Philippa Kaur

NEWS AND VIEWS
23 June 2021

Migratory birds aid the redistribution of plants to new climates

Birds that travel long distances can disperse seeds far and wide. An assessment of the timing and direction of European bird migration reveals how these patterns might affect seed dispersal as the planet warms.

Barnabas H. Daru

 ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2115-0257

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Barnabas H. Daru

Barnabas H. Daru is in the Department of Life Sciences, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, Texas 78412, USA.

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The rapid pace of global warming and its effects on habitats raise the question of whether species are able to keep up so that they remain in suitable living conditions. Some animals can move fast to adjust to a swiftly changing climate. Plants, being less mobile, rely on means such as seed dispersal by animals, wind or water to move to new areas, but this redistribution typically occurs within one kilometre of the original plant1. Writing in Nature, González-Varo et al.2 shed light on the potential capacity of migratory birds to aid seed dispersal.When the climate in a plant’s usual range becomes hotter than it can tolerate, it must colonize new, cooler areas that might lie many kilometres away. It is not fully clear how plants distribute their seeds across great distances, let alone how they cross geographical barriers. One explanation for long-distance seed dispersal is through transport by migratory birds. Such birds ingest viable seeds when eating fruit (Fig. 1) and can move them tens or hundreds of kilometres outside the range of a plant species3. In this mode of dispersal, the seeds pass through the bird’s digestive tract unharmed4,5 and are deposited in faeces, which provides fertilizer that aids plant growth. In the case of European migratory birds, for example, the direction of seed dispersal will depend on whether the timing of fruit production coincides with a bird’s southward trip to warmer regions around the Equator, or northward to cooler regions. Many aspects of this process have been a mystery until now.

Figure 1 | A young blackcap bird (Sylvia atricapilla) eating elderberries.Credit: Getty

González-Varo and colleagues report how plants might be able to keep pace with rapid climate change through the help of migrating birds. The authors analysed the fruiting times of plants, patterns of bird migration and the interactions between fruit-eating birds and fleshy-fruited plants across Europe. Plants with fleshy fruits were chosen for this study because most of their seed transport is by migratory birds6, and because fleshy-fruited plants are an important component of the woody-plant community in Europe. The common approach until now has been to predict plant dispersal and colonization using models fitted to abiotic factors, such as the current climate. González-Varo et al. instead analysed an impressive data set of 949 different seed-dispersal interactions between bird and plant communities, together with data on entire fruiting times and migratory patterns of birds across Europe. The researchers also analysed DNA traces from bird faeces to identify the plants and birds responsible for seed dispersal.
Read the paper: Limited potential for bird migration to disperse plants to cooler latitudes
The authors hypothesized that the direction of seed migration depends on how the plants interact with migratory birds, the frequency of these interactions or the number of bird species that might transport seeds from each plant species. González-Varo and colleagues found that 86% of plant species studied might have seeds dispersed by birds during their southward trip towards drier and hotter equatorial regions in autumn, whereas only about one-third of the plant species might be dispersed by birds migrating north in spring. This dispersal trend was more pronounced in temperate plants than in the Mediterranean plant communities examined. These results are in general agreement with well-known patterns of fruiting times and bird migrations. For example, the fruit of most fleshy-fruited plants in Europe ripens at a time that coincides with when birds migrate south towards the Equator7.Perhaps the most striking feature of these inferred seed movements is the observation that 35% of plant species across European communities, which are closely related on the evolutionary tree (phylogenetically related), might benefit from long-distance dispersal by the northward journey of migratory birds. This particular subset of plants tends to fruit over a long period of time, or has fruits that persist over the winter. This means that the ability of plants to keep up with climate change could be shaped by their evolutionary history — implying that future plant communities in the Northern Hemisphere will probably come from plant species that are phylogenetically closely related and that have migrated from the south. Or, to put it another way, the overwhelming majority of plant species that are dispersed south towards drier and hotter regions at the Equator will probably be less able to keep pace with rapid climate change in their new locations than will the few ‘winners’ that are instead dispersed north to cooler climates. This has implications for understanding how plants will respond to climate change, and for assessing ecosystem functions and community assembly at higher levels of the food chain. However, for seeds of a given plant species, more evidence is needed to assess whether passing through the guts of birds affects germination success.To determine which birds might be responsible for the plant redistributions to cooler climates in the north, the authors categorized European bird migrants into Palaearctic (those that fly to southern Europe and northern Africa during their non-breeding season) and Afro-Palaearctic (those that winter in sub-Saharan Africa). Only a few common Palaearctic migrants, such as the blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla; Fig. 1) or blackbird (Turdus merula), provide most of this crucial dispersal service northwards to cooler regions across Europe. Because migratory birds are able to relocate a small, non-random subset of plants, this could well have a strong influence on the types of plant community that will form under climate-change conditions.
A bird’s migration decoded
A major problem, however, is that the role of these birds in dispersing seeds over long distances is already at risk from human pressures and environmental changes8. Understanding these large-scale seed-dispersal interactions offers a way for targeted conservation actions to protect the areas that are most vulnerable to climate change. This could include boosting protection efforts in and around the wintering grounds of migratory birds — locations that are already experiencing a rise in human pressures, such as illegal bird hunting.González-Varo and colleagues’ focus on seed dispersal across a Northern Hemisphere region means that, as with most ecological analyses, the results are dependent on scale, which can cause issues when interpreting data9. Because the Northern Hemisphere has more land area and steeper seasonal temperature gradients than the Southern Hemisphere does, seed-dispersal interactions might have different patterns from those occurring in the Southern Hemisphere or in aquatic systems.For example, seed-eating birds from the genus Quelea migrate from the Southern Hemisphere to spend the dry season in equatorial West Africa, then move southwards again when the rains arrive. Their arrival in southern Africa usually coincides with the end of the wet season in this region, when annual grass seeds are in abundance. It will be worth investigating whether migratory birds in the Southern Hemisphere also influence the redistribution of plant communities during global warming. Likewise, exploring the long-distance dispersal of seeds of aquatic plants, such as seagrasses10 by water birds, is another area for future research that might benefit from González-Varo and colleagues’ methods.This study provides a great example of how migratory birds might assist plant redistribution to new locations that would normally be difficult for them to reach on their own, and which might offer a suitable climate. As the planet warms, understanding how such biological mechanisms reorganize plant communities complements the information available from climate-projection models, which offer predictions of future species distributions.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01547-1

