Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley Open Access
Résumé : Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species' threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project - and avert - future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups - including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems - ). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015.
ISSN: 2045-7758

hal-01204216
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01204216
DOI : 10.1002/ece3.1303
PRODINRA : 280886

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Royal Society of Chemistry
Résumé : International audience
LA-ICP-MS analysis of the chemical composition of biogenic carbonate has many applications in the environmental sciences but the characteristics of the material produced by the ablation process are largely unknown. To fill this gap, we have undertaken a study of the chemical and physical nature of particles produced by laser ablation of biogenic carbonates. SEM imaging suggests that laser ablation produces two distinct particle populations, one consisting of microsize particles and the other of nanosize particles. A 213 nm laser gives rise to a higher proportion of microsize particles than a 193 nm laser, probably because the 213 nm laser couples less completely with carbonate material. The microsize particles appear to form by photomechanical fracturing along lines of cleavage or weakness, rather than by hydrodynamic sputtering (as is generally observed for silicates). Chemical analysis of the carbonate particles suggests that little chemical fractionation of biogenic carbonates occurs during the ablation process or during transport to the plasma. This is supported by the constancy of the fractionation factor ([X/Ca](measured)/[X/Ca] true) during the course of an ablation of a carbonate standard. In contrast, changes in the fractionation factor during the first few seconds of ablation of the NIST 612 are observed for some elements. This difference in fractionation is likely to result from the different formation mechanisms of the microsize particles.
ISSN: 0267-9477

hal-00411933
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00411933
DOI : 10.1039/b706727e