Phenotypic variability represents an important factor allowing species to adapt to local environmental conditions, but mechanisms underlying such variation are incompletely understood. This study ...investigated whether habitat-specific demands on swimming performance or difference in trophic relationships in lakes (pelagic, littoral) and streams (riffle, pool) were significant predictors of phenotypic variation exhibited by brook char (Salvelinus fontinalis), the only fish in the study habitats. Specifically, we hypothesized that pelagic and riffle habitats would impose greater selective pressures associated with swimming, resulting in body morphologies that were dorsoventrally compressed, anterior-posteriorly elongated, and that exhibited a long, narrow caudal peduncle. Geometric morphometrics was applied in a quantitative analysis of body morphology among habitats, whereas stable isotope analysis was used to differentiate between food sources. Analyses revealed that while body morphology differed between lake and stream habitats, there was convergence between the pelagic and riffle habitats, as well as among littoral and riffle and pool environments. The littoral and pool habitats were thought to be more structurally complex, thereby selecting for increased maneuverability but lower sustained swimming and correspondingly deeper bodies with shorter, dorsoventrally expanded caudal peduncles. Carbon source and trophic position did not differ among habitats with a system, suggesting that feeding was not the main influence on morphological plasticity; however, fish in the stream were feeding at a higher trophic position than fish in the lake. These findings suggest that individual species may take advantage of morphological variation to better adapt local surroundings.
Confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic can influence dietary profiles, especially those of adolescents, who are highly susceptible to acquiring bad eating habits. Adolescents' poor dietary habits ...increase their subsequent risk of degenerative diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular pathologies, etc. Our aim was to study nutritional modifications during COVID-19 confinement in adolescents aged 10 to 19 years, compare them with their usual diet and dietary guidelines, and identify variables that may have influenced changes. Data were collected by an anonymous online questionnaire on food intake among 820 adolescents from Spain, Italy, Brazil, Colombia, and Chile. The results show that COVID-19 confinement did influence their dietary habits. In particular, we recorded modified consumption of fried food, sweet food, legumes, vegetables, and fruits. Moreover, gender, family members at home, watching TV during mealtime, country of residence, and maternal education were diversely correlated with adequate nutrition during COVID-19 confinement. Understanding the adolescents' nutrition behavior during COVID-19 lockdown will help public health authorities reshape future policies on their nutritional recommendations, in preparation for future pandemics.
Forest edges influence more than half of the world's forests and contribute to worldwide declines in biodiversity and ecosystem functions. However, predicting these declines is challenging in ...heterogeneous fragmented landscapes. Here we assembled a global dataset on species responses to fragmentation and developed a statistical approach for quantifying edge impacts in heterogeneous landscapes to quantify edge-determined changes in abundance of 1,673 vertebrate species. We show that the abundances of 85% of species are affected, either positively or negatively, by forest edges. Species that live in the centre of the forest (forest core), that were more likely to be listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), reached peak abundances only at sites farther than 200-400 m from sharp high-contrast forest edges. Smaller-bodied amphibians, larger reptiles and medium-sized non-volant mammals experienced a larger reduction in suitable habitat than other forest-core species. Our results highlight the pervasive ability of forest edges to restructure ecological communities on a global scale.
"Chimarrão" and "tererê" are maté (dried, toasted and milled Ilex paraguariensis leaves and stemlets) beverages widely consumed in South America. This paper describes the application of ...HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS method for the identification and quantification of caffeoylquinic acids (CQA), flavonol glycosides and purine alkaloids in these beverages. The beverage samples were prepared from commercial lots of maté from Southern Brazil. The caffeoylquinic acids, 4,5-diCQA, 3-CQA, 5-CQA, and 4-CQA were the major compounds, having 238-289, 153-242, 183-263, and 123-188 μg/mL, respectively, for chimarrão and 206-265, 122-218, 164-209, 103-169 μg/mL, respectively, for tererê. Caffeine also had high amounts while glycosides of quercetin and kaempferol were found at much lower levels. The individual antioxidant activity was also determined by an on-line system that measured their ABTS•+ radical scavenging activity, showing that the antioxidant capacity was not proportional to the concentrations of the phenolic compounds. 3-CQA, quercetina-3-O-ramnosylglucoside, and quercetina-3-O-glucoside were the major contributors to the antioxidant capacity, although the quercetin glycosides had concentrations less than 10 times that of 3-CQA.
Land-use change pushes biodiversity into human-modified landscapes, where native ecosystems are surrounded by anthropic land covers (ALCs). Yet, the ability of species to use these emerging covers ...remains poorly understood. We quantified the use of ALCs by primates worldwide, and analyzed species' attributes that predict such use. Most species use secondary forests and tree plantations, while only few use human settlements. ALCs are used for foraging by at least 86 species with an important conservation outcome: those that tolerate heavily modified ALCs are 26% more likely to have stable or increasing populations than the global average for all primates. There is no phylogenetic signal in ALCs use. Compared to all primates on Earth, species using ALCs are less often threatened with extinction, but more often diurnal, medium or large-bodied, not strictly arboreal, and habitat generalists. These findings provide valuable quantitative information for improving management practices for primate conservation worldwide.
