Search results for "Methods"

2020

Understanding how and why rates of evolutionary diversification vary is a key issue in evolutionary biology, ecology, and biogeography. Evolutionary rates are the net result of interacting processes summarized under concepts such as adaptive radiation and evolutionary stasis. Here, we review the central concepts in the evolutionary diversification literature and synthesize these into a simple, general framework for studying rates of diversification and quantifying their underlying dynamics, which can be applied across clades and regions, and across spatial and temporal scales. Our framework describes the diversification rate (d) as a function of the abiotic environment (a), the biotic envir…

Monitoring of transglutaminase crosslinking reaction by 1H NMR spectroscopy on model substrates

2015

International audience; A new method based on 1H NMR spectroscopy was developed for monitoring transglutaminase crosslinking reaction with model molecules (CBZ-Gln-Gly and N-α-acetyl-lysine). The transglutaminase reaction led to the appearance of new resonances on NMR spectrum as well as significant decrease in others. The new observed resonances, originated from newly formed ɛ-(γ-glutamyl)lysine isopeptide bonds, evidence the enzymatic reaction and allow to quantify the ɛ-(γ-glutamyl)lysine fragment. Moreover, the decrease in resonance intensity, originated from lysine, permit to determine the crosslinking degree. These results obtained by 1H NMR spectroscopy can be used as an alternative …

Visible implant elastomer (VIE) success in early larval stages of a tropical amphibian species

2020

AbstractAnimals are often difficult to distinguish at an individual level, but being able to identify individuals can be crucial in ecological or behavioral studies. In response to this challenge, biologists have developed a range of marking (tattoos, brands, toe-clips) and tagging (PIT, VIA, VIE) methods to identify individuals and cohorts. Animals with complex life cycles are notoriously hard to mark because of the distortion or loss of the tag across metamorphosis. In frogs, few studies have attempted larval tagging and none have been conducted on a tropical species. Here, we present the first successful account of VIE tagging in early larval stages (Gosner stage 25) of the dyeing poison…

An integrated analysis of micro- and macro-habitat features as a tool to detect weather-driven constraints: A case study with cavity nesters.

2017

The effects of climate change on animal populations may be shaped by habitat characteristics at both micro- and macro-habitat level, however, empirical studies integrating these two scales of observation are lacking. As analyses of the effects of climate change commonly rely on data from a much larger scale than the microhabitat level organisms are affected at, this mismatch risks hampering progress in developing understanding of the details of the ecological and evolutionary responses of organisms and, ultimately, effective actions to preserve their populations. Cavity nesters, often with a conservation status of concern, are an ideal model because the cavity is a microenvironment potentia…

Long-term changes in winter abundance of the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus in Poland and the climate change - Are current monitoring schemes s…

2020

Warmer winters may lead to changes in the hibernation behaviour of bats, such as the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus, which prefers to hibernate at low temperatures. The species is also known for its large annual fluctuations in the number of wintering individuals, so inference about population trends should be based on long-term data. Prior to 2005, analyses indicated stable or even increasing barbastelle population in Poland. We analysed the results of 13 winter bat counts (2005–2017) of the species from 15 of the largest hibernacula, and additional site of 47 small bunkers, in Poland. The total number of wintering individuals remained stable during the study period, because the barb…

Influence of chlorophyllaquantification methods in ecological quality indices

2019

Chlorophyll a concentration in aquatic ecosystems is strongly related to the phytoplankton community biomass, the growth of which depends on nutrient availability. Thus, chlorophyll a concentration...

Gibberellic acid in Citrus spp. flowering and fruiting: A systematic review

2019

[EN] Background In Citrus spp., gibberellic acid (GA) has been proposed to improve different processes related to crop cycle and yield. Accordingly, many studies have been published about how GA affects flowering and fruiting. Nevertheless, some such evidence is contradictory and the use of GA applications by farmers are still confusing and lack the expected results. Purpose This review aims to collate, present, analyze and synthesize the most relevant empirical evidence to answer the following questions: (i) how does gibberellic acid act on flowering and fruiting of citrus trees?; (ii) why is all this knowledge sometimes not correctly used by farmers to solve yield problems relating to flo…

Linking extreme seasonality and gene expression in arctic marine protists

2021

ABSTRACTAt high latitudes, strong seasonal differences in light availability affect marine organisms and restrict the timing of ecosystem processes. Marine protists are key players in Arctic aquatic ecosystems, yet little is known about their ecological roles over yearly cycles. This is especially true for the dark polar night period, which up until recently was assumed to be devoid of biological activity. A 12 million transcripts catalogue was built from 0.45-10 μm protist assemblages sampled over 13 months in a time series station in an arctic fjord in Svalbard. Community gene expression was correlated with seasonality, with light as the main driving factor. Transcript diversity and evenn…

Cost-efficiency assessments of marine monitoring methods lack rigor—a systematic mapping of literature and an end-user view on optimal cost-efficienc…

2021

Global deterioration of marine ecosystems, together with increasing pressure to use them, has created a demand for new, more efficient and cost-efficient monitoring tools that enable assessing changes in the status of marine ecosystems. However, demonstrating the cost-efficiency of a monitoring method is not straightforward as there are no generally applicable guidelines. Our study provides a systematic literature mapping of methods and criteria that have been proposed or used since the year 2000 to evaluate the cost-efficiency of marine monitoring methods. We aimed to investigate these methods but discovered that examples of actual cost-efficiency assessments in literature were rare, contr…

Does beak coloration of male blackbirds play a role in intra and/or intersexual selection?

2002

In many bird species, males may show brightly coloured traits and variance in male mating success may be explained by female preference and/or competition between males favouring the most coloured males. Male beak coloration has been suggested to play an important role in the pairing pattern of European blackbirds. Here, we investigate female preference and male-male interactions in relation to male beak coloration in this species. We used a field experiment to measure female and male responses toward stuffed decoys showing either of two beak coloration representing the extremes of the natural variation from yellow to orange. Decoys were situated on the centre of plots and behaviours of mal…