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CORRESPONDENCE
22 June 2021

Ancient oaks of Europe are archives — protect them

Christian Sonne

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Changlei Xia

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Su Shiung Lam

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Christian Sonne

Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark.

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Changlei Xia

Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China.

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Su Shiung Lam

University Malaysia Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia.

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Kongeegen, the King Oak, in Denmark could be up to 2,000 years old.Credit: Andreas Altenburger/Alamy

Some of the oldest trees in Europe are in danger because they are not being given the necessary level of protection. Oak trees (Quercus robur) that are more than 1,000 years old are found in the United Kingdom and in Fennoscandia, which includes Denmark, Sweden and Norway.For example, Denmark’s King Oak (pictured) is one of the world’s oldest living trees, dating to around 1,900 years of age. The United Kingdom has the largest collection of ancient oaks, reflecting 1,500 years of ship-building.The trees contain rings that represent archives of historical climate fluctuations and levels of atmospheric gases, so they can help to answer pressing questions about climate change and ecosystem dynamics (P. M. Kelly et al. Nature 340, 57–60; 1989).Fennoscandia and the United Kingdom could better safeguard their oaks using mechanisms such as those offered by the European Union’s Natura 2000 network of protected areas, or the protections conferred by UNESCO World Heritage sites in the United Kingdom. Otherwise, unsustainable management practices, deforestation, air pollution and climate change could leave these ancient species vulnerable to disease and extinction, with the loss of irreplaceable scientific information and cultural heritage.

Nature 594, 495 (2021)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01699-0

Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests.