Habitat loss is the primary driver of biodiversity decline worldwide, but the effects of fragmentation (the spatial arrangement of remaining habitat) are debated. We tested the hypothesis that forest ...fragmentation sensitivity-affected by avoidance of habitat edges-should be driven by historical exposure to, and therefore species' evolutionary responses to disturbance. Using a database containing 73 datasets collected worldwide (encompassing 4489 animal species), we found that the proportion of fragmentation-sensitive species was nearly three times as high in regions with low rates of historical disturbance compared with regions with high rates of disturbance (i.e., fires, glaciation, hurricanes, and deforestation). These disturbances coincide with a latitudinal gradient in which sensitivity increases sixfold at low versus high latitudes. We conclude that conservation efforts to limit edges created by fragmentation will be most important in the world's tropical forests.
Analysis of an individual's immunoglobulin (IG) gene repertoire requires the use of high-quality germline gene reference sets. When sets only contain alleles supported by strong evidence, AIRR ...sequencing (AIRR-seq) data analysis is more accurate and studies of the evolution of IG genes, their allelic variants and the expressed immune repertoire is therefore facilitated.
The Adaptive Immune Receptor Repertoire Community (AIRR-C) IG Reference Sets have been developed by including only human IG heavy and light chain alleles that have been confirmed by evidence from multiple high-quality sources. To further improve AIRR-seq analysis, some alleles have been extended to deal with short 3' or 5' truncations that can lead them to be overlooked by alignment utilities. To avoid other challenges for analysis programs, exact paralogs (e.g. IGHV1-69*01 and IGHV1-69D*01) are only represented once in each set, though alternative sequence names are noted in accompanying metadata.
The Reference Sets include less than half the previously recognised IG alleles (e.g. just 198 IGHV sequences), and also include a number of novel alleles: 8 IGHV alleles, 2 IGKV alleles and 5 IGLV alleles. Despite their smaller sizes, erroneous calls were eliminated, and excellent coverage was achieved when a set of repertoires comprising over 4 million V(D)J rearrangements from 99 individuals were analyzed using the Sets. The version-tracked AIRR-C IG Reference Sets are freely available at the OGRDB website (https://ogrdb.airr-community.org/germline_sets/Human) and will be regularly updated to include newly observed and previously reported sequences that can be confirmed by new high-quality data.
A lab-made electronic nose (Enose) with vacuum sampling and a sensor array, comprising nine metal oxide semiconductor Figaro gas sensors, was tested for the quantitative analysis of vapor–liquid ...equilibrium, described by Henry’s law, of aqueous solutions of organic compounds: three alcohols (i.e., methanol, ethanol, and propanol) or three chemical compounds with different functional groups (i.e., acetaldehyde, ethanol, and ethyl acetate). These solutions followed a fractional factorial design to guarantee orthogonal concentrations. Acceptable predictive ridge regression models were obtained for training, with RSEs lower than 7.9, R2 values greater than 0.95, slopes varying between 0.84 and 1.00, and intercept values close to the theoretical value of zero. Similar results were obtained for the test data set: RSEs lower than 8.0, R2 values greater than 0.96, slopes varying between 0.72 and 1.10, and some intercepts equal to the theoretical value of zero. In addition, the total mass of the organic compounds of each aqueous solution could be predicted, pointing out that the sensors measured mainly the global contents of the vapor phases. The satisfactory quantitative results allowed to conclude that the Enose could be a useful tool for the analysis of volatiles from aqueous solutions containing organic compounds for which Henry’s law is applicable.
Phenotype-specific omic expression patterns in people with frailty could provide invaluable insight into the underlying multi-systemic pathological processes and targets for intervention. Classical ...approaches to frailty have not considered the potential for different frailty phenotypes. We characterized associations between frailty (with/without disability) and sets of omic factors (genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic) plus markers measured in routine geriatric care. This study was a prevalent case control using stored biospecimens (urine, whole blood, cells, plasma, and serum) from 1522 individuals (identified as robust (R), pre-frail (P), or frail (F) from the Toledo Study of Healthy Aging (R=178/P=184/F=109), 3 City Bordeaux (111/269/100), Aging Multidisciplinary Investigation (157/79/54) and InCHIANTI (106/98/77) cohorts. The analysis included over 35,000 omic and routine laboratory variables from robust and frail or pre-frail (with/without disability) individuals using a machine learning framework. We identified three protective biomarkers, vitamin D3 (OR: 0.81 95% CI: 0.68–0.98), lutein zeaxanthin (OR: 0.82 95% CI: 0.70–0.97), and miRNA125b-5p (OR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.56–0.97) and one risk biomarker, cardiac troponin T (OR: 1.25 95% CI: 1.23–1.27). Excluding individuals with a disability, one protective biomarker was identified, miR125b-5p (OR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.81–0.88). Three risks of frailty biomarkers were detected: pro-BNP (OR: 1.47 95% CI: 1.27–1.7), cardiac troponin T (OR: 1.29 95% CI: 1.21–1.38), and sRAGE (OR: 1.26 95% CI: 1.01–1.57). Three key frailty biomarkers demonstrated a statistical association with frailty (oxidative stress, vitamin D, and cardiovascular system) with relationship patterns differing depending on the presence or absence of a disability.
