Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Nature Publishing Group
Résumé : While Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, the abundance of trees is skewed strongly towards relatively few 'hyperdominant' species. In addition to their diversity, Amazonian trees are a key component of the global carbon cycle, assimilating and storing more carbon than any other ecosystem on Earth. Here we ask, using a unique data set of 530 forest plots, if the functions of storing and producing woody carbon are concentrated in a small number of tree species, whether the most abundant species also dominate carbon cycling, and whether dominant species are characterized by specific functional traits. We find that dominance of forest function is even more concentrated in a few species than is dominance of tree abundance, with only ≈1% of Amazon tree species responsible for 50% of carbon storage and productivity. Although those species that contribute most to biomass and productivity are often abundant, species maximum size is also influential, while the identity and ranking of dominant species varies by function and by region.
ISSN: 2041-1723

hal-01204225
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01204225
DOI : 10.1038/ncomms7857
PRODINRA : 305614
PUBMED : 25919449

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
The development of diabetic vascular complications is initiated, at least in part, by mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in endothelial cells. Hyperglycemia induces superoxide production in the mitochondria and initiates changes in the mitochondrial membrane potential that leads to mitochondrial dysfunction. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) supplementation has been shown to reduce the mitochondrial oxidant production and shows efficacy against diabetic vascular damage in vivo. However, the half-life of H2S is very short and it is not specific for the mitochondria. We have therefore evaluated two novel mitochondria-targeted anethole dithiolethione and hydroxythiobenzamide H2S donors (AP39 and AP123 respectively) at preventing hyperglycemia-induced oxidative stress and metabolic changes in microvascular endothelial cells in vitro. Hyperglycemia (HG) induced significant increase in the activity of the citric acid cycle and led to elevated mitochondrial membrane potential. Mitochondrial oxidant production was increased and the mitochondrial electron transport decreased in hyperglycemic cells. AP39 and AP123 (30–300 nM) decreased HG-induced hyperpolarisation of the mitochondrial membrane and inhibited the mitochondrial oxidant production. Both H2S donors (30–300 nM) increased the electron transport at respiratory complex III and improved the cellular metabolism. Targeting H2S to mitochondria retained the cytoprotective effect of H2S against glucose-induced damage in endothelial cells suggesting that the molecular target of H2S action is within the mitochondria. Mitochondrial targeting of H2S also induced >1000-fold increase in the potency of H2S against hyperglycemia-induced injury. The high potency and long-lasting effect elicited by these H2S donors strongly suggests that these compounds could be useful against diabetic vascular complications. © 2016
Pharmacological Research

hal-01373947
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01373947
DOI : 10.1016/j.phrs.2016.08.019
PUBMED : 27565382

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
Marine protist diversity inventories have largely focused on planktonic environments, while benthic protists have received relatively little attention. We therefore hypothesize that current diversity surveys have only skimmed the surface of protist diversity in marine sediments, which may harbor greater diversity than planktonic environments. We tested this by analyzing sequences of the hypervariable V4 18S rRNA from benthic and planktonic protist communities sampled in European coastal regions. Despite a similar number of OTUs in both realms, richness estimations indicated that we recovered at least 70% of the diversity in planktonic protist communities, but only 33% in benthic communities. There was also little overlap of OTUs between planktonic and benthic communities, as well as between separate benthic communities. We argue that these patterns reflect the heterogeneity and diversity of benthic habitats. A comparison of all OTUs against the Protist Ribosomal Reference database showed that a higher proportion of benthic than planktonic protist diversity is missing from public databases; similar results were obtained by comparing all OTUs against environmental references from NCBI's Short Read Archive. We suggest that the benthic realm may therefore be the world's largest reservoir of marine protist diversity, with most taxa at present undescribed.
ISSN: 0168-6496

hal-01383722
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01383722
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01383722/document
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01383722/file/Forster_2016_Benthic_protists.pdf
DOI : 10.1093/femsec/fiw120

