Search results for "BJ"
showing 10 items of 27401 documents
A new tool for the assessment of severe anthropogenic eutrophication in small shallow water bodies
2017
Abstract Unlike in deep stratified lakes, the assessment of eutrophication in shallow aquatic systems (i.e., wetlands, marshes, ponds) should be based on the interaction between water and sediment. The availability of P to primary producers is naturally higher in shallow systems, because the sediment plays an active part via adsorption, precipitation and release processes. Thus, many wetlands in protected areas are naturally eutrophic and have a high trophic status due to intrinsic features and thus, display a high concentration of total-P in the water without necessarily implying pollution or poor quality. We have provided a diagnostic tool based on the chemical equilibrium of dissolved re…
Bioprospecting for brewers: Exploiting natural diversity for naturally diverse beers.
2019
The burgeoning interest in archaic, traditional, and novel beer styles has coincided with a growing appreciation of the role of yeasts in determining beer character as well as a better understanding of the ecology and biogeography of yeasts. Multiple studies in recent years have highlighted the potential of wild Saccharomyces and non‐Saccharomyces yeasts for production of beers with novel flavour profiles and other desirable properties. Yeasts isolated from spontaneously fermented beers as well as from other food systems (wine, bread, and kombucha) have shown promise for brewing application, and there is evidence that such cross‐system transfers have occurred naturally in the past. We revie…
Cost-effective forest conservation and criteria for potential conservation targets: a Finnish case study
2008
International audience; Selecting reserves for forest biodiversity maintenance is often done by setting criteria for components of structural elements of biodiversity, such as a volume of decaying wood. We tested how the different threshold values for the components of structural elements affect the cost-effective site selection. Using Finnish National Forest Inventory information and remote sensing data, we determined a habitat quality index and economic value for each site in Satakunta region in Finland. Moreover, we defined several sets of potential conservation targets using alternative criteria for the habitat quality index developed for the Finnish case study. These figures were used …
From Metaphor to Practice: Operationalizing the Analysis of Resilience Using System Dynamics Modelling
2017
This paper operationalizes an analysis of resilience for social-ecological systems using system dynamics (SD) modelling. Resilience is a versatile concept that continues to gain popularity among researchers who study ways to reduce the vulnerability of social-ecological systems to a wide range of disturbances. However, its application in the policymaking domain still remains underdeveloped because it is difficult to understand the mechanisms that might enhance resilience and to measure the impact of potential policies. This paper proposes to use SD modelling as a tool to analyse resilience using simulations to quantify system response to disturbances and a causal analysis to identify ways t…
Social organization and the evolution of life-history traits in two queen morphs of the ant Temnothorax rugatulus.
2020
ABSTRACT During the evolution of social insects, not only did life-history traits diverge, with queens becoming highly fecund and long lived compared with their sterile workers, but also individual traits lost their importance compared with colony-level traits. In solitary animals, fecundity is largely influenced by female size, whereas in eusocial insects, colony size and queen number can affect the egg-laying rate. Here, we focused on the ant Temnothorax rugatulus, which exhibits two queen morphs varying in size and reproductive strategy, correlating with their colony's social organization. We experimentally tested the influence of social structure, colony and body size on queen fecundity…
Insect personality: what can we learn from metamorphosis?
2018
6 pages; International audience; Ontogeny of animal personality is still an open question. Testing whether personality traits correlated with state variables (e.g. metabolic rate, hormones) and/or life history traits, and which ones are involved, requires more empirical studies. Insects with metamorphosis represent a good opportunity to tackle this question. Because of the various degrees of internal (physiological, nervous) and environmental changes linked to metamorphosis they allow testing whether these modifications drive consistency in personality traits between immature and adult stages. In this review, we establish general predictions for the effects of metamorphosis on personality i…
Perception-Based Study on the Value of Nature to People and Land Sparing for Nature in Brazil and Poland
2020
Understanding perception about nature is paramount to understanding human behavior and decision making on the environment. We performed a survey-based study in Brazil and Poland to better understand the perception of land sparing for nature and the perceived value of nature. The countries were selected by intentional sampling and given their importance for local and global biodiversity conservation, and complex socio-ecological context of conservation versus agroforestry business. We performed an online questionnaire (N = 1030) in Brazil and face-to-face interviews in Poland (N = 322). We found that Brazilian respondents demonstrated more pro-environmental attitudes than Polish survey parti…
Larval intraspecific competition for food in the European grapevine moth Lobesia botrana.
2014
AbstractEffective pest management with lower amounts of pesticides relies on accurate prediction of insect pest growth rates. Knowledge of the factors governing this trait and the resulting fitness of individuals is thus necessary to refine predictions and make suitable decisions in crop protection. The European grapevine moth, Lobesia botrana, the major pest of grapes in Europe, is responsible for huge economic losses. Larvae very rarely leave the grape bunch on which they were oviposited and thus cannot avoid intraspecific competition. In this study, we determined the impact of intraspecific competition during the larval stage on development and adult fitness in this species. This was tes…
Oviposition Cues for a Specialist Butterfly–Plant Chemistry and Size
2008
The oviposition choice of an insect herbivore is based on a complex set of stimuli and responses. In this study, we examined the effect of plant secondary chemistry (the iridoid glycosides aucubin and catalpol) and aspects of size of the plant Plantago lanceolata, on the oviposition behavior of the specialist butterfly Melitaea cinxia. Iridoid glycosides are known to deter feeding or decrease the growth rate of generalist insect herbivores, but can act as oviposition cues and feeding stimulants for specialized herbivores. In a previous observational study of M. cinxia in the field, oviposition was associated with high levels of aucubin. However, this association could have been the cause (b…
PERSPECTIVE: Underutilized resources for studying the evolution of invasive species during their introduction, establishment, and lag phases
2010
The early phases of biological invasions are poorly understood. In particular, during the introduction, establishment, and possible lag phases, it is unclear to what extent evolution must take place for an introduced species to transition from established to expanding. In this study, we highlight three disparate data sources that can provide insights into evolutionary processes associated with invasion success: biological control organisms, horticultural introductions, and natural history collections. All three data sources potentially provide introduction dates, information about source populations, and genetic and morphological samples at different time points along the invasion trajector…