Search results for " evolution"
showing 10 items of 9699 documents
Conservation status of the Italian flora under the 92/43/EEC ‘Habitats’ Directive
2021
The results of the 4th National Report for the Italian flora under the 92/43/EEC ‘Habitats’ Directive are presented. The outcomes showed a general negative conservation status for plant species, with the worst situation being in the Mediterranean bioregion. At the National level, significant monitoring and conservation activities are required.
Benthic foodweb structure in a large shallow lake studied by stable isotope analysis
2014
The benthic foodweb structure of Lake Võrtsjärv, a large (270 km2), shallow, and turbid Estonian lake, was evaluated based on C and N stable-isotope signatures (δ13C, δ15N). Variation in δ13C between sampling sites was not related to site proximity to the littoral zone or the more vegetated southern part of the lake, but rather appeared to be influenced by in-situ site peculiarities. δ13C was stable temporally and between functional feeding groups, a result implying that the whole benthic food web of the lake relies largely on the same C source admixture, essentially particulate organic matter (POM). Thus, the foodweb composition of Lake Võrtsjärv is remarkably homogeneous given the lake’s …
Black Queen Evolution and Trophic Interactions Determine Plasmid Survival after the Disruption of the Conjugation Network
2018
Bacterial antibiotic resistance is often a part of mobile genetic elements that move from one bacterium to another. By interfering with the horizontal movement and the maintenance of these elements, it is possible to remove the resistance from the population. Here, we show that a so-called plasmid-dependent bacteriophage causes the initially resistant bacterial population to become susceptible to antibiotics. However, this effect is efficiently countered when the system also contains a predator that feeds on bacteria. Moreover, when the environment contains antibiotics, the survival of resistance is dependent on the resistance mechanism. When bacteria can help their contemporaries to degrad…
The identity of the tropical African Polichne mukonja Griffini, 1908 (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Phaneropterinae)
2016
Polichne mukonja Griffini, 1908 from Cameroon was hitherto known only from the holotype preserved at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels. This was probably due to the fact that the genus Polichne Stål, 1874 distributed only in Australia and Papua New Guinea. In view of this distribution, the tropical African species was therefore overlooked in the African literature. The recent discovery of two specimens at the Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, now provides us with a better understanding of the identity of this taxon, which is related to the African genus Catoptropteryx Karsch, 1890. Polichne mukonja is here transferred to a new genus Griffinipteryx and both taxa are p…
The legacy of human use in Amazonian palm communities along environmental and accessibility gradients
2023
Aim: Palms are iconic and dominant elements of neotropical forests. In the Amazon region, palms have been used and managed by humans for food, material, medicine and other purposes for millennia. It is, however, debated to what extent the structure of modern palm communities reflects long-term human modification. Here, we investigate the complex interplay of ecological and societal factors that influence the distributions of both human-used and non-used palms in western Amazonia. Location: Amazonia. Time period: Present. Major taxa studied: Palms (Arecaceae). Methods: We used Bayesian hierarchical joint species distribution models to predict the distributions and environmental niche dimensi…
Economic and Life Cycle Analysis of Passive and Active Monitoring of Ozone for Forest Protection
2021
At forest sites, phytotoxic tropospheric ozone (O3) can be monitored with continuously operating, active monitors (AM) or passive, cumulative samplers (PM). For the first time, we present evidence that the sustainability of active monitoring is better than that of passive sensors, as the environmental, economic, and social costs are usually lower in the former than in the latter. By using data collected in the field, environmental, social, and economic costs were analyzed. The study considered monitoring sites at three distances from a control station in Italy (30, 400, and 750 km), two forest types (deciduous and Mediterranean evergreen), and three time windows (5, 10, and 20 years of moni…
Nonlinear evolution equations for turbulent superfluids
2010
In this paper a system of evolution equations for turbulent superfluid helium is written in the nonlinear regime, choosing as fundamental fields the density, the velocity, the heat flux, the non-equilibrium temperature and the average vortex line density per unit volume. Approximate equations are written, where second order terms in the non-equilibrium quantities are retained.
Experimental Evolution Reveals a Genetic Basis for Membrane-Associated Virus Release
2021
Many animal viruses replicate and are released from cells in close association to membranes. However, whether this is a passive process or is controlled by the virus remains poorly understood. Importantly, the genetic basis and evolvability of membrane-associated viral shedding have not been investigated. To address this, we performed a directed evolution experiment using coxsackievirus B3, a model enterovirus, in which we repeatedly selected the free-virion or the fast-sedimenting membrane-associated viral subpopulations. The virus responded to this selection regime by reproducibly fixing a series of mutations that altered the extent of membrane-associated viral shedding, as revealed by fu…
More nature in the city
2020
According to projects and practices that the Italian botanists and ecologists are carrying out for bringing “more nature in the city”, new insights for a factual integration between ecological perspectives and more consolidated aesthetic and agronomic approaches to the sustainable planning and management of urban green areas are provided.
Alarmist by bad design: Strongly popularized unsubstantiated claims undermine credibility of conservation science
2019
“Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades.” or “Our work reveals dramatic rates of decline that may lead to the extinction of 40% of the world's insect species over the next few decades.” These are verbatim conclusions of the recent paper by Sánchez-Bayoa and Wyckhuys (2019) in Biological Conservation. Because of fundamental methodological flaws, their conclusions are unsubstantiated. Like noted by The Guardian, the conclusions of the paper were set out in unusually forceful terms for a peer-reviewed scientific paper. The current case…