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Novel species of microfungi described in the present study include the following from South Africa: Camarosporium aloes, Phaeococcomyces aloes and Phoma aloes from Aloe, C. psoraleae, Diaporthe psoraleae and D. psoraleae-pinnatae from Psoralea, Colletotrichum euphorbiae from Euphorbia, Coniothyrium prosopidis and Peyronellaea prosopidis from Prosopis, Diaporthe cassines from Cassine, D. diospyricola from Diospyros, Diaporthe maytenicola from Maytenus, Harknessia proteae from Protea, Neofusicoccum ursorum and N. cryptoaustrale from Eucalyptus, Ochrocladosporium adansoniae from Adansonia, Pilidium pseudoconcavum from Greyia radlkoferi, Stagonospora pseudopaludosa from Phragmites and Toxicocladosporium ficiniae from Ficinia. Several species were also described from Thailand, namely: Chaetopsina pini and C. pinicola from Pinus spp., Myrmecridium thailandicum from reed litter, Passalora pseudotithoniae from Tithonia, Pallidocercospora ventilago from Ventilago, Pyricularia bothriochloae from Bothriochloa and Sphaerulina rhododendricola from Rhododendron. Novelties from Spain include Cladophialophora multiseptata, Knufia tsunedae and Pleuroascus rectipilus from soil and Cyphellophora catalaunica from river sediments. Species from the USA include Bipolaris drechsleri from Microstegium, Calonectria blephiliae from Blephilia, Kellermania macrospora (epitype) and K. pseudoyuccigena from Yucca. Three new species are described from Mexico, namely Neophaeosphaeria agaves and K. agaves from Agave and Phytophthora ipomoeae from Ipomoea. Other African species include Calonectria mossambicensis from Eucalyptus (Mozambique), Harzia cameroonensis from an unknown creeper (Cameroon), Mastigosporella anisophylleae from Anisophyllea (Zambia) and Teratosphaeria terminaliae from Terminalia (Zimbabwe). Species from Europe include Auxarthron longisporum from forest soil (Portugal), Discosia pseudoartocreas from Tilia (Austria), Paraconiothyrium polonense and P. lycopodinum from Lycopodium (Poland) and Stachybotrys oleronensis from Iris (France). Two species of Chrysosporium are described from Antarctica, namely C. magnasporum and C. oceanitesii. Finally, Licea xanthospora is described from Australia, Hypochnicium huinayensis from Chile and Custingophora blanchettei from Uruguay. Novel genera of Ascomycetes include Neomycosphaerella from Pseudopentameris macrantha (South Africa), and Paramycosphaerella from Brachystegia sp. (Zimbabwe). Novel hyphomycete genera include Pseudocatenomycopsis from Rothmannia (Zambia), Neopseudocercospora from Terminalia (Zambia) and Neodeightoniella from Phragmites (South Africa), while Dimorphiopsis from Brachystegia (Zambia) represents a novel coelomycetous genus. Furthermore, Alanphillipsia is introduced as a new genus in the Botryosphaeriaceae with four species, A. aloes, A. aloeigena and A. aloetica from Aloe spp. and A. euphorbiae from Euphorbia sp. (South Africa). A new combination is also proposed for Brachysporium torulosum (Deightoniella black tip of banana) as Corynespora torulosa. Morphological and c...

Coadaptation between mistletoes and birds captured the attention of Charles Darwin over 150 years ago, stimulating considerable scientific research. Here we used Loranthaceae, a speciose and ecologically important mistletoe family, to obtain new insights into the interrelationships among its hosts and dispersers. Phylogenetic analyses of Loranthaceae were based on a dataset of nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences. Divergence time estimation, ancestral area reconstruction, and diversification rate analyses were employed to examine historical biogeography. The crown group of Loranthaceae was estimated to originate in Australasian Gondwana during the Paleocene to early Eocene (59 Ma, 95% HPD: 53-66 Ma), and rapidly diversified, converting from root parasitic to aerial parasitic trophic mode ca. 50 Ma during the Eocene climatic optimum. Subsequently, Loranthaceae were inferred to be widespread in Australasia and South America but absent in Africa. The African and European members were derived from Asiatic lineages. The burst of diversification of Loranthaceae occurred during a climatic optimum period that coincides with the dominance of tropical forests in the world. This also corresponds to the trophic mode conversion of Loranthaceae and rapid radiation of many bird families - important agents for long-distance dispersal in the Cenozoic.

