Contrasting spatial patterns in active-fire and fire-suppressed mediterranean climate old-growth mixed conifer forests

Danny L. Fry  (2014, [Artículo])

In Mediterranean environments in western North America, historic fire regimes in frequent-fire conifer forests are highly variable both temporally and spatially. This complexity influenced forest structure and spatial patterns, but some of this diversity has been lost due to anthropogenic disruption of ecosystem processes, including fire. Information from reference forest sites can help management efforts to restore forests conditions that may be more resilient to future changes in disturbance regimes and climate. In this study, we characterize tree spatial patterns using four-ha stem maps from four old-growth, Jeffrey pine-mixed conifer forests, two with active-fire regimes in northwestern Mexico and two that experienced fire exclusion in the southern Sierra Nevada. Most of the trees were in patches, averaging six to 11 trees per patch at 0.007 to 0.014 ha-1, and occupied 27-46% of the study areas. Average canopy gap sizes (0.04 ha) covering 11-20% of the area were not significantly different among sites. The putative main effects of fire exclusion were higher densities of single trees in smaller size classes, larger proportion of trees (≥56%) in large patches (≥10 trees), and decreases in spatial complexity. While a homogenization of forest structure has been a typical result from fire exclusion, some similarities in patch, single tree, and gap attributes were maintained at these sites. These within-stand descriptions provide spatially relevant benchmarks from which to manage for structural heterogeneity in frequent-fire forest types.

article, climate, controlled study, ecosystem fire history, forest structure, geographic distribution, geographic mapping, land use, mathematical computing, mathematical model, Mexico, spatial analysis, taiga, United States, comparative study, conife CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA

Dipole-wind interactions under gap wind jet conditions in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, Mexico: A surface drifter and satellite database analysis

MAURO WILFRIDO SANTIAGO GARCIA (2019, [Artículo])

Gap wind jets (Tehuano winds) trigger supersquirts of colder water and mesoscale asymmetric dipoles in the Gulf of Tehuantepec (GT). However, the effects of successive gap wind jets on dipoles and their effects inside eddies have not yet been studied. Based on the wind fields, geostrophic currents, and surface drifter dispersion, this research documented three dipoles triggered and modified by Tehuano winds. Once a dipole develops, successive gap wind jets strengthen the vortices, and the anticyclonic eddy migrates southwestward while the cyclonic eddy is maintained on the east side of the GT. During the wind relaxation stage, the cyclonic eddy may propagate westward, but due to the subsequent re-intensification of the Tehuano winds, the vortex could break down, as was suggested by surface drifter dispersion pattern and geostrophic field data. The effect of the Tehuano winds was evaluating via eddy-Ekman pumping. Under Tehuano wind conditions, Ekman downwelling (upwelling) inside the anticyclonic (cyclonic) eddies may reach ~ -2.0 (0.5) m d-1 and decrease as the wind weakens. In the absence of Tehuano winds, Ekman downwelling inside the anticyclonic eddy was ~ 0.1 (-0.1) m d-1. The asymmetry of downwelling and upwelling inside eddies during Tehuano wind events may be associated with Tehuano wind forcing. © 2019 Santiago-García et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

article, dipole, leisure, Mexico, cold, ecosystem, factual database, geographic mapping, hurricane, Mexico, satellite imagery, season, water flow, wind, sea water, Cold Temperature, Cyclonic Storms, Databases, Factual, Ecosystem, Geographic Mapping, CIENCIAS FÍSICO MATEMÁTICAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA Y DEL ESPACIO OCEANOGRAFÍA OCEANOGRAFÍA

Assessing the Response of Nematode Communities to Climate Change-Driven Warming: A Microcosm Experiment

RUTH GINGOLD WERMUTH (2013, [Artículo])