Effective estimation of wildlife population abundance is an important component of population monitoring, and ultimately essential for the development of conservation actions. Diurnal line‐transect ...surveys are one of the most applied methods for abundance estimations. Local ecological knowledge (LEK) is empirically acquired through the observation of ecological processes by local people. LEK‐based methods have only been recognized as valid scientific methods for surveying fauna abundance in the last three decades. However, the agreement between both methods has not been extensively analysed.
We compared concomitant abundance data for 91 wild species (mammals, birds and tortoises) from diurnal line transects (9,221 km of trails) and a LEK‐based method (291 structured interviews) at 18 sites in Central and Western Amazonia. We used biological and socioecological factors to assess the agreements and divergences between abundance indices obtained from both methods.
We found a significant agreement of population abundance indices for diurnal and game species. This relationship was also positive regardless of species sociality (solitary or social), body size and locomotion mode (terrestrial and arboreal); and of sampled forest type (upland and flooded forests). Conversely, we did not find significant abundance covariances for nocturnal and non‐game species. Despite the general agreement between methods, line transects were not effective at surveying many species occurring in the area, with 40.2% and 39.8% of all species being rarely and never detected in at least one of the survey sites. On the other hand, these species were widely reported by local informants to occur at intermediate to high abundances.
Although LEK‐based methods have been long neglected by ecologists, our comparative study demonstrated their effectiveness for estimating vertebrate abundance of a wide diversity of taxa and forest environments. This can be used simultaneously with line‐transect surveys to calibrate abundance estimates and record species that are rarely sighted during surveys on foot, but that are often observed by local people during their daily extractive activities. Thus, the combination of local and scientific knowledge is a potential tool to improve our knowledge of tropical forest species and foster the development of effective strategies to meet biodiversity conservation goals.
Resumen
La estimación eficaz de la abundancia de las poblaciones de fauna silvestre es un importante componente del monitoreo poblacional, y, en último término, es fundamental para el desarrollo de actividades dirigidas a la conservación. Los transectos lineales diurnos son uno de los métodos más frecuentemente utilizados para estimar la abundancia. El Conocimiento Ecológico Local (LEK) se adquiere de forma empírica a través de una aproximación más holística y ecocéntrica de los procesos ecológicos. Los métodos basados en LEK sólo han sido reconocidos como método científico de monitoreo de fauna silvestre en las últimas tres décadas. Sin embargo, aún no se ha evaluado en profundidad la concordancia entre ambos métodos.
En este estudio comparamos la abundancia relativa de 91 especies silvestres (mamíferos, aves y tortugas) obtenida a partir de transectos lineales diurnos (9,221 km de recorrido) y de un método basado en LEK (291 entrevistas estructuradas) en 18 sitios de la Amazonía Central y Oeste. Usamos factores socio‐ecológicos y biológicos para analizar las concordancias y divergencias entre la índices de abundancia estimada mediante ambos métodos.
Se observó concordancia en los índices de abundancia poblacional de especies diurnas y especies cinegéticas estimada mediante ambos métodos. Esta concordancia fue independiente de la sociabilidad de la especie (solitaria o social), tamaño corporal, modo de locomoción (terrestre o arbórea), y tipo de bosque (bosque de altura e inundable). A la inversa, no se observó concordancia en el índice abundancia de especies nocturnas y no‐cinegéticas. A pesar de la concordancia general entre ambos métodos, los transectos lineales diurnos no fueron efectivos para monitorear muchas de las especies, con un 40.2% y 39.8% de todas las especies poco frecuentes (<0.1 individuos/km) o no detectadas, respectivamente, en al menos uno de los sitos muestreados. Algo que llama la atención, ya que la mayor parte de los informantes locales reportaron que las abundancias de esas especies eran intermedias o elevadas.
Aunque los ecólogos han tendido a infravalorar los métodos basados en LEK, nuestro estudio comparativo muestra la eficacia de estos métodos para estimar el índice de abundancia de vertebrados en una amplia variedad de taxones y de ambientes. Los métodos basados en LEK son rentables y pueden ayudar a superar las restricciones financieras y logísticas propias del monitoreo de fauna continuado y de largo término de proyectos de conservación. Así, la combinación del conocimiento local y científico podría ser una herramienta importante para mejorar el conocimiento sobre especies tropicales y para promover el desarrollo de estrategias efectivas que permitan cumplir con los objetivos de conservación de la biodiversidad.
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