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1. Woody encroachment into grassy biomes is a global phenomenon, often resulting in a nearly complete turnover of species, with savanna specialists being replaced by forest-adapted species. Understanding the mechanisms involved in this change is important for devising strategies for managing savannas. 2. We examined how isolated trees favor woody encroachment and species turnover by overcoming dispersal limitation and environmental filtering. In a savanna released from fire in southeastern Brazil (Cerrado) we sampled woody plants establishing under 40 tree canopies and in paired treeless plots. These trees comprised eight species selected for habitat preference (savanna or forest) and dispersal syndrome (bird-dispersed or not). We recorded dimensions of each tree, dispersal syndrome and habitat preference of recruits, and quantified the physical environment within each plot, aiming at a mechanistic understanding of woody encroachment. 3. We found clear evidence that isolated trees cause nucleation and drive changes in functional composition of savanna. Effectiveness as nucleator differed among species, but was unrelated to their functional guilds (habitat preference or dispersal syndrome). Density of saplings in nuclei was partially explained by soil moisture (+), daily temperature amplitude (-), and sum of bases (-). 4. Our results indicate that isolated trees act first as perches, strongly favoring bird-dispersed species. They then act as nurse trees, considerably changing the environment in favor of forest-adapted recruits. In the long term, as the nuclei expand and merge, savanna specialists tend to disappear and the savanna turns into a low-diversity forest. 5. Synthesis and applications: Fire suppression has allowed the nucleation process and consequently the woody encroachment and fast replacement of savanna specialists by forest species in the Cerrado. By elucidating the mechanisms behind woody encroachment, we recommend using prescribed fires to burn forest seedlings and to reduce tree canopy size wherever the management goal is to maintain the typical savanna structure and composition. Please see Methods in the article published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

Improving species delimitation and knowledge on species complexes is crucial for many areas of study in Biology, especially conservation. Integrative taxonomy contributes to this topic by using different approaches to better delineate taxonomic boundaries. Metternichia (Solanaceae), historically a monospecific genus, has a geographic range that comprises contrasting environments. Metternichia principis was described as having two varieties: the typical variety, found in the humid forests of eastern Brazil (Atlantic Forest region), and M. principis var. macrocalyx, which presents larger calyx and inhabits mostly semi-arid areas (Caatinga region). In this study we tested the validity of such groups by integrating environmental, phenological, morphometric and palynological data; applying uni and multivariate tests; and evaluating the conservation status of each taxon. Our results support the recognition of two morphological groups within Metternichia, largely in agreement with the original circumscription of the varieties. Multivariate analyses clearly indicate different ecological niches, with each taxon inhabiting environments with distinct mean annual precipitation and temperature. Phenological data show some differences between the varieties regarding months with the highest number of flowering and fruiting records. In general, M. principis var. macrocalyx presents larger flower and pollen characters, and smaller fruit characters compared to the typical variety. Based on these findings, we elevate the variety to the status of species, as the new combination Metternichia macrocalyx. Following IUCN guidelines, both taxa are here considered endangered (EN). Morphometric data were collected through measurements of leaf, flower, fruit and seed traits from exsiccatae. Pollen data were collected through measurements of images of acetolysed pollen grains taken from light microscope. Environmental data were obtained through WorldClim database and asigned to each specimen of the morphometric dataset. Morphometric and palynological data were created in different datasets due to the significant different number of specimens encompassed. Morphometric and palynological datasets were used for univariate analyses, while all three datasets (including the environmental) were used for multivariate analyses (PCA and HCA). To perform the analyses, users must have R and RStudio installed.

This is a dataset on benthic diatom communities sampled in 90 riffles (the local communities) within nine near-pristine subtropical streams (each stream represented a metacommunity) in southeast subtropical Brazil. In addition to the dataset, we also provide the R code used to investigate whether reduced enumeration efforts (i.e., subsets of counted valves per sample) and the identification to the genus level are sufficient to recover patterns in the species composition and in beta diversity of benthic diatom metacommunities. This study was partially funded by grant nº 2013/50424-1 from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) to TS. ASM and LMB are supported by research grants from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq n° 313954/2021-6 and 308974/2020-4, respectively). EC was supported by a student fellowship by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) – Finance Code 001.

In the Neotropical region, euphonias (Euphonia spp., Fringillidae) are the quintessential example of specialized bird frugivores, making the bulk of feeding visits to certain mistletoes (Phoradendron spp., Santalaceae) and epiphytes in the genus Rhipsalis (Cactaceae), whose fruits have high water and low sugar and protein concentrations. Surprisingly, a mechanistic explanation for such specialized, otherwise rare, relationships is lacking. Using captive birds and artificial diets, we contrasted euphonias with frugivorous tanagers in the genus Thraupis (Thraupidae), which rarely eats Rhipsalis fruits, to test the hypothesis that the digestive capacity of euphonias entails them to exploit such low-energy fruits. We expected that compensatory feeding in response to decreasing energy density would occur only in euphonias, whose higher reliance on fruits would entail a lower nitrogen requirement than the tanagers. Euphonias and tanagers were both able to compensate energy intake as sugar density decreased, and both species had the same mass-corrected energy intake at any given sugar concentration. Similarly, euphonias and tanagers did not differ in mass-corrected maintenance nitrogen requirement. Therefore, the physiological traits we investigated do not explain euphonia´s specialization on Rhipsalis fruits. The fast rates of fruit passage typical of specialized avian frugivores as euphonias that entail the processing of a large volume of fruits, and the putative better abilities of such birds to deal with secondary compounds likely present in Rhipsalis fruits are other possible mechanisms that should be considered in future studies to unveil the mechanisms underlying the intriguing specialized relationships between euphonias and certain fruits. Please, refer to the associated article.

A starter data kit for Algeria

Scientometric data from 62,856 journals consolidated from Scopus, SJC, Diamond Journals, ISSN database, Google Scholar and Brazilian QUALIS (2022). Its purpose is to support researchers who want to analyze and compare various scientometric attributes and also the economic model used by scientific journals around the world. CSV UTF-8 File, separated by semicolon. Metadata: ISSN-L: Journal Identified used by ISSN ISSN: Secondary Journal identifier (used for Print or other medium versions); Name is in the journal origin language; "ASJC" is the Knowledge Area Code based on All Science Journal Category used by Citescore/Scopus; "Citescore" is based on 2022 Scopus; "Google H5" are based on 2020 database; "Qualis" is the Brazilian score calculated for the 2017-2021 quadrienal; Country Name (País) is in English merged from all databases; "Modelo" can have 3 values: D-Diamond Journals (No money involved), T-Closed (You have to pay to access), A-APC (You have to pay to publish); This is a working in progress and we intend to add more atributes and fill some gaps on knowledge areas field (ASJC) and other empty attributes.

Gene Ontology Annotation gene sets obtained via Wikidata. Gene Ontology terms with English Wikipedia pages were obtained from Wikidata using the SPARQL query language via the Wikidata Query Service: https://w.wiki/5DsS Gene Ontology Annotations were obtained indirectly from the UniProt-GoA database (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/GOA/publications) via mappings on Wikidata done by the ProteinBoxBot (https://elifesciences.org/articles/52614) T.L. is funded by grant #2019/26284-1 from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). T.L.D. is funded by grant from VSV-EBOPLUS Consortium.

Dataset underpinning the published article: Resonant Band-Edge Emissive States in Strongly Confined CsPbBr3 Perovskite Nanoplatelets. J. Phys. Chem. C, 2021, . DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c01353