Over the years, concern about the effects of microplastics has grown. Here, we answered the main question “What are the impacts of microplastics on the functional traits of fish species?” through a ...meta‐analysis. The general impact of microplastic exposure on the functional traits of fishes and specifically on eight variables, namely, behaviour, development, fecundity, feeding, growth, health, hatching and survival was explored. Subgroup analyses were performed to detect correlations between the impact of microplastics and the following factors: species, life stage, habitat, water column habitat, day of exposure to microplastics and microplastic size, type and shape. A meta‐regression analysis allowed understanding the correlation between the impact of microplastics and the size of organisms. Generally, microplastics have a negative effect on the functional traits of fishes. Feeding and behaviour, followed by growth showed the greatest impact. Among the subgroup analysis, four of the eight variables considered showed a significant difference between groups: species, life stage, microplastic shape and days of exposure to microplastics. Depending on their life stage, organisms may be more sensitive to microplastic pollution. Changes in growth rates, development of early life stage and behavioural patterns in fishes may have a negative effect on the structure and functions of aquatic ecosystem in the long term and consequently affect the ability of aquatic ecosystems to provide ecosystem services and sustain human communities.
Concern on the effects of microplastics has grown, but “What are the impacts of microplastics on the functional traits of fish species?” Our global meta‐analysis looked at eight functional traits: behaviour, development, fecundity, feeding, growth, hatching, health and survival. Impacts have been investigated depending on species, life stage, habitat, day of exposure and microplastic size, type and shape. Microplastics have a negative effect on fishes' functional traits regardless of size. Feeding, behaviour and growth showed the greatest negative impact. Effects on the structure and functions of aquatic ecosystem may, in the long term, affect the ecosystem services provision.
The rapid appearance of bilaterian clades at the beginning of the Phanerozoic is one of the most intriguing topics in macroevolution. However, the complex feedbacks between diversification and ...ecological interactions are still poorly understood. Here, we show that a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the trace-fossil record of the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition indicates that body-plan diversification and ecological structuring were decoupled. The appearance of a wide repertoire of behavioural strategies and body plans occurred by the Fortunian. However, a major shift in benthic ecological structure, recording the establishment of a suspension-feeder infauna, increased complexity of the trophic web, and coupling of benthos and plankton took place during Cambrian Stage 2. Both phases were accompanied by different styles of ecosystem engineering, but only the second one resulted in the establishment of the Phanerozoic-style ecology. In turn, the suspension-feeding infauna may have been the ecological drivers of a further diversification of deposit-feeding strategies by Cambrian Stage 3, favouring an ecological spillover scenario. Trace-fossil information strongly supports the Cambrian explosion, but allows for a short time of phylogenetic fuse during the terminal Ediacaran–Fortunian.
Several concepts pertaining to the dramatic changes that occurred during the Cambrian have been proposed, namely the Agronomic Revolution (AR), the Cambrian Substrate Revolution (CSR) and the ...Cambrian Information Revolution (CIR). The original concept of the AR refers to the replacement of Precambrian-type substrates (“matgrounds”) by Phanerozoic-type ones (“mixgrounds”). The CSR highlights the evolutionary and ecological effects of Cambrian substrate changes on epifaunal sessile metazoans. The CIR involves the distribution of signals in an environment that an organism can potentially respond to, underscoring an increased complexity and heterogeneity of marine ecosystems, which may have played a major role as a driving force of further evolutionary change during the Cambrian. A systematic review of the Ediacaran-Cambrian ichnofossil record allows to provide some temporal resolution for these Cambrian revolutions and to explore the synergies among these evolutionary breakthroughs and possible geobiological outcomes. The AR is not coincident with the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary, but rather it is manifested by Cambrian Age 2. Because the CSR focuses on the response of the epifauna to newly evolved mixgrounds and the late Cambrian appearance of hardgrounds, it may be understood, at least in part, as a consequence of the AR. In contrast, the CIR involved the appearance of sophisticated, innovative feeding strategies that allowed benthic organisms to successfully exploit resources in an increasingly more heterogeneous sea bottom. The occurrence in the Fortunian of highly patterned grazing trails reflects the establishment of efficient navigational devices. Although the CIR signals the appearance of novel body plans and novel ways of animal-substrate interactions, strategies involving matground exploitation were still widespread in the Fortunian. More dramatic changes took place in Cambrian Age 2, as revealed by the onset of the AR and later the effects on epifaunal sessile organisms and communities during the CSR, signalling to the transition to shallow-marine ecosystems of modern aspect.
