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Diversity, Volume 13, Issue 4

2021 April - 38 articles

Cover Story: Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems (MCEs)—specifically the lower mesophotic zone (60–150 m depth)—are poorly studied with respect to shallow reefs. Yet, this deep zone harbors distinct benthic communities that are adapted to low light levels which may provide refugia for an underestimated biodiversity. The lower mesophotic zone was recently investigated across Reunion Island coasts (Southwest Indian Ocean) using closed circuit rebreathers. Dense aggregations of Scleractinian Leptoseris spp. and rare hydrocorals Stylaster flabelliformis were found at 75–100 m on lava flows highlighting the distinctness of MCEs and supporting the high potential of deep refugia for an underexplored biodiversity. View this paper.
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Articles (38)

  • Review
  • Open Access
14 Citations
10,075 Views
16 Pages

Population Structures and Levels of Connectivity for Scyphozoan and Cubozoan Jellyfish

  • Michael J. Kingsford,
  • Jodie A. Schlaefer and
  • Scott J. Morrissey

19 April 2021

Understanding the hierarchy of populations from the scale of metapopulations to mesopopulations and member local populations is fundamental to understanding the population dynamics of any species. Jellyfish by definition are planktonic and it would b...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
6,154 Views
24 Pages

19 April 2021

Cross River gorillas are the least numerous of the African ape taxa. Since their rediscovery, several organisations have sought to conserve these critically endangered apes, resulting in a “crisis conservation narrative” focused on the threats posed...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
3,495 Views
13 Pages

Do Roads Alter the Trophic Behavior of the Mesocarnivore Community Living Close to Them?

  • Pablo Ruiz-Capillas,
  • Cristina Mata,
  • Beatriz Fernández,
  • Carlos Fernandes and
  • Juan E. Malo

18 April 2021

Roads have impacts on the fauna arising from habitat fragmentation, roadkill and the barrier effect. Furthermore, roads lead species to change their activity with repercussions on predator–prey interactions and trigger indirect effects that are curre...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
5,190 Views
14 Pages

17 April 2021

Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) are recognized around the world as diverse and ecologically important habitats. In the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoMx), MCEs are rocky reefs with abundant black corals and octocorals, including the species Swiftia ex...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
3,869 Views
15 Pages

16 April 2021

The spatial distribution of corticolous lichens on the iconic New Zealand pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) tree was investigated from a survey of urban parks and forests across the city of Auckland in the North Island of New Zealand. Lichens were id...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
4,401 Views
14 Pages

Habitat Suitability Assessment of Wintering Herbivorous Anseriformes in Poyang Lake, China

  • Megersa Tsegaye Debela,
  • Qingming Wu,
  • Zhe Li,
  • Xueying Sun,
  • Opelele Omeno and
  • Yibin Li

16 April 2021

To design a good conservation strategy for herbivorous Anseriformes wintering in Poyang Lake, knowledge of habitat suitability is essential. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the habitat suitability of herbivorous Anseriformes of China’s Poyang L...

  • Review
  • Open Access
5 Citations
4,315 Views
9 Pages

15 April 2021

This paper aims to highlight the new research and significant advances in our understanding of links between coastal habitat quality/quantity/diversity and the diversity of fisheries species and other mobile aquatic species (hereafter nekton) that us...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,375 Views
16 Pages

Temperature and Prey Species Richness Drive the Broad-Scale Distribution of a Generalist Predator

  • Danai-Eleni Michailidou,
  • Maria Lazarina and
  • Stefanos P. Sgardelis

15 April 2021

The ongoing climate change and the unprecedented rate of biodiversity loss render the need to accurately project future species distributional patterns more critical than ever. Mounting evidence suggests that not only abiotic factors, but also biotic...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
4,140 Views
12 Pages

A Comparative Analysis of the Diets of a Genus of Freshwater Turtles across Africa

