Biology subjects

de Vere, N.

Publications and source records attributed to de Vere, N..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Ecological indicators predict functional diversity dynamics following glacier retreat

The retreat of glaciers due to climate change is reshaping mountain landscapes and biodiversity. While previous research has documented vegetation succession after glacier retreat, our understanding of functional diversity dynamics is still limited. In this case study, we address the effects of glacier retreat on plant functional diversity by integrating plant traits with ecological indicator values across a 140-year chronosequence in a subalpine glacier landscape. We reveal that functional richness and functional dispersion decrease with glacier retreat, while functional evenness and functional divergence increase, suggesting a shift towards more specialized and competitive communities. Our findings highlight the critical role of ecological factors related to soil moisture, soil nutrients, and light availability in shaping plant community dynamics. The integrative approach of this case study provides novel insights into the potential response of alpine plant communities to climate change, offering a deeper understanding of how to predict and anticipate the effects of glacier extinction on biodiversity in rapidly changing environments.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Harmonising digitised herbarium data to enhance biodiversity knowledge: creating an updated checklist for the flora of Greenland.

International efforts to digitise herbarium specimens provide the building blocks for a global digital herbarium. However, taxonomic changes and errors can result in inconsistencies when amalgamating specimen metadata, that compromise the assignment of occurrence records to correct taxa, and the subsequent interpretation of patterns in biodiversity. We present a novel workflow to mass-curate digital specimens. By employing existing digital taxonomic backbones, we aggregate specimen names by their accepted name and flag remaining cases for manual review. We then validate names using site-specific floras, balancing automation with taxonomic expert-based curation. Applying our workflow to the vascular plants of Greenland, we harmonised 175,266 digitised herbarium specimens and observations from 92 data providers from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The harmonised metacollection for the Greenland flora contains 780 plant species. Our workflow increases the number of species known from Greenland compared to other currently available species checklists and increases the mean number of occurrences per species by 42.6. Our workflow illustrates the integration required in order to create a global, universally accessible digital herbarium, and shows how previous obstacles to database curation can be overcome through a combination of automation and expert curation. From the specific perspective of the Greenland flora, our approach arrives at a new checklist of taxa, a new curated metacollection of occurrence data, and revised estimates of plant richness. The list of taxa and their prevalence allow a new basis for biodiversity assessment and conservation planning. Societal Impact StatementDigitising plant collections has allowed for data to be aggregated across multiple collections, forming a single harmonised resource of unprecedented scale. This resource is only accurate once the database names are assigned to one accepted name per species. We established a semi-automated workflow for processing plant name data, leveraging taxonomic backbones and employing taxonomic expertise at key stages. Applying our workflow to the flora of Greenland, we developed a curated checklist of 780 species, capturing greater species richness than previously published, while also curating 175,266 plant records. Our findings redefine our knowledge of Greenlandic plant diversity, while harmonising a vast digital collection for further research.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Variations of floral temperature in changing weather conditions

O_LIFloral temperature is a flower characteristic that has the potential to impact the fitness of flowering plants and their pollinators. Likewise, the presence of floral temperature patterns, areas of contrasting temperature across the flower, can have similar impacts on the fitness of both mutualists. C_LIO_LIIt is currently poorly understood how floral temperature changes under the influence of different weather conditions, and how floral traits may moderate these changes. Such weather dependency will impact how stable floral temperatures are over time and their utility to plant and pollinator. The stability of floral temperature cues is likely to facilitate effective plant-pollinator interactions and play a role in the plants reproductive success. C_LIO_LIWe use thermal imaging to monitor how floral temperatures and temperature patterns of four plant species (Cistus snow fire and snow white, Coreopsis verticillata and Geranium psilostemon) change with several weather variables (illumination, temperature; windspeed; cloud cover; humidity and pressure) during times that pollinators are active. C_LIO_LIAll weather variables influenced floral temperature in one or more species. The directionality of these relationships were similar across species. In all species light conditions (illumination) had the greatest influence on floral temperature overall, and in generation of contrasting temperatures between parts of the flower, temperature patterns. The effect sizes of other weather variables were lower and more varied across the four species. Most likely, floral traits such as pigmentation and structure influence these relationships between weather conditions and generation of floral temperature. C_LIO_LISynthesis: Floral temperature and the extent to which flowers showed contrasting temperature patterns were influenced predominantly by light conditions. However, several weather variables had additional, lesser, influences. Furthermore, differences in floral traits, pigmentation and structure, likely resulted in differences in temperature responses to given conditions between species and different parts of the same flower. However, floral temperatures and contrasting temperature patterns that are sufficiently elevated for detection by pollinators were maintained across most conditions if flowers received moderate illumination. This suggests the presence of elevated floral temperature and contrasting temperature patterns are fairly constant and may have potential to influence plant-pollinator interactions across weather conditions. C_LI

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Temperate grass allergy season defined by spatio-temporal shifts in airborne pollen communities

Grass pollen is the worlds most harmful outdoor aeroallergen and sensitivity varies between species. Different species of grass flower at different times, but it is not known how airborne communities of grass pollen change in time and space. Persistence and high mobility of grass pollen could result in increasingly diverse seasonal pollen communities. Conversely, if grass pollen does not persist for an extended time in the air, shifting pollen communities would be predicted throughout the summer months. Here, using targeted high throughput sequencing, we tracked the seasonal progression of airborne Poaceae pollen biodiversity across Britain, throughout the grass allergy season. All grass genera displayed discrete, temporally restricted peaks of pollen incidence which varied with latitude, revealing that the taxonomic composition of grass pollen exposure changes substantially across the allergy season. By developing more refined aeroallergen profiling, we predict that our findings will facilitate the exploration of links between taxon-specific exposure of harmful grass pollen and disease, with concomitant socio-economic benefits.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2017

DNA barcoding British Euphrasia reveals deeply divergent polyploids but lack of species-level resolution

Background and aimsDNA barcoding is emerging as a useful tool not only for species identification but for studying evolutionary and ecological processes. Although plant DNA barcodes do not always provide species-level resolution, the generation of large DNA barcode datasets can provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the generation of species diversity. Here, we use DNA barcoding to study evolutionary processes in taxonomically complex British Euphrasia, a group with multiple ploidy levels, frequent self- fertilization, young species divergence and widespread hybridisation.\n\nMethodsWe sequenced the core plant barcoding loci, supplemented with additional nuclear and plastid loci, in representatives of all 19 British Euphrasia species. We analyse these data in a population genetic and phylogenetic framework. We then date the divergence of haplotypes in a global Euphrasia dataset using a time-calibrated Bayesian approach implemented in BEAST.\n\nKey resultsNo Euphrasia species has a consistent diagnostic haplotype. Instead, haplotypes are either widespread across species, or are population specific. Nuclear genetic variation is strongly partitioned by ploidy levels, with diploid and tetraploid British Euphrasia possessing deeply divergent ITS haplotypes (DXY = 5.1%), with haplotype divergence corresponding to the late Miocene. In contrast, plastid data show no clear division by ploidy, and instead reveal weakly supported geographic patterns.\n\nConclusionsUsing standard DNA barcoding loci for species identification in Euphrasia will be unsuccessful. However, these loci provide key insights into the maintenance of genetic variation, with divergence of diploids and tetraploids suggesting that ploidy differences act as a barrier to gene exchange in British Euphrasia, with rampant hybridisation within ploidy levels. The scarcity of shared diploid-tetraploid ITS haplotypes supports the polyploids being allotetraploid in origin. Overall, these results show that even when lacking species-level resolution, DNA barcoding can reveal insightful evolutionary patterns in taxonomically complex genera.

evolutionary biology↗