Introduction The dynamics of cell surface marker expression on systemic neutrophils provide valuable insights into the post-traumatic immune response. Recent advances in point-of-care (PoC) technologies allow for rapid on-site neutrophil analysis. The current study aimed to proof, if results of PoC measurements are comparable between two study centers. Methods A well-established laboratory protocol for fully automated PoC flow...

The African fungus Ceratocystis albifundus does not cause disease symptoms on its wide range of native woody hosts. However, on non-native Acacia mearnsii and orchard-grown Protea cynaroides , it represents an economically significant pathogen. Because previous studies exploring the biological fitness of C. albifundus were constrained by small sample sizes, we aimed to determine how commonly used measures of fitness (growth in...

Community composition is a primary determinant of how biodiversity change influences ecosystem functioning and, therefore, the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF). We examine the consequences of community composition across six structurally realistic plant community models. We find that a positive correlation between species’ functioning in monoculture versus their dominance in mixture with regard...

Aim An often‐invoked benefit of high biodiversity is the provision of ecosystem services. However, evidence for this is largely based on data from small‐scale experimental studies of relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem function that may have little relevance to real‐world systems. Here, large‐scale biodiversity datasets are used to test the relationship between the yield of inland capture fisheries and species ric...