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opencc-zeroMar 2022View details →

Ecological impacts of photosynthetic light harvesting in changing aquatic environments: A systematic literature map

Underwater light is spatially as well as temporally variable and directly affects phytoplankton growth and competition. Here we systematically (following the guidelines of PRISMA-EcoEvo) searched and screened the published literature resulting in 640 individual articles. We mapped the conducted research for the objectives of (1) phytoplankton fundamental responses to light, (2) effects of light on the competition between phytoplankton species and (3) effects of climate change induced changes in the light availability in aquatic ecosystems. Among the fundamental responses of phytoplankton to light, the effects of light intensity (quantity, as measure of total photon or energy flux) were investigated in most identified studies. The effects of the light spectrum (quality) that via species-specific light absorbance result in direct consequences on species competition emerged more recently. Complexity in competition arises due to variability and fluctuations in light which effects are sparsely investigated on community level. Predictions regarding future climate change scenarios included changes in in stratification and mixing, lake and coastal ocean darkening, UV radiation, ice melting as well as light pollution which affect the underwater light-climate. Generalization of consequences is difficult due to a high variability, interactions of consequences as well as a lack in sustained timeseries and holistic approaches. Nevertheless, our systematic literature map, and the identified articles within, provide a comprehensive overview and shall guide prospective research.

Lagged effects of herbivory impact host-choice but not nymphal survivorship in an ant-protected treehopper

Theoretical studies have shown that in protection mutualism, modification of top-down control by protectors may be destabilizing. Central to this prediction are the assumptions that 1) protection mutualism increases the abundance of protected partners, 2) this increased abundance generates a lagged effect on partner resources, and 3) spatial dynamics can be ignored. Although a number of studies have confirmed that protection mutualism can increase the abundance of protected herbivores, the evidence for a negative effect of protected herbivores on plant quality is mixed, and we are unaware of any studies that have explored the effect of protected herbivores on plant quality across growing seasons. Here, we use the protection mutualism between ants and the treehopper Publilia concava to evaluate the assumption that treehopper herbivory has a lagged effect on plant quality. We also evaluated whether ant-protection exacerbated the negative effect of treehoppers on their host plants. We used a two-way factorial design that manipulated ant and treehopper presence on goldenrod host plants in one year, and assessed oviposition and survivorship on those same plants in the subsequent year. Treehopper herbivory was associated with a decrease in the probability of oviposition and female treehoppers laid significantly fewer egg masses on plants that had been fed on the previous year, regardless of ant-tending. In contrast, a prior history of herbivory had no impact on future treehopper performance as measured by nymph survival. Ant tending increased treehopper abundance and exacerbated the risk of plant mortality but otherwise did not significantly modify the negative effect of treehopper herbivory on plant quality or future treehopper performance. Although the increase in treehopper abundance associated with ant-tending and the lagged oviposition response of treehoppers is consistent with the core assumptions of a model showing that mutualism can be destabilizing, the avoidance of previously occupied plants for oviposition is not. These results highlight the importance of future modeling studies that explore spatiotemporal dynamics in protection mutualism, and long-term field studies that track the effect of mutualism across years.

Impacts on food web properties of island invertebrate communities vary between different human land uses

Human land use is of growing concern for island ecosystems. Besides direct impacts on biodiversity, land uses can alter the functioning and structure of ecosystems. Central to this are impacts on food webs. The release of additional nutrients from human origin, habitat homogenization, or environmental filtering due to human land use can change the diet of individual consumer species (i.e., their trophic niches) and the distribution and overlap of trophic niches within a food web. However, it remains largely unclear whether the effects on food web properties vary between the different and predominant human land uses present on islands. Here, we investigated the impact of two dominant human land uses on small oceanic islands (i.e., urban and tourism development) and tested if and how different land uses on islands affect food web structure. To disentangle human land uses, we investigated islands, which were either privately owned by a tourist facility (i.e., exclusively tourism land use) or experienced urban development from the local population (i.e., urban land use), or remained uninhabited, serving as reference sites free of direct land use. Using stable isotope analysis, we show that isotope signature, trophic (isotopic) niches, and overall food web properties of the investigated island invertebrate communities were significantly changed under both land use regimes. While trophic diversity was reduced and trophic niche widths increased under tourism land use, the investigated food webs showed reduced trophic diversity at the food web base and a more uneven trophic niche distribution under urban land use. In summary, these findings show that different human land uses can have contrasting impacts on oceanic island food webs. As oceanic islands experience rapidly growing human land conversion, our results indicate that they may also face increasing yet unpredictable long-term changes in food web dynamics.

