Search results for "WL"
showing 10 items of 4149 documents
Do peahens not prefer peacocks with more elaborate trains?
2008
Ever since Darwin (1871), the peacock’s train has been cited as the icon of an extravagant conspicuous secondary sexual trait that has evolved through female mate choice. However, Takahashi et al. (2008) recently challenged this idea. They monitored female mate choice during 7 years in a feral peafowl, Pavo cristatus, population in Japan and found no correlation between male mating success and three morphological train traits. They concluded that ‘combined with previous results, our findings indicate that the peacock’s train is not currently the universal target of female choice’ and proposed ‘that the peacock’s train is an obsolete signal for which female preference has already been lost o…
Can green infrastructure help to conserve biodiversity?
2017
The gradually decreasing connectivity of habitats threatens biodiversity and ecological processes valuable to humans. Green infrastructure is promoted by the European Commission as a key instrument for the conservation of ecosystems in the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020. Green infrastructure has been defined as a network of natural and semi-natural areas, designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services. We surveyed Finnish experts' perceptions on the development of green infrastructure within the existing policy framework. Our results show that improving the implementation of existing conservation policy instruments needs to be an integral part of developing green infr…
Active Wild Food Practices among Culturally Diverse Groups in the 21st Century across Latgale, Latvia
2021
Simple Summary A study in the bordering region of Latvia took place in order to investigate wild plant food uses. In total 72 interviewees reported food uses. The most represented uses of recorded plants were recreational tea; for jam; as snacks and soup; and drink. Interviewees also reported loss of foraging practice due to the habitat change as for example in case of caraway and chamomile. The results indicated that part of the reason for the main use of wild plants were linked to diet diversification. Abstract Local ecological knowledge (LEK), including but not limited to the use of wild food plants, plays a large role in sustainable natural resource management schemes, primarily due to …
Tackling invasive alien species in Europe II: threats and opportunities until 2020
2017
2nd Freshwater Invasives - Networking for Strategy II (FINS-II) Conference -- JUL 11-14, 2016 -- Zagreb, CROATIA Skora, Michal Edward/0000-0002-9121-1318; Groom, Quentin/0000-0002-0596-5376; Lukas, Juliane/0000-0003-3336-847X; Skora, Michal/0000-0002-9121-1318; Piria, Marina/0000-0001-6324-9282; Smith, Emily/0000-0003-2767-9933; Simonovic, Predrag/0000-0002-4819-4962; Pastorino, Paolo/0000-0002-0585-1168; Koutsikos, Nicholas/0000-0003-0680-4504; Vilizzi, Lorenzo/0000-0001-8103-885X; Dobrzycka-Krahel, Aldona/0000-0002-4252-895X; Tarkan, Ali Serhan/0000-0001-8628-0514 WOS: 000412582000002 Invasive alien species (IAS) are a significant and growing problem worldwide. In Europe, some aspects of …
Melanism is related to behavioural lateralization in nestling barn owls.
2017
5 pages; International audience; Behavioural laterality is a commonly observed phenomenon in many species suggesting there might be an advantage of using dominantly one side over the other for certain tasks. Indeed, lateralized individuals were often shown to be more successful in cognitive tasks compared to non-lateralized conspecifics. However, stressed individuals are also often, but not always, more strongly lateralized. Because barn owl (Tyto alba) females displaying larger black spots on the tip of their ventral feathers produce offspring that are more resistant to a variety of environmental stressful factors, we examined whether laterality is associated with melanin-based coloration.…
Age is not just a number—Mathematical model suggests senescence affects how fish populations respond to different fishing regimes
2021
Abstract Senescence is often described as an age‐dependent increase in natural mortality (known as actuarial senescence) and an age‐dependent decrease in fecundity (known as reproductive senescence), and its role in nature is still poorly understood. Based on empirical estimates of reproductive and actuarial senescence, we used mathematical simulations to explore how senescence affects the population dynamics of Coregonus albula, a small, schooling salmonid fish. Using an empirically based eco‐evolutionary model, we investigated how the presence or absence of senescence affects the eco‐evolutionary dynamics of a fish population during pristine, intensive harvest, and recovery phases. Our si…
Temporal and spatial patterns of trawl fishing activities in the Adriatic Sea (Central Mediterranean Sea, GSA17)
2020
Abstract Trawl fishing activities have occurred for centuries on large spatial scale in the entire Mediterranean Sea, and today they are considered as one of the main and widespread causes of anthropogenic disturbance and habitat alteration in the marine environment. In order to delineate when, where and how marine ecosystems have been perturbed and to implement ecosystem-based management strategies, the identification and investigation of the spatial and temporal distribution of fishing effort and the fleet dynamics play a key role. In this context, Geospatial Technologies such as the Automatic Identification System (AIS) could represent a useful tool. The aim of the present work is to rec…
Exploring the development of scientific research on Marine Protected Areas: From conservation to global ocean sustainability
2021
Abstract Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are playing a central role in the achievement of ocean sustainability and, since 2000, their global coverage has increased over ten times. The success of MPAs, and therefore the delivery of their potential outcomes for human well-being and global sustainability, requires multi-disciplinary, holistic, and comprehensive approaches for its achievement. In this study, the global scientific literature on MPAs was quantitatively reviewed through bibliometrics approaches, investigating patterns and trends in its development over time. In particular, bibliometric network and citation burst analyses of keywords were performed using VOSviewer and CiteSpace softw…
Modelling the effects of more selective trawl nets on the productivity of European hake (Merluccius merluccius) and deep-water rose shrimp (Parapenae…
2018
Single-species Gadget models were used to assess the effects of using a sorting grid mounted on the traditional trawl net used by Sicilian trawlers to exploit the deep-water rose shrimp in the Strait of Sicily. The main commercial by-catch species of this fleet is the European hake (Merluccius merluccius), often caught at sizes well below the minimum conservation reference size. Selectivity curves based on the results of an experimental survey carried out in the area using a commercial trawler equipped with an ad hoc-designed sorting grid were incorporated into single-species Gadget models to forecast the effects of changing fishery selectivity on the performance of the two stocks in terms …
Effects of starvation on survival, cannibalism, body mass, and intestinal protozoan profile in the subterranean termite Reticulitermes lucifugus
2019
Scarcity or inadequate nutrition can affect biological and behavioural aspects of subterranean termites and their intestinal protozoan profile. The aim of this study was to investigate changes in survival, cannibalism, body mass, and protist community structure of Reticulitermes lucifugus Rossi subspecies “Sicily” following starvation to provide basic knowledge for the development of more specific studies on a possible survival strategy under stressful conditions. In nature, this termite consumes many food sources and its feeding activity is continuous during the year. In a 35-day laboratory experiment, groups of 50 termites (worker/soldier ratio 49:1) were subjected to two diets, starvatio…