Search results for "SPACE"
showing 10 items of 21658 documents
Hierarchical networks of food exchange in the black garden ant Lasius niger
2020
In most eusocial insects, the division of labour results in relatively few individuals foraging for the entire colony. Thus, the survival of the colony depends on its efficiency in meeting the nutritional needs of all its members. Here, we characterise the network topology of a eusocial insect to understand the role and centrality of each caste in this network during the process of food dissemination. We constructed trophallaxis networks from 34 food-exchange experiments in black garden ants (Lasius niger). We tested the influence of brood and colony size on (i) global indices at the network level (i.e. efficiency, resilience, centralisation and modularity) and (ii) individual values (i.e. …
Sex in space: population dynamic consequences
1999
Sex, so important in the reproduction of bigametic species, is nonetheless often ignored in explorations of the dynamics of populations. Using a growth model of dispersal-coupled populations we can keep track of fluctuations in numbers of females and males. The sexes may differ from each other in their ability to disperse and their sensitivity to population density. As a further complication, the breeding system is either monogamous or polygamous. We use the harmonic mean birth function to account for sex-ratio-dependent population growth in a Moran–Ricker population renewal process. Incorporating the spatial dimension stabilizes the dynamics of populations with monogamy as the breeding sys…
Oxidation, efflux, and isotopic fractionation of methane during autumnal turnover in a polyhumic, boreal lake
2007
[1] We studied the oxidation and efflux of methane (CH4) in a small, polyhumic lake, Mekkojarvi (southern Finland), during 6 weeks in autumn when the stability of the water mass first weakened, temporarily restabilized, and finally mixed completely. During the summer stratification period, CH4 had accumulated in the anoxic hypolimnion to high concentrations (>150 mmol m−3). Gradual mixing of the water column during the autumn allowed access to both oxygen and CH4 by aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB) deeper in the water column. Thus the bulk (∼83–88%) of the CH4 accumulated in the hypolimnion was subsequently consumed by MOB while only 12–17% was lost from the lake to the atmosphere a…
Pleurotus opuntiae revisited e An insight to the phylogeny of dimitic Pleurotus species with emphasis on the P. djamor complex
2018
Abstract The name Pleurotus opuntiae is indiscriminately used for describing mushrooms with white to off-white to white-grey pilei with short or absent stipe and dimitic hyphal system, which grow on plants of the genera Opuntia, Yucca, Agave, Phytolacca etc. However, the outcome of the present study evidences that this name should be reserved for specimens deriving from the Mediterranean area only; an epitype originating from Italy on Opuntia ficus-indica is designated. Pertinent material was sequenced by using the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) and found to be phylogenetically related to P. djamor from Kenya and Nigeria, while members of the P. djamor complex from other continent…
From clear lakes to murky waters – tracing the functional response of high-latitude lake communities to concurrent ‘greening’ and ‘browning’
2019
Climate change and the intensification of land use practices are causing widespread eutrophication of subarctic lakes. The implications of this rapid change for lake ecosystem function remain poorly understood. To assess how freshwater communities respond to such profound changes in their habitat and resource availability, we conducted a space-for-time analysis of food-web structure in 30 lakes situated across a temperature-productivity gradient equivalent to the predicted future climate of subarctic Europe (temperature +3 degrees C, precipitation +30% and nutrient +45 mu g L-1 total phosphorus). Along this gradient, we observed an increase in the assimilation of pelagic-derived carbon from…
Discard ban: A simulation-based approach combining hierarchical Bayesian and food web spatial models
2020
12 pages, 6 figures, 6 tables, 2 appendixes, supplementary data https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103703
Developing an orientation and cutting point determination algorithm for a trout fish processing system using machine vision
2019
Abstract Fish processing in small and medium fish supplying centers requires an intelligent system to operate on different sizes. Therefore, an image processing algorithm was developed to extract the proper head and belly cutting points according to the trout dimensions. The algorithm detects the fish orientation and location of pectoral, anal, pelvic, and caudal fins. In this study, each of the trout images was divided into slices along its length in order to segment the fins and extract cutting points. The channel ‘B’ of RGB color space was considered in both initial segmentation and fin detection stages among the examined channels of RGB, HSV, and L*a*b* color spaces. The back-belly and …
Checklist of gypsophilous vascular flora in Italy
2018
Our understanding of the richness and uniqueness of the flora growing on gypsum substrates in Italy has grown significantly since the 19th century and, even today, new plant species are still being discovered. However, the plants and plant communities, growing on gypsum substrates in Italy, are still a relatively unknown subject. The main aim of this paper was to elaborate a checklist of the Italian gypsophilous flora, to increase knowledge about this peculiar flora and for which conservation efforts need to be addressed. Through a structured group communication process of experts (application of the Delphi technique), a remarkable number of experienced Italian botanists have joined togethe…
No exception to the rule: Candidatus Portiera aleyrodidarum cell wall revisited
2014
International audience; Many insect endosymbionts described so far are gram-negative bacteria. Primary endosymbionts are obligatory bacteria usually harboured by insects inside vacuoles in specialized cells called bacteriocytes. This combination produces a typical three-membrane system with one membrane derived from the insect vacuole and the other two from the bacterial gram-negative cell envelope, composed by the cell wall (the outer membrane plus the periplasmic space) and the plasma membrane (the inner membrane). For the last 21 years, the primary endosymbiont of whiteflies 'Candidatus Portiera aleyrodidarum' was considered an exception to this rule. Previous works stated that only two …
Ecology, Phylogeny, and Potential Nutritional and Medicinal Value of a Rare White “Maitake” Collected in a Mediterranean Forest
2020
Albino Grifola frondosa (Dicks.) Gray &ldquo