Search results for "evolution"
showing 10 items of 11096 documents
Effects of fragmented breeding habitat and resource distribution on behavior and survival of the bank vole ( Myodes glareolus )
2010
Habitat fragmentation causes negative population trends or even local extinction in many species. Understanding the role of fragmentation on behavior and space use of animals is an essential part of revealing the mechanism behind observed population declines. We studied experimentally the effects of small-scale habitat fragmentation on the distribution and movement of bank voles (Myodes glareolus) in seminatural enclosures. We predicted that besides habitat structure, availability of two resources, food for both sexes, and receptive females for males, determine individual distribution. We manipulated female density (either 0, 4, or 12 per enclosure) and followed movements of radio-collared …
Changing female spacing behaviour and demography in an enclosed breeding population of Clethrionomys glareolus
1988
The social organization of Clethrionomys glareolus Schreber was studied by live trapping in an enclosure of 0.8 ha in Central Finland between the years 1982–1986. The enclosure consisted of three habitats: abandoned field, brushwood, and moist spruce heath forest. The population density increased from 50 voles ha−1 in 1982 and 1983 to 150 ha−1 in 1984 and 1985. In the summer of 1986 the population crashed to almost zero. In the summer of 1984 after winter breeding the number of breeding females grew to 22 compared with 6–7 in previous years. In 1984 the mature females changed from territorial to group behaviour. During the high population density in 1984 and 1985 breeding stopped already in…
Mixis strategies and resting eeg production of rotifers living in temporally-varying habitats
1993
A dynamic model based on six differential equations has been developed to explore the control of mixis of rotifers living in temporally-varying habitats. The equations give variation rates of amictic females, three stages of mictic females, males and resting eggs. The model takes into account some constraints on mixis (e.g., male-female encounter probability and effort involved in resting egg production) and its predictions have been generated by computer simulation using parameter values from the literature. For simulation, a time-dependent birth rate function was assumed to account for changes in the environment, and several mixis patterns (i.e., moment of mixis induction and mictic rate …
Galerucella nymphaeae (Col., Chrysomelidae) grazing increases Nuphar leaf production and affects carbon and nitrogen dynamics in ponds.
1990
The grazing effects of the waterlily beetle Galerucella nymphaeae on Nuphar lutea stands were studied in three ponds in Central Finland. Production of floating leaves of N. lutea and growth in the G. nymphaeae population were investigated in the ponds and bioenergetics of the beetle larvae in the laboratory. Combination of field and laboratory data enabled estimation of the effect of the beetle on the production of floating leaves of N. lutea and the consequences of grazing for the input of detritus from Nuphar into the ponds. Adults and larvae of G. nymphaeae consumed 3.0–6.1% of the net annual floating leaf production during the growing period. In addition to consumption losses, feeding a…
Hieracium barrelieri, a new hawkweed species from S Italy, with notes on Tenore’s Hieracium murorum var. barrelieri (Asteraceae)
2015
A new species from Montevergine in Campania, Hieracium barrelieri, is described in detail. It is closest to H. acanthodontoides of H. sect. Acanthodontoidea. H. murorum var. barrelieri, an obsolete taxon described by Tenore, is also discussed, as it was partly based on the same population.
Optimizing the Integration Area and Performance of VLIW Architectures by Hardware/Software Co-design
2021
The cost and the performance are major concerns that the designers of embedded processors shall take into account, especially for market considerations. In order to reduce the cost, embedded systems rely on simple hardware architectures like VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) processors and they look for compiler support. This paper aims at developing a design space explorer of VLIW architectures from different perspectives like processing performance and integration area. A multi-objective Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used to find the optimum hardware configuration of an embedded system and the optimization rules applied by compiler on the benchmarks code. The first step consisted in represen…
Larval Arrest in Development of Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)
1986
Arrested larval development (in the last larval instar) of part of the total larval population has been detected in moderately crowded situations (40 larvae in 2 g food) in Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) cultures This phenomenon is the same found previously in highly crowded cultures of Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen) and other related species. The arrest may be viewed as a mechanism of physiological adaptation of organisms to competitive situations.
Determinants of jaguar occupancy at the northern range edge
2020
Identifying factors promoting jaguar (Panthera onca) occupancy is crucial for planning effective conservation and management actions that can contribute to long-term population viability. We used camera-trapping and modeled factors affecting detection and occupancy for jaguars in Sonora at 149 sites during August-November 2008 and 2009. We measured 24 covariates presumed to affect detection (n = 6) and occupancy (n = 18) at camera sites, including sampling period and various habitat characteristics. We obtained 29 jaguar detections at 19 sites (naive occupancy = 0.12) in 5455 trap-days of effort. Jaguar detectability (p = 0.16 +/- 0.05) was negatively affected by human presence and varied b…
A population genetics view of animal domestication
2012
The fundamental shift associated with the domestication of plants and animals allowed for a dramatic increase in human population sizes and the emergence of modern society. Despite its importance and the decades of research devoted to studying it, questions regarding the origins and processes of domestication remain. Here, we review recent theoretical advances and present a perspective that underscores the crucial role that population admixture has played in influencing the genomes of domestic animals over the past 10000 years. We then discuss novel approaches to generating and analysing genetic data, emphasising the importance of an explicit hypothesis-testing approach for the inference of…
Multi-modal search for multiobjective optimization: an application to optimal smart grids management
2012
This paper studies the possibility to use efficient multimodal optimizers for multi-objective optimization. In this paper, the application area considered for such new approach is the optimal dispatch of energy sources in smart microgrids. The problem indeed shows a non uniform Pareto front and requires efficient optimal search methods. The idea is to exploit the potential of agents in population-based heuristics to improve diversity in the Pareto front, where solutions show the same rank and are thus equally weighted. Since Pareto dominance is at the basis of the theory of multi-objective optimization, most algorithms show the non dominance ranking as quality indicator, with some problem i…