1. Biological invasions threaten biodiversity, and understanding the factors that influence a community’s susceptibility to invasion informs both management of invasive species and conservation efforts towards promoting biodiversity. 2. In this study, we examined the native–exotic richness relationships (NERR) at two spatial scales and asked what variables mediate the relationship between nativ...

Habitat transformation is one of the leading drivers of biodiversity loss. The ecological effects of this transformation have mainly been addressed at the demographic level, for example, finding extinction thresholds. However, interpopulation genetic variability and the subsequent potential for adaptation can be eroded before effects are noticed on species abundances. To what degree this is the...

Vegetation plays an important role in the exchange of carbon dioxide, water, and energy between the land surface and the atmosphere. LAI, defined as one-half the total green leaf area per unit of ground surface area, drives the within and the below canopy microclimate, determines canopy water interception, radiation extinction, and water and carbon gas exchange. Therefore, accurate LAI is a key...

Within each bacterial species, different strains may vary in the set of genes they encode or in the copy number of these genes. Yet, taxonomic characterization of the human microbiota is often limited to the species level or to previously sequenced strains, and accordingly, the prevalence of intra-species variation, its functional role, and its relation to host health remain unclear. Here, we p...

Objectives: Self-determination is a significant skill in the proper transition from adolescence to adulthood. Parents play an important role in assessing the self-determination of their children. Currently, there is no valid instrument in Iran to assess parents’ views about the self-determination of their adolescents. The present study was conducted to determine the psychometric properties of t...

The configuration and evolution of coexisting mesoscopic domains with contrasting material properties are critical in creating novel functionality through emergent physical properties. However, current approaches that map the domain structure involve either spatially resolved but protracted scanning probe experiments without real time information on the domain evolution, or time resolved spectr...