A global assessment of Bergmann's rule in mammals and birds.

Bergmann's rule states that endotherms have a large body size in high latitudes and cold climates. However, previous empirical studies have reported mixed evidence on the relationships between body size and latitude, raising the question of why some clades of endotherms follow Bergmann's rule, whereas others do not. Here, we synthesized the interspecific relationships between body size and latitude among 16,187 endothermic species (5422 mammals and 10,765 birds) using Bayesian phylogenetic generalized linear mixed models to examine the strength and magnitude of Bergmann's rule. We further assessed the effect of biological and ecological factors (i.e., body mass categories, dietary guild, winter activity, habitat openness, and climate zone) on the variations in the body mass-latitude relationships by adding an interaction term in the models. Our results revealed a generally weak but significant adherence to Bergmann's rule among all endotherms at the global scale. Despite taxonomic variation in the strength of Bergmann's rule, the body mass of species within most animal orders showed an increasing trend toward high latitudes. Generally, large-bodied, temperate species, non-hibernating mammals, and migratory and open-habitat birds tend to conform to Bergmann's rule more than their relatives do. Our results suggest that whether Bergmann's rule applies to a particular taxon is mediated by not only geographic and biological features, but also potential alternate strategies that species might have for thermoregulation. Future studies could explore the potential of integrating comprehensive trait data into phylogenetic comparative analysis to re-assess the classic ecogeographic rules on a global scale.

Trade-offs between economic development and biodiversity conservation on a tropical island.

Resolving trade-offs between economic development and biodiversity conservation needs is one of the defining issues of our time. This is crucial in currently developing countries and in particularly sensitive systems harboring high biodiversity. Yet, such a task can be challenging as human activities may have complex effects on biodiversity. Here we assessed the effects of intense economic development on different components of biodiversity using Hainan Island (South China) as model. This highly biodiverse tropical island has experienced intense economic development and extensive forest to agriculture conversion and urbanization across the last two decades. We characterized three main habitat clusters, based on local land use, climate and economic changes across 145 grids (10×10 km), and estimated avian biodiversity responses between 1998 and 2013. We recorded ongoing taxonomic biotic homogenization at the regional scale (i.e., the whole island), evidenced by decreasing differences between traditional and directional alpha diversity. Communities became overall phylogenetically clustered and functionally overdispersed. Biodiversity's priority effects were pervasive, with less diverse communities showing positive and more diverse communities showing negative biodiversity changes. Finally, at the local scale, different economic and environmental indicators showed complex and divergent effects across habitat clusters and biodiversity components. These effects were only partially ameliorated within a newly established Ecological Function Conservation Area in the mountainous central part of the island. Thus, our results depict complex effects of economic development on different biodiversity dimensions in different areas of the island with different land uses and protection regimes, and between local and regional spatial scales. Profound ecosystem damage associated with economic development was partially averted, probably due to enhanced biodiversity conservation policies and law enforcement, yet at the cost of regional-scale biotic homogenization and local-scale biodiversity loss. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Big-sized trees overrule remaining trees' attributes and species richness as determinants of aboveground biomass in tropical forests.

Large-diameter, tall-stature, and big-crown trees are the main stand structures of forests, generally contributing a large fraction of aboveground biomass, and hence play an important role in climate change mitigation strategies. Here, we hypothesized that the effects of large-diameter, tall-stature, and big-crown trees overrule the effects of species richness and remaining trees attributes on aboveground biomass in tropical forests (i.e., we term the "big-sized trees hypothesis"). Specifically, we assessed the importance of: (a) the "top 1% big-sized trees effect" relative to species richness; (b) the "99% remaining trees effect" relative to species richness; and (c) the "top 1% big-sized trees effect" relative to the "99% remaining trees effect" and species richness on aboveground biomass. Using environmental factor and forest inventory datasets from 712 tropical forest plots in Hainan Island of southern China, we tested several structural equation models for disentangling the relative effects of big-sized trees, remaining trees attributes, and species richness on aboveground biomass, while considering for the full (indirect effects only) and partial (direct and indirect effects) mediation effects of climatic and soil conditions, as well as interactions between species richness and trees attributes. We found that top 1% big-sized trees attributes strongly increased aboveground biomass (i.e., explained 55%-70% of the accounted variation) compared to species richness (2%-18%) and 99% remaining trees attributes (6%-10%). In addition, species richness increased aboveground biomass indirectly via increasing big-sized trees but via decreasing remaining trees. Hence, we show that the "big-sized trees effect" overrides the effects of remaining trees attributes and species richness on aboveground biomass in tropical forests. This study also indicates that big-sized trees may be more susceptible to atmospheric drought. We argue that the effects of big-sized trees on species richness and aboveground biomass should be tested for better understanding of the ecological mechanisms underlying forest functioning.

