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Houadria, M.; Salas-Lopez, A.; Orivel, J.; Blüthgen, N.; Menzel, F. |
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Dietary and Temporal Niche Differentiation in Tropical Ants-Can They Explain Local Ant Coexistence? |
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Journal Article |
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2015 |
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Biotropica |
Abbreviated Journal |
Biotropica |
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47 |
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2 |
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208-217 |
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Ants; Baiting; Dietary specialization; Functional traits; Niche breadth; Partitioning; Temporal distribution |
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How species with similar ecological requirements avoid competitive exclusion remains contentious, especially in the species-rich tropics. Niche differentiation has been proposed as a major mechanism for species coexistence. However, different niche dimensions must be studied simultaneously to assess their combined effects on diversity and composition of a community. In most terrestrial ecosystems, ants are among the most abundant and ubiquitous animals. Since they display direct, aggressive competition and often competitively displace subordinate species from resources, niche differentiation may be especially relevant among ants. We studied temporal and trophic niche differentiation in a ground ant community in a forest fragment in French Guiana. Different baits were presented during day and night to assess the temporal and dietary niches of the local species. They represented natural food resources such as sugars, carrion, excrements, seeds, and live prey. In addition, pitfalls provided a background measure of ant diversity. The communities attracted to the different baits significantly differed from each other, and even less attractive baits yielded additional species. We detected species specialized on living grasshoppers, sucrose, seeds, or dead insects. Community-level differences between day and night were larger than those between baits, and many species were temporally specialized. In contrast to commonness, foraging efficiency of species was correlated to food specialization. We conclude that many ant species occupy different temporal or dietary niches. However, for many generalized species, the dietary, and temporal niche differentiation brought forward through our sampling effort, cannot alone explain their coexistence. |
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Department of Biology, Technical University of DarmstadtDarmstadt, Germany |
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Export Date: 17 March 2015 |
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EcoFoG @ webmaster @ |
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Salvin, P.; Ondel, O.; Roos, C.; Robert, F. |
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Energy harvest with mangrove benthic microbial fuel cells |
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Journal Article |
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2015 |
Publication |
International Journal of Energy Research |
Abbreviated Journal |
Int J Energy Res |
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39 |
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4 |
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543-556 |
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Balancing circuit; Benthic microbial fuel cell; Efficiency; Energy harvesting |
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Benthic microbial fuel cells (BMFCs) are continuous electricity generators using electroactive microorganisms and organic matter from aquatic environment, respectively, as catalysts and substrate. In this paper, first a low-cost PVC-made structure is constructed to harvest electricity from mangrove environment located in French Guiana. An in situ BMFC has given power density of 30mW/m2 of the anodic surface area. This performance has been confirmed by experience in laboratory where inter-electrode distance and electrode surface area appeared to be power increasing factors. However, the output power of one BMFC is not used to supply real devices such as autonomous sensors. Second, to meet this expectation, in parallel and in series associations were considered. These associations were made in order to increase the output voltage and consequently the power, to reach levels that can supply small sensors (about 3V). Finally, to improve the performance of the series association and to avoid the voltage reversal phenomenon, a voltage balancing circuit was simulated and added to the series connections. With balancing method, the cell voltage of BMFCs can be equalized, and the performances can be improved. This allows an optimal energy harvesting and a better global efficiency of the set. |
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Université de Lyon, F-69622, Lyon, France, Université Lyon 1, Villeurbanne; CNRS, UMR 5005, Laboratoire Ampère, 43, Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918Villeurbanne, France |
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Export Date: 17 March 2015 |
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586 |
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Houel, E.; Gonzalez, G.; Bessière, J.-M.; Odonne, G.; Eparvier, V.; Deharo, E.; Stien, D. |
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Therapeutic switching: From antidermatophytic essential oils to new leishmanicidal products |
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Journal Article |