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Field location and soil samplingThe soil used in this experiment was collected from an agricultural field cultivated with maize at the “Instituto Tecnológico Superior del Oriente del Estado de Hidalgo” (ITESA) located in Apan, State of Hidalgo, Mexico (19° 73′ N, 98° 46′ W). The 0–20 cm top soil layer of three 400 m2 plots was sampled 20 times. The soil from each plot was pooled separately so that three soil samples (n = 3) were obtained. This field based replication was maintained in the greenhouse experiment so as to avoid pseudo-replication. The soil samples were passed separately through a 5 mm sieve and characterized.The soil is classified as a Phaeozem according to “World Reference Soil (WRS) system”, with pH 6.6, electrolytic conductivity (EC) 0.22 dS m−1 and water holding capacity (WHC) 515 g kg−1. The sandy clay loam soil with clay content 240 g kg−1, sand content 530 g kg−1 and silt content 230 g kg−1, had an ammonium content 8.16 mg kg−1 dry soil, nitrate 1.91 mg kg−1 dry soil and nitrite 0.01 mg kg−1 dry soil. The maize seeds were the hybrid variety 215 W obtained from Eagle® Sinaloa (Mexico).Characteristics of the biofertilizerAlthough a biofertilizer can be described in different ways we use the definition as given by38. Vessey defined (2003) a biofertilizer as “a substance which contains living micro-organisms which, when applied to seeds, plant surfaces, or soil, colonize the rhizosphere or the interior of the plant and promotes growth by increasing the supply or availability of primary nutrients to the host plant”. As the consortium used in this study fits the definition of a biofertilizer as given by Vessey38 we will refer to the consortium as the biofertilizer or when sterilized to the sterilized biofertilizer throughout the manuscript.The “biofertilizer” used in this study was a mixture of bacteria and leachate from compost of cow manure and was obtained from a local farmer in Hidalgo (Mexico) and characterized chemically and microbiologically. The cow manure was composted on a cement floor with a small inclination so that leachate could be collected easily. The farmer adds the leachate to the mixture of the bacteria to guarantee their survival and as an additional plant nutrient source. The farmer applies this solution regularly to fertilize his fields cultivated with maize. A same application protocol and procedure was used in this study to mimic the field experiment. Half of the biofertilizer obtained from the local farmer was sterilized by autoclaving at 121 °C for 20 min on three consecutive days so as to determine the effect of the microorganisms in the biofertilizer on the maize plants and the bacterial community structure, and the effect of the nutrients added with the biofertilizer.Experimental design and a greenhouse experimentThe research was done in a greenhouse at Cinvestav-Zacatenco situated to the north of Mexico City (Mexico). The experiment used a completely randomized block design with six treatments. The treatments combined as a first factor soil cultivated with maize or left uncultivated. A second factor included soil amended with the biofertilizer, sterilized biofertilizer or not fertilized. The daily temperature in the greenhouse ranged from 15 °C as minimum and reached a maximum 35 °C from April to August of 2017.As the experimental protocol was complex, a diagram of the different treatments and sampling is given in Supplementary Fig. S11 online. A total of 162 PVC columns with diameter 17 cm and height 60 cm were used in the experiment. Each pot was filled at the bottom with 0.5 kg tezontle, a highly porous volcanic rock, and 10 kg soil was added on top. The 162 columns included 6 treatments (uncultivated unamended soil, uncultivated soil amended with biofertilizer, uncultivated soil amended with sterile biofertilizer, maize cultivated unamended soil, maize cultivated soil amended with biofertilizer, maize cultivated soil amended with sterile biofertilizer; n = 6), 3 sampling times (day 44, day 89 and day 130; n = 3), three different soil samples (n = 3), with three columns planted with a maize plant per soil sample (n = 3). Three columns of each soil sample were planted with a maize plant to account for plants that might die so that at least one mature plant was obtained per treatment, sampling time and soil sample. The soil in the 162 PVC columns was adjusted to 40% WHC with distilled water and conditioned in the greenhouse for a week. Additionally, three PVC columns were filled with soil from each soil sample (n = 3), adjusted to 40% WHC with distilled water and conditioned for a week. These three soil samples were used to extract DNA as described below and defined the bacterial community at the onset of the experiment, i.e. time 0.Maize seeds variety 215 W Eagle hybrid seeds® were obtained from the farmer that provided us with the biofertilizer. Three washed maize seeds were planted at 3 cm depth in 81 columns, while the remaining columns were left uncultivated. Seven days after emergence, the most vigorous plantlet was kept and the other two discarded. After 44 days, the biofertilizer or the sterilized biofertilizer was diluted with water and applied with an atomizer (10 ml m−2 or similar to 100 l applied ha−1 by the farmer) so that it was added as fine spray evenly on soil of each pot when the seeds were planted. A similar volume of water was applied in the same way to the unfertilized treatment. Five more applications of the biofertilizer, sterilized biofertilizer or water by aspersion were done during the cultivation of the maize plants. As such, the uncultivated or maize plant cultivated soil was applied with the biofertilizer, sterile biofertilizer or water on 13th April, 28th May, 5th June, 13th July, 2nd August and 12th August 2017.Soil and plant samplingAfter 44 (27th May 2017), 89 (11th July 2017) and 130 days (21st August 2017), three columns from each treatment (n = 6) and soil sample (n = 3) were selected at random. Soil was removed from each column. The cultivated and uncultivated soil was sampled, characterized, and extracted for DNA as described below. The non-rhizosphere soil was separated from the rhizosphere soil by shaken the plants gently. The soil adhered to the roots was considered the rhizosphere soil. A 20 g sub-sample of the uncultivated, non-rhizosphere and rhizosphere soil was stored at − 20 °C pending extraction of DNA, while the pH and mineral N was determined in the remaining soil. Roots and shoots were separated, weighted and their length measured. The roots and shoots were dried in an oven at 60 °C for 24 h and weighed.Soil physicochemical characterizationThe moisture content of the