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This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This cutting edge text considers how Asian philanthropists and charitable organizations break with Western philanthropic traditions and examines the key traits and trends that make social investment in Asia unique. Based on 30 case studies of excellent social delivery organizations (SDOs) and social enterprises as well as interviews with ultra-high net-worth individuals throughout Asia, this book examines which characteristics and strategies lead to successful philanthropy and social delivery organizations. Providing evidence based findings on philanthropy, social investment and social delivery organizations in Asia, this book provides invaluable resources for those wishing to deepen their understanding of the sector and what this means for political and economic development in the region.

The continuing nitrogen (N) deposition observed worldwide alters ecosystem nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning. Litter decomposition is a key process contributing to these changes, but the numerous mechanisms for altered decomposition remain poorly identified. We assessed these different mechanisms with a decomposition experiment using litter from four abundant species ( Achnatherum sibiricum , Agropyron cristatum , Leymus chinensis and Stipa grandis ) and litter mixtures representing treatment-specific community composition in a semi-arid grassland under long-term simulation of six different rates of N deposition. Decomposition increased consistently with increasing rates of N addition in all litter types. Higher soil manganese (Mn) availability, which apparently was a consequence of N addition-induced lower soil pH, was the most important factor for faster decomposition. Soil C : N ratios were lower with N addition that subsequently led to markedly higher bacterial to fungal ratios, which also stimulated litter decomposition. Several factors contributed jointly to higher rates of litter decomposition in response to N deposition. Shifts in plant species composition and litter quality played a minor role compared to N-driven reductions in soil pH and C : N, which increased soil Mn availability and altered microbial community structure. The soil-driven effect on decomposition reported here may have long-lasting impacts on nutrient cycling, soil organic matter dynamics and ecosystem functioning.

ABSTRACT Salinity is one of the most important environmental factors influencing bacterial plankton communities in lake waters, while its influence on bacterial interactions has been less explored. Here, we investigated the influence of salinity on the bacterial diversity, interactions and community structure in Tibetan Plateau lakes. Our results revealed that saline lakes (salinity between 0.5 and 50 g/L) harboured similar or even higher bacterial diversity compared with freshwater lakes (< 0.5 g/L), while hyper-saline lakes (> 50 g/L) exhibited the lowest diversity. Network analysis demonstrated that hyper-saline lakes exhibited the highest network complexity, with higher total correlation numbers (particularly the negative correlations), but lower network module numbers than freshwater and saline lakes. Furthermore, salinity dominantly explained the bacterial community structure variations in saline lakes, while those in freshwater and hyper-saline lakes were predominately explained by water temperature and geospatial distance, respectively. The core operational taxonomic units (OTUs), which were ubiquitously present in all lakes, were less sensitive to enhancing salinity than the indicative OTUs whose presence was dependent on lake type. Our findings offer a new understanding of how salinity influences bacterial community in plateau lakes. Enhancing salinity significantly reduces bacterial richness and diversity, but increases network complexity, and substantially changes bacterial community structure in Tibetan Plateau lakes.

Plastic films have previously displayed tremendous potential to increase water use efficiency in farmland and the yield of cash crops; however, long-term use of plastic film in soils can influence soil physiological and biochemical characteristics and change its biota. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of residual plastic film pollution on soil microbe community structure and fertility in Xinjiang province, China. Residual plastic film-contaminated soil and non-contaminated soil in Xinjiang farmland were selected for this study. The results indicated that residual plastic film pollution changed the structure of the soil biological community by significantly decreasing and increasing the abundance of Actinomycetes and Proteobacteria, respectively; further, the pollution decreased soil organic matter and inorganic nitrogen content by downregulating microbial genes related to soil carbon and nitrogen cycles and decreasing related enzymatic activities. The present results indicated that long-term residual plastic film exposure (more than 10 years) in farmland significantly decreases soil fertility and alters the microbial community structure.

The diversity and factors influencing fungal assemblages in phyllosphere of Mediterranean tree species have been barely studied, especially when endophytic and epiphytic communities are simultaneously considered. In this work, the endophytic and epiphytic fungal communities from olive tree phyllosphere were studied. This tree species is natural from the Mediterranean region and adapted to grow under adverse climatic conditions. The main objectives were to determine whether there are differences between both fungal communities and to examine whether different abiotic (climate-related) and biotic (plant organs) factors play a pivotal role in structuring these communities. Both communities differed in size and composition, with epiphytic community being richer and more abundant, displaying also a dominance of melanized fungi. Season was the major driver of community composition, especially of epiphytes. Other drivers shaping epiphytes were wind speed and temperature, while plant organ, rainfall, and temperature were the major drivers for endophytic composition. In contrast, canopy orientation caused slight variations in community composition of fungi, but with distinct effects in spring and autumn seasons. In conclusion, epiphytic and endophytic communities are not driven by the same factors. Several sources of variation undergo complex interactions to form and maintain phyllosphere fungal community in Mediterranean climates. Climatic parameters have influence on these fungal communities, suggesting that they are likely to be affected by climate changes in a near future.