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2015 |
Publication |
Memorias do Inst. Oswaldo Cruz |
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110 |
Issue |
1 |
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106-113 |
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Antifungal agents; Antiparasitic agents; Leishmania; Peritoneal macrophages – sesquiterpenes; Therapeutic switching |
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This study examined whether the antidermatophytic activity of essential oils (EOs) can be used as an indicator for the discovery of active natural products against Leishmania amazonensis. The aerial parts of seven plants were hydrodistilled. Using broth microdilution techniques, the obtained EOs were tested against three strains of dermatophytes (Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Microsporum gypseum and Microsporum canis). To compare the EOs antifungal and antiparasitic effects, the EOs activities against axenic amastigotes of L. amazonensis were concurrently evaluated. For the most promising EOs, their antileishmanial activities against parasites infecting peritoneal macrophages of BALB/c mice were measured. The most interesting antifungal candidates were the EOs from Cymbopogon citratus, Otacanthus azureus and Protium heptaphyllum, whereas O. azureus, Piper hispidum and P. heptaphyllum EOs exhibited the lowest 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) values against axenic amastigotes, thus revealing a certain correspondence between both activities. The P. hispidum EO was identified as the most promising product in the results from the infected macrophages model (IC50: 4.7 μg/mL, safety index: 8). The most abundant compounds found in this EO were sesquiterpenes, notably curzerene and furanodiene. Eventually, the evaluation of the antidermatophytic activity of EOs appears to be an efficient method for identifying new potential drugs for the treatment of L. amazonensis. |
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Export Date: 17 March 2015 |
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587 |
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Brousseau, L.; Bonal, D.; Cigna, J.; Scotti, I. |
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Highly local environmental variability promotes intrapopulation divergence of quantitative traits: An example from tropical rain forest trees |
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Journal Article |
| Year |
2013 |
Publication |
Annals of Botany |
Abbreviated Journal |
Ann. Bot. |
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112 |
Issue |
6 |
Pages |
1169-1179 |
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common garden experiment; E. grandiflora; ecological traits; Eperua falcata; habitat mosaics; intrapopulation divergence; maternal family inheritance |
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Background and AimsIn habitat mosaics, plant populations face environmental heterogeneity over short geographical distances. Such steep environmental gradients can induce ecological divergence. Lowland rainforests of the Guiana Shield are characterized by sharp, short-distance environmental variations related to topography and soil characteristics (from waterlogged bottomlands on hydromorphic soils to well-drained terra firme on ferralitic soils). Continuous plant populations distributed along such gradients are an interesting system to study intrapopulation divergence at highly local scales. This study tested (1) whether conspecific populations growing in different habitats diverge at functional traits, and (2) whether they diverge in the same way as congeneric species having different habitat preferences.MethodsPhenotypic differentiation was studied within continuous populations occupying different habitats for two congeneric, sympatric, and ecologically divergent tree species (Eperua falcata and E. grandiflora, Fabaceae). Over 3000 seeds collected from three habitats were germinated and grown in a common garden experiment, and 23 morphological, biomass, resource allocation and physiological traits were measured.Key ResultsIn both species, seedling populations native of different habitats displayed phenotypic divergence for several traits (including seedling growth, biomass allocation, leaf chemistry, photosynthesis and carbon isotope composition). This may occur through heritable genetic variation or other maternally inherited effects. For a sub-set of traits, the intraspecific divergence associated with environmental variation coincided with interspecific divergence. Conclusions The results indicate that mother trees from different habitats transmit divergent trait values to their progeny, and suggest that local environmental variation selects for different trait optima even at a very local spatial scale. Traits for which differentiation within species follows the same pattern as differentiation between species indicate that the same ecological processes underlie intra- and interspecific variation. © 2013 The Author. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. |
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Université de Lorraine, UMR 1137 Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France |
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03057364 (Issn) |
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Export Date: 17 October 2013; Source: Scopus; Coden: Anboa; doi: 10.1093/aob/mct176; Language of Original Document: English; Correspondence Address: Scotti, I.; INRA, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, Campus Agronomique, BP 709, 97387 Kourou cedex, French Guiana; email: ivan.scotti@ecofog.gf |
