Habitat complexity is one of the most important factors structuring biotic assemblages, yet we still lack basic understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Although it is one of the primary targets ...in conservation management, no methods are available for comparing complexity across ecosystems, and system-specific qualitative assessment predominates. Despite its overwhelming importance for faunal diversity and abundance, there has been surprisingly little interest in examining its effects on other community and ecosystem attributes. We discuss possibilities of such effects, outlining potentially fruitful areas for future research, and argue that complexity may be implicated in community persistence and ecosystem stability by acting as a decoupling mechanism in predator–prey interactions. We provide a brief overview of methods used to quantify complexity in different ecosystems, highlighting contributions of the current issue of Hydrobiologia, and discuss potential application of these approaches for cross-ecosystem comparisons. Better understanding of the role of habitat complexity resulting from such comparisons is critically important for preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem function in an era of unprecedented habitat loss.
The following provides a summary of the 15th World Congress on Inflammation (WCI2022), which took place in Rome (Italy) from June 5 to 8, 2022. Presented are the main trends and most promising ...research developments in the field of inflammation, including identification of cellular and molecular mechanisms and investigation of new pathogenetic pathways, target molecules, genetic mechanisms, and new therapeutic strategies. In addition, described are the primary areas of research engaged in by leading scientific groups and national societies from various countries in the field of inflammatory pathology mechanisms.
Quantifying the relationship between phytoplankton and zooplankton may offer insight into zooplankton sensitivity to shifting phytoplankton assemblages and the potential impacts of producer-consumer ...decoupling on the rest of the food web. We analyzed 18 years (2001-2018) of paired phytoplankton and zooplankton samples collected as part of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Great Lakes Biology Monitoring Program to examine both the long-term and seasonal relationships between zooplankton and phytoplankton across all five Laurentian Great Lakes. We also analyzed effects of phytoplankton diversity on zooplankton biomass, diversity, and predator-prey (zooplanktivore/grazer) ratios. Across the Great Lakes, there was a weak positive correlation between total algal biovolume and zooplankton biomass in both spring and summer. The relationship was weaker and not consistently positive within individual lakes. These trends were consistent over time, providing no evidence of increasing decoupling over the study period. Zooplankton biomass was weakly negatively correlated with algal diversity across lakes, whereas zooplankton diversity was unaffected. These relationships did not change when we considered only the edible phytoplankton fraction, possibly due to the high correlation between total and edible phytoplankton biovolume in most of these lakes. Lack of strong coupling between these producer and consumer assemblages may be related to lagging responses by the consumers, top-down effects from higher-level consumers, or other confounding factors. These results underscore the difficulty in predicting higher trophic level responses, including zooplankton, from changes in phytoplankton assemblages.
Inequality in aquatic ecosystem services Kovalenko, Katya E.; Bini, Luis Mauricio; Johnson, Lucinda B. ...
Hydrobiologia,
07/2023, Volume:
850, Issue:
12-13
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Multiple aquatic ecosystem services (ES) sustain humanity, but some of them may not be equitably accessible to all people. We take a transdisciplinary approach to recent literature to highlight some ...of the inequalities specific to aquatic ecosystems, focusing on provisioning, supporting and cultural aquatic ES. We also explore feedbacks between access to ES, awareness, and public support for those services. Without targeted interventions, inequality in aquatic ecosystem service delivery is likely to continue to increase with the projected increase in wealth gaps, increasing global trade insensitive to local values, decreasing awareness of ES availability, and increasing urban population without access to green and blue spaces. We conclude by highlighting examples of potential research needs, emphasizing that systematic assessment of inequality is the first step in seeking equitable access to ES and ensuring continuing public support for protection of aquatic ecosystems.
The study and analysis of malacofauna from cores of bottom sediments and cores of the Azov spits showed the nature of the change during the transition from the Ancient Azovian to the New Azovian ...layers and the uneven distribution of communities in time and space. Shell material from littoral malacocenosis and shallow-water banks is the main component for the formation of spits. Based on a series of cores up to 25 m thick from the Dolgaya Spit, it is shown that its formation began about 2500 years ago, and carbonate material reflects the history of the development of the benthic fauna of the sea.
A
bstract
Charged lepton flavor violation is forbidden in the Standard Model but possible in several new physics scenarios. In many of these models, the radiative decays
τ
±
→
ℓ
±
γ
(
ℓ
=
e, μ
) are ...predicted to have a sizeable probability, making them particularly interesting channels to search at various experiments. An updated search via
τ
±
→
ℓ
±
γ
using full data of the Belle experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 988 fb
−
1
, is reported for charged lepton flavor violation. No significant excess over background predictions from the Standard Model is observed, and the upper limits on the branching fractions,
B
(
τ
±
→
μ
±
γ
) ≤ 4
.
2 × 10
−
8
and
B
(
τ
±
→
e
±
γ
) ≤ 5
.
6 × 10
−
8
, are set at 90% confidence level.
Abstract
In this paper the problems of constructing sonar images of the seabed according to measurements of the multibeam side scan sonar are considered. The inverse problem for the non-stationary ...equation of radiation transfer with the diffuse reflection conditions at the boundary which consists in finding the discontinuity lines of the bottom scattering coefficient is investigated. A numerical algorithm for solving the inverse problem is developed, and an analysis of the quality of reconstructing the boundaries of inhomogeneities of the seabed is carried out, depending on the number of views and the width of a radiation pattern and the sounding range.
Polyporoid and lentinoid fungi contain the important producers of substances having immunomodulatory, antitumoral, antiviral, and antihyperlipidemic effects. The discovery of several phylogenetic ...lines within the lentinoid-polyporoid continuum will help with target metabolomic analysis of species still not studied in pharmacological respects. The purpose of the present work was to increase a resolution in the lentinoid-polyporoid phylogenetic zone by means of selection of both the main representatives of Lentinus-related genera and poorly known/intermediate taxa such as Lentinus suavissimus, Neofavolus spp., and the resupinate part of Polyporus (genera Perenniporia and Pachykytospora) in the context of the basic structure of the Polyporales tree. The molecular phylogeny of highlighting all the polyporoid and lentinoid nodes was reconstructed using nLSU ITS rDNA and TEF datasets. The data obtained from ITS, TEF, and LSU coincide in support of core Polyporaceae of 10 clades corresponded to the generic level and 7 of these (Cerioporus, Cladomeris, Favolus, Lentinus, Neofavolus, Picipes, and Polyporus s.str.) contain generic units characterized by polyporoid or lentinoid morphotypes. The other 2 clades containing lentinoid taxa are outside the core Polyporaceae, namely Panus (Meruliaceae, Polyporales) and Neolentinus (Gloeophyllaceae, Gloeophyllales). A new genus, Picipes, is described and 25 new combinations are proposed.
Acute focal ischemia is a main factor of pathogenesis of a number of widespread cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, in particular, myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke. It is known that ...under the conditions of ischemia expression of intracellular heat shock proteins (HSPs), especially HSP70, grows greatly irrespective of the cell type. This stress-induced cell response is connected with cytoprotective properties of HSP70. The protective functions of HSP70 contribute to the cell survival under adverse conditions and inhibit development of programmed cell death. It was shown, that the level of HSP70 increases in cardiomyocytes and brain cells in response to ischemia, that was connected with cardioprotective and neuroprotective effects. Besides, in recent years, clinical studies of HSP70 have demonstrated elevated level of HSP70 in peripheral blood lymphocytes in groups of patients with ischemic stroke and myocardial infarction. This review indicates that HSP70 can serve as a target for developing new approaches to diagnostics and therapy of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
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