Biodiversity has diminished over the past decades with climate change being among the main responsible factors. One consequence of climate change is the increase in sea surface temperature, which, together with long exposure periods in intertidal areas, may exceed the tolerance level of benthic organisms. Benthic communities may suffer structural changes due to the loss of species or functional groups, putting ecological services at risk. In sandy beaches, free-living marine nematodes usually are the most abundant and diverse group of intertidal meiofauna, playing an important role in the benthic food web. While apparently many functionally similar nematode species co-exist temporally and spatially, experimental results on selected bacterivore species suggest no functional overlap, but rather an idiosyncratic contribution to ecosystem functioning. However, we hypothesize that functional redundancy is more likely to observe when taking into account the entire diversity of natural assemblages. We conducted a microcosm experiment with two natural communities to assess their stress response to elevated temperature. The two communities differed in diversity (high [HD] vs. low [LD]) and environmental origin (harsh vs. moderate conditions). We assessed their stress resistance to the experimental treatment in terms of species and diversity changes, and their function in terms of abundance, biomass, and trophic diversity. According to the Insurance Hypothesis, we hypothesized that the HD community would cope better with the stressful treatment due to species functional overlap, whereas the LD community functioning would benefit from species better adapted to harsh conditions. Our results indicate no evidence of functional redundancy in the studied nematofaunal communities. The species loss was more prominent and size specific in the HD; large predators and omnivores were lost, which may have important consequences for the benthic food web. Yet, we found evidence for alternative diversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, such as the Rivets and the Idiosyncrasy Model. © 2013 Gingold et al.

aquaculture, article, bacterivore, benthos, biodiversity, biomass, climate, community dynamics, controlled study, ecosystem, environmental temperature, microcosm, nematode, nonhuman, population abundance, species diversity, species richness, taxonomy CIENCIAS FÍSICO MATEMÁTICAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA Y DEL ESPACIO OCEANOGRAFÍA OCEANOGRAFÍA

Genetic analysis of Vibrio parahaemolyticus O3:K6 strains that have been isolated in Mexico since 1998

CARLOS ABRAHAM GUERRERO RUIZ (2017, [Artículo])

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is an important human pathogen that has been isolated worldwide from clinical cases, most of which have been associated with seafood consumption. Environmental and clinical toxigenic strains of V. parahaemolyticus that were isolated in Mexico from 1998 to 2012, including those from the only outbreak that has been reported in this country, were characterized genetically to assess the presence of the O3:K6 pandemic clone, and their genetic relationship to strains that are related to the pandemic clonal complex (CC3). Pathogenic tdh+ and tdh+/trh+ strains were analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Also, the entire genome of a Mexican O3:K6 strain was sequenced. Most of the strains were tdh/ORF8-positive and corresponded to the O3:K6 serotype. By PFGE and MLST, there was very close genetic relationship between ORF8/O3:K6 strains, and very high genetic diversities from non-pandemic strains. The genetic relationship is very close among O3:K6 strains that were isolated in Mexico and sequences that were available for strains in the CC3, based on the PubMLST database. The whole-genome sequence of CICESE-170 strain had high similarity with that of the reference RIMD 2210633 strain, and harbored 7 pathogenicity islands, including the 4 that denote O3:K6 pandemic strains. These results indicate that pandemic strains that have been isolated in Mexico show very close genetic relationship among them and with those isolated worldwide. © 2017 Guerrero et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Article, bacterial strain, biofouling, controlled study, Crassostrea, food intake, gene sequence, genetic analysis, genetic variability, Japan, Mexican, Mexico, molecular phylogeny, nonhuman, pandemic, pathogenicity island, sea food, serotyping, toxi BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA GENÉTICA GENÉTICA

Whole-genome comparison between reference sequences and oyster Vibrio vulnificus C-genotype strains

CARLOS ABRAHAM GUERRERO RUIZ (2019, [Artículo])