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EcoFoG @ webmaster @ |
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505 |
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Dezerald, O.; Céréghino, R.; Corbara, B.; Dejean, A.; Leroy, C. |
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Temperature: Diet Interactions Affect Survival through Foraging Behavior in a Bromeliad-Dwelling Predator |
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Journal Article |
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2015 |
Publication |
Biotropica |
Abbreviated Journal |
Biotropica |
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47 |
Issue |
5 |
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569-578 |
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Toxorhynchites haemorrhoidalis; Biocontrol agent; Development; French Guiana; Selective feeding behavior; Tank bromeliad |
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Temperature, food quantity and quality play important roles in insect growth and survival, influencing population dynamics as well as interactions with other community members. However, the interaction between temperature and diet and its ecological consequences have been poorly documented. Toxorhynchites are well-known biocontrol agents for container-inhabiting mosquito larvae. We found that Toxorhynchites haemorrhoidalis larvae (Diptera: Culicidae) inhabiting water-filled rosettes of tank bromeliads catch and eat prey of both aquatic (mosquito larvae) and terrestrial origin (ants), using distinct predatory methods. They carried out frontal attacks on ants, but ambushed mosquito larvae. In choice tests, T. haemorrhoidalis favored terrestrial prey. Temperature had a significant effect on predator development and survival through its interaction with diet, but did not alter the preference for ants. T. haemorrhoidalis larvae emerged quickly when fed only mosquito larvae, whereas all individuals died before pupation when fed only ants. We conclude that behavioral factors (i.e., attraction to ants that disturb the surface of the water) overtake physiological factors (i.e., the adverse outcome of elevated temperature and an ant-based diet) in determining a predator's response to temperature:diet interactions. Finally, because T. haemorrhoidalis larvae preferentially feed on terrestrial insects in tank bromeliads, mosquito larvae may indirectly benefit from predation release. © 2015 Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation Inc. |
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UMR AMAP (botAnique et Modelisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des vegetations), IRD, Boulevard de la Lironde, TA A-51/PS2, Montpellier Cedex 5, France |
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Export Date: 17 September 2015 |
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624 |
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Imbert, D. |
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Hurricane disturbance and forest dynamics in east Caribbean mangroves |
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Journal Article |
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2018 |
Publication |
Ecosphere |
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9 |
Issue |
7 |
Pages |
e02231 |
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Caribbean; forest recovery; high-energy storms; mangrove; resilience; resistance; Special Feature: High-Energy Storms |
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Despite low plant diversity and structural simplicity, mangroves offer various ecosystem services to local human communities, including sheltering coastal social-ecological systems from high-energy storm damage. The expected increasing intensity of hurricanes due to climate change raises questions concerning the capacity of mangroves to resist and recover from such disturbances. Herein, this study contributes to a better understanding of (1) the relation between storm intensity and damage to mangrove vegetation, (2) the contributions of species-specific as well as stand-specific components of mangrove vegetation to ecosystem resistance, and (3) the recovery of pre-hurricane forest structure through time. The first two issues have been addressed using a stand-level approach implemented at two east Caribbean mangrove sites in response to three storm events. The third was addressed through a 23-yr survey of forest recovery following the passage of a high-energy storm across one of the two study sites. Generally, hurricane damage was primarily controlled by wind velocity, followed by the hydro-geomorphic context of mangrove forests and species-specific composition, respectively. The relationship between damage to trees and wind velocity evidenced a sigmoidal trend, with a maximum slope at a wind velocity averaging 130 and 180 km/h for higher vs. lower canopy stands, respectively. The red mangrove, Rhizophora mangle, was significantly less resistant to hurricane damage than was the black mangrove, Avicennia germinans. Unlike the fringe and scrub stands, inner, tall-canopy stands fully recovered by the end of the study (23 yr). These stands were more resilient because of their growth performances. Finally, the time for east Caribbean mangroves to recover from high-energy storms seems to fall within the range of the average return time of such disturbances. This may prevent such ecosystems from ever reaching a steady state. |
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Laboratoire de Biologie Végétale, UMR EcoFoG, BP 592, Université des Antilles, Pointe-à-Pitre Cedex, 97159, France |
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Export Date: 17 September 2018 |