Plant diversity accurately predicts insect diversity in two tropical landscapes.

Plant diversity surely determines arthropod diversity, but only moderate correlations between arthropod and plant species richness had been observed until Basset et al. (Science, 338, 2012 and 1481) finally undertook an unprecedentedly comprehensive sampling of a tropical forest and demonstrated that plant species richness could indeed accurately predict arthropod species richness. We now require a high-throughput pipeline to operationalize this result so that we can (i) test competing explanations for tropical arthropod megadiversity, (ii) improve estimates of global eukaryotic species diversity, and (iii) use plant and arthropod communities as efficient proxies for each other, thus improving the efficiency of conservation planning and of detecting forest degradation and recovery. We therefore applied metabarcoding to Malaise-trap samples across two tropical landscapes in China. We demonstrate that plant species richness can accurately predict arthropod (mostly insect) species richness and that plant and insect community compositions are highly correlated, even in landscapes that are large, heterogeneous and anthropogenically modified. Finally, we review how metabarcoding makes feasible highly replicated tests of the major competing explanations for tropical megadiversity.

Historical connectivity and environmental filtering jointly determine the freshwater fish assemblages on Taiwan and Hainan Islands of China.

The biotas of Taiwan and Hainan Islands are of continental origin, but the manner with which historical and ecological factors shaped these insular species is still unclear. Here, we used freshwater fish as a model to fill this gap by quantifying the phylogenetic structure of the insular faunas and disentangling the relative contribution of potential drivers. Firstly, we used clustering and ordination analyses to identify regional species pools. To test whether the insular freshwater fish faunas were phylogenetically clustered or overdispersed, we calculated the net relatedness index (NRI) and the nearest taxon index (NTI). Finally, we implemented logistic regressions to disentangle the relative importance of species attributes (i.e., maximum body length, climatic niche dissimilarity [ND], and diversification) and historical connectivity (HC) in explaining the insular faunas. Our results showed that the most possible species pools of Taiwan are Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, and those of Hainan are Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. These insular faunas showed random phylogenetic structures in terms of NRI values. According to the NTI values, however, the Taiwanese fauna displayed more phylogenetic clustering, while the Hainanese one was more overdispersed. Both the standard and phylogenetic logistic regressions identified HC and climatic ND as the 2 top explanatory variables for species assemblages on these islands. Our reconstruction of the paleo-connected drainage basins provides insight into how historical processes and ecological factors interact to shape the freshwater fish fauna of the East Asian islands.

Evaluating the Potential Safety Risk of Plant-Based Meat Analogues by Analyzing Microbial Community Composition.

Plant-based meat analogues offer an environmentally and scientifically sustainable option as a substitute for animal-derived meat. They contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater consumption, and the potential risks associated with zoonotic diseases linked to livestock production. However, specific processing methods such as extrusion or cooking, using various raw materials, can influence the survival and growth of spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms, resulting in differences between plant-based meat analogues and animal meat. In this study, the microbial communities in five different types of plant-based meat analogues were investigated using high-throughput sequencing. The findings revealed a diverse range of bacteria, including Cyanobacteria, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota, Actinobacteriota, and Chloroflexi, as well as fungi such as Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Phragmoplastophyta, Vertebrata, and Mucoromycota. Additionally, this study analyzed microbial diversity at the genus level and employed phenotype prediction to evaluate the relative abundance of various bacterium types, including Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, aerobic, anaerobic, and facultative anaerobic bacteria, as well as potential pathogenic bacteria. The insights gained from this study provide valuable information regarding the microbial communities and phenotypes of different plant-based meat analogues, which could help identify effective storage strategies to extend the shelf-life of these products.

The Impact of High Temperature on Microbial Communities in Pork and Duck Skin.

