Old coppice versus high forest:the impact of beech forest management on plant species diversity in central Apennines(italy)

Aims Silvicultural management plays a major role in shaping understory diversity through its action on stand structure.in many parts of Europe,recent socioeconomic changes have led to the progressive abandonment of coppicing in favor of high forest(HF)management.in order to examine how this change impacts understory species,we compared old coppice-with-standards and HF stands in terms of structural features and understory richness and composition,also taking into account the diagnostic species pool of the habitat.Since the management systems for coppices and HFs differ in cutting regime,we expect that they would cause different changes in floristic composition and richness.Methods The study area was the Montagne della Duchessa massif,in central italy.Structural differences and floristic richness were compared,and the diagnostic species diversity was analyzed using rarefaction curves and Rényi diversity profiles.Differences in understory com-position were analyzed through indicator species analysis.Important Findings Our results showed that,though the old coppices have a slightly higher number of understory species in general,the HF stands have greater mean species richness in both understory and diagnostic species,the latter being more evenly distributed inside the com-munity.These finding were related to the cut regime,which favor a constant canopy cover over time and thus the maintenance of more stable microclimatic conditions,promoting the higher abundance and evenness of shade-tolerant and vernal species.Conversely,the dense canopy of the old coppice appears to affect the understory richness by reducing the presence of light-demanding species,but still without a complete recolonization of the shade-tolerant spe-cies.Overall,our findings provide the first insights supporting that,in a Mediterranean montane context,old coppice conversion to HF could over time improve the species diversity in these habitats and help maintain good conservation status of the typical mature beech forests.

Metagenomic Profiling of Viruses Associated with Rhipicephalus microplus Ticks in Yunnan Province,China

Ticks are well known as vectors of many viruses which usually do great harm to human and animal health.Yunnan Province,widely covered by flourishing vegetation and mainly relying on farming husbandry,is abundant with Rhipicephalus microplus ticks.Therefore,it is of great significance to characterize the viral profile present in R.microplus parasitizing on cattle in Yunnan Province.In this study,a total of 7387 R.microplus ticks were collected from cattle and buffalo in the northwest and southeast areas of Yunnan Province from 2015 to 2017.We investigated the virome of R.microplus using next-generation sequencing(NGS)and the prevalence of important identified viruses among tick groups by RT-PCR.It revealed the presence of diverse virus concerning chu-,rhabdo-,phlebo-,flavi-and parvo-viruses in Yunnan.These viruses consist of single-stranded,circular and segmented sense RNAs,showing a greatly diversity in genomic organization.Furthermore,continuous epidemiological survey among ticks reveals broad prevalence of three viruses(Yunnan mivirus 1,Wuhan tick vrius 1 and YN tick-associated phlebovirus 1)and two possible prevalent viruses including a flavivirus-like segmented virus(Jingmen tick virus)and a bovine hokovirus 2 in Yunnan.Serological investigation among cattle indicates that these identified viruses may be infectious to cattle and can elicit corresponding antibody.Our findings on R.microplus-associated viral community will contribute to the prevention of viral disease and tracking the viral evolution.Further analysis is needed to better elucidate the pathogenicity and natural circulation of these viruses.