Search results for "tit"
showing 10 items of 26608 documents
Essential oil variability in a collection of Ocimum basilicum L. (basil) cultivars.
2016
Ocimum basilicum L. (Lamiaceae) is an aromatic plant of great tradition in the Mediterranean area. Its economic importance is growing up determining an expansion of cultivation. This paper evaluated the morphological traits, the chemical profiles, and antibacterial activity of 21 cultivars of basil belonging to Ê»Genoveseʼ, Ê»Napoletanoʼ, and Ê»Purple basilʼ types. The cultivars were characterized by different growth rate and morphological traits. The chemical composition of the oils analyzed by GC and GC/MS analysis, supported by the PCA analysis, underlined the strong influence of chemotype. It is noteworthy that estragole, never present in Genovese and purple basil types, occurred in …
Lake restoration influences nutritional quality of algae and consequently Daphnia biomass
2020
AbstractFood quality is one of the key factors influencing zooplankton population dynamics. Eutrophication drives phytoplankton communities toward the dominance of cyanobacteria, which means a decrease in the availability of sterols and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (EPA and DHA). The effects of different restoration measures on the nutritional quality of the phytoplankton community and subsequent impacts on zooplankton biomass have rarely been considered. We analyzed the nutritional quality of phytoplankton in the eutrophic Lake Vesijärvi in southern Finland over a 37-year period, and studied the impacts of two restoration measures, biomanipulation and hypolimnetic aeration, on th…
Don't Know Much about Bumblebees?-A Study about Secondary School Students' Knowledge and Attitude Shows Educational Demand.
2018
Many insects are threatened with extinction, which in the case of pollinating insects could lead to declining pollination services and reduced ecosystem biodiversity. This necessitates rethinking how we deal with nature in general. Schools are ideal places in which to instill a willingness to behave in an environmentally-friendly way. Whereas scientific studies and school textbooks stress the importance of honeybees as pollinators, the role of bumblebees is either underestimated or neglected. The aim of this study was to provide information concerning student knowledge and attitudes, which are important factors of an individual’s environmental awareness. A questionnaire with closed and open…
Larvicidal Activity of Essential Oils of Five Apiaceae Taxa and Some of Their Main Constituents Against Culex quinquefasciatus.
2018
Apiaceae are aromatic herbs producing essential oils which are used on an industrial scale for various purposes. Notably, Apiaceae essential oils may replace synthetic insecticides keeping most of their efficacy and avoiding environmental pollution and human poisoning. In the present work, we explored the insecticidal potential of the essential oils from five Apiaceae taxa, namely Sison amomum, Echinophora spinosa, Heracleum sphondylium subsp. sphondylium, Heracleum sphondylium subsp. ternatum, and Trachyspemum ammi, as well as their major constituents (sabinene, p-cymene, terpinolene, myristicin, and thymol), against the filariasis vector Culex quinquefasciatus. For the purpose, the essent…
Costs and Benefits of Experimentally Induced Changes in the Allocation of Growth versus Immune Function under Differential Exposure to Ectoparasites
2010
Background Ecological immunology has focused on the costs of investment in immunocompetence. However, understanding optimal resource allocation to immune defence requires also identification of its benefits, which are likely to occur only when parasites are abundant. Methodology We manipulated the abundance of parasitic hen fleas in blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) nests, and supplemented their hosts, the nestlings, with methionine (a sulphur amino acid enhancing cell-mediated immunity) during day 3–6. We found a significant interaction between these two experimental factors on the development of immune defences and growth rates. Only in parasitized nests did methionine supplementation boost …
Osmotrophic glucose and leucine assimilation and its impact on EPA and DHA content in algae
2020
The uptake of dissolved organic compounds, that is, osmotrophy, has been shown to be an efficient nutritional strategy for algae. However, this mode of nutrition may affect the biochemical composition, for example, the fatty acid (FA) contents, of algal cells. This study focused on the osmotrophic assimilation of glucose and leucine by selected seven algal strains belonging to chlorophytes, chrysophytes, cryptophytes, dinoflagellates and euglenoids. Our laboratory experiments with stable isotope labeling showed that osmotrophy occurred in four of the selected seven strains. However, only three of these produced long chain omega-3 FAs eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5ω3) and docosahexaenoic a…
Assessment of genetically modified maize GA21 for renewal of authorisation under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 (application EFSA‐GMO‐RX‐005)
2017
Efsa Panel On Genetically Modified Organisms (gmo) Requestor: European Commission (DG SANTE)Question number: EFSA-Q-2016-00714Correspondence; Following the submission of application EFSA-GMO-RX-005 under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 from Syngenta Crop Protection NV/SA, the Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms of the European Food Safety Authority (GMO Panel) was asked to deliver a scientific risk assessment on the data submitted in the context of the renewal of authorisation application of the herbicide-tolerant genetically modified maize GA21. The data received in the context of this renewal application contained post-market environmental monitoring reports, a systematic search and eval…
Personality affects zebra finch feeding success in a producer-scrounger game.
2011
7 pages; International audience; Recent evidence strongly suggests that natural selection can favour the evolution of consistent individual differences in behaviour ('personalities'). Indeed, personality shows heritable variation and has been linked to fitness in many species. However, the fitness effects of personality are highly variable within and between species. Furthermore, the nature of the causal influence of personality on an organism's fitness remains unclear so far. Competition has been proposed as a factor modulating this relationship. Thus, personality has been found to affect individual success in competition by interference in a few species, but its influence in scramble comp…
Contrasting olfactory responses of two egg parasitoids to buckwheat floral scent are reflected in field parasitism rates
2019
International audience; Conservation biological control programs advocate the planting of flower strips alongside crops to improve the survival and effectiveness of parasitoids. Ideally, the provided food plants are highly attractive and benefit the targeted biocontrol agents without promoting pests or intraguild competition. Previous laboratory studies showed that Trissolcus basalis, an egg parasitoid of the stink bug Nezara viridula, is highly attracted to floral odors of buckwheat and that its nectar increases the wasp’s fecundity. In the field, T. basalis competes with the co-occurring parasitoid Ooencyrtus telenomicida for host eggs. Therefore, in the present study, we explored whether…
Weed and Weeding Effects on Medicinal Herbs
2017
Competition with weeds exerts significant depressive effects on yield and quality features of Medicinal Plants (MPs). According to the crop, the part of plant to be harvested, the environmental features (including cropping technique) and the severity of infestation, yield losses due to the presence of weeds may vary within wide intervals. Furthermore, unlike the majority of other crops, MPs are cultivated with the goal to obtain relevant quantities of specific secondary metabolites, whose final quantity determines the quality level (and, consequently, the market value) of the harvested drug. Almost all papers addressed to this topic agree on the statement that unrestricted weed growth may a…