Search results for "GIA"
showing 10 items of 33231 documents
The effectiveness of fish feeding behaviour in mirroring trawling-induced patterns
2017
The ability to observe and predict trawling-induced patterns at spatial and temporal scales that are relevant to inform realistic management strategies is a challenge which scientists have consistently faced in recent decades. Here, we use fish feeding behaviour, a biological trait easily impaired by trawling disturbance, to depict alterations in fish condition (i.e. individual fitness) and feeding opportunities. The benthivorous fish Mullus barbatus barbatus was selected as a model species. The observed trends of responses to trawling in prey species confirmed the effectiveness of a non-trawled zone in sustaining higher levels of diet diversity (e.g. quantity and quality of ingested prey) …
Forecasting the volatility of biofuel feedstock prices: the US evidence
2019
Given that, nowadays, 40% of the US corn crop is used for biofuel production, there is a growing concern that the rise in biofuel production might lead to an increase in food prices. However, it is also obvious that significant growth in biofuel use has minimized the demand for fossil fuel and has hence reduced the volume of carbon emissions. It is therefore crucial to model corn market volatility precisely because such an estimate could play a vital role in stabilizing food and biofuel market prices. For this purpose, we consider using the information content of the corn implied volatility (CIV) index to predict the corn futures market return volatility. Using symmetric and asymmetric GARC…
Castniidae of the Museum of Natural History of the University of Wrocław: new findings from Friedrich Wilhelm Niepelt's collection with comments on K…
2021
Further results of our research into the Giant Butterfly-Moths (Castniidae) of the Museum of Natural History (University of Wrocław) are presented. Castniids of the Niepelt collection had previously been reviewed. However, while curating other sections of the Lepidoptera collection, we discovered 18 misplaced specimens belonging to nine taxa of Castniidae, several of them bearing typical labels by Niepelt. Among them, two are of particular interest, insofar as they are associated with the world-class botanists August Weberbauer (1871–1948) and Karl Adolf Georg Lauterbach (1864–1937).
Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements
2018
Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-26T17:44:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-01-26 Robert Bosch Foundation Animal movement is fundamental for ecosystem functioning and species survival, yet the effects of the anthropogenic footprint on animal movements have not been estimated across species. Using a unique GPS-tracking database of 803 individuals across 57 species, we found that movements of mammals in areas with a comparatively high human footprint were on average one-half to one-third the extent of their movements in areas with a low human footprint. We attribute this reduction to behavioral changes of individual animals and to the exclusion of species with long-…
New frontiers from removal to recycling of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater in the Circular Economy
2020
[EN] Nutrient recovery technologies are rapidly expanding due to the need for the appropriate recycling of key elements from waste resources in order to move towards a truly sustainable modern society based on the Circular Economy. Nutrient recycling is a promising strategy for reducing the depletion of non-renewable resources and the environmental impact linked to their extraction and manufacture. However, nutrient recovery technologies are not yet fully mature, as further research is needed to optimize process efficiency and enhance their commercial applicability. This paper reviews state-of-the-art of nutrient recovery, focusing on frontier technological advances and economic and environ…
Habitat fragmentation and anthropogenic factors affect wildcat Felis silvestris silvestris occupancy and detectability on Mt Etna
2019
International audience; Knowledge of patterns of occupancy is crucial for planning sound biological management and for identifying areas which require paramount conservation attention. The European wildcat Felis silvestris is an elusive carnivore and is classified as ‘least concern' on the IUCN red list, but with a decreasing population trend in some areas. Sicily hosts a peculiar wildcat population, which deserves conservation and management actions, due to its isolation from the mainland. Patterns of occupancy for wildcats are unknown in Italy, and especially in Sicily. We aimed to identify which ecological drivers determined wildcat occurrence on Mt Etna and to provide conservation actio…
Understanding the coexistence of competing raptors by Markov chain analysis enhances conservation of vulnerable species.
2016
Understanding ecological interactions among protected species is crucial for correct management to avoid conflicting outcomes of conservation planning. The occurrence of a superior competitor may drive the exclusion of a subordinate contestant, as in Sicily where the largest European population of the lanner falcon is declining because of potentially competing with the peregrine falcon. We measured the coexistence of these two ecologically equivalent species through null models and randomization algorithms on body sizes and ecological niche traits. Lanners and peregrines are morphologically very similar (Hutchinson ratios <1.3) and show 99% diet overlap, and both of these results predict …
The flight feather moult pattern of the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus)
2015
Moult is an extremely time-consuming and energy-demanding task for large birds. In addition, there is a trade-off between the time devoted to moulting and that invested in other activities such as breeding and/or territory exploration. Moreover, it takes a long time to grow a long feather in large birds, and large birds that need to fly while moulting cannot tolerate large gaps in the wing, but only one or two simultaneously growing feathers. As a consequence, large birds take several years to complete a full moult cycle, and they resume the moult process during suboptimal conditions. A clear example of this pattern is the Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), which needs 2-3 years for chang…
Diapause as escape strategy to exposure to toxicants: response of Brachionus calyciforus to arsenic
2016
Invertebrate organisms commonly respond to environmental fluctuation by entering diapause. Production of diapause in monogonont rotifers involves a previous switch from asexual to partial sexual reproduction. Although zooplankton have been used in ecotoxicological assays, often their true vulnerability to toxicants is underestimated by not incorporating the sexual phase. We experimentally analyzed traits involved in sexual reproduction and diapause in the cyclically parthenogenetic freshwater rotifer, Brachionus calyciflorus, exposed to arsenic, a metalloid naturally found in high concentrations in desert zones, focusing on the effectiveness of diapause as an escape response in the face of …
High variation in last male sperm precedence and genital morphology in the emerald damselfly, Lestes sponsa
2020
Abstract In organisms in which individuals mate multiply, knowledge of the proportion of offspring sired by the last male to mate (P2) under field conditions is important for a thorough understanding of how sexual selection works in nature. In many insect groups, pronounced intraspecific variation in P2 is commonplace. Interestingly, however, in stark contrast to these observations, compilation of P2 data in dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) indicates that a high P2, seldom below 0.95, is a feature of this taxon. Here we used double digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing to generate a panel of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with which we could determine paternity and …