Understanding the causes of the Sino-Japanese disjunctions in plant taxa has been a central question in eastern Asian biogeography, with vicariance or long-distance dispersal often invoked to explain such patterns. Diabelia Landrein (Caprifoliaceae; Linnaeoideae) comprises four shrubby species with a Sino-Japanese disjunct distribution. The species diversification time within Diabelia, covering a long geological history of the formation process of the Sino-Japanese flora, dated back to the middle Oligocene, therefore, Diabelia would be an ideal model to elucidate the biogeographic patterns of Sino-Japanese disjunctions with climate fluctuation. In this study, we analyzed complete plastome sequence data for 28 individuals representing all four species of Diabelia. These 28 plastomes were found to be highly similar in overall size (156 243-157 578 bp), structure, gene order, and content. Our phylogenomic analysis of the plastomes supported a close relationship between Diabelia ionostachya (Nakai) Landrein & R.L. Barrett var. wenzhouensis (S.L. Zhou ex Landrein) Landrein from eastern China and Diabelia spathulata (Siebold & Zucc.) Landrein var. spathulata from Japan. Diabelia serrata (Siebold & Zucc.) Landrein was identified as sister to a population of Diabelia sanguinea (Makino) Landrein from Tochigi in central Japan and D. spathulata Landrein, from Toyama, central Japan. Most Diabelia lineages were estimated to have differentiated 8-28 Mya. Our results indicate that two independent vicariance events could explain the disjunction between Japan and Korea in the mid to late Miocene, and between Zhejiang and Japan in the early Miocene.

INTRODUCTIONThe small species of Pogonophora that are widely distributed in sediments along the Continental Slope and in the Norwegian fjords (Webb, 1965; Southward & Southward, 1967; Southward, 1971,1979) carry Gram-negative bacteria in the posterior part of the body (Southward, 1982). In this they resemble the giant pogonophores (Vestimentifera) that live around hydrothermal vents in the Pacific ocean floor (Cavanaugh et al. 1981; Cavanaugh, 1983). The bacteria in both groups are autotrophic (Felbeck, 1981; Southward et al. 1981), capable of synthesizing organic matter from carbon dioxide. The bacteria in Riftia and other vent pogonophores appear to obtain energy by oxidation of reduced sulphur compounds (Felbeck, 1981; Felbeck, Childress & Somero, 1981). Hydrothermal vent waters may contain as much as 6 nut dissolved sulphide (Edmond et al. 1982; Edmond & Von Damm, 1983), which is diluted to about 200-300 μM near the giant pogonophores, whose blood can transport sulphide without affecting the affinity of its haemoglobin for oxygen (Arp & Childress, 1983; Powell & Somero, 1983; Childress, Arp & Fisher, 1984).

Although the role of dispersal in explaining global distribution patterns is now widely accepted, the apparent ease with which such dispersal may occur has perhaps been under-appreciated. In Schoeneae, transoceanic dispersal has been remarkably frequent, with ecological opportunity, rather than geography, being most important in dictating dispersal patterns.