  • Luca Luiselli,
  • Gift Simon Demaya,
  • John Sebit Benansio,
  • Fabio Petrozzi,
  • Godfrey C. Akani,
  • Edem A. Eniang,
  • Stephanie N. Ajong,
  • Massimiliano Di Vittorio,
  • NioKing Amadi and
  • Daniele Dendi

12 April 2021

Pelusios (Testudines: Pleurodira) is an Afrotropical endemic genus of freshwater turtles that have adapted to a variety of habitats, with savannahs and forests being their two main habitat types. Although considered generally carnivorous, these turtl...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
7,098 Views
23 Pages

Bivalve Diversity on the Continental Shelf and Deep Sea of the Perdido Fold Belt, Northwest Gulf of Mexico, Mexico

  • Nancy Yolimar Suárez-Mozo,
  • Victor Manuel Vidal-Martínez,
  • M. Leopoldina Aguirre-Macedo,
  • Daniel Pech,
  • Edlin Guerra-Castro and
  • Nuno Simões

12 April 2021

Mollusk diversity in coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) has been studied extensively, but this is not the case for deep-water habitats. We present the first quantitative characterization of mollusks in shallow and deep waters of the Perdido Fo...

  • Review
  • Open Access
5 Citations
4,459 Views
17 Pages

12 April 2021

The spatially autocorrelated patterns of biodiversity can be an important determinant of ecological processes, functions and delivery of services across spatial scales. Therefore, understanding disturbance effects on spatial autocorrelation in biodiv...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
4,029 Views
23 Pages

9 April 2021

Rock outcrops have promoted a high level of species diversity and provided a stable microclimate for long time periods. The present study is devoted to plant diversity of natural Quaternary outcrops of basaltic rocks. Chorological and ecological inve...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
4,886 Views
11 Pages

Differing Life-History Strategies of Two Mycoheterotrophic Orchid Species Associated with Leaf Litter- and Wood-Decaying Fungi

  • Yuki Ogura-Tsujita,
  • Kenshi Tetsuka,
  • Shuichiro Tagane,
  • Miho Kubota,
  • Shuichiro Anan,
  • Yumi Yamashita,
  • Koichi Tone and
  • Tomohisa Yukawa

8 April 2021

Mycoheterotrophic orchids depend completely on mycorrhizal fungi for their supply of carbon. The life-history traits of mycoheterotrophic plants (MHPs) can differ according to the characteristics of the associated mycorrhizal fungi. We compared the l...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
3,798 Views
12 Pages

Genetic Diversity of Campomanesia adamantium and Its Correlation with Land Use and Land Cover

  • Bruno do Amaral Crispim,
  • Juliana dos Santos Fernandes,
  • Miklos Maximiliano Bajay,
  • Maria Imaculada Zucchi,
  • Carlos Eduardo de Araújo Batista,
  • Maria do Carmo Vieira and
  • Alexeia Barufatti

8 April 2021

(1) Background: Campomanesia adamantium is an endemic species of the Cerrado and this biome has been under threat by its constant degradation. The genetic diversity of C. adamantium was characterized using species-specific microsatellites in two diff...

  • Article
  • Open Access
28 Citations
6,712 Views
32 Pages

Bryophyte Diversity along an Elevational Gradient on Pico Island (Azores, Portugal)

  • Márcia C. M. Coelho,
  • Rosalina Gabriel,
  • Helena Hespanhol,
  • Paulo A. V. Borges and
  • Claudine Ah-Peng

8 April 2021

The study of elevational patterns is a valuable method for inferring the influence of the climate and other variables in the regional distributions of species. Bryophytes are ideal for revealing different environmental patterns in elevational studies...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,001 Views
17 Pages

7 April 2021

Setaria viridis (L.) Beauv., or green foxtail, is native to Eurasia and is the putative ancestor of foxtail millet. Due to the advantageous genetic characteristics of S. viridis, it is a model species for C4 plants. However, S. viridis has seriously...

