Search results for "Oral"
showing 10 items of 11588 documents
Social flexibility and social evolution in mammals: a case study of the African striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio)
2011
Environmental change poses challenges to many organisms. The resilience of a species to such change depends on its ability to respond adaptively. Social flexibility is such an adaptive response, whereby individuals of both sexes change their reproductive tactics facultatively in response to fluctuating environmental conditions, leading to changes in the social system. Social flexibility focuses on individual flexibility, and provides a unique opportunity to study both the ultimate and proximate causes of sociality by comparing between solitary and group-living individuals of the same population: why do animals form groups and how is group-living regulated by the environment and the neuro-en…
Epiphytic bacteria make an important contribution to heterotrophic bacterial production in a humic boreal lake
2017
Bacterial production (BP) in lakes has generally only been measured in the pelagic zone without accounting for littoral BP, and studies of BP at the whole-lake scale are very scarce. In the dystrophic humic lakes, which are common throughout the boreal region, low light penetration through water has been assumed to seriously limit available habitats for littoral organisms. However, many highly humic boreal lakes have extensive partly submerged vegetation around the lake perimeter which can provide well-lit substrata for highly productive epiphyton. We measured epiphytic BP on the littoral vegetation and pelagic BP in a small highly humic boreal lake in Finland during an open-water season an…
Opinions 100, 101 and 102
2020
The International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes has formally made final decisions, taking into account the conclusions of the Judicial Commission, on three pending Requests for an Opinion, thereby allowing the corresponding Opinions to be issued. According to Opinion 100, the request for the recognition of strain A1-86 (=DSM 17629=NCIMB 14373) as the neotype strain of Eubacterium rectale (Hauduroy et al. 1937) Prévot 1938 (Approved Lists 1980) is denied, ruling that a neotype does not need to be designated for E. rectale because strain VPI 0990 (=ATCC 33656=CIP 105953) is considered to be a duplicate isolate of the same strain as VPI 0989 (=ATCC 25578) and may serve as its nomencl…
The role of male coloration in the outcome of staged contests in the European common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis)
2016
Colour signals play a key role in regulating the intensity and outcome of animal contests. Males of the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) show conspicuous ventrolateral ultraviolet (UV)-blue and black patches. In addition, some populations express a striking ventral colour polymorphism (i.e., discrete orange, white and yellow morphs). In this study, we set out to evaluate the potential signalling function of these colour patches by staging pairwise combats between 60 size-matched adult lizards (20 per morph). Combats were held in a neutral arena, with each lizard facing rivals from the three morphs in a tournament with a balanced design. We then calculated a fighting ability ranking usi…
Mediterranean Bioconstructions Along the Italian Coast
2018
Marine bioconstructions are biodiversity-rich, three-dimensional biogenic structures, regulating key ecological functions of benthic ecosystems worldwide. Tropical coral reefs are outstanding for their beauty, diversity and complexity, but analogous types of bioconstructions are also present in temperate seas. The main bioconstructions in the Mediterranean Sea are represented by coralligenous formations, vermetid reefs, deep-sea cold-water corals, Lithophyllum byssoides trottoirs, coral banks formed by the shallow-water corals Cladocora caespitosa or Astroides calycularis, and sabellariid or serpulid worm reefs. Bioconstructions change the morphological and chemicophysical features of prima…
Variation in timing of breeding of five woodpeckers in a primeval forest over 45 years: role of food, weather, and climate
2020
AbstractClimate warming could lead to ‘mis-matching’ of birds’ breeding times with availability of their invertebrate food resources. Fluctuating spring temperatures could influence variation in the commencement of egg-laying, as well as, in phenology of their resources (e.g., tree bud burst, appearance of folivorous caterpillars). We studied timing of Dendrocopos leucotos, Dendrocoptes medius, Dendrocopos major, Dryobates minor, and Picoides tridactylus breeding in, free of direct human intervention, strictly protected fragments of Białowieża Forest (Poland) in 1975–2019. We related their onset of breeding to inter-year variation in spring weather, trees’ bud burst and timing of folivorous…
The influence of thermal extremes on coral reef fish behaviour in the Arabian/Persian Gulf
2019
Despite increasing environmental variability within marine ecosystems, little is known about how coral reef fish species will cope with future climate scenarios. The Arabian/Persian Gulf is an extreme environment, providing an opportunity to study fish behaviour on reefs with seasonal temperature ranges which include both values above the mortality threshold of Indo-Pacific reef fish, and values below the optimum temperature for growth. Summer temperatures in the Gulf are comparable to those predicted for the tropical ocean by 2090–2099. Using field observations in winter, spring and summer, and laboratory experiments, we examined the foraging activity, distance from refugia and resting tim…
Flexible timing of reproductive effort as an alternative mating tactic in black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix) males
2016
Alternative reproductive tactics often take the form of dichotomous behavioural phenotypes. Focusing attention on such obvious dichotomy means that flexible patterns of behaviour within tactics is largely ignored. Using a long-term dataset of black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix) lek behaviours, we tested whether there were fine-scale differences in reproductive effort (lek attendance, fighting rates) and whether these were related to age and phenotype. Yearling males increased their lek attendance and fighting rate to a peak when adult male effort was declining. Adults and yearlings allocated reproductive effort according to their body mass but this was unrelated to differences in timing of effort…
Population and reproductive dynamics of the polychaete Pygospio elegans in a boreal estuary complex
2016
Pygospio elegans is an opportunistic, wide-spread spionid polychaete that reproduces asexually via fragmentation and can produce benthic and pelagic larvae, hence combining different developmental modes in one species. We documented the density, size distribution, and reproductive activity of P. elegans at four sites in the Danish Isefjord-Roskilde Fjord estuary complex, where all modes of reproduction were reported. We compared population dynamics of this species to environmental parameters such as salinity, temperature, and sediment characteristics (grain size, sorting, porosity, water content, organic content, C/N). We observed that new cohorts—resulting either from sexual or asexual rep…
Lake browning impacts community structure and essential fatty acid content of littoral invertebrates in boreal lakes
2021
AbstractMany lakes in the northern hemisphere are browning due to increasing concentrations of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The consequences of lake browning to littoral invertebrates, however, are not fully understood. We analyzed community structure and fatty acid (FA) profiles of littoral invertebrates in humic (DOC-rich) and clear-water lakes in Eastern Finland. We found higher abundance of chironomids (Diptera: Chironomidae) in humic compared to clear-water lakes, whereas stoneflies (Plecoptera) and mayflies (Ephemeroptera: Baetidae) were more abundant in clear-water lakes. Taxon explained 65% of the differences in the FA composition of littoral invertebrates. However, t…