Communities of wood-inhabiting bryophytes and fungi on dead beech logs in Europe - reflecting substrate quality or shaped by climate and forest conditions?

Aim: Fungi are drivers of wood decay in forested ecosystem, while bryophytes use dead wood as a platform for their autotrophic lifestyle. We tested the hypothesis that fungal communities on beech logs are mainly structured by substrate quality, while bryophyte communities are structured by climatic gradients. In addition, we tested whether community structure in both organism groups is altered along a gradient from nearly pristine forest to forests heavily affected by management and human disturbance in the past. Location: Europe. Methods: We surveyed 1207 fallen beech logs in 26 of the best-preserved forest stands across six European countries, representing a gradient in overall naturalness of the forest landscape. Recorded species were classified into ecological guilds. Indirect ordination and variation partitioning was used to analyse the relationship between species composition and environmental variables, recorded at log or site level. Results: In total, 10,367 bryophyte and 15,575 fungal records were made, representing 157 and 272 species, respectively. Fungal communities were more clearly structured by substrate quality than were bryophyte communities. In both groups a distinct turnover in species composition was evident along a longitudinal gradient from Central to Western Europe. Fungi specialized in trunk rot and specialized epixylic bryophytes were scarcely represented in Atlantic regions, and partly replaced by species belonging to less specialized guilds. Variables related to climate and forest conditions were confounded along this main geographical gradient in community composition. Main conclusions: We found that bryophyte and fungal communities co-occurring on fallen beech logs in European beech forest reserves differed in their responses to biogeographical drivers and local-scale habitat filters. Both groups responded to major gradients in climate and forest conditions, but the loss of specialist guilds in degraded forest landscapes points to a functionally important effect of forest landscape degradation at the European continental scale. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Palaeogene glendonites from Denmark

Pristinely preserved mineral pseudomorphs called glendonites, up to 1.6 m long, from the Palaeogene strata of Denmark allow detailed crystallographic characterisation and add to the understanding of the transformation of the precursor mineral, ikaite (CaCO3 center dot 6H(2)O), to calcite, which constitutes the glendonite. We describe Danish pseudomorphs after ikaite from two localities and formations: the Early Eocene Fur Formation and the Late Oligocene Brejning Formation. This detailed study highlights that key aspects such as morphology and mode of occurrence of these ancient glendonites are identical to those of their parent mineral ikaite, when it grows in marine sediments. Systematic distortion of the angles in glendonite and marine sedimentary ikaite relative to the ideal ikaite symmetry may arise due to the incorporation of organic matter into the crystal structure, and we demonstrate the similarity between modern and ancient ikaite formation zones in the marine sedimentary realm with respect to organic matter

The Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Lutetian Stage at the Gorrondatxe section, Spain

The GSSP for the base of the Lutetian Stage (early/ middle Eocene boundary) is defined at 167.85 metres in the Gorrondatxe sea-cliff section (NW of Bilbao city, Basque Country, northern Spain; 43º22'46.47" N, 3º 00' 51.61" W). This dark marly level coincides with the lowest occurrence of the calcareous nannofossil Blackites inflatus (CP12a/b boundary), is in the middle of polarity Chron C21r, and has been interpreted as the maximumflooding surface of a depositional sequence that may be global in extent. The GSSP age is approximately 800 kyr (39 precession cycles) younger than the beginning of polarity Chron C21r, or ~47.8 Ma in the GTS04 time scale. The proposal was approved by the International Subcommission on Paleogene Stratigraphy in February 2010, approved by the International Commission of Stratigraphy in January 2011, and ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences in April 2011.Published86-1082.2. Laboratorio di paleomagnetismoJCR Journalrestricte

The Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Lutetian Stage at the Gorrondatxe section, Spain

The GSSP for the base of the Lutetian Stage (early/ middle Eocene boundary) is defined at 167.85 metres in the Gorrondatxe sea-cliff section (NW of Bilbao city, Basque Country, northern Spain; 43º22'46.47" N, 3º 00' 51.61" W). This dark marly level coincides with the lowest occurrence of the calcareous nannofossil Blackites inflatus (CP12a/b boundary), is in the middle of polarity Chron C21r, and has been interpreted as the maximumflooding surface of a depositional sequence that may be global in extent. The GSSP age is approximately 800 kyr (39 precession cycles) younger than the beginning of polarity Chron C21r, or ~47.8 Ma in the GTS04 time scale. The proposal was approved by the International Subcommission on Paleogene Stratigraphy in February 2010, approved by the International Commission of Stratigraphy in January 2011, and ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences in April 2011.Published86-1082.2. Laboratorio di paleomagnetismoJCR Journalrestricte