Pork skin and duck skin are highly favored by consumers in China, and high-temperature processing methods are widely employed in cooking and food preparation. However, the influence of high-temperature treatment on the microbial communities within pork skin and duck skin remains unclear. In this study, a high-temperature treatment method simulating the cooking process was utilized to treat samples of pork skin and duck skin at temperatures ranging from 60 °C to 120 °C. The findings revealed that high-temperature treatment significantly altered the microbial communities in both pork skin and duck skin. Heat exposure resulted in a decrease in microbial diversity and induced changes in the relative abundance of specific microbial groups. In pork skin, high-temperature treatment led to a reduction in bacterial diversity and a decline in the relative abundance of specific bacterial taxa. Similarly, the relative abundance of microbial communities in duck skin also decreased. Furthermore, potential pathogenic bacteria, including Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as aerobic, anaerobic, and facultative anaerobic bacteria, exhibited different responses to high-temperature treatment in pork skin and duck skin. These findings highlighted the substantial impact of high-temperature processing on the composition and structure of microbial communities in pork skin and duck skin, potentially influencing food safety and quality. This study contributed to an enhanced understanding of the microbial mechanisms underlying the alterations in microbial communities during high-temperature processing of pork skin and duck skin, with significant implications for ensuring food safety and developing effective cooking techniques.

Temperature and historical land connectivity jointly shape the floristic relationship between Hainan Island and the neighbouring landmasses.

Present-day biodiversity in insular biota results from the interplay among geographical barriers, environmental filtering, and historical biogeography, but how these factors interact on insular biodiversity patterns is poorly understood. Here, we analysed the geographical patterns of beta diversity of seed plants between Hainan Island and the neighbouring landmasses in relation to space and the environmental factors to assess the relative effects of historical processes and ecological gradients on community assembly. We assessed beta diversity patterns by quantifying the turnover and nestedness components and used clustering and ordination to investigate the relationships between local floras from Hainan and the neighbouring landmasses. Utilising simple linear regression and linear mixed effect models, we evaluated the importance of historical processes and environmental gradients in shaping these beta diversity patterns. Our results show that the contributions of nestedness and turnover components to the total beta diversity vary across space. The flora of Hainan predominantly nests with the flora of Vietnam but shows larger species turnover with Guangdong, Guangxi, and Taiwan. Clustering and ordination analyses indicate that Hainan is first merged with Vietnam, after which it is grouped with mainland China and finally with Taiwan and the Philippines. The results of the linear mixed effect models consistently reveal that temperature, followed by the historical land connectivity, has the most important role in shaping the floristic dissimilarity. We conclude that the flora of Hainan is of continental origin and has the highest floristic affinity with Vietnam. The periodic emergence of a land bridge during Quaternary glacial cycles determines the origin of Hainan's flora, and temperature shapes the floristic dissimilarities via environmental filtering. Our study highlights the critical roles of historical sea level change and current environmental limitation in structuring the plant communities on Southeast Asian islands.

Evolutionary history of zoogeographical regions surrounding the Tibetan Plateau.

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) and surrounding regions have one of the most complex biotas on Earth. However, the evolutionary history of these regions in deep time is poorly understood. Here, we quantify the temporal changes in beta dissimilarities among zoogeographical regions during the Cenozoic using 4,966 extant terrestrial vertebrates and 1,278 extinct mammal genera. We identify ten present-day zoogeographical regions and find that they underwent a striking change over time. Specifically, the fauna on the TP was close to the Oriental realm in deep time but became more similar to the Palearctic realms more recently. The present-day zoogeographical regions generally emerged during the Miocene/Pliocene boundary (ca. 5 Ma). These results indicate that geological events such as the Indo-Asian Collision, the TP uplift, and the aridification of the Asian interior underpinned the evolutionary history of the zoogeographical regions surrounding the TP over different time periods.

Determinants of the beta diversity of tree species in tropical forests: Implications for biodiversity conservation.

The mapping of earth's biodiversity has advanced our theoretical and empirical understanding of biodiversity and has thus guided conservation efforts. Yet, early biodiversity maps often relied on alpha diversity indices, while beta diversity has rarely been used for practical conservation actions. We used generalized dissimilarity modelling (GDM) and variance partitioning to map beta diversity patterns of Hainan Island, China, and explore its underlying factors based on a large dataset of 248,538 individual trees belonging to 1,016 species in 902 forest plots. We used principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering to visualize community similarity, and spatial overlap analysis to assess the ability of the current protected areas (PAs) to encompass beta diversity. The GDMs explained 27.65% and 26.58% of the variation in beta diversity at the genus and species levels, respectively. The community composition of tree species in Hainan presented a general east-to-west gradient, and three floristic regions were delineated. This biogeographical pattern is predominantly structured by mean annual precipitation. Environmental variables, rather than geographical distance, were the most important factors determining present beta diversity patterns. Currently, PAs of Hainan Island are concentrated on mountain forest areas, while the lowland forest has largely been ignored. Thus, we suggest that biodiversity mapping based only on alpha diversity is not enough to identify conservation gaps, and the inclusion of beta diversity in such maps constitutes a promising tool to maximize the biodiversity coverage of PAs. Our study provides empirical evidence that a spatially explicit analysis of beta diversity in a specific region can be used for conservation planning.