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EcoFoG @ webmaster @ |
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819 |
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Brousseau, L.; Tinaut, A.; Duret, C.; Lang, T.; Garnier-Gere, P.; Scotti, I. |
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High-throughput transcriptome sequencing and preliminary functional analysis in four Neotropical tree species |
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Journal Article |
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2014 |
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BMC Genomics |
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BMC Genomics |
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15 |
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238 |
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1-13 |
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454-Pyrosequencing; Polymorphism discovery; Tropical rainforest tree species |
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Background: The Amazonian rainforest is predicted to suffer from ongoing environmental changes. Despite the need to evaluate the impact of such changes on tree genetic diversity, we almost entirely lack genomic resources. Results: In this study, we analysed the transcriptome of four tropical tree species (Carapa guianensis, Eperua falcata, Symphonia globulifera and Virola michelii) with contrasting ecological features, belonging to four widespread botanical families (respectively Meliaceae, Fabaceae, Clusiaceae and Myristicaceae). We sequenced cDNA libraries from three organs (leaves, stems, and roots) using 454 pyrosequencing. We have developed an R and bioperl-based bioinformatic procedure for de novo assembly, gene functional annotation and marker discovery. Mismatch identification takes into account single-base quality values as well as the likelihood of false variants as a function of contig depth and number of sequenced chromosomes. Between 17103 (for Symphonia globulifera) and 23390 (for Eperua falcata) contigs were assembled. Organs varied in the numbers of unigenes they apparently express, with higher number in roots. Patterns of gene expression were similar across species, with metabolism of aromatic compounds standing out as an overrepresented gene function. Transcripts corresponding to several gene functions were found to be over- or underrepresented in each organ. We identified between 4434 (for Symphonia globulifera) and 9076 (for Virola surinamensis) well-supported mismatches. The resulting overall mismatch density was comprised between 0.89 (S. globulifera) and 1.05 (V. surinamensis) mismatches/100 bp in variation-containing contigs.Conclusion: The relative representation of gene functions in the four transcriptomes suggests that secondary metabolism may be particularly important in tropical trees. The differential representation of transcripts among tissues suggests differential gene expression, which opens the way to functional studies in these non-model, ecologically important species. We found substantial amounts of mismatches in the four species. These newly identified putative variants are a first step towards acquiring much needed genomic resources for tropical tree species. © 2014 Brousseau et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. |
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BIOGECO, UMR 1202, University of Bordeaux, F-33400 Talence, France |
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BioMed Central Ltd. |
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Export Date: 18 April 2014; Source: Scopus; Art. No.: 238; Coden: Bgmee; Language of Original Document: English; Correspondence Address: Scotti, I.; INRA, UMR 0745 EcoFoG, Campus agronomique BP 709, F-97387 Cedex, France; email: ivan.scotti@ecofog.gf |
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537 |
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Marcon, E.; Scotti, I.; Herault, B.; Rossi, V.; Lang, G. |
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Generalization of the partitioning of Shannon diversity |
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2014 |
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PLoS ONE |
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PLoS ONE |
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9 |
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3 |
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e90289 |
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Traditional measures of diversity, namely the number of species as well as Simpson's and Shannon's indices, are particular cases of Tsallis entropy. Entropy decomposition, i.e. decomposing gamma entropy into alpha and beta components, has been previously derived in the literature. We propose a generalization of the additive decomposition of Shannon entropy applied to Tsallis entropy. We obtain a self-contained definition of beta entropy as the information gain brought by the knowledge of each community composition. We propose a correction of the estimation bias allowing to estimate alpha, beta and gamma entropy from the data and eventually convert them into true diversity. We advocate additive decomposition in complement of multiplicative partitioning to allow robust estimation of biodiversity. © 2014 Marcon et al. |
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INRA, UMR 518 Math. Info. Appli, Paris, France |
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Public Library of Science |
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19326203 (Issn) |
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Export Date: 18 April 2014; Source: Scopus; Art. No.: e90289; Coden: Polnc; Language of Original Document: English |