Genetic composition and diversity of Arabica coffee in the crop's center of origin and its impact on four major fungal diseases

Conventional wisdom states that genetic variation reduces disease levels in plant populations. Nevertheless, crop species have been subject to a gradual loss of genetic variation through selection for specific traits during breeding, thereby increasing their vulnerability to biotic stresses such as pathogens. We explored how genetic variation in Arabica coffee sites in southwestern Ethiopia was related to the incidence of four major fungal diseases. Sixty sites were selected along a gradient of management intensity, ranging from nearly wild to intensively managed coffee stands. We used genotyping-by-sequencing of pooled leaf samples (pool-GBS) derived from 16 individual coffee shrubs in each of the sixty sites to assess the variation in genetic composition (multivariate: reference allele frequency) and genetic diversity (univariate: mean expected heterozygosity) between sites. We found that genetic composition had a clear spatial pattern and that genetic diversity was higher in less managed sites. The incidence of the four fungal diseases was related to the genetic composition of the coffee stands, but in a specific way for each disease. In contrast, genetic diversity was only related to the within-site variation of coffee berry disease, but not to the mean incidence of any of the four diseases across sites. Given that fungal diseases are major challenges of Arabica coffee in its native range, our findings that genetic composition of coffee sites impacted the major fungal diseases may serve as baseline information to study the molecular basis of disease resistance in coffee. Overall, our study illustrates the need to consider both host genetic composition and genetic diversity when investigating the genetic basis for variation in disease levels.

Data set from "Impact of the Free-Pelvis innovation in very rigid braces for adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis: short-term results of a matched case-control study"

Dataset from a still non-published study titled "Impact of the Free-Pelvis innovation in very rigid braces for adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis: short-term results of a matched case-control study"

opencc-by-4.0May 2022View details →

Insolation and CO2 impacts on the spatial differences of the MIS-9 and MIS-11 climate between monsoonal China and central Asia

The model outputs we use are those performed in Yin & Berger (2012) where the climate of the last nine interglacials were simulated with the LOVECLIM model. The model outputs for MIS-11 and MIS-9 are used here to study the climate conditions in mid and eastern Asia.

Data From: Antibiotic treatment ameliorates the impact of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) on coral communities

Stony coral tissue loss disease has spread widely in the Caribbean and causes substantial changes to coral community composition because of its broad host range and high fatality rate. To reduce SCTLD impacts, intervention programs throughout the region have divers treating corals with antibiotics. We assessed the effect of antibiotic treatment in the British Virgin Islands by comparing coral communities at 13 treated sites to those at 13 untreated sites. The prevalence of white syndromes (assumed to be primarily SCTLD), the severity of white syndrome lesions, partial colony mortality and complete colony mortality all showed a pattern consistent with benefits of treatment: they were reduced at treated sites but only for species of medium- and high-susceptibility to SCTLD. In contrast, the prevalence and severity of lesions from other diseases, and other causes of tissue loss, were all unrelated to treatment. Re-ordering of rank abundance at the community-level was also consistent with a positive effect of treatment because rare, highly SCTLD-susceptible species increased slightly in relative cover at treated sites. Although there was limited statistical support for these responses individually, collectively the overall pattern of results indicates a modest beneficial effect of the intervention program. Diver-based intervention programs using antibiotics are thus a viable part of management plans for STLD at the epidemic stage.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2021View details →

THE IMPACT OF NUTRITION ON STUDENT PERFORMANCE AND HEALTH: WHY THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET?

Malnutrition is associated with poor psycho-physical health, behavioral problems, and unsatisfactory learning outcomes. Numerous studies show that adhering to a healthy diet such as the Mediterranean Diet (MD) can have beneficial effects on students, increasing their academic performance, quality of life, and their health status. 200 students aged 10-15 years it turns out that a large proportion of students surveyed; despite the information they have about healthy foods, do not eat properly and have admitted that they have low concentration and lack of attention during the learning process. Based on this identified situation, it is necessary to orient students towards a correct lifestyle and mainly towards the Mediterranean diet as a healthy dietary model.

Supplementary Materials for Potential Health and Economic Impacts of Shifting Manufacturing from China to Indonesia or India

The Supplementary Materials for ariticle Potential Health and Economic Impacts of Shifting Manufacturing from China to Indonesia or India.

Raw data for article "Use of molasses-based blocks to modify grazing patterns and increase Highland cattle impacts on Alnus viridis-encroached pastures"

Data supporting the conclusions of the article "Use of molasses-based blocks to modify grazing patterns and increase Highland cattle impacts on Alnus viridis-encroached pastures" published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Authors: Mia Svensk, Ginevra Nota, Pierre Mariotte, Marco Pittarello, Davide Barberis, Michele Lonati, Eric Allan, Elisa Perotti and Massimiliano Probo.