The Sino-Japanese Floristic Region (SJFR) is a key area for plant phylogeographical research, due to its very high species diversity and disjunct distributions of a large number of species and genera. At present, the root cause and temporal origin of the discontinuous distribution of many plants in the Sino-Japanese flora are still unclear. Diabelia (Caprifoliaceae; Linnaeoideae) is a genus endemic to Asia, mostly in Japan, but two recent discoveries in China raised questions over the role of the East China Sea (ECS) in these species' disjunctions. Chloroplast DNA sequence data were generated from 402 population samples for two regions ( rpl 32- trn L, and trn H- psb A) and 11 nuclear microsatellite loci were screened for 549 individuals. Haplotype, population-level structure, combined analyses of ecological niche modeling, and reconstruction of ancestral state in phylogenies were also performed. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) period after the Tertiary, Diabelia was potentially widely distributed in southeastern China, the continental shelf of the East China Sea and Japan (excluding Hokkaido). After LGM, all populations in China have disappeared except those in Zhejiang which may represent a Glacial refuge. Populations of Diabelia in Japan have not experienced significant bottleneck effects, and populations have maintained a relatively stable state. The observed discontinuous distribution of Diabelia species between China and Japan are interpreted as the result of relatively ancient divergence. The phylogenetic tree of chloroplast fragments shows the characteristics of multi-origin evolution (except for D. sanguinea ). STRUCTURE analysis of nuclear Simple Sequence Repeat (nSSR) showed that the plants of the Diabelia were divided into five gene pools: D. serrata, D. spathulata, D. sanguinea, D. ionostachya ( D. spathulata var. spathulata -Korea), and populations of D. ionostachya var. ionostachya in Yamagata prefecture, northern Japan. Molecular evidence provides new insights of Diabelia into biogeography, a potential glacial refuge, and population-level genetic structure within species. In the process of species differentiation, ECS acts as a corridor for two-way migration of animals and plants between China and Japan during glacial maxima, providing the possibility of secondary contact for discontinuously distributed species between China and Japan, or as a filter (creating isolation) during glacial minima. The influence of the ECS in speciation and biogeography of Diabelia in the Tertiary remains unresolved in this study. Understanding origins, evolutionary histories, and speciation will provide a framework for the...

Questions: Disturbance regimes shaped the evolution of grasslands but grazing exclusion and fire suppression have caused unprecedented increases in grassland biomass and biodiversity declines. Mowing reduces biomass but is not widely practiced in conservation reserves because of concerns about facilitating exotic plant invasion and altering ecosystem function. We asked whether regular mowing affected (1) the diversity of native and exotic functional groups, (2) spatial turnover in vegetation composition (β-diversity), (3) vegetation attributes relating to biomass and structural heterogeneity, (4) community composition and (5) the distribution and abundance of individual native and exotic species.Location: Five temperate grassland reserves, south-eastern Australia, encompassing C 3 and C 4 dominated communities.Methods: Vegetation within reserves had been cut to 10 cm, once per year, for 10 years in late spring/early summer to maintain access tracks. We surveyed plant communities in mowed areas and nearby (<5 m) unmowed control areas (40 subplots per reserve, 200 total) and used linear mixed-effects models to examine the effects of mowing. Results:Of 24 functional groups, the richness of 16 native and exotic groups significantly increased with mowing. In 14 of these cases, effects were consistent across C 3 -and C 4 -dominated grassland. Mowing reduced spatial turnover, but this did not reduce species richness at any spatial scale. When accounting for species abundance and evenness (Shannon diversity), effects of mowing were generally positive for native species and neutral for exotic species. Mowing increased native perennial grass cover and bare earth, decreased exotic perennial grass cover and litter, and changed community composition. Mowing reduced vegetation height but not structural heterogeneity. Mowing positively affected six individual native species and no exotic species.One native (Asperula conferta) and two exotic (Avena spp. and Nassella neesiana) species were found in lower abundance on mowed plots. Conclusions:Annual mowing can be a useful conservation tool for threatened temperate grasslands but should be heterogeneous to ensure the persistence of mowingsensitive native species. Good vehicle hygiene is essential and localized complementary management (e.g., herbicide) might be required to reduce exotic forbs and grasses. K E Y W O R D S community ecology, disturbance regime, functional ecology, invasive species, meadow, prairie, savanna, slashing 208 | Applied Vegetation Science SMITH eT al.