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Lower Relative Abundance (lower + relative_abundance)
Selected AbstractsThe effects of chronic nitrogen fertilization on alpine tundra soil microbial communities: implications for carbon and nitrogen cyclingENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 11 2008Diana R. Nemergut Summary Many studies have shown that changes in nitrogen (N) availability affect primary productivity in a variety of terrestrial systems, but less is known about the effects of the changing N cycle on soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition. We used a variety of techniques to examine the effects of chronic N amendments on SOM chemistry and microbial community structure and function in an alpine tundra soil. We collected surface soil (0,5 cm) samples from five control and five long-term N-amended plots established and maintained at the Niwot Ridge Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) site. Samples were bulked by treatment and all analyses were conducted on composite samples. The fungal community shifted in response to N amendments, with a decrease in the relative abundance of basidiomycetes. Bacterial community composition also shifted in the fertilized soil, with increases in the relative abundance of sequences related to the Bacteroidetes and Gemmatimonadetes, and decreases in the relative abundance of the Verrucomicrobia. We did not uncover any bacterial sequences that were closely related to known nitrifiers in either soil, but sequences related to archaeal nitrifiers were found in control soils. The ratio of fungi to bacteria did not change in the N-amended soils, but the ratio of archaea to bacteria dropped from 20% to less than 1% in the N-amended plots. Comparisons of aliphatic and aromatic carbon compounds, two broad categories of soil carbon compounds, revealed no between treatment differences. However, G-lignins were found in higher relative abundance in the fertilized soils, while proteins were detected in lower relative abundance. Finally, the activities of two soil enzymes involved in N cycling changed in response to chronic N amendments. These results suggest that chronic N fertilization induces significant shifts in soil carbon dynamics that correspond to shifts in microbial community structure and function. [source] THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE MATING PREFERENCES: DIFFERENTIATION FROM SPECIES WITH PROMISCUOUS MALES CAN PROMOTE SPECIATIONEVOLUTION, Issue 10 2006Mark A. McPeek Abstract Females of many species are frequently courted by promiscuous males of their own and other closely related species. Such mating interactions may impose strong selection on female mating preferences to favor trait values in conspecific males that allow females to discriminate them from their heterospecific rivals. We explore the consequences of such selection in models of the evolution of female mating preferences when females must interact with heterospecific males from which they are completely postreproductively isolated. Specifically, we allow the values of both the most preferred male trait and the tolerance of females for males that deviate from this most preferred trait to evolve. Also, we consider situations in which females base their mating decisions on multiple male traits and must interact with males of multiple species. Females will rapidly differentiate in preference when they sometimes mistake heterospecific males for suitable mates, and the differentiation of female preference will select for conspecific male traits to differentiate as well. In most circumstances, this differentiation continues indefinitely, but slows substantially once females are differentiated enough to make mistakes rare. Populations of females with broader preference functions (i.e., broader tolerance for males with trait values that deviate from females most preferred values) will evolve further to differentiate if the shape of the function cannot evolve. Also, the magnitude of separation that evolves is larger and achieved faster when conspecific males have lower relative abundance. The direction of differentiation is also very sensitive to initial conditions if females base their mate choices on multiple male traits. We discuss how these selection pressures on female mate choice may lead to speciation by generating differentiation among populations of a progenitor species that experiences different assemblages of heterospecifics. Opportunities for differentiation increase as the number of traits involved in mate choice increase and as the number of species involved increases. We suggest that this mode of speciation may have been particularly prevalent in response to the cycles of climatic change throughout the Quaternary that forced the assembly and disassembly of entire communities on a continentwide basis. [source] Soil microbial community structure in cucumber rhizosphere of different resistance cultivars to fusarium wiltFEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Huaiying Yao Abstract Cucumber fusarium wilt is a common soil-borne disease. We hypothesize that there is a relationship between the severity of disease and soil microbial ecology. In this work, culturable microbial populations, lipid fatty acid and community-level physiological profiles (CLPP) from rhizosphere soils of four different cucumber cultivars were investigated. Comparatively higher actinomycetes, mycorrhizal colonization and higher ratios of bacteria to fungi were found in the two resistant cultivars compared with the two susceptible cultivars. CLPP analysis showed that catabolic diversity indices were higher in the presence of two resistant cultivars. Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiles suggested that fungal (18:2,6,9c) PLFA was enriched in the rhizosphere soils of the two susceptible cultivars, but some bacterial (16:0 and 15:0a) PLFAs were found in a lower relative abundance in these soils. The neutral lipid fatty acid 16:1,5, which is an indicator of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, was enriched in the rhizosphere soils of the two resistant cultivars. All the three methods suggested that plant genotype had a significant impact on the soil microbial community composition and activity, and the differences in the rhizosphere microbial community may result in the differences in the resistance to fusarium wilt. [source] Characterization of oil sands naphthenic acids treated with ultraviolet and microwave radiation by negative ion electrospray Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometryRAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 21 2010John V. Headley Naphthenic acids (NAs) are concentrated in oil sand process water (OSPW) as a result of caustic oil sands extraction processes. There is considerable interest in methods for treatment of NAs in OSPW. Earlier work has shown that the combination of ultraviolet (UV) and microwave treatments in the laboratory was effective in reducing the concentration of classical NAs. Here we apply Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) to further characterize NAs treated with (a) UV (254,nm) in the presence of TiO2 catalyst; and/or (b) microwave irradiation (2.45,GHz). FT-ICR MS was used to characterize the NA fraction before and after treatment. Acidic oxygen-containing classes were most abundant in all samples whereas other heteroatomic classes were least abundant or not present in some samples. For example, the SO2 -containing species were absent in UV- or combined UV- and microwave-treated samples. The O2 class was dominant in all samples, indicative of NAs. However, samples treated with UV and microwave radiation have a lower relative abundance of other heteroatomic classes. We observed O2, S1O2, O3, S1O3, O4, O5, and O6 classes, whereas the species with relatively high On content, namely, the O3, O5, and O6 classes, were present only in UV- and microwave-treated samples. The relatively high On content is consistent with oxidation of the parent acids in treated samples. There may thus be potential implications for environmental forensics. For example, the monitoring of the ratio of SO2:O2 or tracking the relative abundances of O2, O3, O4, O5, and O6 classes may provide insights for distinguishing naturally derived oil sands components from those that are process-related in aquatic environments. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Electron ionization mass spectra of phosphorus-containing heterocycles.RAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 23 2006The 1,3,4,2-oxadiazaphosphinane 2-oxides differ not only in the relative configuration of the P atom (R* or S*), but also in many other ways such as the ring size, ring fusion, P substitution and bridgehead N atom whose effects on their fragmentations have been studied. Some fragmentations resembled those of 3,1,2-oxazaphosphinane 2-oxides and 1,3,2-diazaphosphinane-2-oxides, but new routes were also found, initiated by ionization at the bridgehead N atom. The relative abundances of the molecular ions and some fragment ions allowed the differentiation of cis-trans epimers. Compounds with n,=,2 and R,,N(CH2CH2Cl)2, and linearly or angularly isoquinoline-fused isomers in most cases, gave more numerous ions with lower relative abundances than the other compounds in this series. Only the isoquinoline derivatives provided fragments resulting from ionization of the aromatic part of the molecule. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||