Supporting information for "Global trade-drivers in emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and associated health impacts"

Emissions: PAH emission inventory for 17 sectors in 189 regions, input-output tables of emissions from the perspectives of primary input, final sale and final consumption, net flow patterns of emissions, the contributions of different drivers to the changes in PAH emissions (Gg) in 13 worldwide regions from 2012 to 2015. Health impacts: Lung cancer rates, Concentrations of BaP, lifetime lung cancer deaths in worldwide regions, input-output tables of deaths from the perspectives of primary input, final sale and final consumption, net flow patterns of deaths, the contributions of different drivers to the changes in the lifetime lung cancer deaths in 13 worldwide regions from 2012 to 2015.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2021View details →

Data and code for Mechanisms of damage prevention, signalling, and repair impact the ability of Drosophila to tolerate enteric bacterial infection

Data and code for Prakash, A., Monteith, K. M., & Vale, P. F. (2021). Mechanisms of damage prevention, signalling, and repair impact the ability of Drosophila to tolerate enteric bacterial infection. bioRxiv.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2021View details →

Understanding and Mitigating the Impact of Wi-Fi 6E Interference on Ultra-Wideband Communications and Ranging

Artifacts containing data sets and scripts for the paper "Understanding and Mitigating the Impact of Wi-Fi 6E Interference on Ultra-Wideband Communications and Ranging" published at the International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN) 2022.

Does colour impact responses to images in geckos?

Animals are exposed to different visual stimuli that influence how they perceive and interact with their environment. Visual information such as shape and colour can help the animal detect, discriminate and make appropriate behavioural decisions for mate selection, communication, camouflage, and foraging. In all major vertebrate groups, it has been shown that certain species can discriminate and prefer certain colours and that colours may increase the response to a stimulus. However, since colour is often studied together with other potentially confounding factors, it is still unclear what role colour plays in the perception of and attention to biologically relevant and familiar stimuli versus novel stimuli. In this study, we test whether colour influences the response that an animal has to an object, and if this influence – if any – changes depending on the object shown to the animal. We therefore assessed the response of three gecko species Correlophus ciliatus, Eublepharis macularius, and Phelsuma laticauda to familiar and novel objects presented as colour or grayscale images. Our results indicate that colour did not change the animal's response to any of the objects. Specifically, we found that while all species responded more often to the novel than to the familiar images, colour did not influence the response. We also found that the duration of interaction with images was significantly longer for the diurnal species, P. laticauda, than for the two nocturnal species, but this was again independent from colouration. Finally, no differences among sexes were observed within or across species. Our results indicate that geckos discriminate between 2D images of different content independent of colouration, suggesting that colouration may not increase detectability or intensity of the response. These results are essential for uncovering which visual stimuli produce a response in animals

Ancient geological dynamics impact neutral biodiversity accumulation and are detectable in phylogenetic reconstructions

Aim Landmasses have been continuously modified by tectonic activity, the breakup and collision of landmasses is thought to have generated or suppressed ecological opportunities, altering the rates of speciation, dispersal and extinction. However, the extent to which the signatures of past geologic events are retained in modern biodiversity patterns - or obliterated by recent ecological dynamics - remains unresolved. We aim to identify the fingerprint of different scenarios of geological activity on phylogenetic trees and geographic range size distributions. Location Global. Time period Geological time. Major taxa studied Theoretical predictions for any taxa. Methods We conducted spatially explicit simulations under a neutral model of range evolution, speciation and extinction for three different geological scenarios that differed in their geological histories. We set a limit in the number of populations that locally can coexist which along with the geographic boundaries of landmasses, influences the rate of range expansion. Results Our results demonstrate regions of similar size, age and ecological limits will differ in richness and macroevolutionary patterns based solely on the geological history of landmass breakup-collision even in the absence of species' ecological differences i.e., neutrality. When landmasses collide, regional richness is higher, lineages exhibit more similar rates of speciation and phylogenetic trees are more balanced than in the geologically static scenario. Stringent local limits to coexistence yield lower regional diversity but in general do not affect our ability to distinguish geological scenarios. Main conclusions These findings provide an alternative explanation for existence of some hotspots of diversity in areas of high geological activity. Although a limit in the number of coexisting species largely influences regional diversity, its contribution to phylogenetic patterns is lower than variation in per-capita rates of speciation and extirpation. Importantly, these findings demonstrate the potential for inferring past geological history from distributions of phylogenies and range sizes.