Microplastics are widespread in the aquatic environment and thus available for many organisms at different trophic levels. Many scientific papers focus their attention on the study of the effects of ...microplastics on different species at individual level. Here we performed a global scale meta-analysis focusing our work on the study of the effect of microplastics on the functional traits of aquatic benthic organisms. Overall, microplastics showed a moderate negative effect on the examined functional traits of benthic organisms. Our results show that some crucial functional traits, such as those linked to behaviour and feeding, appear to be unaffected by microplastics. In contrast, traits related to the capacity of organisms to assimilate energy are affected. Moreover, traits with possible effects at population level appear to be negatively affected by microplastics. We discuss how the direct impact of organismal performance may have indirect repercussions at higher levels in the ecological hierarchy and represent a risk for the stability and functioning of the ecosystem.
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•We collated and synthetised scientific evidence of microplastics effects on benthos.•The meta-analysis focused on functional traits of benthic species of aquatic realms.•Microplastics showed a moderate negative effect on the examined functional traits.•Quantitative synthesis represents a robust, salient, integrated scientific baseline.•Results can inform scientists, stakeholders addressing the decision-making process.
Our quantitative synthesis on the effects of microplastics on functional traits of benthic species inhabiting aquatic habitats represents a potential step forward from the existing literature focused on plastics occurrence monitoring only.
Ichnodiversity has been used as a proxy for environmental stress and stability in facies interpretations and to reconstruct evolutionary radiations and colonization histories in evolutionary ...palaeoecology. The three components of global diversity are exported from ecology and adapted for ichnology. Alpha ichnodiversity is used for palaeoenvironmental characterization, being assessed for individual facies. Beta ichnodiversity is commonly overlooked, although it may provide information about degree of similarity between ichnofaunas formed along environmental gradients. Gamma ichnodiversity may provide clues to detect ichnofossil provincialism. The concept of disparity may also prove to be significant in ichnological studies. Whereas ichnodiversity refers to ichnotaxonomic richness, ichnodisparity provides a measure of the variability of morphological plans in biogenic structures. Changes in global ichnodiversity do not necessarily parallel changes in ichnodisparity. For example, while the Cambrian explosion involved a dramatic increase in both, the Ordovician radiation essentially reflects an increase only in the former. Ichnodiversity and ichnodisparity should be used with caution because they are both affected by taphonomic processes. High diversity of superficial to shallow-tier trace fossils may result from enhanced preservation due a poorly developed mixed layer, rather than a true reflection of ecosystem performance, as shown by underexploited infaunal ecospace after biotic crises (e.g. end-Permian mass extinction).
Age-related decline in muscle strength is an important public health issue for older adults. Dietary protein has been associated with maintenance of muscle mass, yet its relation to muscle strength ...remains unclear.
We determined the association of dietary protein (total, animal, and plant) intake, measured by food frequency questionnaire, with change in grip strength over 6 years in 1,746 men and women from the Framingham Offspring cohort.
Mean age at baseline was 58.7 years (range: 29-85), and mean total, animal, and plant protein intakes were 79, 57, and 22 g/d, respectively. Adjusted baseline mean grip strength did not differ across quartiles of energy-adjusted total, animal or protein intake. Greater protein intake, regardless of source, was associated with less decrease in grip strength (all p for trend ≤.05): participants in the lowest quartiles lost 0.17% to 0.27% per year while those in the highest quartiles gained 0.52% to 0.60% per year. In analyses stratified by age, participants aged 60 years or older (n = 646) had similar linear trends on loss of grip strength for total and animal (all p for trend <.03) but not plant protein, while the trends in participants younger than 60 years (n = 896) were not statistically significant.
Higher dietary intakes of total and animal protein were protective against loss of grip strength in community-dwelling adults aged 60 years and older. Increasing intake of protein from these sources may help maintain muscle strength and support prevention of mobility impairment in older adults.