Whole-genome sequences of Vibrio vulnificus clinical genotype (C-genotype) from the CICESE Culture Collection, isolated from oysters, were compared with reference sequences of CMCP6 and YJ016 V. vulnificus C-genotype strains of clinical origin. The RAST web server estimated the whole genome to be ~4.8 Mb in CICESE strain 316 and ~4.7 Mb in CICESE strain 325. No plasmids were detected in the CICESE strains. Based on a phylogenetic tree that was constructed with the whole-genome results, we observed high similarity between the reference sequences and oyster C-genotype isolates and a sharp contrast with environmental genotype (E-genotype) reference sequences, indicating that the differences between the C- and E-genotypes do not necessarily correspond to their isolation origin. The CICESE strains share 3488 genes (63.2%) with the YJ016 strain and 3500 genes (63.9%) with the CMCP6 strain. A total of 237 pathogenicity associated genes were selected from reference clinical strains, where—92 genes were from CMCP6, 126 genes from YJ016, and 19 from MO6-24/ O; the presence or absence of these genes was recorded for the CICESE strains. Of the 92 genes that were selected for CMCP6, 67 were present in both CICESE strains, as were as 86 of the 126 YJ016 genes and 13 of the 19 MO6-24/O genes. The detection of elements that are related to virulence in CICESE strains—such as the RTX gene cluster, vvhA and vvpE, the type IV pili cluster, the XII genomic island, and the viuB genes, suggests that environmental isolates with the C-genotype, have significant potential for infection. © 2019 Guerrero et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Article, bacterial gene, bacterial strain, bacterial virulence, comparative study, controlled study, gene cluster, gene identification, genomic island, genotype, nonhuman, phylogenetic tree, sequence analysis, strain identification, Vibrio vulnificus BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA GENÉTICA GENÉTICA

The Pacific harbor seal gut microbiota in Mexico: Its relationship with diet and functional inferences

ARLETTE MARIMAR PACHECO SANDOVAL (2019, [Artículo])

Diet is a primary driver of the composition of gut microbiota and is considered one of the main routes of microbial colonization. Prey identification is fundamental for correlating the diet with the presence of particular microbial groups. The present study examined how diet influenced the composition and function of the gut microbiota of the Pacific harbor seal (Phoca vitulina richardii) in order to better understand the role of prey consumption in shaping its microbiota. This species is a good indicator of the quality of the local environment due to both its foraging and haul-out site fidelity. DNA was extracted from 20 fecal samples collected from five harbor seal colonies located in Baja California, Mexico. The V4 region of 16S rRNA gene was amplified and sequenced using the Illumina technology. Results showed that the gut microbiota of the harbor seals was dominated by the phyla Firmicutes (37%), Bacteroidetes (26%) and Fusobacteria (26%) and revealed significant differences in its composition among the colonies. Funtional analysis using the PICRUSt software suggests a high number of pathways involved in the basal metabolism, such as those for carbohydrates (22%) and amino acids (20%), and those related to the degradation of persistent environmental pollutants. In addition, a DNA metabarcoding analysis of the same samples, via the amplification and sequencing of the mtRNA 16S and rRNA 18S genes, was used to identify the prey consumed by harbor seals revealing the consumption of prey with mainly demersal habits. Functional redundancy in the seal gut microbiota was observed, irrespective of diet or location. Our results indicate that the frequency of occurrence of specific prey in the harbor seal diet plays an important role in shaping the composition of the gut microbiota of harbor seals by influencing the relative abundance of specific groups of gut microorganisms. A significant relationship was found among diet, gut microbiota composition and OTUs assigned to a particular metabolic pathway. © 2019 Pacheco-Sandoval et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

RNA 16S, RNA 18S, amino acid analysis, animal food, Article, bacterium colony, Bacteroidetes, basal metabolic rate, biodegradation, controlled study, DNA barcoding, feces analysis, Firmicutes, Fusobacteria, intestine flora, metabolism, Mexico, microb BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA BIOLOGÍA ANIMAL (ZOOLOGÍA) BIOLOGÍA ANIMAL (ZOOLOGÍA)

Phylogenetic relationships of Pseudo-nitzschia subpacifica (Bacillariophyceae) from the Mexican Pacific, and its production of domoic acid in culture

