No abstract

No abstract

Novel species of microfungi described in the present study include the following from Australia: Phytophthora amnicola from still water, Gnomoniopsis smithogilvyi from Castanea sp., Pseudoplagiostoma corymbiae from Corymbia sp., Diaporthe eucalyptorum from Eucalyptus sp., Sporisorium andrewmitchellii from Enneapogon aff. lindleyanus, Myrmecridium banksiae from Banksia, and Pilidiella wangiensis from Eucalyptus sp. Several species are also described from South Africa, namely: Gondwanamyces wingfieldii from Protea caffra, Montagnula aloes from Aloe sp., Diaporthe canthii from Canthium inerne, Phyllosticta ericarum from Erica gracilis, Coleophoma proteae from Protea caffra, Toxicocladosporium strelitziae from Strelitzia reginae, and Devriesia agapanthi from Agapanthus africanus. Other species include Phytophthora asparagi from Asparagus officinalis (USA), and Diaporthe passiflorae from Passiflora edulis (South America). Furthermore, novel genera of coelomycetes include Chrysocrypta corymbiae from Corymbia sp. (Australia), Trinosporium guianense, isolated as a contaminant (French Guiana), and Xenosonderhenia syzygii, from Syzygium cordatum (South Africa). Pseudopenidiella piceae from Picea abies (Czech Republic), and Phaeocercospora colophospermi from Colophospermum mopane (South Africa) represent novel genera of hyphomycetes. Morphological and culture characteristics along with ITS DNA barcodes are provided for all taxa.

No abstract

Fire is a key natural and anthropogenic disturbance factor across many ecosystems, and also an important conservation management tool. However, little is known about arthropod responses to fire, particularly in Mediterranean-type ecosystems, including the biodiverse Cape Floristic Region (CFR). We investigate here the relative variety of responses by different arthropod taxa to fire, and ask whether single-taxon or multi-taxa approaches better suit post-fire biomonitoring for conservation management. Sampling involved multiple techniques and was conducted before fire, 1 year after fire, and 3 years after fire, with unburned areas as controls. Before-and-after statistics were used to identify changes in arthropod populations and assemblages as a result of fire, and between treatment and control sites. However, this was against a background of the annual effects having a major influence on the arthropods, irrespective of fire. Abundance was so variable, even in control plots, that we found it an unreliable indicator of the impact of fire. Overall, arthropods were remarkably resilient to fire, with most taxa recovering in species richness and assemblage composition within 3 years of the fire. Although all taxa showed resilience to fire, there was nevertheless little congruence in temporal recovery of the various taxa. Our results highlight the shortcomings of monitoring fire impacts using only a single-taxon without prior testing for complementarity or sensitivity to fire, while emphasizing the importance of sampling a wide range of taxa to represent overall responses of compositional biodiversity. From this, we recommend, at least for the CFR, that a cross-section of taxa, such as butterflies, ants, and scarab beetles, be used for monitoring arthropods in recovery/fire management conservation programmes. We also recommend that such monitoring be considered against the background of large annual variation seen in unburned areas.

Large scale landscape transformation and contingent habitat loss are among the greatest threats to ecological integrity and ecosystem health. One of the mitigation approaches used to deal with these pressures is to leave interconnected corridors and nodes as remnant ecological networks (ENs) within the transformed landscape. The South African forestry industry has already allocated 500,000 ha, one-third of the plantation holdings, consisting predominantly of natural grassland, as ENs among and within timber plantations. These ENs are intended to maintain structural, compositional and functional biodiversity. However, little scientific research is available on the effectiveness of these huge ENs for biodiversity conservation and maintenance of natural ecosystem function, although initial findings are encouraging. While the local adverse effect of alien plantation trees on functional biodiversity is not in dispute, it is at the scale of the whole landscape where there is much interest in determining how effective these ENs are in maintaining the untransformed portion of the transformed landscape in a close-to-natural state. As these ENs are extensive, species beta diversity is a consideration in addition to alpha diversity. Initial findings reveal diminished ecological integrity in narrow corridors due in part to the adverse edge effect from the alien trees into the margin of the EN. Quality of the ENs is of great importance for maintaining functional diversity, with human disturbance reducing their effectiveness. First findings, and their application to the Framework for Ecosystem Service Provision, suggest that these ENs are significant for biodiversity conservation and for provision of ecosystem services. Nevertheless, still much more research is required on a greater range of taxa, and their interactions, to improve the design of these ENs for ecological and evolutionary processes.

Summary1. Landscape-scale ecological networks (ENs) are composed of linear corridors and are widely used to mitigate the adverse effects of intensive land use. One drawback with ENs used for conservation is that being small or linear they result in more edge relative to interior than would be the case naturally. Furthermore, there is little evidence to date that ENs do conserve indigenous biodiversity. 2. Here, we use five arthropod taxa at many sites over two geographical areas within South Africa with different elevations and grassland types to test the conservation value of remnant grassland ENs in a plantation forestry context. In particular, the relative value of arthropod biodiversity in exotic plantation blocks, their edges and the interiors of ENs among the plantations were compared with those in neighbouring protected areas (PAs). We use the effects that the plantation blocks have on the adjacent PAs as a reference for comparing the ENs among the plantations. Arthropods were selected to represent biodiversity, as they are small, diverse, habitat sensitive, resource dependent, ecologically important and can be sampled in large numbers. 3. In total, 10 422 individuals from 244 species were sampled. Importantly, there were no significant differences in species richness, abundance or assemblage composition between EN interior zones and PA interior zones in both geographical areas. 4. Using earlier established edge zones of 32 m, we found that plantation blocks had the lowest species richness and abundance compared with either grassland edge zones (<32 m from the edge) or grassland interior zones ( ‡ 32 m from the edge). 5. Synthesis and applications. Ecological networks are established to conserve biodiversity in areas of intensive land use. Provided that ecological networks are wide enough (i.e. >64 m) to overcome edge effects, they can support similar levels and quality of arthropod biodiversity as protected areas. Remnant grassland ecological networks in agroforestry can provide natural finger-like extensions from neighbouring protected areas and therefore have conservation value.

Fires are natural to ecosystems in many parts of the world, yet few studies have examined multi-taxa invertebrate responses to these fires. We sampled a wide range of invertebrate taxa and feeding guilds at sites 3 months, 1 year and 3 years after fire, and in unburned control sites at the same time. A range of invertebrate sampling techniques was used on Table Mountain, in the Cape Floristic Region biodiversity hotspot, an area prone to natural and human-induced fires. Sampling time differences strongly affected the composition of the whole assemblage, with fire having a major additional influence. Assemblages showed differential resilience to fire, especially in terms of species richness and abundance. One year after fire, the burned sites had the most compositional differences for the surface-active species compared to control sites, while after 3 years, these sites were similar. Aerial assemblages were very different 3 years after burning, especially the pollination guild. Furthermore, these 3-year-old burned sites had the most unique species, suggesting that burning and longer-term recovery is important for overall diversity. Some components of the invertebrate assemblage were remarkably resilient to fire (particularly ants), while others were far more conservative (pollinators). Nevertheless, fire allows new species to enter the ecosystem and can thus be used to promote local biodiversity if used appropriately. Ants alone should not be used to represent the whole invertebrate assemblage as they do not represent the more fire-prone groups. A cross-section of functional guilds is recommended in invertebrate recovery/fire management conservation programmes. These results have general significance in that a variety of feeding guilds need to be sampled when monitoring invertebrate responses to fire.