Citation: Muñoz MC, Schaefer HM, Böhning-Gaese K, Neuschulz EL and Schleuning M (2017) Phylogenetic and Functional Diversity of Fleshy-Fruited Plants Are Positively Associated with Seedling Diversity in a Tropical Montane Forest. Front. Ecol. Evol. 5:93. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2017.00093 Phylogenetic and Functional Diversity of Fleshy-Fruited Plants Are Positively Associated with Seedling Diversity ...

We characterize the diversity of nectar-living yeasts of a tropical host plant community at different hierarchical sampling levels, measure the associations between yeasts and nectariferous plants, and measure the effect of yeasts on nectar traits. Using a series of hierarchically nested sampling units, we extracted nectar from an assemblage of host plants that were representative of the divers...

Most strains of the bacterial wilt pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum are tropical, but race 3 biovar 2 (R3bv2) strains can attack plants in temperate zones and tropical highlands. The basis of this distinctive ecological trait is not understood. We compared the survival of tropical, R3bv2, and warm-temperate North American strains of R. solanacearum under different conditions. In water at 4 degre...

Key innovations may increase the number of taxa in a clade that possesses the proposed innovation in comparison to its sister group that lacks the trait through either increased speciation or reduced extinction rates. Comparing sister clades across several independent lineages provides statistical support that the trait has increased species diversity. Previous studies have indicated that there...

Although clouds are the most recognisable and defining feature of tropical montane cloud forests, little research has focussed on how clouds affect plant functioning. We used satellite and ground-based observations to study cloud and leaf wetting patterns in contrasting tropical montane and pre-montane cloud forests. We then studied the consequences of leaf wetting for the direct uptake of wate...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Single stressors such as scarcity of water and extreme temperatures dominate the struggle for life in severely dry desert ecosystems or cold polar regions and at high elevations. In contrast, stress in the tropics typically arises from a dynamic network of interacting stressors, such as availability of water, CO(2), light and nutrients, temperature and salinity. This require...

A collaborative multidisciplinary research project is described in which new natural product anticancer drug leads are obtained from a diverse group of organisms, constituted by tropical plants, aquatic cyanobacteria, and filamentous fungi. Information is provided on how these organisms are collected and processed. The types of bioassays are indicated in which crude extracts of these acquisitio...

Phenotypic plasticity in macroscopic fungi has been poorly studied in comparison to plants or animals and only general aspects of these changes have been described. In this work, the phenotypic variation in the basidiomata of Thelephora sp. (Thelephoraceae) was examined, as well as some aspects of its ecology and habitat, using 24 specimens collected in the tropical forests of the Chamela Biolo...

Seeds collected from trees, shrubs and lianas growing on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, were analyzed for their content of phenolic compounds, oxidative activities protein precipitation capacities. Proanthocyanidins hydrolysable tannins detected in one-third 189 studied species. The most oxidatively active group species the ones containing prodelphinidins ellagitannins whereas that had highest ...