  • Article
  • Open Access
48 Citations
7,004 Views
23 Pages

6 April 2021

Egypt is characterized by its hyper-arid desert environment with high temperature, scanty rainfall, high evapotranspiration rate, and patchy scattered precipitation-dependent vegetation. Located in this peculiar ecosystem, the northeastern part of th...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
3,754 Views
18 Pages

6 April 2021

Animals frequently show complex colour patterns involved in social communication, which attracts great interest in evolutionary and behavioural ecology. Most researchers interpret that each colour in animals with multiple patches may either signal a...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
4,927 Views
11 Pages

4 April 2021

South-western Europe has a rich diversity of lacertid lizards. In this study, we evaluated the occupancy patterns and niche segregation of five species of lacertids, focusing on large-bodied species (i.e., adults having >75 mm snout-vent length) t...

  • Communication
  • Open Access
5 Citations
2,541 Views
7 Pages

A Revised and Improved Version of the Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) Transcriptome

  • Roberto Carlos Frias-Soler,
  • Lilian Villarín Pildaín,
  • Michael Wink and
  • Franz Bairlein

31 March 2021

This work presents an updated and more complete version of the transcriptome of a long-distance migrant, the Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe). The improved transcriptome was produced from the independent mRNA sequencing of adipose tissue, brain,...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
6,049 Views
24 Pages

Conservation Genetics of Four Critically Endangered Greek Endemic Plants: A Preliminary Assessment

  • Konstantinos Kougioumoutzis,
  • Panayiota Kotsakiozi,
  • Efthalia Stathi,
  • Panayiotis Trigas and
  • Aristeidis Parmakelis

31 March 2021

The Mediterranean basin constitutes one of the largest global biodiversity hotspots, hosting more than 11,000 endemic plants, and it is recognised as an area with a high proportion of threatened taxa. Nevertheless, only a tiny fraction of the threate...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
6,235 Views
17 Pages

31 March 2021

We present 52 new geographic location records for the peracarid crustacean Antromysis cenotensis Creaser, 1936, endemic in cenotes of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. This species is currently considered threatened and, therefore, is protected by Mexic...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
4,866 Views
14 Pages

Isotopic Niche Segregation among Darwin’s Finches on Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos

  • Mariana Villegas,
  • Catherine Soos,
  • Gustavo Jiménez-Uzcátegui,
  • Shukri Matan and
  • Keith A. Hobson

30 March 2021

Darwin’s finches are a classic example of adaptive radiation involving differential use of dietary resources among sympatric species. Here, we apply stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N, and δ2H) analyses of feathers to examine ecological segregation among eig...

  • Review
  • Open Access
33 Citations
9,543 Views
16 Pages

30 March 2021

The genus Salix (willows), with 33 species, represents the most diverse genus of woody plants in the European Alps. Many species dominate subalpine and alpine types of vegetation. Despite a long history of research on willows, the evolutionary and ec...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
6,423 Views
14 Pages

Insects in the City: Does Remnant Native Habitat Influence Insect Order Distributions?

  • Mani Shrestha,
  • Jair E. Garcia,
  • Freya Thomas,
  • Scarlett R. Howard,
  • Justin H. J. Chua,
  • Thomas Tscheulin,
  • Alan Dorin,
  • Anders Nielsen and
  • Adrian G. Dyer

30 March 2021

There is increasing interest in developing urban design principles that incorporate good ecological management. Research on understanding the distribution and role of beneficial pollinating insects, in particular, is changing our view of the ecologic...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
4,141 Views
22 Pages

30 March 2021

Freshwater ecosystems are affected by anthropogenic alterations. Different studies have extensively studied the concentrations of metals, nutrients, and water quality as measurements of pollution in freshwater ecosystems. However, few studies have be...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
4,214 Views
13 Pages

30 March 2021

Skeletonema dohrnii is a common red tide microalgae occurring in the coastal waters and throughout the world. The associated heterotrophic or autotrophic bacteria play vital roles in regulating algal growth, production, and physiology. In this study,...

