Search results for "AGRICULTURAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES"
showing 10 items of 1704 documents
Cyclical and stochastic thermal variability affects survival and growth in brook trout
2019
Directional changes in temperature have well-documented effects on ectotherms, yet few studies have explored how increased thermal variability (a concomitant of climate change) might affect individual fitness. Using a common-garden experimental protocol, we investigated how bidirectional temperature change can affect survival and growth of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and whether the survival and growth responses differ between two populations, using four thermal-variability treatments (mean: 10 °C; range: 7–13 °C): (i) constancy; (ii) cyclical fluctuations every two days; (iii) low stochasticity (random changes every 2 days); (iv) high stochasticity (random changes daily). Recently …
Introducing water frogs - Is there a risk for indigenous species in France?
2007
The ecological success of introduced species in their new environments is difficult to predict. Recently, the water frog species Rana ridibunda has raised interest, as different genetic lineages were introduced to various European countries. The aim of the present study was to analyze the potential invasiveness of R. ridibunda and assess the risk of replacement for indigenous water frog species. The investigation of over 700 water frogs from 22 locations in southern France and four locations in Spain shows that the competition with indigenous species is mainly limited to a particular habitat type, characterized by high-oxygen and low-salinity freshwater. The competitive strength of R. ridib…
Does evolution of iteroparous and semelparous reproduction call for spatially structured systems?
2000
A persistent question in the evolution of life histories is the fitness trade-off between reproducing only once (semelparity) in a lifetime or reproducing repeated times in different seasons (iteroparity). The problem can be formulated into a research agenda by assuming that one reproductive strategy is resident (has already evolved) and by asking whether invasion (evolution) of an alternative reproductive strategy is possible. For a spatially nonstructured system, Bulmer (1994) derived the relationship v + PA1 (PA is adult survival; vbS and bS are offspring numbers for iteroparous and semelparous breeding strategies, respectively) at which semelparous population cannot be invaded by an ite…
Postcopulatory sexual selection generates speciation phenotypes in Drosophila.
2013
Background: Identifying traits that reproductively isolate species and the selective forces underlying their divergence is a central goal of evolutionary biology and speciation research. There is growing recognition that postcopulatory sexual selection which can drive rapid diversification of interacting ejaculate and female reproductive tract traits that mediate sperm competition may be an engine of speciation. Conspecific sperm precedence (CSP) is a taxonomically widespread form of reproductive isolation but the selective causes and divergent traits responsible for CSP are poorly understood. Results: To test the hypothesis that postcopulatory sexual selection can generate reproductive iso…
Temperature as a modulator of sexual selection
2018
A central question in ecology and evolution is to understand why sexual selection varies so much in strength across taxa; it has long been known that ecological factors are crucial to this. Temperature is a particularly salient abiotic ecological factor that modulates a wide range of physiological, morphological and behavioural traits, impacting individuals and populations at a global taxonomic scale. Furthermore, temperature exhibits substantial temporal variation (e.g. daily, seasonally and inter-seasonally), and hence for most species in the wild sexual selection will regularly unfold in a dynamic thermal environment. Unfortunately, studies have so far almost completely neglected the rol…
Pairing context determines condition-dependence of song rate in a monogamous passerine bird.
2013
Condition-dependence of male ornaments is thought to provide honest signals on which females can base their sexual choice for genetic quality. Recent studies show that condition-dependence patterns can vary within populations. Although long-term association is thought to promote honest signalling, no study has explored the influence of pairing context on the condition-dependence of male ornaments. In this study, we assessed the influence of natural variation in body condition on song rate in zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) in three different situations: during short and long encounters with an unfamiliar female, and within heterosexual mated pairs. We found consistent individual diff…
Genetic correlation between resistance to oxidative stress and reproductive life span in a bird species.
2010
Evolutionary theories propose that aging is the result of a trade-off between self-maintenance and reproduction, and oxidative stress may play a crucial role in such a trade-off. Phenotypic manipulations have revealed that a high investment in reproduction leads to a decline in the organism's resistance to oxidative stress, which could in turn accelerate aging. Here, by using quantitative genetic analyses as a tool to disentangle genetic effects from phenotypic variances, the relationship between resistance to oxidative stress at sexual maturity and two key reproductive life-history traits (i.e., number of breeding events during life and age at last reproduction) was analyzed in cross-foste…
Relationship between maternal transfer of immunity and mother fecundity in an insect.
2012
Trans-generational immune priming (TGIP) corresponds to the plastic adjustment of offspring immunity as a result of maternal immune experience. TGIP is expected to improve mother's fitness by improving offspring individual performance in an environment where parasitism becomes more prevalent. However, it was recently demonstrated that maternal transfer of immunity to the offspring is costly for immune-challenged female insects. Thus, these females might not provide immune protection to all their offspring because of the inherent cost of other fitness-related traits. Females are therefore expected to adjust their investment to individual offspring immune protection in ways that maximize the…
Fungal Diversity in the Mediterranean Area
2020
The Special Issue entitled “Fungal Diversity in the Mediterranean Area” aimed at highlighting the role of various organisms in the Mediterranean habitat. The role of fungi at the root and phyllosphere level; the biodiversity in small island territories and the sea; rare forms of fungi never previously found; the commercial, food, and therapeutic value of some ascomycetes and basidiomycetes; the diversity related to fungi associated with galls on plants; and the important role of culture collection for the ex situ conservation of fungal biodiversity are the topics dealt with in this Special Issue.
Agro-ecological benefits of faba bean for rainfed Mediterranean cropping systems
2017
This paper reviews the main results from a set of experiments carried out in a semiarid Mediterranean environment during the past 25 years on faba bean (<em>Vicia faba</em> L.), a crop traditionally grown in southern Italy and Sicily under rainfed conditions. These experiments focused on the residual effects of faba bean on subsequent crop(s) and assessment of the nitrogen (N) balance during the crop cycle, paying attention to both the environmental release of N (losses via volatilisation and denitrification) and estimates of N2 fixation as influenced by tillage system, intercropping, and presence/absence of mycorrhizal inoculum. Faba bean relied on N2 fixation more than other g…