Université de Fribourg

Potential for endozoochorous seed dispersal by sheep and goats : Risk of weed seed transport via animal faeces

Oveisi, Mostafa ; Ojaghi, Ahmad ; Rahimian Mashhadi, Hamid ; Müller‐Schärer, Heinz ; Reza Yazdi, Kamran ; Pourmorad Kaleibar, Behnaz ; Soltani, Elias

In: Weed Research, 2021, vol. 61, no. 1, p. 1-12

Endozoochory is known as an important mechanism for the spread of weeds. We carried out experiments to assess the fate of seeds of several weed species (Convolvulus arvensis, Cuscuta campestris, Rumex crispus, Hordeum spontaneum and Sorghum halepense) after passing through the gut of sheep and goat. Eighteen animals of both sheep and goat received diet mixed with seeds of the weed species or ...

Université de Fribourg

Rapid genomic and phenotypic change in response to climate warming in a widespread plant invader

Sun, Yan ; Bossdorf, Oliver ; Grados, Ramon D. ; Liao, Zhi, Yong ; Müller‐Schärer, Heinz

In: Global Change Biology, 2020//n/a/-

Predicting plant distributions under climate change is constrained by our limited understanding of potential rapid adaptive evolution. In an experimental evolution study with the invasive common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) we subjected replicated populations of the same initial genetic composition to simulated climate warming. Pooled DNA sequencing of parental and offspring...

Université de Fribourg

Phylogenetic diversity is a better predictor of wetland community resistance to Alternanthera philoxeroides invasion than species richness

Qin, Tian‐Jian ; Zhou, Jian ; Sun, Yan ; Müller‐Schärer, Heinz ; Luo, Fang‐Li ; Dong, Bi‐Cheng ; Li, Hong‐Li ; Yu, Fei‐Hai

In: Plant Biology, 2020/n/a/n/a/-

Highly biodiversity communities have been shown to better resist plant invasions through complementarity effects. Species richness (SR) is a widely used biodiversity metric but lacks explanatory power when there are only a few species. Communities with low SR can have a wide variety of phylogenetic diversities (PD), which might allow for a better prediction of invasibility. We assessed the...

Université de Fribourg

Predicting impact of a biocontrol agent: integrating distribution modeling with climate-dependent vital rates

Augustinus, Benno ; Sun, Yan ; Beuchat, Carine ; Schaffner, Urs ; Müller‐Schärer, Heinz

In: Ecological Applications, 2020, vol. 30, no. 1, p. e02003

Species distribution models can predict the suitable climatic range of a potential biological control agent (BCA), but they provide little information on the BCA's potential impact. To predict high population buildup, a prerequisite of biocontrol impact, studies are needed that assess the effect of environmental factors on vital rates of a BCA across the environmental gradient of the BCA's...