soil was determined by weight loss after samples were dried at 60 °C in an oven for 24 h. The WHC was determined by saturating 50 g dry soil with distilled water, left to drain overnight and measuring the amount of water retained. The EC was measured in a soil paste (200 g soil/110 ml distilled H2O) with an HI 2300 microprocessor (HANNA Instruments, Woonsocket, RI, USA), while the particle size distribution was determined with the hydrometer method as described by Gee and Bauder39. The pH was determined in a 10 g soil–25 ml distilled water mixture with a calibrated pH meter (Denver Instrument, Bohemia, NY, USA) fitted with a glass electrode (3007281 pH/ATC Termofisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA).Mineral nitrogen (NO3−, NO2− and NH4+) was measured in the soil and biofertilizer. A 20 g soil sub-sample was extracted with 100 ml 0.5 M K2SO4 and filtered through Whatman filter paper® while mineral N was measured with a SKALAR automatic analyser system (Breda, the Netherlands)40. A 20 g biofertilizer sub-sample was mixed with 80 ml 0.5 M K2SO4, filtered through Whatman filter paper® and mineral N measured as described previously.DNA extraction and PCR amplificationA 5 ml sub-sample of the sterilized and unsterilized biofertilizer was centrifuged at 3500 rpm for 15 min and the supernatant removed. A 0.5 g sub-sample of soil was washed with 10 ml 0.15 mol l−1 sodium pyrophosphate to eliminate the humic and fulvic acids, centrifuged at 3500 rpm for 15 min and this process was repeated until the supernatant was clear41. The excess pyrophosphate was eliminated with 10 ml 0.15 mol l−1 phosphate buffer pH 8. Three different methods were used to extract DNA from the soil and the sterilized and unsterilized biofertilizer samples. The first technique was based on the method described by Green and Sambrook42. In the second method, cells were lysed with two lysis solutions and a thermal shock as described by Valenzuela-Encinas et al.43. The third method consisted of a mechanical disruption and detergent solution for cell lysis44. Each method was used to extract three times 0.5 g soil or 5 ml sterilized and unsterilized biofertilizer (a total of 1.5 g soil or 15 ml sterilized and unsterilized biofertilizer). The extracts from the soil and sterile or unsterilized biofertilizer were pooled separately.The 16S rRNA gene (V3–V4 region of bacteria) was amplified using the primers 341F (5′-CCTACGGGNGGCWGCAG-3′) and 805R (5′-ACHVGGGTATCTAATCC-3′45. The PCR conditions were 94 °C for 5 min, followed by 25 cycles of 60 s at 94 °C, 45 s at 53 °C, and 60 s at 72 °C, with a final extension of 10 min at 72 °C. The PCR was repeated three times for each sample. After PCR amplification, the obtained products were cleaned using the FastGen Gel/PCR extraction Kit (Nippon Genetics Duren, Germany) and quantified using a Nanodrop 3300 fluorospectrometer (TermoFisher, Wilmington, DE, USA) with PicoGreen dsDNA. The samples were mixed in equimolar amounts and sequenced using MiSeq 300-pb paired-end runs (Illumina, CA, USA) at Macrogen Inc. (Seoul, Korea).16S rDNA sequences analysisThe raw sequences were analysed with “Quantitative insights into microbial ecology pipeline” (QIIME) software (version 1.9.1)46. The barcode reads were demultiplexing removed from the sequences using the script extract_barcodes.py. The chimeric sequences were identified using “identify_chimeric_seqs.py” with the usearch61 method and removed47. The taxonomic assignment was done using the Ribosomal Data Project (rdp)48, against the Greengenes 16S rRNA database with a 0.8 confidence49. The sequences were clustered as operational taxonomic units (OTU) at 97% similarity level with the UCLUST algorithm47. Sequences were aligned against the Greengenes reference database using PyNAST version 1.2.250. The obtained 16S dataset was filtered, all OTUs assigned to Archaea were discarded and the dataset normalized. Alpha diversity indices (Chao1, Shannon and Simpson) were calculated from 478000 rarefied sequences with QIIME.Statistical analysisAll statistical analyses were done in R (R 4.0.2 GUI 1.72 Catalina build51). The characteristics of the maize plants (n = 3) obtained per plot (n = 3) were averaged and the sequences obtained from the replicate rhizosphere or non-rhizosphere soil were summed (n = 3) per plot before the statistical analysis. A non-parametric test was used to determine the effect of biofertilizer application and time on the plant and soil characteristics with the non-parametric t1way test of the WRS2 package (A collection of robust statistical methods)52. A non-parametric test was used to determine the effect of biofertilizer application or cultivation of maize on the bacterial alpha diversity with the non-parametric t1way test of the WRS2 package52. Heatmaps of the relative abundances of the bacterial groups were constructed with the pheatmap package53. Ordination [principal component analysis (PCA)], multivariate comparison (perMANOVA) and differential abundance (ALDEx2) was done with converted sequence data using the centred log-ratio transform test returned by the aldex.clr argument (ALDEx2 package54). The PCA was done with the vegan package55. Effect of biofertilizer application and cultivation of maize on the bacterial groups was determined using a compositional approach, i.e. analysis of differential abundance taking sample variation into account (aldex.kw argument, ALDEx2 package). A permutational multivariate analysis of variance (perMANOVA) analysis was also done with sequence counts converted using the centred log-ratio transform, i.e. aldex.clr argument (ALDEx2 package (aldex.clr(counts, mc.samples = 128, denom = ”all”, verbose = FALSE, useMC = FALSE)). The adonis2 argument (Vegan package) was used for the perMANOVA analysis to test the effect of cultivation of maize, time and its interaction, biofertilizer application, time and their interaction, and cultivation of maize, biofertilizer application and their interaction on the bacterial community structure (#adonis2(clrcounts ~ maize*biofertilizer, data = code, permutations = 999, method = ”euclidean”). Raw counts were used as input and Monte Carlo Dirichlet instances of the clr transformation values were generated with the function ‘aldex.clr’ of ALDEx2 (v.1.23.2) R package54. Distance pairwise matrices were calculated using the Aitchison distance and the principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) was calculated on the distance matrices with vegan R package55.Informed consentPermission was obtained from the farmer to use the maize seeds he provided.Ethical approvalThe experiment in the greenhouse complied with and was conducted as stipulated by national regulations. More