  • Article
  • Open Access
32 Citations
9,939 Views
19 Pages

30 March 2021

The attitudes of community members living around protected areas are an important and often overlooked consideration for effective conservation strategies. Around Kibale National Park (KNP) in western Uganda, communities regularly face the threat of...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,941 Views
13 Pages

Genetic Diversity of Purple Passion Fruit, Passiflora edulis f. edulis, Based on Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism Markers Discovered through Genotyping by Sequencing

  • Nohra Cecilia Rodriguez Castillo,
  • Xingbo Wu,
  • María Isabel Chacón,
  • Luz Marina Melgarejo and
  • Matthew Wohlgemuth Blair

27 March 2021

Orphan crops, which include many of the tropical fruit species used in the juice industry, lack genomic resources and breeding efforts. Typical of this dilemma is the lack of commercial cultivars of purple passion fruit, Passiflora edulis f. edulis,...

  • Article
  • Open Access
19 Citations
3,376 Views
11 Pages

Habitat and Landform Types Drive the Distribution of Carabid Beetles at High Altitudes

  • Mauro Gobbi,
  • Marco Armanini,
  • Teresa Boscolo,
  • Roberta Chirichella,
  • Valeria Lencioni,
  • Simone Ornaghi and
  • Andrea Mustoni

26 March 2021

The high altitude mountain slopes of the Dolomites (Italian Alps) are characterized by great habitat and landform heterogeneities. In this paper, we investigated the effect of Nature 2000 habitat and landform types in driving the high altitude ground...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
3,493 Views
17 Pages

All Populations Matter: Conservation Genomics of Australia’s Iconic Purple Wattle, Acacia purpureopetala

  • Marlien M. van der Merwe,
  • Jia-Yee S. Yap,
  • Peter D. Wilson,
  • Helen T. Murphy and
  • Andrew Ford

25 March 2021

Maximising genetic diversity in conservation efforts can help to increase the chances of survival of a species amidst the turbulence of the anthropogenic age. Here, we define the distribution and extent of genomic diversity across the range of the ic...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,496 Views
18 Pages

Genetic Consequences of Forest Fragmentation in a Widespread Forest Bat (Natalus mexicanus, Chiroptera: Natalidae)

  • Ricardo López-Wilchis,
  • Aline Méndez-Rodríguez,
  • Javier Juste,
  • Alejandra Serrato-Díaz,
  • Flor Rodríguez-Gómez and
  • Luis Manuel Guevara-Chumacero

25 March 2021

Recent historical and anthropogenic changes in the landscape causing habitat fragmentation can disrupt the connectivity of wild populations and pose a threat to the genetic diversity of multiple species. This study investigated the effect of habitat...

  • Interesting Images
  • Open Access
20 Citations
8,467 Views
6 Pages

Unexplored Refugia with High Cover of Scleractinian Leptoseris spp. and Hydrocorals Stylaster flabelliformis at Lower Mesophotic Depths (75–100 m) on Lava Flows at Reunion Island (Southwestern Indian Ocean)

  • Ludovic Hoarau,
  • Héloïse Rouzé,
  • Émilie Boissin,
  • Nicole Gravier-Bonnet,
  • Patrick Plantard,
  • Camille Loisil,
  • Lionel Bigot,
  • Pascale Chabanet,
  • Priscille Labarrère and
  • Thierry Mulochau
  • + 2 authors

25 March 2021

Despite increased attention over the last decade on Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems (MCEs) [...]

  • Commentary
  • Open Access
5 Citations
3,476 Views
6 Pages

The Problem with ‘Microbiome’

  • Stuart P. Donachie,
  • Claire J. Fraser,
  • Ethan C. Hill and
  • Marguerite A. Butler

24 March 2021

The term “microbiome” is currently applied predominantly to assemblages of organisms with 16S rRNA genes. In this context, “microbiome” is a misnomer that has been conferred a wide-ranging primacy over terms for community members lacking such genes,...

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Diversity - ISSN 1424-2818