One classic explanation for the remarkable diversity of flower colors across angiosperms involves evolutionary shifts among different types of pollinators with different color preferences. However, the pollinator shift model fails to account for the many examples of color variation within clades that share the same pollination system. An alternate explanation is the competition model, which suggests that color divergence evolves in response to interspecific competition for pollinators, as a means to decrease interspecific pollinator movements. This model predicts color overdispersion within communities relative to null assemblages. Here, we combine morphometric analyses, field surveys, and models of pollinator vision with a species-level phylogeny to test the competition model in the primarily hummingbird-pollinated clade lochrominae (Solanaceae). Results show that flower color as perceived by pollinators is significantly overdispersed within sites. This pattern is not simply due to phylogenetic history: phylogenetic community structure does not deviate from random expectations, and flower color lacks phylogenetic signal. Moreover, taxa that occur in sympatry occupy a significantly larger volume of color space than those in allopatry, supporting the hypothesis that competition in sympatry drove the evolution of novel colors. We suggest that competition among close relatives may commonly underlie floral divergence, especially in species-rich habitats where congeners frequently co-occur.

Phytoplankton are key players in the global carbon cycle, contributing about half of global primary productivity. Within the phytoplankton, functional groups (characterized by distinct traits) have impacts on other major biogeochemical cycles, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and silica. Changes in phytoplankton community structure, resulting from the unique environmental sensitivities of these groups, may significantly alter elemental cycling from local to global scales. We review key traits that distinguish major phytoplankton functional groups, how they affect biogeochemistry and how the links between community structure and biogeochemical cycles are modelled. Finally, we explore how global environmental change will affect phytoplankton communities, from the traits of individual species to the relative abundance of functional groups, and how that, in turn, may alter biogeochemical cycles. Synthesis. We can increase our mechanistic understanding of the links between the community structure of primary producers and biogeochemistry by focusing on traits determining functional group responses to the environment (response traits) and their biogeochemical functions (effect traits). Identifying trade‐offs including allometric and phylogenetic constraints among traits will help parameterize predictive biogeochemical models, enhancing our ability to anticipate the consequences of global change.

To predict the effects of nitrogen deposition on nitrogen-mineralizing enzyme activity and soil microbial community structure in artificial temperate forests in northern China, we studied the soil properties, nitrogen-mineralizing enzyme activity, and microbial community structure in the soil of a Korean pine plantation in which different concentrations (0, 20, 40, 80 kg N ha−1 year−1) of ammonium nitrate were applied for 5 consecutive years. The results showed that nitrogen addition at different concentrations did not significantly affect the soil pH. High nitrogen addition (80 kg N ha−1 year−1) significantly increased the soil organic matter, ammonium nitrogen, and nitrate nitrogen content in the Korean pine plantation, and ammonium nitrogen was the key factor that influenced the soil fungal community structure. The urease activity under the moderate nitrogen addition treatment (40 kg N ha−1 year−1) was significantly lower than that under the control (0 kg N ha−1 year−1), and the protease activity in the three treatments was also significantly lower than that in the control. There was no significant correlation between microbial community structure and the four mineralizing enzymes. After nitrogen addition at different concentrations, the Simpson and Shannon indexes of soil bacteria decreased significantly under low nitrogen addition (20 kg N ha−1 year−1), but the α-diversity index of soil fungi did not show significant differences under nitrogen addition. The microbial community composition was significantly changed by the different treatments. PLS-DA analysis showed that Tardiphaga was an important genus that made the greatest contribution to the differences in bacterial community composition among treatments, as was Taeniolella for fungal community composition. The low level of nitrogen addition inhibited nitrogen mineralization in the Korean pine plantation by reducing the relative abundances of Nitrosomonadaceae and Betaproteobacteriales and by reducing the abundances of symbiotrophic fungi. Berkelbacteria and Polyporales were bacteria and fungi, respectively, that changed significantly under the high nitrogen addition treatment (80 kg N ha−1 year−1). This study provides more data to support predictions of the changes in nitrogen-mineralizing enzyme activity and microbial community structure in artificial temperate forest soils in response to increased nitrogen deposition.

Coastal areas are land–sea transitional zones with complex natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Microorganisms in coastal sediments adapt to such disturbances both individually and as a community. The microbial community structure changes spatially and temporally under environmental stress. In this study, we investigated the microbial community structure in the sediments of Hangzhou Bay, a seriously polluted bay in China. In order to identify the roles and contribution of all microbial taxa, we set thresholds as 0.1% for rare taxa and 1% for abundant taxa, and classified all operational taxonomic units into six exclusive categories based on their abundance. The results showed that the key taxa in differentiating the communities are abundant taxa (AT), conditionally abundant taxa (CAT), and conditionally rare or abundant taxa (CRAT). A large population in conditionally rare taxa (CRT) made this category collectively significant in differentiating the communities. Both bacteria and archaea demonstrated a distance decay pattern of community similarity in the bay, and this pattern was strengthened by rare taxa, CRT and CRAT, but weakened by AT and CAT. This implied that the low abundance taxa were more deterministically distributed, while the high abundance taxa were more ubiquitously distributed. Based on a full-scale microbial taxa classification, the roles and contributions of key taxonomic categories in maintaining and altering microbial community structures in the sediments of Hangzhou Bay were recognized.