Tree crown complementarity links positive functional diversity and aboveground biomass along large-scale ecological gradients in tropical forests.

Most of the previous studies have shown that the relationship between functional diversity and aboveground biomass is unpredictable in natural tropical forests, and hence also contrary to the predictions of niche complementarity effect. However, the direct and indirect effects of functional diversity on aboveground biomass via tree crown complementarity in natural forests remain unclear, and this potential ecological mechanism is yet to be understood across large-scale ecological gradients. Here, we hypothesized that tree crown complementarity would link positive functional diversity and aboveground biomass due to increasing species coexistence through efficient capture and use of available resources in natural tropical forests along large-scale ecological gradients. We quantified individual tree crown variation, functional divergence of tree maximum height, and aboveground biomass using data from 187,748 trees, in addition to the quantifications of climatic water availability and soil fertility across 712 tropical forests plots in Hainan Island of Southern China. We used structural equation modeling to test the tree crown complementarity hypothesis. Aboveground biomass increased directly with increasing functional diversity, individual tree crown variation and climatic water availability. As such, functional diversity enhanced individual tree crown variation, thereby increased aboveground biomass indirectly via individual tree crown variation. Additional positive effects of climatic water availability and soil fertility on aboveground biomass were accounted indirectly via increasing individual tree crown variation and/or functional diversity. This study shows that tree crown complementarity mediates the positive effect of functional diversity on aboveground biomass through light capture and use along large-scale ecological gradients in natural forests. This study also mechanistically shows that tree crown complementarity increases species coexistence through maintenance of functional diversity, which in turn enhances aboveground biomass in natural tropical forests. Hence, managing natural forests with the aim of increasing tree crown complementarity holds promise for enhancing carbon storage while conserving biodiversity in functionally-diverse communities.

Climatic water availability is the main limiting factor of biotic attributes across large-scale elevational gradients in tropical forests.

Climatic water availability is a key spatial driver of species distribution patterns in natural forests. Yet, we do not fully understand the importance of climatic water availability relative to temperature, and climate relative to edaphic factors for multiple biotic attributes across large-scale elevational gradients in natural forests. Here, we modelled multiple abiotic factors (elevation, climate, and edaphic factors) with each of the taxonomic-related (Shannon's species diversity, species richness, species evenness, and Simpson's dominance) and tree size or biomass-related (individual tree size variation, functional dominance and divergence, and aboveground biomass) biotic attributes through boosted regression trees (BRT) models, using biophysical data from 247,691 trees across 907 plots in tropical forests in Hainan Island of Southern China. The tested multiple abiotic factors explained simultaneously 43, 50, 36, 45, 37, 50, 17 and 46%, respectively, of the variations in Shannon's species diversity, species richness, species evenness, Simpson's dominance, individual tree size variation, functional dominance, functional divergence and aboveground biomass. After the large influences of elevation (i.e. 30.43 to 62.83%), climatic water availability accounted for most (i.e. 15.52 to 25.30%) of the variations in all biotic attributes. Beside the increasing trend with elevational gradients, taxonomic diversity increased strongly with climatic water availability whereas tree size or biomass-related biotic attributes showed strong decreasing and increasing trends. Tree size or biomass-related rather than taxonomic-related biotic attributes also decreased apparently with mean annual temperature. Most of the biotic attributes monotonically increased with soil fertility but decreased with soil pH, whereas soil textural properties had mostly negligible influences. This study strongly reveals that future climate change (i.e. a decrease in climatic water availability with an increase in mean annual temperature) is thus likely to have a substantial influence on the biotic attributes in the studied tropical forests across large-scale elevational gradients.

Linguistic experience and audio-visual perception of non-native fricatives.

