Search results for "Nut"
showing 10 items of 8413 documents
Quantifying the evolution of animal dairy intake in humans using calcium isotopes
2021
International audience; The contribution of dairy products to modern human diets has a debated role in the expansion of Neolithic economies and the dynamics of demographic transitions. While current methods allow discussing dairy production and processing, no approach allows reconstructing quantitatively its effective consumption. Calcium isotopes (δ44/42Ca) potentially represent such a marker due to the abundance of isotopically fractionated Ca in dairy products. Here, we test Ca isotope sensitivity to dietary intake of dairy product: we first used a dietary model based on a compilation of available data of dietary Ca sources; we then compared the modelled outputs to available and newly ac…
Seasonal and habitat effects on the nutritional properties of savanna vegetation: Potential implications for early hominin dietary ecology.
2019
The African savannas that many early hominins occupied likely experienced stark seasonality and contained mosaic habitats (i.e., combinations of woodlands, wetlands, grasslands, etc.). Most would agree that the bulk of dietary calories obtained by taxa such as Australopithecus and Paranthropus came from the consumption of vegetation growing across these landscapes. It is also likely that many early hominins were selective feeders that consumed particular plants/plant parts (e.g., leaves, fruit, storage organs) depending on the habitat and season within which they were foraging. Thus, improving our understanding of how the nutritional properties of potential hominin plant foods growing in mo…
Last Interglacial Iberian Neandertals as fisher-hunter-gatherers.
2020
Fruits of the sea The origins of marine resource consumption by humans have been much debated. Zilhão et al. present evidence that, in Atlantic Iberia's coastal settings, Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals exploited marine resources at a scale on par with the modern human–associated Middle Stone Age of southern Africa (see the Perspective by Will). Excavations at the Figueira Brava site on Portugal's Atlantic coast reveal shell middens rich in the remains of mollusks, crabs, and fish, as well as terrestrial food items. Familiarity with the sea and its resources may thus have been widespread for residents there in the Middle Paleolithic. The Figueira Brava Neanderthals also exploited stone pine…
Current Wildland Fire Patterns and Challenges in Europe: A Synthesis of National Perspectives
2021
Changes in climate, land use, and land management impact the occurrence and severity of wildland fires in many parts of the world. This is particularly evident in Europe, where ongoing changes in land use have strongly modified fire patterns over the last decades. Although satellite data by the European Forest Fire Information System provide large-scale wildland fire statistics across European countries, there is still a crucial need to collect and summarize in-depth local analysis and understanding of the wildland fire condition and associated challenges across Europe. This article aims to provide a general overview of the current wildland fire patterns and challenges as perceived by natio…
Calcareous nannofossil palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and preservation in sapropel S1 at the Eratosthenes Seamount (Eastern Mediterranean)
2019
Abstract The most recent organic carbon-enriched layer (sapropel S1) deposited at the Eratosthenes Seamount has unique features, such as an early lithological interruption, fine light silt laminae and an exceptional vertical extent that is over 25 cm thick. Here we investigate calcareous nannofossil assemblages to reconstruct very high-resolution palaeoenvironmental and palaeoceanographic variations recorded before, during and after the perturbation episode that involved the eastern Mediterranean Sea, due to the massive freshwater discharge via Nile River. Our results show that the deep chlorophyll maximum development, observed in all micropalaeontological groups from previous studies, is a…
Planning for the future : identifying conservation priority areas for Iberian birds under climate change
2018
[Context]: Species are expected to shift their distributions in response to global environmental changes and additional protected areas are needed to encompass the corresponding changes in the distributions of their habitats. Conservation policies are likely to become obsolete unless they integrate the potential impacts of climate and land-use change on biodiversity.
The stoichiometry of particulate nutrients in Lake Tanganyika — implications for nutrient limitation of phytoplankton
1999
We studied the potential nutrient limitation of phytoplankton by means of seston nutrient stoichiometry and nutrient enrichment bioassays in the epilimnion of Lake Tanganyika. In most cases, the particulate carbon to phosphorus (C:P) ratio was high and indicated moderate P deficiency, while the respective C:N ratio mainly suggested moderate N deficiency. The N:P ratios of seston indicated rather balanced N and P supply. In three two-day enrichment bioassays in April—May 1995, a combined addition of P, N and organic carbon (glucose) always increased primary production in comparison to untreated controls. Primary production also slightly increased after the addition of phosphate-P, while the …
Allochthonous carbon is a major regulator to bacterial growth and community composition in subarctic freshwaters
2016
In the subarctic region, climate warming and permafrost thaw are leading to emergence of ponds and to an increase in mobility of catchment carbon. As carbon of terrestrial origin is increasing in subarctic freshwaters the resource pool supporting their microbial communities and metabolism is changing, with consequences to overall aquatic productivity. By sampling different subarctic water bodies for a one complete year we show how terrestrial and algal carbon compounds vary in a range of freshwaters and how differential organic carbon quality is linked to bacterial metabolism and community composition. We show that terrestrial drainage and associated nutrients supported higher bacterial gro…
Trophic state changes can affect the importance of methane-derived carbon in aquatic food webs
2017
Methane-derived carbon, incorporated by methane-oxidizing bacteria, has been identified as a significant source of carbon in food webs of many lakes. By measuring the stable carbon isotopic composition (δ13C values) of particulate organic matter, Chironomidae andDaphniaspp. and their resting eggs (ephippia), we show that methane-derived carbon presently plays a relevant role in the food web of hypertrophic Lake De Waay, The Netherlands. Sediment geochemistry, diatom analyses and δ13C measurements of chironomid andDaphniaremains in the lake sediments indicate that oligotrophication and re-eutrophication of the lake during the twentieth century had a strong impact on in-lake oxygen availabili…
Tropical Andean forests are highly susceptible to nutrient inputs--rapid effects of experimental N and P addition to an Ecuadorian montane forest.
2012
Tropical regions are facing increasing atmospheric inputs of nutrients, which will have unknown consequences for the structure and functioning of these systems. Here, we show that Neotropical montane rainforests respond rapidly to moderate additions of N (50 kg ha -1 yr -1) and P (10 kg ha -1 yr -1). Monitoring of nutrient fluxes demonstrated that the majority of added nutrients remained in the system, in either soil or vegetation. N and P additions led to not only an increase in foliar N and P concentrations, but also altered soil microbial biomass, standing fine root biomass, stem growth, and litterfall. The different effects suggest that trees are primarily limited by P, whereas some pro…