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : International audience
Leaf dark respiration (R-dark) represents an important component controlling the carbon balance in tropical forests. Here, we test how nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) affect R-dark and its relationship with photosynthesis using three widely separated tropical forests which differ in soil fertility.R-dark was measured on 431 rainforest canopy trees, from 182 species, in French Guiana, Peru and Australia. The variation in R-dark was examined in relation to leaf N and P content, leaf structure and maximum photosynthetic rates at ambient and saturating atmospheric CO2 concentration.We found that the site with the lowest fertility (French Guiana) exhibited greater rates of R-dark per unit leaf N, P and photosynthesis. The data from Australia, for which there were no phylogenetic overlaps with the samples from the South American sites, yielded the most distinct relationships of R-dark with the measured leaf traits.Our data indicate that no single universal scaling relationship accounts for variation in R-dark across this large biogeographical space. Variability between sites in the absolute rates of R-dark and the R-dark : photosynthesis ratio were driven by variations in N- and P-use efficiency, which were related to both taxonomic and environmental variability.
ISSN: 0028-646X

hal-01559483
https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-01559483
DOI : 10.1111/nph.13992

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Background : Biological communities are normally composed of a few abundant and many rare species. This pattern is particularly prominent in microbial communities, in which most constituent taxa are usually extremely rare. Although abundant and rare subcommunities may present intrinsic characteristics that could be crucial for understanding community dynamics and ecosystem functioning, microbiologists normally do not differentiate between them. Here, we investigate abundant and rare subcommunities of marine microbial eukaryotes, a crucial group of organisms that remains among the least-explored biodiversity components of the biosphere. We surveyed surface waters of six separate coastal locations in Europe, independently considering the picoplankton, nanoplankton, and microplankton/mesoplankton organismal size fractions.Results : Deep Illumina sequencing of the 18S rRNA indicated that the abundant regional community was mostly structured by organismal size fraction, whereas the rare regional community was mainly structured by geographic origin. However, some abundant and rare taxa presented similar biogeography, pointing to spatiotemporal structure in the rare microeukaryote biosphere. Abundant and rare subcommunities presented regular proportions across samples, indicating similar species-abundance distributions despite taxonomic compositional variation. Several taxa were abundant in one location and rare in other locations, suggesting large oscillations in abundance. The substantial amount of metabolically active lineages found in the rare biosphere suggests that this subcommunity constitutes a diversity reservoir that can respond rapidly to environmental change.Conclusions : We propose that marine planktonic microeukaryote assemblages incorporate dynamic and metabolically active abundant and rare subcommunities, with contrasting structuring patterns but fairly regular proportions, across space and time.
ISSN: 0960-9822

hal-01149637
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01149637
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01149637/document
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01149637/file/Logares_et_al_CurrentBiol_accepted.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.cub.2014.02.050

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
Although protists are critical components of marine ecosystems, they are still poorly characterized. Here we analysed the taxonomic diversity of planktonic and benthic protist communities collected in six distant European coastal sites. Environmental deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) from three size fractions (pico-, nano- and micro/mesoplankton), as well as from dissolved DNA and surface sediments were used as templates for tag pyrosequencing of the V4 region of the 18S ribosomal DNA. Beta-diversity analyses split the protist community structure into three main clusters: picoplankton-nanoplankton-dissolved DNA, micro/mesoplankton and sediments. Within each cluster, protist communities from the same site and time clustered together, while communities from the same site but different seasons were unrelated. Both DNA and RNA-based surveys provided similar relative abundances for most class-level taxonomic groups. Yet, particular groups were overrepresented in one of the two templates, such as marine alveolates (MALV)-I and MALV-II that were much more abundant in DNA surveys. Overall, the groups displaying the highest relative contribution were Dinophyceae, Diatomea, Ciliophora and Acantharia. Also, well represented were Mamiellophyceae, Cryptomonadales, marine alveolates and marine stramenopiles in the picoplankton, and Monadofilosa and basal Fungi in sediments. Our extensive and systematic sequencing of geographically separated sites provides the most comprehensive molecular description of coastal marine protist diversity to date.
ISSN: 1462-2912

hal-01191731
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01191731
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01191731/document
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01191731/file/Massana_2015_Marine_protist.pdf
DOI : 10.1111/1462-2920.12955