This study examined the effects of linguistic experience on audio-visual (AV) perception of non-native (L2) speech. Canadian English natives and Mandarin Chinese natives differing in degree of English exposure [long and short length of residence (LOR) in Canada] were presented with English fricatives of three visually distinct places of articulation: interdentals nonexistent in Mandarin and labiodentals and alveolars common in both languages. Stimuli were presented in quiet and in a cafe-noise background in four ways: audio only (A), visual only (V), congruent AV (AVc), and incongruent AV (AVi). Identification results showed that overall performance was better in the AVc than in the A or V condition and better in quiet than in cafe noise. While the Mandarin long LOR group approximated the native English patterns, the short LOR group showed poorer interdental identification, more reliance on visual information, and greater AV-fusion with the AVi materials, indicating the failure of L2 visual speech category formation with the short LOR non-natives and the positive effects of linguistic experience with the long LOR non-natives. These results point to an integrated network in AV speech processing as a function of linguistic background and provide evidence to extend auditory-based L2 speech learning theories to the visual domain.

Changes in the spatial and temporal pattern of natural forest cover on Hainan Island from the 1950s to the 2010s: implications for natural forest conservation and management.

The study of the past, present, and future state and dynamics of the tropical natural forest cover (NFC) might help to better understand the pattern of deforestation and fragmentation as well as the influence of social and natural processes. The obtained information will support the development of effective conservation policies and strategies. In the present study, we used historical data of the road network, topography, and climatic productivity to reconstruct NFC maps of Hainan Island, China, from the 1950s to the 2010s, using the random forest algorithm. We investigated the spatial and temporal patterns of NFC change from the 1950s to the 2010s and found that it was highly dynamic in both space and time. Our data showed that grid cells with low NFC were more vulnerable to NFC decrease, suggesting that conservation actions regarding natural forests need to focus on regions with low NFC and high ecological value. We also identified the hot spots of NFC change, which provides insights into the dynamic changes of natural forests over time.

Population ecology of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) at Nanwan Nature Reserve, Hainan, China.

Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) at the Nanwan peninsula of Hainan Island, China, have been observed in the field for 25 years, and have been studied intensively for eight years, beginning in 1981. There were about 115 monkeys in 5 natural groups when the Nanwan Reserve was founded in 1965. From 1965 to 1984, the number of groups increased from 5 to 19, and the total population increased from 115 to 930 individuals, an annual population increase of 12.7%. From 1984 to 1987, the population continued a slower rate of increase (8.9%) to approximately 1200 monkeys in 20 groups. The home ranges of each monkey group at Nanwan varied from 0.16 to 0.72 km2, with a mean and standard deviation of 0.37 ± 0.18. The size of the home range of the rhesus was affected by the quality of vegetation and rhesus population density. The average birth rate per year was 77.8 ± 13.9%, varying from 53.8% to 100% since 1978. From 1978, the birth rates of two food provisioned groups were higher in alternate years (x̄ = 91.7%) and lower in intervening years (x̄ = 68.8%; P = <0.01). A minority (26.5%) of females have given birth at 4 years of age, most at 5 years. The sex ratio of newborns in any one year varied from 0.3 to 3.5 males to females, with a mean and standard error of 1.09 ± 0.37 males to females.

The performance of nature reserves in capturing the biological diversity on Hainan Island, China.

PURPOSE: The performance of nature reserves depends on the degree to which they represent a region's full biodiversity. Here, we conducted a study on Hainan Island, China, to assess how well Hainan's biodiversity features were captured by existing nature reserves. We also explored the driving forces behind the current protection pattern so as to provide guidelines for improving the island's conservation system. METHODS: We integrated the information on nature reserves, ecological variables, and human activities into a spatial database, then assessed the performance of nature reserves in representing natural variation, vegetation types, and species, and examined the impacts of human activities and land ownership on the current protection pattern. RESULTS: About 8.4% of Hainan Island was protected by nature reserves; the coverage was geographically biased toward its central mountainous areas with higher elevation, rugged terrain, and fertile soils. We found that 60% of the environmental units and 39.4% of the natural vegetation types had more than 10% of their area protected, respectively. Lowlands tended to have higher animal species richness, and the protection for endangered species was less efficient. Nature reserve coverage was negatively correlated with amount of converted habitats, human population density, and road density, and 82.4% of the total reserved area was allocated on state-owned land. CONCLUSIONS: Nature reserve coverage was not enough to capture lowlands biodiversity features. The current protection pattern was significantly driven by several major conservation targets, human development, planning methods, and land ownership. To improve its conservation system, Hainan should enhance protection in the north and northeast plains and coastal regions, implement systematic planning approaches to define clear visions for guiding future conservation actions, and develop flexible management and funding mechanisms toward sustainable use of natural resources.