Impacts of seasonality on gene expression in the Chinese Horseshoe Bat

Seasonality can cause changes in many environmental factors which potentially affects gene expression. Here, we used a bat species (Rhinolophus sinicus) from eastern China as a model to explore the molecular mechanisms of seasonal effects, in particular during phenological shifts in the spring and autumn. Based on the analysis of 45 RNA-seq samples, we found strong seasonal effects on gene expression, with a large number of genes identified as either specific or biased to each season. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis also identified multiple modules significantly associated with each season. These seasonal genes were further enriched into different functional categories. Consistent with effects of phenological shifts on bats, we found that genes related to promoting food intake were highly expressed in both autumn and spring. In addition, immunity genes were also highly expressed in both seasons although this seasonal immune response had tissue specificity in different seasons. In female bats, genes related to the delay of ovulation (e.g. NPPC, natriuretic peptide precursor type C) were highly expressed in October, while genes associated with the promotion of reproduction (e.g. DIO2, iodothyronine deiodinase 2) were biasedly expressed in April. Lastly, we found multiple known core clock genes in both October-biased and April-biased expressed genes, which may be involved in regulating the start and end of hibernation, respectively. Overall, together with studies in other land and aquatic animals, our work supports that seasonal gene expression variations may be a general evolutionary response to environmental changes in wild animals.

opencc-by-4.0Jul 2022View details →

The impact of Natural Variability on Regional Sea-Level Rise During the Satellite-Altimetry Era

We share the datasets for each figure. Anyone can use the datasets under proper citation.

Data from: Simulated winter warming negatively impacts survival of Antarctica's only endemic insect

Antarctic winters are challenging for terrestrial invertebrates, and species that live there have specialized adaptations to conserve energy and protect against cold injury in the winter. However, rapidly occurring climate change in these regions will increase the unpredictability of winter conditions, and there is currently a dearth of knowledge on how the highly adapted invertebrates of Antarctica will respond to changes in winter temperatures. We evaluated the response of larvae of the Antarctic midge, Belgica antarctica, to simulated winters at three ecologically relevant mean temperature scenarios: Warm (-1 °C), Normal (-3 °C) and Cold (-5 °C). Within each scenario, larvae were placed into three distinct habitat types in which they are commonly observed (decaying organic matter, living moss, and Prasiola crispa algae). Following the simulated overwintering period, a range of physiological outcomes were measured, namely survival, locomotor activity, tissue damage, energy store levels and molecular stress responses. Survival, energy stores and locomotor activity were significantly lower following the Warm overwintering environment than at lower temperatures, but tissue damage and heat shock protein expression (a proxy for protein damage) did not significantly differ between the three temperatures. Survival was also significantly lower in larvae overwintered in Prasiola crispa algae, although the underlying mechanism is unclear. Heat shock proteins were expressed least in larvae overwintering in living moss, suggesting it is less stressful to overwinter in this substrate, perhaps due to a more defined structure affording less direct contact with ice. Our results demonstrate that a realistic 2 °C increase in winter microhabitat temperature reduces survival and causes energy deficits that have implications for subsequent development and reproduction. While our Warm winter scenario was close to the range of observed overwintering temperatures for this species, warmer winters are expected to become more common in response to climate change. Conversely, if climate change reduces the length of winter, some of the negative consequences of winter warming may be attenuated, so it will be important to consider this factor in future studies. Nonetheless, our results indicate that winter warming could negatively impact cold-adapted insects like the Antarctic midge.

opencc-by-4.0May 2022View details →

Impact of Cloud Process in the Mixing State and Microphysical Properties of Soot Particles: Implications in Light Absorption Enhancement

The data of paper of "Impact of Cloud Process in the Mixing State and Microphysical Properties of Soot Particles: Implications in Light Absorption Enhancement".

Review and synthesis of the global literature on domestic cat impacts on wildlife

A vast global literature documents that free-roaming domestic cats (Felis catus) have substantial negative effects on wildlife, including through predation, fear, disease, and competition-related impacts that have contributed to numerous wildlife extinctions and population declines worldwide. However, no study has synthesized this literature on cat impacts on wildlife to evaluate its overarching biases and major gaps. To direct future research and conservation related to cat impacts on wildlife, we conducted a global literature review that entailed evaluation and synthesis of patterns and gaps in the literature related to the geographic context, methods, and types of impacts studied. Our systematic literature search compiled 2,245 publications. We extracted information from 332 of these meeting inclusion criteria designed to ensure the relevance of studies analyzed. This synthesis of research on cat impacts on wildlife highlights a focus on oceanic islands, Australia, Europe, and North America, and on rural areas, predation, impacts of unowned cats, and impacts at population and species levels. Key research advances needed to better understand and manage cat impacts include more studies in underrepresented, highly biodiverse regions (Africa, Asia, South America), on cat impacts other than predation, and on methods designed to reduce impacts on wildlife. The identified areas of needed research into cat impacts on wildlife will be critical to further clarifying the role of cats in global wildlife declines and to implementing science-driven policy and management that benefit conservation efforts.