Molerområdets geologi – sedimenter, fossiler, askelag og glaicaltektonik

Abstract in Danish I den vestlige del af Limfjorden findes en række kystklinter, hvor eocæne lag er blottet. Moler er en ca. 55-56 millioner år gammel diatomit, som indeholder lag af uforvitret vulkansk aske samt et stort antal velbevarede marine og terrestriske fossiler. Stolleklint Leret og Fur Formationen har et usædvanligt fossilselskab med mange repræsentanter for insekter, fisk, fugle og skildpadder men meget få kalkskallede, hvirvelløse dyr. De vulkanske askelag afspejler et stort antal gigantiske, eksplosive udbrud inden for en kort periode, hvor lavatilstrømningen var stor, samtidig med at udbruddene skete på lavt vand i den nydannede oceanbund. For ca. 25.000 år siden dannede fremrykkende iskapper folder og overskydninger i moler, askelag og glaciale sedimenter. Molerområdets geologi kan sammenfattes i følgende citat: ”…talrige tynde lag af sort vulkansk Aske...træde selv på lang Afstand tydelig frem i det hvide Moler …[Da de] ofte danner store Bugter og Folder, vil man forstaa, at de høje lyse Molerklinter i Solskin frembyde et malerisk og ejendommeligt Skue.” (N. V. Ussing i ’Danmarks Geologi’ 1904, s.143)

The absolute abundance calibration project: the <i>Lycopodium</i> marker-grain method put to the test

Traditionally, dinoflagellate cyst concentrations are calculated by adding an exotic marker or “spike” (such as Lycopodium clavatum) to each sample following the method of Stockmarr (1971). According to Maher (1981), the total error is controlled mainly by the error on the count of Lycopodium clavatum spores. In general, the more L. clavatum spores counted, the lower the error. A dinocyst / L. clavatum spore ratio of ~2 will give optimal results in terms of precision and time spent on a sample. It has also been proven that the use of the aliquot method yields comparable results to the marker-grain method (de Vernal et al., 1987). Critical evaluation of the effect of different laboratory procedures on the marker grain concentration in each sample has never been executed. Although, it has been reported that different processing methods (e.g. ultrasonication, oxidizing, etc.) are to a certain extent damaging to microfossils (e.g. Hodgkinson, 1991), it is not clear how this is translated into concentration calculations. It is wellknown from the literature that concentration calculations of dinoflagellate cysts from different laboratories are hard to resolve into a consistent picture. The aim of this study is to remove these inconsistencies and to make recommendations for the use of a standardized methodology. Sediment surface samples from four different localities (North Sea, Celtic Sea, NW Africa and Benguela) were macerated in different laboratories each using its own palynological maceration technique. A fixed amount of Lycopodium clavatum tablets was added to each sample. The uses of different preparation methodologies (sieving, ultrasonicating, oxidizing …) are compared using both concentrations – calculated from Lycopodium tablets - and relative abundances (more destructive methods will increase the amount of resistant taxa). Additionally, this study focuses on some important taxonomic issues, since obvious interlaboratorial differences in nomenclature are recorded

Distance decay 2.0-A global synthesis of taxonomic and functional turnover in ecological communities

Aim: Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances (i.e., beta-diversity) is at the heart of community ecology. A common approach to examine beta-diversity is to evaluate directional variation in community composition by measuring the decay in the similarity among pairs of communities along spatial or environmental distance. We provide the first global synthesis of taxonomic and functional distance decay along spatial and environmental distance by analysing 148 datasets comprising different types of organisms and environments. Location: Global. Time period: 1990 to present. Major taxa studied: From diatoms to mammals. Method: We measured the strength of the decay using ranked Mantel tests (Mantel r) and the rate of distance decay as the slope of an exponential fit using generalized linear models. We used null models to test whether functional similarity decays faster or slower than expected given the taxonomic decay along the spatial and environmental distance. We also unveiled the factors driving the rate of decay across the datasets, including latitude, spatial extent, realm and organismal features. Results: Taxonomic distance decay was stronger than functional distance decay along both spatial and environmental distance. Functional distance decay was random given the taxonomic distance decay. The rate of taxonomic and functional spatial distance decay was fastest in the datasets from mid-latitudes. Overall, datasets covering larger spatial extents showed a lower rate of decay along spatial distance but a higher rate of decay along environmental distance. Marine ecosystems had the slowest rate of decay along environmental distances. Main conclusions: In general, taxonomic distance decay is a useful tool for biogeographical research because it reflects dispersal-related factors in addition to species responses to climatic and environmental variables. Moreover, functional distance decay might be a cost-effective option for investigating community changes in heterogeneous environments