Search results for "evolution"

Conceptualizing ecosystem tipping points within a physiological framework

2017

Connecting the nonlinear and often counterintuitive physiological effects of multiple environmental drivers to the emergent impacts on ecosystems is a fundamental challenge. Unfortunately, the disconnect between the way “stressors” (e.g., warming) is considered in organismal (physiological) and ecological (community) contexts continues to hamper progress. Environmental drivers typically elicit biphasic physiological responses, where performance declines at levels above and below some optimum. It is also well understood that species exhibit highly variable response surfaces to these changes so that the optimum level of any environmental driver can vary among interacting species. Thus, specie…

The role of in situ species diversification for the evolution of high vascular plant species diversity in the European Alps—A review and interpretati…

2017

Abstract By harbouring ca. 3500 native vascular plant species in an area of ca. 170 000 km2, the European Alps represent a region of very high species diversity. Using the most recently published flora of the area and phylogenetic literature, I here review which proportion of the endemic flora of the Alps is the result of in situ diversification, i.e., of diversification in the area and (largely) restricted to the area. There exist only very few and mostly species-poor species diversifications in the Alps, accounting for ca. 1.2% of the native and for ca. 9% of the endemic flora of the Alps. In contrast to this, ca. 33% of the endemic species of the Alps belong to lineages widespread in the…

Quasi-Fractional Models of Human Tendons Hereditariness

2018

In this study, the authors, after collecting a series of experimental evidences following a creep and relaxation tendon campaign, propose a non-linear model of the viscoelastic behavior of the tendons. The ligaments investigated are the patellars and the hamstrings. The analytical model proposed by the authors aims to explain the non-linear hereditary behavior of these tissues and proposes an approach with which to develop a hereditary fractional-order non-linear model.

Lymphatic vessels of the dura mater: a new discovery?

2015

Aspelund et al. discover the presence of a lymphatic vessel network in the dura mater of the mouse brain and show that these dural lymphatic vessels are important for the clearance of macromolecules from the brain.

<p><strong>A new genus of Phaneropterinae (Orthoptera: Ensifera: Tettigoniidae) </strong><strong>from Central Africa</stro…

2014

The new genus Pseudoplangia is described for Plangia laminifera Karsch, 1896. Its general aspect is similar to that of the genus Plangia Stal, 1873, but it differs remarkably in the vertex width, in the shape of eyes, that are oval and elongate, in the length of mid femora, that are shorter than pronotum length, in the shape of fore and mid legs that are very much laterally compressed, and in the presence of broad-based spines on the hind tibiae.

Zur Bewertung der Blattdornen vonHalimodendron halodendron (Fabaceae)

1979

Halimodendron halodendron is a spiny shrub of north-western Asia. The spines are formed by the rachises of the paripinnate leaves. After abscission of pinnae the rigid rachises remain for several years. In culture these rachis spines do not develop fully.

Chemical Ecology of Floral Resources in Conservation Biological Control.

2023

Conservation biological control aims to enhance populations of natural enemies of insect pests in crop habitats, typically by intentional provision of flowering plants as food resources. Ideally, these flowering plants should be inherently attractive to natural enemies to ensure that they are frequently visited. We review the chemical ecology of floral resources in a conservation biological control context, with a focus on insect parasitoids. We highlight the role of floral volatiles as semiochemicals that attract parasitoids to the food resources. The discovery that nectar-inhabiting microbes can be hidden players in mediating parasitoid responses to flowering plants has highlighted the co…

Mechanisms of refinement of avian nest defence behaviour

2003

Individual learning in the refinement of nest defence responses of the Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia)

2006

Structural analysis of network models in tetrapod skulls : evolutionary trends and structural constraints in morphological complexity, integration an…

2013

Background Ever since classic anatomists like George Cuvier, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, or Richard Owen laid down the fundamental principles of comparative anatomy in the 19th century, connections among anatomical parts have been essential for the recognition of biological homologies. However, few studies have addressed the possibility of implementing an adequate methodological tool to use connections among parts to unveil problems in morphology; although Woodger, Rashevsky, Riedl, and, more recently, Rasskin-Gutman pointed in this direction. In the last decades Network Theory has been developed as a novel conceptual and methodological framework to deal with the relational properties that emerge…