Abstract: Background and Aims Plastic tree-shelters are increasingly used to protect tree seedlings against browsing animals and herbicide drifts. The biomass allocation in young seedlings of deciduous trees is highly disturbed by common plastic tree-shelters, resulting in poor root systems and reduced diameter growth of the trunk. The shelters have been improved by creating chimney-effect ventilation with holes drilled at the bottom, resulting in stimulated trunk diameter growth, but the root deficit has remained unchanged. An experiment was set up to elucidate the mechanisms behind the poor root growth of sheltered Prunus avium trees. Methods Tree seedlings were grown either in natural windy conditions or in tree-shelters. Mechanical wind stimuli were suppressed in ten unsheltered trees by staking. Mechanical stimuli (bending) of the stem were applied in ten sheltered trees using an original mechanical device. Key Results Sheltered trees suffered from poor root growth, but sheltered bent trees largely recovered, showing that mechano-sensing is an important mechanism governing C allocation and the shoot-root balance. The use of a few artificial mechanical stimuli increased the biomass allocation towards the roots, as did natural wind sway. It was demonstrated that there was an acclimation of plants to the imposed strain. Conclusions This study suggests that if mechanical stimuli are used to control plant growth, they should be applied at low frequency in order to be most effective. The impact on the functional equilibrium hypothesis that is used in many tree growth models is discussed. The consequence of the lack of mechanical stimuli should be incorporated in tree growth models when applied to environments protected from the wind (e.g. greenhouses, dense forests).

Abstract: 1. The ecological hypothesis predicts that multiple foundress colonies of social wasps may have a better survival rate and produce more brood per capita than single foundress colonies. With the aim of verifying if these characteristics exist in the primitively eusocial wasp species Belonogaster juncea juncea (L.), we monitored 49 foundations, including 13 single and 36 multiple foundress colonies, in Cameroon. 2. Multiple foundress colonies were significantly more successful than single foundress colonies in producing at least one adult. 3. The total productivity of the colonies increased significantly with the number of associated foundresses, but the productivity per capita did not. No single foundress colony reached the sexual phase, while eight (21.6%) multiple foundress colonies did. Males were produced in only five colonies, so that the sex ratio was biased in favour of females. 4. These results suggest that because of the strong ecological constraints on solitary nesting, survival and high colony productivity are two advantages of multiple foundress colonies in B. j. juncea. 5. The decreasing per capita productivity concomitant with an increasing number of females noted in this study illustrates once again Michener's paradox. The coefficient of variance of the per capita productivity significantly decreased with group size, as Wenzel and Pickering suggested in the model they created to explain the paradox. 6. Ecological factors may act in conjunction with other factors, such as genetic relatedness between associated foundresses, to promote joining behaviour in B. j. juncea.

Abstract: Genetic variation for intrinsic water use efficiency (W-i) and related traits was estimated in a full-sib family of Quercus robur L. over 3 years. The genetic linkage map available for this F1 family was used to locate quantitative trait loci (QTL) for W-i, as estimated by leaf carbon stable isotope composition (delta C-13) or the ratio of net CO2 assimilation rate (A) to stomatal conductance to water vapour (g(w)) and related leaf traits. Gas exchange measurements were used to standardize estimates of A and g(w) and to model the sensitivity of gw to leaf-to-air vapour pressure deficit (sg(VPD)). delta C-13 varied by more than 3% among the siblings, which is equivalent to 40% variation of W-i. Most of the studied traits exhibited high clonal mean repeat-abilities (> 50%; proportion of clonal mean variability in global variance). Repeatabilities for delta C-13, leaf mass per area (LMA) and leaf nitrogen content were higher than 70%. For delta C-13, ten QTLs were detected, one of which was detected repeatedly for all 3 years and consistently explained more than 20% of measured variance. Four genomic regions were found in which co-localizing traits linked variation in W-i to variations in leaf chlorophyll and nitrogen content, LMA and sg(VPD). A positive correlation using clonal means between delta C-13 and A/g(w), as well as a co-localisation of QTL detected for both traits, can be seen as validation of the theoretical model linking the genetic architecture of these two traits.

Abstract: Plant ants generally provide their host myrmecophytes (i.e. plants that shelter a limited number of ant species in hollow structures) protection from defoliating insects, but the exact nature of this protection is poorly known. It was with this in mind that we studied the association between Tetraponera aethiops F. Smith (Pseudomyrmecinae) and its specific host myrmecophyte Barteria fistulosa Mast. (Passifloraceae). Workers bore entrances into the horizontal hollow branches (domatia) of their host B. fistulosa, near the base of the petiole of the alternate horizontal leaves. They then ambush intruders from the domatia, close to these entrances. After perceiving the vibrations caused when an insect lands on a leaf, they rush to it and sting and generally spreadeagle the insect (only small caterpillars are mastered by single workers). Among the insects likely to defoliate B. fistulosa, adult leaf beetles and large katydids were taken as prey and cut up; single workers then retrieved some pieces, whereas other workers imbibed the prey's haemolymph. Other insects known to defoliate this plant, if unable to escape, were killed and discarded. Small Acrea zetes L. caterpillars were stung and then discarded by single workers; whereas locusts of different sizes were mastered by groups of workers that stung and spreadeagled them before discarding them (although a part of their haemolymph was imbibed). More workers were involved and more time was necessary to master insects taken as prey than those attacked and discarded. Consequently, the protection T. aethiops workers provide to their host B. fistulosa from defoliating insects results from predation, but more often from a type of aggressiveness wherein insects are killed and then discarded. (c) 2008 The Linnean Society of London.

Abstract: Previous studies in lowland tropical rainforests of French Guiana showed that, among non-N-2-fixing trees, two groups of late successional species contrasting in their leaf N-15 natural abundance coexist, suggesting two different main ways of nitrogen acquisition. Two abundant late-successional species typically co-occurring in rainforests in French Guiana, namely Eperua falcata and Dicorynia guianensis, were chosen as representative of each group. Stable isotope techniques and measurements of potentials of microbial N transformation were performed to assess to what extent leaf N-15 natural abundance of these species could be related to (i) delta N-15 signatures of soil mineral N sources and (ii) the capacity of soil to express nitrification and denitrification (both processes being directly involved in the balance between NH4+ and NO3-). Soil delta N-15-NH4+ was roughly similar to leaf delta N-15 of D. guianensis (around 3.5 parts per thousand), suggesting a preferential use of NH4+, whereas in E. falcata, leaf delta N-15 values were closer to root delta N-15-NO3- values (0.2 and -2.0 parts per thousand, respectively), suggesting a preferential use of NO3-. These differences in N source utilization were not accompanied by differences in availability in soil NO3- or in intensity of microbial functions responsible for soil N mineral evolution. However, (i) under both tree species, these functions showed clear spatial partitioning, with denitrification occurring potentially in soil and nitrification in the litter layer, and (ii) E falcata fine roots colonized the litter layer much more strongly than D. guianensis fine roots. This strongly suggests that (i) the contrasted leaf delta N-15 values found in the two late-successional species reveal distinct N acquisition strategies and (ii) the ability of roots to predominantly exploit the litter layer (E falcata) or the soil (D. guianensis) may constitute an important explanation of the observed differences. A complementarity between tree species, based on mineral N resource partitioning (itself resulting from a spatially structured location of the microbial functions responsible for the balance between NH4+ and NO3-), n thus be supposed. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.