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Bossu, J.; Beauchene, J.; Estevez, Y.; Duplais, C.; Clair, B. |
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New insights on wood dimensional stability influenced by secondary metabolites: The case of a fast-growing tropical species Bagassa guianensis aubl |
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Journal Article |
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2016 |
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PLoS ONE |
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PLoS ONE |
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11 |
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3 |
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e0150777 |
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Challenging evaluation of tropical forest biodiversity requires the reporting of taxonomic diversity but also the systematic characterization of wood properties in order to discover new promising species for timber industry. Among wood properties, the dimensional stability is regarded as a major technological characteristic to validate whether a wood species is adapted to commercial uses. Cell structure and organization are known to influence the drying shrinkage making wood density and microfibrils angle markers of choice to predict wood dimensional stability. On the contrary the role of wood extractive content remains unclear. This work focuses on the fast-growing tropical species Bagassa guianensis and we report herein a correlation between heartwood drying shrinkage and extractive content. Chemical extractions and shrinkage experiments were performed on separate wood twin samples to better evaluate correctly how secondary metabolites influence the wood shrinkage behaviour. Extractive content were qualitatively and quantitatively analysed using HPLC and NMR spectroscopy. We found that B guianensis heartwood has a homogeneous low shrinkage along its radius that could not be explained only by its basic density. In fact the low drying shrinkage is correlated to the high extractive content and a corrected model to improve the prediction of wood dimensional stability is presented. Additionally NMR experiments conducted on sapwood and heartwood extracts demonstrate that secondary metabolites biosynthesis occurs in sapwood thus revealing B. guianensis as a Juglans-Type heartwood formation. This work demonstrates that B. guianensis, a fast-growing species associated with high durability and high dimensional stability, is a good candidate for lumber production and commercial purposes. © 2016 Bossu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
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Cirad, UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, CNRS, INRA, Université des Antilles, Université de Guyane, Kourou, France |
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Export Date: 18 April 2016 |
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EcoFoG @ webmaster @ |
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673 |
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Leroy, C.; Corbara, B.; Dezerald, O.; Trzcinski, M.K.; Carrias, J.-F.; Dejean, A.; Céréghino, R. |
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What drives detrital decomposition in neotropical tank bromeliads? |
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Journal Article |
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2017 |
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Hydrobiologia |
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Hydrobiologia |
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802 |
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1 |
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85-95 |
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Context dependency; Ecosystem function; Food webs; Leaf litter; Phytotelmata; Rainforest |
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Decomposition experiments that control leaf litter species across environments help to disentangle the roles of litter traits and consumer diversity, but once we account for leaf litter effects, they tell us little about the variance in decomposition explained by shifts in environmental conditions versus food-web structure. We evaluated how habitat, food-web structure, leaf litter species, and the interactions between these factors affect litter mass loss in a neotropical ecosystem. We used water-filled bromeliads to conduct a reciprocal transplant experiment of two litter species between an open and a forested habitat in French Guiana, and coarse- and fine-mesh enclosures embedded within bromeliads to exclude invertebrates or allow them to colonize leaf litter disks. Soft Melastomataceae leaves decomposed faster in their home habitat, whereas tough Eperua leaves decomposed equally in both habitats. Bacterial densities did not differ significantly between the two habitats. Significant shifts in the identity and biomass of invertebrate detritivores across habitats did not generate differences in leaf litter decomposition, which was essentially microbial. Despite the obvious effects of habitats on food-web structure, ecosystem processes are not necessarily affected. Our results pose the question of when does environmental determinism matter for ecosystem functions, and when does it not. © 2017, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. |
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IRD – UMR AMAP, Campus agronomique, BP 316, Kourou Cedex, France |
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Export Date: 18 December 2017 |
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