Search results for "diversity"

Effects of soil metal contamination on genetic diversity of the earthworm Dendrobaena octaedra (Savigny) in three metal contaminated areas in Finland

2007

Empirical links between natural mortality and recovery in marine fishes

2017

Probability of species recovery is thought to be correlated with specific aspects of organismal life history, such as age at maturity and longevity, and how these affect rates of natural mortality ( M ) and maximum per capita population growth ( r max ). Despite strong theoretical underpinnings, these correlates have been based on predicted rather than realized population trajectories following threat mitigation. Here, we examine the level of empirical support for postulated links between a suite of life-history traits (related to maturity, age, size and growth) and recovery in marine fishes. Following threat mitigation (medium time since cessation of overfishing = 20 years), 71% of 55 tem…

Temperature effects explain continental scale distribution of cyanobacterial toxins

2018

Insight into how environmental change determines the production and distribution of cyanobacterial toxins is necessary for risk assessment. Management guidelines currently focus on hepatotoxins (microcystins). Increasing attention is given to other classes, such as neurotoxins (e.g., anatoxin-a) and cytotoxins (e.g., cylindrospermopsin) due to their potency. Most studies examine the relationship between individual toxin variants and environmental factors, such as nutrients, temperature and light. In summer 2015, we collected samples across Europe to investigate the effect of nutrient and temperature gradients on the variability of toxin production at a continental scale. Direct and indirect…

Red-list of Italian bryophytes. 1. Liverworts and hornworts

2023

The objective of this study is to provide an updated conservation status of all liverworts and hornworts in the Italian territory, evaluated according to IUCN's Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional Level. Overall, 27.4% of taxa assessed in this study are assigned to a risk category and, therefore, considered threatened in Italy. Four liverworts are considered as Extinct, two liverworts and one hornwort Possibly Extinct at regional level. Moreover, a further 9.8% are assessed as Near Threatened, 10.8% as Data Deficient and 49.7% as Least Concern. Most threats are co-occurring, indicating that many taxa are subjected to a set of correlated adverse processes. The ma…

Wpływ zróżnicowania narodowościowego na poziom kapitału społecznego lokalnej wspólnoty. Badania porównawcze w wybranych gminach województwa opolskiego

2019

Badania związane z pomiarem kapitału społecznego są w ostatnich 20 latach jednym z dominujących obszarów zainteresowań w naukach społecznych. Ciekawym zagadnieniem jest wpływ zróżnicowania narodowościowego na poziom kapitału społecznego. Jak twierdzi Robert Putnam, w warunkach amerykańskich zróżnicowanie to negatywnie wpływa na poziom kapitału społecznego. Realizowane w Europie inicjatywy badawcze wskazują jednak, że zróżnicowanie narodowościowe nie wykazuje znaczącej negatywnej korelacji z kapitałem społecznym, a nawet można znaleźć przykłady, gdy oddziałuje nań pozytywnie. W artykule przeprowadzono analizę ilościową w 20 gminach województwa opolskiego (10 jednolitych narodowościowo, 10 zr…

Emerging Joint Expertise? Multiagency Collaboration Described in Local Integration Programmes in Finland

2016

Multiagency collaboration is seen as an essential way of working to promote the two-way integration of newcomers and a receiving society. The term multiagency collaboration underlines the diversity of actors in cooperation. Cross-sectorial networks are mentioned in higher strategies as well as in the local programmes or plans for action. But how is multiagency work structured at the local level? This article looks at the examples of multiagency collaboration in the written documents of local integration programmes in the Finnish context. The examples are chosen from different areas. It seems that collaboration is widely emphasized as a goal or a working method. Whereas expertise in integrat…

Automatic image‐based identification and biomass estimation of invertebrates

2020

Understanding how biological communities respond to environmental changes is a key challenge in ecology and ecosystem management. The apparent decline of insect populations necessitates more biomonitoring but the time-consuming sorting and expert-based identification of taxa pose strong limitations on how many insect samples can be processed. In turn, this affects the scale of efforts to map and monitor invertebrate diversity altogether. Given recent advances in computer vision, we propose to enhance the standard human expert-based identification approach involving manual sorting and identification with an automatic image-based technology. We describe a robot-enabled image-based identificat…

Discovery of Retinoic Acid-Related Orphan Receptor γt Inverse Agonists via Docking and Negative Image-Based Screening

2018

Retinoic acid-related orphan receptor γt (RORγt) has a vital role in the differentiation of T-helper 17 (TH17) cells. Potent and specific RORγt inverse agonists are sought for treating TH17-related diseases such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 1 diabetes. Here, the aim was to discover novel RORγt ligands using both standard molecular docking and negative image-based screening. Interestingly, both of these in silico techniques put forward mostly the same compounds for experimental testing. In total, 11 of the 34 molecules purchased for testing were verified as RORγt inverse agonists, thus making the effective hit rate 32%. The pIC50 values for the compounds varied from 4.9 (11 μ…

National high-resolution conservation prioritisation of boreal forests

2023

The continuous decline of forest biodiversity highlights the importance of the development of cost-effective and ecologically sustainable land-use planning approaches. Spatial conservation prioritisation (SCP) can be regarded as a useful tool for this challenge. We produced high-resolution, national scale SCP analyses to identify unprotected forest areas that host valuable forest biodiversity. We used stand-based modelled dead wood potential (DWP) data as a primary surrogate for conservation value. In addition, data on forestry operations that have negative impacts on biodiversity, connectivity between forest areas, the observations of red-listed forest species, connectivity to forest habit…

Global monitoring of soil animal communities using a common methodology.

2022

Here we introduce the Soil BON Foodweb Team, a cross-continental collaborative network that aims to monitor soil animal communities and food webs using consistent methodology at a global scale. Soil animals support vital soil processes via soil structure modification, consumption of dead organic matter, and interactions with microbial and plant communities. Soil animal effects on ecosystem functions have been demonstrated by correlative analyses as well as in laboratory and field experiments, but these studies typically focus on selected animal groups or species at one or few sites with limited variation in environmental conditions. The lack of comprehensive harmonised large-scale soil anim…