Search results for "CIP"

Climate determinants of breeding and wintering ranges of lesser kestrels in Italy and predicted impacts of climate change

2017

Climate warming would theoretically create conditions for the breeding range expansion of pseudo-steppe Mediterranean and long-distance migrant species and provide the possibility for these to overwinter in the same breeding areas. However, contemporary changes in rainfall regimes might have negative effects on the climate suitability and in turn, shrink species potential range. The lesser kestrel Falco naumanni is highly sensitive to rainfall oscillations and has recently extended its Italian breeding range towards northern latitudes and increasing its wintering records. We modelled the effects of temperature and rainfall on current and future climate suitability for lesser kestrels in bot…

Land-use and climate related drivers of change in the reindeer management system in Finland: geography of perceptions

2021

Drivers of change in the reindeer management system are rather well-known. But when developing the gover-nance to support the traditional livelihoods, it is crucial to understand also practitioner perceptions. Systematic research on these is lacking. We analyzed the land-use and climate related drivers within the reindeer man-agement area (RMA) in Finland, and, using a perception geography approach, studied the herder perceptions towards these. We conducted an on-site questionnaire survey with herders from 51 herding districts. Factors directly affecting the welfare of reindeer were perceived as crucial by herders, for example basal icing affecting the forage availability, and land-use rela…

Resource availability and competition shape the evolution of survival and growth ability in a bacterial community

2013

Resource availability is one of the main factors determining the ecological dynamics of populations or species. Fluctuations in resource availability can increase or decrease the intensity of resource competition. Resource availability and competition can also cause evolutionary changes in life-history traits. We studied how community structure and resource fluctuations affect the evolution of fitness related traits using a two-species bacterial model system. Replicated populations of Serratia marcescens (copiotroph) and Novosophingobium capsulatum (oligotroph) were reared alone or together in environments with intergenerational, pulsed resource renewal. The comparison of ancestral and evol…

Macrophytes shape trophic niche variation among generalist fishes.

2017

Generalist species commonly have a fundamental role in ecosystems as they can integrate spatially distinct habitats and food-web compartments, as well as control the composition, abundance and behavior of organisms at different trophic levels. Generalist populations typically consist of specialized individuals, but the potential for and hence degree of individual niche variation can be largely determined by habitat complexity. We compared individual niche variation within three generalist fishes between two comparable lakes in the Czech Republic differing in macrophyte cover, i.e. macrophyte-rich Milada and macrophyte-poor Most. We tested the hypothesis that large individual niche variation…

Population dynamic consequences of delayed life-history effects

2002

Evidence from wildlife and human populations indicates that conditions during early development can have marked effects on the subsequent performance of individuals and cohorts. Likewise, the effects of maternal and, more generally, parental environments can be transferred among individuals between generations. These delayed life-history effects are found consistently and suggestions have been made that they can be one source of both variability and of delayed density dependence in population dynamics. Assessments of several different time series indicate that population variability and delayed density dependence are common and that understanding the mechanisms giving rise to them is crucia…

Palaeopathological Evidence of Infectious Disease in a Skeletal Population from Late Medieval Riga, Latvia (15Th-17Th Centuries AD)

2017

Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of infectious disease in the Dome Church (Riga Cathedral) Cemetery population, dating from the late medieval period (15th-17th centuries AD). A total of 274 individuals were macroscopically observed for evidence of infectious disease, and seven individuals with lesions possibly associated with a bacterial infection affecting the skeleton were selected for further analysis. Pathological changes on the outer table of the skull and in the long bones of legs characteristic of venereal syphilis were observed in four female and one male individual. Likewise, changes possibly related to late congenital syphilis were observed in a 14-15-ye…

Population variability in space and time.

2000

One of the most ubiquitous phenomena of all natural populations is their variability in numbers in space and time. However, there are notable differences among populations in the way the population size fluctuates. One of the major challenges in population and community ecology is to explain and understand this variety and to find possible underlying rules that might be modified from case-to-case. Population variability also has a spatial component because fluctuations are often synchronized over relatively large distances. Recently, this has led to growing interest in how 'internal' (density-dependent) processes interact with 'external' factors such as environmental variability.

The ecology of sexual conflict: Temperature variation in the social environment can drastically modulate male harm to females

2019

Sexual conflict is a fundamental driver of male/female adaptations, an engine of biodiversity and a crucial determinant of population viability. Sexual conflict frequently leads to behavioural adaptations that allow males to displace their rivals, but in doing so harm those same females they are competing to access, which can decrease population viability and facilitate extinction. We are far from understanding what factors modulate the intensity of sexual conflict and particularly the role of ecology in mediating underlying behavioural adaptations. In this study, we show that, in Drosophila melanogaster, variations in environmental temperature of ±4°C decrease male harm impact on female fi…

2018

The Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) is a commercially important species in North American waters, undergoing biological and ecological shifts. These are attributed, in part, to environmental modifications in its habitat and driven by climate change. Investigation of shell growth patterns, trace elements, and isotopic compositions require an examination of growth lines and increments preserved in biogenic carbonates. However, growth pattern analysis of S. solidissima is challenging due to multiple disturbance lines caused by environmental stress, erosion in umbonal shell regions, and constraints related to sample size and preparation techniques. The present study proposes an alternat…

En quin grau afecten les pseudociències a la comunitat educativa?

2018

Pseudosciences are present and accepted naturally by broad sectors of the population. Despite their potential risks, they are not taken into account when teaching science; some universities have even offered official pseudoscientific courses. In this text we want to learn about the degree of acceptance of these beliefs in high-school science teachers in training, who have been detected to have significant levels of acceptance of pseudoscience.