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : Atmospheric carbon dioxide records indicate that the land surface has acted as a strong global carbon sink over recent decades, with a substantial fraction of this sink probably located in the tropics, particularly in the Amazon. Nevertheless, it is unclear how the terrestrial carbon sink will evolve as climate and atmospheric composition continue to change. Here we analyse the historical evolution of the biomass dynamics of the Amazon rainforest over three decades using a distributed network of 321 plots. While this analysis confirms that Amazon forests have acted as a long-term net biomass sink, we find a long-term decreasing trend of carbon accumulation. Rates of net increase in above-ground biomass declined by one-third during the past decade compared to the 1990s. This is a consequence of growth rate increases levelling off recently, while biomass mortality persistently increased throughout, leading to a shortening of carbon residence times. Potential drivers for the mortality increase include greater climate variability, and feedbacks of faster growth on mortality, resulting in shortened tree longevity. The observed decline of the Amazon sink diverges markedly from the recent increase in terrestrial carbon uptake at the global scale, and is contrary to expectations based on models.
ISSN: 1476-4687

hal-01204223
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01204223
DOI : 10.1038/nature14283
PRODINRA : 294797
PUBMED : 25788097

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer
Résumé : International audience
Playbacks are a useful tool for conducting well-controlled and replicated experiments on the effects of anthropogenic noise, particularly for repeated exposures. However, playbacks are unlikely to fully reproduce original sources of anthropogenic noise. Here we examined the sound pressure and particle acceleration of boat noise playbacks in a field experiment and reveal that although there remain recognized limitations, the signal-to-noise ratios of boat playbacks to ambient noise do not exceed those of a real boat. The experimental setup tested is therefore of value for use in experiments on the effects of repeated exposure of aquatic animals to boat noise.
The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life II

ISBN : 978-1-4939-2980-1 (Print) 978-1-4939-2981-8 (Online)
hal-01270660
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01270660
DOI : 10.1007/978-1-4939-2981-8_55

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD European Geosciences Union
Résumé : International audience
The production of aboveground soft tissue represents an important share of total net primary production in tropical rain forests. Here we draw from a large number of published and unpublished datasets (n = 81 sites) to assess the determinants of litterfall variation across South American tropical forests. We show that across old-growth tropical rainforests, litterfall averages 8.61±1.91Mgha−1 yr−1 (mean±standard deviation, in dry mass units). Secondary forests have a lower annual litterfall than old-growth tropical forests with a mean of 8.01±3.41Mgha−1 yr−1. Annual litterfall shows no significant variation with total annual rainfall, either globally or within forest types. It does not vary consistently with soil type, except in the poorest soils (white sand soils), where litterfall is significantly lower than in other soil types (5.42±1.91Mgha−1 yr−1). We also study the determinants of litterfall seasonality, and find that it does not depend on annual rainfall or on soil type. However, litterfall seasonality is significantly positively correlated with rainfall seasonality. Finally, we assess how much carbon is stored in reproductive organs relative to photosynthetic organs. Mean leaf fall is 5.74±1.83Mgha−1 yr−1 (71% of total litterfall). Mean allocation into reproductive organs is 0.69±0.40Mgha−1 yr−1 (9% of total litterfall). The investment into reproductive organs divided by leaf litterfall increases with soil fertility, suggesting that on poor soils, the allocation to photosynthetic organs is prioritized over that to reproduction. Finally, we discuss the ecological and biogeochemical implications of these results.
ISSN: 1726-4170

hal-00594514
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00594514

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier Science
Résumé : International audience
Some anthropogenic noise is now considered pollution, with evidence building that noise from human activities such as transportation, construction and exploration can impact behaviour and physiology in a broad range of taxa. However, relatively little research has considered the effects of repeated or chronic noise; extended exposures may result in habituation or sensitisation, and thus changes in response. We conducted a field-based experiment at Moorea Island to investigate how repeated exposure to playback of motorboat noise affected a coral reef fish (Dascyllus trimaculatus). We found that juvenile D. trimaculatus increased hiding behaviour during motorboat noise after two days of repeated exposure, but no longer did so after one and two weeks of exposure. We also found that naïve individuals responded to playback of motorboat noise with elevated ventilation rates, but that this response was diminished after one and two weeks of repeated exposure. We found no strong evidence that baseline blood cortisol levels, growth or body condition were affected by three weeks of repeated motorboat-noise playback. Our study reveals the importance of considering how tolerance levels may change over time, rather than simply extrapolating from results of short-term studies, if we are to make decisions about regulation and mitigation.
ISSN: 0013-9327

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
hal-01357915
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01357915
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01357915/document
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01357915/file/1-s2.0-S0269749116304468-main.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.envpol.2016.05.058