Sonia Quijano (2020, [Artículo])

Pseudo-nitzschia is a cosmopolitan genus, some species of which can produce domoic acid (DA), a neurotoxin responsible for the Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP). In this study, we identified P. subpacifica for the first time in Todos Santos Bay and Manzanillo Bay, in the Mexican Pacific using SEM and molecular methods. Isolates from Todos Santos Bay were cultivated under conditions of phosphate sufficiency and deficiency at 16°C and 22°C to evaluate the production of DA. This toxin was detected in the particulate (DAp) and dissolved (DAd) fractions of the cultures during the exponential and stationary phases of growth of the cultures. The highest DA concentration was detected during the exponential phase grown in cells maintained in P-deficient medium at 16°C (1.14 ± 0.08 ng mL-1 DAd and 4.71 ± 1.11 × 10−5 ng cell-1 of DAp). In P-sufficient cultures DA was higher in cells maintained at 16°C (0.25 ± 0.05 ng mL-1 DAd and 9.41 ± 1.23 × 10−7 ng cell-1 of DAp) than in cells cultured at 22°C. Therefore, we confirm that P. subpacifica can produce DA, especially under P-limited conditions that could be associated with extraordinary oceanographic events such as the 2013–2016 "Blob" in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. This event altered local oceanographic conditions and possibly generated the presence of potential harmful species in areas with economic importance on the Mexican Pacific coast. © 2020 Quijano-Scheggia et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

domoic acid, domoic acid, kainic acid, Article, cell growth, controlled study, diatom, Mexico, morphology, nonhuman, Pacific Ocean, phylogeny, plant cell, plant growth, Pseudo nitzschia, toxin analysis, cell culture technique, classification, diatom, CIENCIAS FÍSICO MATEMÁTICAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA Y DEL ESPACIO OCEANOGRAFÍA OCEANOGRAFÍA

Maintenance of Coastal Surface Blooms by Surface Temperature Stratification and Wind Drift

MARY CARMEN RUIZ DE LA TORRE (2013, [Artículo])

Algae blooms are an increasingly recurrent phenomenon of potentially socio-economic impact in coastal waters globally and in the coastal upwelling region off northern Baja California, Mexico. In coastal upwelling areas the diurnal wind pattern is directed towards the coast during the day. We regularly found positive Near Surface Temperature Stratification (NSTS), the resulting density stratification is expected to reduce the frictional coupling of the surface layer from deeper waters and allow for its more efficient wind transport. We propose that the net transport of the top layer of approximately 2.7 kilometers per day towards the coast helps maintain surface blooms of slow growing dinoflagellate such as Lingulodinium polyedrum. We measured: near surface stratification with a free-rising CTD profiler, trajectories of drifter buoys with attached thermographs, wind speed and direction, velocity profiles via an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, Chlorophyll and cell concentration from water samples and vertical migration using sediment traps. The ADCP and drifter data agree and show noticeable current shear within the first meters of the surface where temperature stratification and high cell densities of L. polyedrum were found during the day. Drifters with 1m depth drogue moved towards the shore, whereas drifters at 3 and 5 m depth showed trajectories parallel or away from shore. A small part of the surface population migrated down to the sea floor during night thus reducing horizontal dispersion. The persistent transport of the surface bloom population towards shore should help maintain the bloom in favorable environmental conditions with high nutrients, but also increasing the potential socioeconomic impact of the blooms. The coast wise transport is not limited to blooms but includes all dissolved and particulate constituents in surface waters. © 2013 Ruiz-de la Torre et al.

chlorophyll, algal bloom, article, cell count, cell density, coastal waters, controlled study, dinoflagellate, Lingulodinium polyedrum, meteorological phenomena, Mexico, near surface temperature stratification, nonhuman, nutrient concentration, popul CIENCIAS FÍSICO MATEMÁTICAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA Y DEL ESPACIO OCEANOGRAFÍA OCEANOGRAFÍA

