The end-Cretaceous mass extinctions, 65 million years ago, profoundly influenced the course of biotic evolution. These extinctions coincided with a major extraterrestrial impact event and massive volcanism in India. Determining the relative importance of each event as a driver of environmental and biotic change across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (KTB) crucially depends on constraining the ...

As society strives to transition towards more sustainable development pathways, it is important to properly conceptualize the link between biodiversity (i.e. genes, traits, species and other dimensions) and human well-being (HWB; i.e. health, wealth, security and other dimensions). Here, we explore how published conceptual frameworks consider the extent to which the biodiversity-HWB links are b...

Theoretically, communities at or near their equilibrium species number resist 34 entry of new species. Such ‘biotic resistance’ recently has been questioned because of successful 35 entry of alien species into diverse natural communities. Data on 10,409 naturalizations of 5350 36 plant species over 16 sites dispersed globally show exponential distributions for both species over 37 sites and sit...

A digital camera fitted with a hemispherical lens was used to generate canopy leaf area index (LAI) values for a banana (Musa spp.) field trial with the aim of establishing a method for monitoring stresses on tall crop plants. The trial in Uganda consisted of two cultivars susceptible to nematodes, a plantain, Gonja manjaya and an East African Highland banana, Mbwazirume, plus a nematode resist...

The concept of landscape legacies has been examined extensively in terrestrial ecosystems and has led to a greater understanding of contemporary ecosystem processes. However, although stream ecosystems are tightly coupled with their catchments and, thus, probably are affected strongly by historical catchment conditions, few studies have directly examined the importance of landuse legacies on st...

In this contribution, I identify possible biotic elements of reptiles of China using biotic element analysis. I test whether the vicariance model could significantly shape reptilian current distribution patterns. My results show that dispersal is prevailing for reptiles in China. There are four major biotic elements in reptilian distribution, which are East Xizang, YunnanGuizhou Plateau, Taiwan...

The prevalent formation of noncrystalline U(IV) species in the subsurface and their enhanced susceptibility to reoxidation and remobilization, as compared to crystalline uraninite, raise concerns about the long-term sustainability of the bioremediation of U-contaminated sites. The main goal of this study was to resolve the remaining uncertainty concerning the formation mechanism of noncrystalli...

The aim of the present study was to propose a biotic index (North Adriatic Mesophotic BiogEnic Reefs, NAMBER) suitable for assessing ecological quality mesophotic biogenic reefs northern continental shelf based on photographic sampling. At each 20 sites, degree bioconstruction (expressed as percentage cover crustose coralline algae), α-diversity mean number taxa), and sensitivity human disturba...