The Mara Hyena ProjectThis study uses data and samples from the Mara Hyena Project (approved by MSU IACUC and KWS), a long-term field study of individually known spotted hyenas that have been observed since May 1979. Study hyenas are monitored daily and behavioral, demographic, and ecological data are systematically collected and entered into a database. Here, we used data from four different hyena groups, called clans, as well as historic information about ecological conditions in the Masai Mara National Reserve. We maintained detailed records on the demographics of our study population, including sex, age, and the dates of key life-history milestones such as birth, weaning, dispersal and death. In the ensuing sections, we describe data collection and data processing procedures for assessment of T. gondii infection diagnosis, quantification of demographic and ecological determinants of infection status, and assessment of behavioral (boldness) and fitness (cause of mortality) characteristics hypothesized to be a consequence of positive T. gondii infection. The present analysis includes 168 hyenas, but specific subsamples vary depending on the particular hypothesis being tested.Biospecimen collection and assessment of Toxoplasma gondii exposureAs part of our long-term data collection, we routinely darted study animals in order to collect biological samples and morphological measurements. Of special relevance to this study is our blood collection procedure. We immobilized hyenas using 6.5 mg/kg of tiletamine-zolazepam (Telazol ®) in a pressurized dart fired from a CO2 powered rifle. We then drew blood from the jugular vein into sodium heparin-coated vacuum tubes. After the hyena was secured in a safe place to recover from the anesthesia, we took the samples back to camp where a portion of the collected blood was spun in a centrifuge at 1000 × g for 10 min to separate red and white blood cells from plasma. Plasma was aliquoted into multiple cryogenic vials. Immediately, the blood derivatives, including plasma, were flash frozen in liquid nitrogen where they remained until they were transported on dry ice to a −80 °C freezer in the U.S. All samples remained frozen until time of laboratory analysis for the T. gondii assays.Using archived plasma, we diagnosed individual hyenas using the multi-species ID Screen® Toxoplasmosis Indirect kit (IDVET, Montpellier). This ELISA-based assay tests for serological (IgG) reactivity to T. gondii’s P-30 antigen and has been used in many prior studies of T. gondii in diverse mammals22. The output of the assay is an SP ratio, which is calculated as colorimetric signal of immunoreactivity for a tested blood sample (S) divided by that of a positive control (P), after subtracting the background signal for the ELISA plate (i.e., a negative control) from both S and P. We tested 168 plasma samples from 168 individual spotted hyenas and determined infection status based on the kit manufacturer’s criteria for interpreting S/P: ≤ 40% = negative result, 40%  More

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