A simple extension to the CMASA method for the prediction of catalytic residues in the presence of single point mutations

David Israel Flores Granados (2014, [Artículo])

The automatic identification of catalytic residues still remains an important challenge in structural bioinformatics. Sequence-based methods are good alternatives when the query shares a high percentage of identity with a well-annotated enzyme. However, when the homology is not apparent, which occurs with many structures from the structural genome initiative, structural information should be exploited. A local structural comparison is preferred to a global structural comparison when predicting functional residues. CMASA is a recently proposed method for predicting catalytic residues based on a local structure comparison. The method achieves high accuracy and a high value for the Matthews correlation coefficient. However, point substitutions or a lack of relevant data strongly affect the performance of the method. In the present study, we propose a simple extension to the CMASA method to overcome this difficulty. Extensive computational experiments are shown as proof of concept instances, as well as for a few real cases. The results show that the extension performs well when the catalytic site contains mutated residues or when some residues are missing. The proposed modification could correctly predict the catalytic residues of a mutant thymidylate synthase, 1EVF. It also successfully predicted the catalytic residues for 3HRC despite the lack of information for a relevant side chain atom in the PDB file. © 2014 Flores et al.

1UU9 protein, 3HRC protein, protein, thymidylate synthase, unclassified drug, protein kinase, thymidylate synthase, accuracy, algorithm, Article, CMASA, CMASA Substitution Matrix, Contact Matrix Average Deviation, controlled study, correlation coeffi CIENCIAS FÍSICO MATEMÁTICAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA MATEMÁTICAS ANÁLISIS NUMÉRICO ANÁLISIS NUMÉRICO

Comparative live-cell imaging analyses of SPA-2, BUD-6 and BNI-1 in Neurospora crassa reveal novel features of the filamentous fungal polarisome

Alexander Lichius (2012, [Artículo])

A key multiprotein complex involved in regulating the actin cytoskeleton and secretory machinery required for polarized growth in fungi, is the polarisome. Recognized core constituents in budding yeast are the proteins Spa2, Pea2, Aip3/Bud6, and the key effector Bni1. Multicellular fungi display a more complex polarized morphogenesis than yeasts, suggesting that the filamentous fungal polarisome might fulfill additional functions. In this study, we compared the subcellular organization and dynamics of the putative polarisome components BUD-6 and BNI-1 with those of the bona fide polarisome marker SPA-2 at various developmental stages of Neurospora crassa. All three proteins exhibited a yeast-like polarisome configuration during polarized germ tube growth, cell fusion, septal pore plugging and tip repolarization. However, the localization patterns of all three proteins showed spatiotemporally distinct characteristics during the establishment of new polar axes, septum formation and cytokinesis, and maintained hyphal tip growth. Most notably, in vegetative hyphal tips BUD-6 accumulated as a subapical cloud excluded from the Spitzenkörper (Spk), whereas BNI-1 and SPA-2 partially colocalized with the Spk and the tip apex. Novel roles during septal plugging and cytokinesis, connected to the reinitiation of tip growth upon physical injury and conidial maturation, were identified for BUD-6 and BNI-1, respectively. Phenotypic analyses of gene deletion mutants revealed additional functions for BUD-6 and BNI-1 in cell fusion regulation, and the maintenance of Spk integrity. Considered together, our findings reveal novel polarisome-independent functions of BUD-6 and BNI-1 in Neurospora, but also suggest that all three proteins cooperate at plugged septal pores, and their complex arrangement within the apical dome of mature hypha might represent a novel aspect of filamentous fungal polarisome architecture. © 2012 Lichius et al.

fungal protein, protein BNI 1, protein BUD 6, protein SPA 2, protein Spk, unclassified drug, actin binding protein, cytoskeleton protein, fungal protein, article, cell fusion, cellular distribution, comparative study, conidium, controlled study, cyto BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA MICROBIOLOGÍA MICROBIOLOGÍA