Dataset Information

Scale and Sampling Effects on Floristic Quality.

ABSTRACT: Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) is increasingly influential for making land management decisions, for directing conservation policy, and for research. But, the basic ecological properties and limitations of its metrics are ill defined and not well understood-especially those related to sample methods and scale. Nested plot data from a remnant tallgrass prairie sampled annually over a 12-year period, were used to investigate FQA properties associated with species detection rates, species misidentification rates, sample year, and sample grain/area. Plot size had no apparent effect on Mean C (an area's average Floristic Quality level), nor did species detection levels above 65% detection. Simulated species misidentifications only affected Mean C values at greater than 10% in large plots, when the replaced species were randomly drawn from the broader county-wide species pool. Finally, FQA values were stable over the 12-year study, meaning that there was no evidence that the metrics exhibit year effects. The FQA metric Mean C is demonstrated to be robust to varied sample methodologies related to sample intensity (plot size, species detection rate), as well as sample year. These results will make FQA measures even more appealing for informing land-use decisions, policy, and research for two reasons: 1) The sampling effort needed to generate accurate and consistent site assessments with FQA measures is shown to be far lower than what has previously been assumed, and 2) the stable properties and consistent performance of metrics with respect to sample methods will allow for a remarkable level of comparability of FQA values from different sites and datasets compared to other commonly used ecological metrics.

SUBMITTER: Spyreas G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4973955 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Scale and Sampling Effects on Floristic Quality.

Spyreas Greg G

PloS one 20160804 8

Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) is increasingly influential for making land management decisions, for directing conservation policy, and for research. But, the basic ecological properties and limitations of its metrics are ill defined and not well understood-especially those related to sample methods and scale. Nested plot data from a remnant tallgrass prairie sampled annually over a 12-year period, were used to investigate FQA properties associated with species detection rates, species misid ...[more]

PMID: 27489959

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Project description:BACKGROUND: DNA barcoding is expected to be an effective identification tool for organisms with heteromorphic generations such as pteridophytes, which possess a morphologically simple gametophyte generation. Although a reference data set including complete coverage of the target local flora/fauna is necessary for accurate identification, DNA barcode studies including such rich taxonomic sampling on a countrywide scale are lacking. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The Japanese pteridophyte flora (733 taxa including subspecies and varieties) was used to test the utility of two plastid DNA barcode regions (rbcL and trnH-psbA) with the intention of developing an identification system for native gametophytes. DNA sequences were obtained from each of 689 (94.0%) taxa for rbcL and 617 (84.2%) taxa for trnH-psbA. Mean interspecific divergence values across all taxon pairs (K2P genetic distances) did not reveal a significant difference in rate between trnH-psbA and rbcL, but mean K2P distances of each genus showed significant heterogeneity according to systematic position. The minimum fail rate of taxon discrimination in an identification test using BLAST (12.52%) was obtained when rbcL and trnH-psbA were combined, and became lower in datasets excluding infraspecific taxa or apogamous taxa, or including sexual diploids only. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study demonstrates the overall effectiveness of DNA barcodes for species identification in the Japanese pteridophyte flora. Although this flora is characterized by a high occurrence of apogamous taxa that pose a serious challenge to identification using DNA barcodes, such taxa are limited to a small number of genera, and only minimally detract from the overall success rate. In the case that a query sequence is matched to a known apogamous genus, routine species identification may not be possible. Otherwise, DNA barcoding is a practical tool for identification of most Japanese pteridophytes, and is especially anticipated to be helpful for identification of non-hybridizing gametophytes.

Project description:Many members of animal-associated microbial communities, including the gut flora, are acquired from their host's environment. While many of these communities are species rich, some true bugs (Hemiptera) in the superfamilies Lygaeoidea and Coreidae allow only ingested Burkholderia to colonize and reproduce in a large portion of the midgut. We studied the spatial structuring of Burkholderia associated with a widespread omnivorous bug genus, Jalysus (Berytidae). We sampled Wickham's stilt bug, Jalysus wickhami, across the United States and performed limited sampling of its sister species, the spined stilt bug Jalysus spinosus. We asked: (1) What Burkholderia strains are hosted by Jalysus at different locations? (2) Does host insect species, host plant species, or location influence the strain these insects acquire? (3) How does Burkholderia affect the development and reproductive fitness of J. wickhami? We found: (1) Sixty-one Burkholderia strains were present across a sample of 352 individuals, but one strain dominated, accounting for almost half of all symbiont reads. Most strains were closely related to other hemipteran Burkholderia symbionts. (2) Many individuals hosted more than one strain of Burkholderia. (3) J. wickhami and J. spinosus did not differ in the strains they hosted. (4) Insects that fed on different plant species tended to host different Burkholderia, but this accounted for only 4% of the variation in strains hosted. In contrast, the location at which an insect was collected explained 27% of the variation in symbiont strains. (5) Burkholderia confers important fitness benefits to J. wickhami. In laboratory experiments, aposymbiotic (Burkholderia-free) insects developed more slowly and laid fewer eggs than symbiotic (Burkholderia-colonized) insects. (6) In the lab, nymphs sometimes acquired Burkholderia via indirect exposure to adults, indicating that horizontal symbiont transmission can occur via adult insect-mediated enrichment of Burkholderia in the local environment - a phenomenon not previously reported in bug-Burkholderia relationships. Taken together, the results suggest that for these bugs, critical nutritional requirements are outsourced to a highly diverse and spatially structured collection of Burkholderia strains acquired from the environment and, occasionally, from conspecific adults.

Dataset Information

Scale and Sampling Effects on Floristic Quality.

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Scale and Sampling Effects on Floristic Quality.

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