Ichnodisparity has been recently introduced as a concept to assess the variability of morphologic plans in biogenic structures, revealing major innovations in body plan, locomotory system and/or ...behavioral program. Whereas ichnodiversity is measured in terms of the number of ichnotaxa (i.e. ichnogenera or ichnospecies), ichnodisparity is evaluated based on the identification of categories of architectural design. Seventy-nine categories of architectural designs (58 for bioturbation structures and 21 for bioerosion structures), encompassing 523 ichnogenera (417 for bioturbation structures and 106 for bioerosion structures), are defined. They are restricted to invertebrate ichnotaxa, whereas vertebrate trace fossils were not included. Although the scheme is designed to be comprehensive, the proposed categories are necessarily works in progress because of the state of flux in ichnotaxonomy and the need to adjust the definitions of categories according to the scope and scale of the analysis. Although it may be said that the establishment of categories of architectural design is to a certain degree a subjective enterprise, this is not different from ichnotaxonomy because classifying trace fossils from a taxonomic perspective implies observing the morphology of the trace and interpreting it in terms of behavior. The concept of ichnodisparity is free of some of the vagaries involved in ichnotaxonomy. The fact that ichnodiversity and ichnodisparity exhibit different trajectories during the Phanerozoic underscores the importance of adding the latter to the ichnologic toolkit.
Research shows that higher dietary protein of up to 1.2 g/kg
/day may help prevent sarcopenia and maintain musculoskeletal health in older individuals. Achieving higher daily dietary protein levels ...is challenging, particularly for older adults with declining appetites and underlying health conditions. The negative impact of these limitations on aging muscle may be circumvented through the consumption of high-quality sources of protein and/or supplementation. Currently, there is a debate regarding whether source of protein differentially affects musculoskeletal health in older adults. Whey and soy protein have been used as the most common high-quality proteins in recent literature. However, there is growing consumer demand for additional plant-sourced dietary protein options. For example, pea protein is rapidly gaining popularity among consumers, despite little to no research regarding its long-term impact on muscle health. Therefore, the objectives of this review are to: (1) review current literature from the past decade evaluating whether specific source(s) of dietary protein provide maximum benefit to muscle health in older adults; and (2) highlight the need for future research specific to underrepresented plant protein sources, such as pea protein, to then provide clearer messaging surrounding plant-sourced versus animal-sourced protein and their effects on the aging musculoskeletal system.
Multi-jet merging with TMD parton branching Bermudez Martinez, A.; Hautmann, F.; Mangano, M. L.
The journal of high energy physics,
09/2022, Letnik:
2022, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
A
bstract
One of the main theoretical systematic uncertainties in studies of final states with large jet multiplicities at high-energy hadron colliders is associated with the merging of QCD parton ...showers and hard-scattering matrix elements. We present a method to incorporate the physics of transverse momentum recoils due to initial-state shower evolution into multi-jet merging algorithms by using the concept of transverse momentum dependent (TMD) distributions and the associated parton branching. We investigate the dependence on the merging scale and illustrate the impact of the new method at the level of both exclusive and inclusive final-state observables by studying differential jet rates, transverse momentum spectra and multiplicity distributions, using vector boson + jets events at the LHC as a case study.
Rocks of Ediacaran age (~635-541 Ma) contain the oldest fossils of large, complex organisms and their behaviors. These fossils document developmental and ecological innovations, and suggest that ...extinctions helped to shape the trajectory of early animal evolution. Conventional methods divide Ediacaran macrofossil localities into taxonomically distinct clusters, which may represent evolutionary, environmental, or preservational variation. Here, we investigate these possibilities with network analysis of body and trace fossil occurrences. By partitioning multipartite networks of taxa, paleoenvironments, and geologic formations into community units, we distinguish between biostratigraphic zones and paleoenvironmentally restricted biotopes, and provide empirically robust and statistically significant evidence for a global, cosmopolitan assemblage unique to terminal Ediacaran strata. The assemblage is taxonomically depauperate but includes fossils of recognizable eumetazoans, which lived between two episodes of biotic turnover. These turnover events were the first major extinctions of complex life and paved the way for the Cambrian radiation of animals.
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