Gap Treatment (gap + treatment)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Systematics and Biogeography of Hard Ticks, a Total Evidence Approach

CLADISTICS, Issue 1 2000
J.S.H. Klompen
Systematic relationships among the basal Ixodidae are examined using one morphological and three molecular data sets, 18S and 28S nuclear and 16S mitochondrial rDNA. Although different combinations of partitions are incompatible in a partition homogeneity test, combining them produces similar or better support for most major lineages through both additive and complementary effects. The different data sets are not complete for all taxa, but inclusion or exclusion of taxa with missing data for one or more data sets (8 of 29 ingroup taxa) does not influence overall tree topology and only weakly affects support levels. The only notable effect was based on gap treatment in the 28S data set. Gap treatment completely changes the arrangement and support levels for one basal node. The combined analyses show strong support for the Metastriata, a lineage including most endemic Australian Ixodes, and a lineage including the remaining Ixodes, but not for the Prostriata (=Ixodes s.l.). The distribution pattern of endemic Australian taxa (nearly all included in three exclusively Australian basal lineages) suggests that these lineages, and by extension the Ixodidae, originated after the isolation of Australia in the late Cretaceous, much more recently than previously indicated. [source]


A test of the indirect facilitation model in a temperate hardwood forest of the northern French Alps

JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2003
Jean-Philippe Pages
Summary 1We tested the hypothesis that the more frequent occurrence of tree seedlings below the adult trees than in canopy openings might be explained by indirect facilitation. In a temperate hardwood forest, we compared the performance of five target tree seedlings (Picea abies, Abies alba, Fagus sylvatica, Acer pseudoplatanus and Quercus petraea), transplanted with or without a herbaceous competitor (Molinia caerulea), either within the forest or into experimentally created gaps. 2We quantified changes in understorey biomass, light penetration and available forms of soil nitrogen during three growing seasons. 3Photosynthetic photon flux density and total biomass of Molinia were significantly higher in the gap treatment than within the forest. Total available nitrogen was higher in the gaps in the absence of Molinia, but higher in the forest in the presence of Molinia. 4Quercus survival was very low within the forest because of fungal infection, whereas survival was very high for the four other tree species in all combinations of the two treatments. 5Although the competitive effect of Molinia on the growth of the tree seedlings was much greater in the gap treatment, seedling growth was lower within the forest. We conclude that the tree canopy imposed strong light competition, and that this direct negative influence was much greater than any indirect positive effect of increased availability of nutrients to tree seedlings, due to reduced nutrient uptake by Molinia. 6Target species responses to treatments were similar, despite strong differences in nitrogen requirements between species. This may be due to the overwhelming negative influence of the tree canopy in our experiment. [source]


Systematics and Biogeography of Hard Ticks, a Total Evidence Approach

CLADISTICS, Issue 1 2000
J.S.H. Klompen
Systematic relationships among the basal Ixodidae are examined using one morphological and three molecular data sets, 18S and 28S nuclear and 16S mitochondrial rDNA. Although different combinations of partitions are incompatible in a partition homogeneity test, combining them produces similar or better support for most major lineages through both additive and complementary effects. The different data sets are not complete for all taxa, but inclusion or exclusion of taxa with missing data for one or more data sets (8 of 29 ingroup taxa) does not influence overall tree topology and only weakly affects support levels. The only notable effect was based on gap treatment in the 28S data set. Gap treatment completely changes the arrangement and support levels for one basal node. The combined analyses show strong support for the Metastriata, a lineage including most endemic Australian Ixodes, and a lineage including the remaining Ixodes, but not for the Prostriata (=Ixodes s.l.). The distribution pattern of endemic Australian taxa (nearly all included in three exclusively Australian basal lineages) suggests that these lineages, and by extension the Ixodidae, originated after the isolation of Australia in the late Cretaceous, much more recently than previously indicated. [source]


Smaller and more numerous harvesting gaps emulate natural forest disturbances: a biodiversity test case using rove beetles (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae)

DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS, Issue 6 2008
Jan Klimaszewski
ABSTRACT Aim To evaluate changes in the abundance, species richness and community composition of rove beetles (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) in response to three configurations of experimental gap cuts and to the effects of ground scarification in early succession yellow birch-dominated boreal forest. In each experimental treatment, total forest removed was held constant (35% removal by partial cutting with a concomitant decrease in gap size) but the total number of gaps was increased (two, four and eight gaps, respectively), resulting in an experimental increase in the total amount of ,edge' within each stand. Location Early succession yellow birch-dominated forests, Quebec, Canada. Methods Pitfall traps, ANOVA, MIXED procedure in sasŪ, post hoc Tukey's adjustment, rarefaction estimates, sum-of-squares and distance-based multivariate regression trees (ssMRT, dbMRT). Results Estimates of species richness using rarefaction were highest in clearcut and two-gap treatments, decreased in smaller and more numerous gaps and were significantly higher in scarified areas than in unscarified areas. ANOVA indicated a significant impact of harvesting on the overall standardized catch. Post hoc Tukey's tests indicated that the total catch of all rove beetles was significantly higher in uncut forests than in the treated areas. Both sum-of-squares and distance-based multivariate regression trees indicated that community structure of rove beetles differed among treatments. Assemblages were grouped into (a) control plots, (b) four- and eight-gap treatments and (c) two-gap and clearcut treatments. Main conclusions Rove beetle composition responded significantly to increasing gap size. Composition among intermediate and small-sized gap treatments (four- and eight-gap treatments) was more similar to uncut control forests than were larger gap treatments (two-gap) and clearcuts. Effects of scarification were nested within the harvested treatments. When the total area of forest removed is held constant, smaller, more numerous gaps are more similar to uncut control stands than to larger gaps and falls more closely within the natural forest heterogeneity. [source]