Frazil ice plays an important role in the growth of sea ice in the polar oceans. However, measurement of the size distribution of frazil crystals, and their number density, is still a challenging task. Most quantitative observations use acoustic back-scattering complemented with the equivalent sphere assumption. We provide a more realistic theoretical model of small frazil ice crystals by considering

The proportion of older adults in the population is increasing and ageing is associated with poorer physical, mental and social health. Hence, there is increasing need for community facilities that are appealing and suitable to older adults and promote good health and well-being. Visiting parks has been shown to facilitate a multitude of physical, psychological, and social health benefits; however

Extensive gaps in invasive plant species research in terms of ecosystem distribution and impact are major barriers faced by global decision making bodies for scientific management of plant species invasions of native flora. Effective strategies need to be worked out which would enable simultaneous management and the use of invasive plant species for ecosystem restoration. For evaluating the photosynthetic

Urban parks enhance the aesthetic quality of urban area and increase the restorative potential of cities to avoid the negative psycho-physiological impact of living in the built environment. This research aimed to model some aesthetic preference and mental restoration values in urban parks based on landscape natural characteristics to compare the MLP (Multi-Layer Perceptron), RBFNN (Radial Basis Function

Threat classifications allow conservationists to categorize threatening processes faced by species of conservation concern, but lack of information on threat severity hampers efforts to establish the cost-effectiveness of conservation management actions. Actions and funds are often prioritized according to the prevalence of a threat; however, probability of success of threat management is little considered

Predicting the trajectory of ongoing diversity loss requires knowledge of historical development of community assemblages. Long-term data from palaeoecological investigations combined with key biodiversity measures in ecology such as taxonomic richness, functional diversity (FD), phylogenetic diversity (PD) and environmental factors expressed as Ellenberg indicator values (EIVs) could provide that

Group-size variation has been examined within a framework of costs and benefits to ecological factors such as food limitations and risks from predators. Social interactions between males from male–male competition might also influence group size particularly in polygynous males. To explore the role of social and ecological factors on group size outside the mating season I examined the influence of

Human-wildlife interactions resulting in conflict remains a global conservation challenge, requiring innovative solutions to ensure the persistence of wildlife amidst people. Wild Seve was established in July 2015 as a conservation intervention program to assist people affected by conflict to file and monitor claims and receive ex-gratia payments from the Indian government. In 48 months of operation

The increasing availability of remotely sensed data has recently challenged the traditional way of performing forest inventories, and induced an interest in model-based inference. Like traditional design-based inference, model-based inference allows for regional estimates of totals and means, but in addition for wall-to-wall mapping of forest characteristics. Recently Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)-based

Modelling aboveground biomass (AGB) in forest and woodland ecosystems is critical for accurate estimation of carbon stocks. However, scarcity of allometric models for predicting AGB remains an issue that has not been adequately addressed in Africa. In particular, locally developed models for estimating AGB in the tropical woodlands of Ghana have received little attention. In the absence of locally

Central America is one of the most diverse floristic provinces in the world, but comprehensive plant lists for the region are incomplete and need frequent updating. Full geographic ranges of individual species are seldom known. Our detailed forest inventory plots of Panama thus lack a global geographic perspective. In order to provide one, we assembled a thoroughly vetted checklist of all tree species

A unicellular flagellate described as Chlamydomonas monticola NIES‐157 was known to have two unequal flagella and informally stored as Heterochlamydomonas sp. in the culture collection. In this study, the strain NIES‐157 was revisited for clarifying its taxonomic status. In the 18S rDNA tree, this organism was resolved in a distinct position in the clade of Heterochlamydomonas (Reinhardtinia ). In

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi form a symbiotic association with host trees, functionally promoting the nutrient uptake in the hosts via their secretion of enzymes to degrade organic compounds. Because of the involvement in nutrient cycling, ECM fungi are important to the establishment of host trees and forest recovery. In Thailand, ECM fungi are mostly associated with host tree species in the Dipterocarpaceae

Unsustainable farming systems for a growing population in Sub-Saharan Africa stress natural resources and lead to soil degradation. Legume cultivation, however, promotes soil microbial communities and may help reverse soil degradation. The soil properties (pH, texture, C and nutrient contents) of a set of contrasting sites from two agro-ecological zones of Cameroon were determined. This study characterises

The Ceratozamia miqueliana species complex consists of six closely related species that exhibit similar gross morphology, but a wide range of leaflet shape from widely obovate in C. euryphyllidia and C. hondurensis to oblanceolate in C. zoquorum. However, despite the clear leaflet size variation, the taxon delimitation within the complex has been suggested to be uncertain when considering other traits

The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), defined as the period between 23 and 19 ka, is considered a key climatic period with conditions in great contrast to the present. Study of this period may reveal aspects of global ice-sheet sensitivity to regional and global climate change which is critical in understanding climate teleconnections and feedback mechanisms. A stalagmite record from Linglong cave, Central

The Cretaceous–Paleogene palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate in the Gippsland Basin was reconstructed using vascular plant-derived biomarkers, and are consistent with other proxy evidence for palaeoclimate (e.g. spore-pollen assemblages and plankton foraminifera oxygen isotopes). Variation in the higher plant-derived aliphatic and aromatic sesquiterpenoids, diterpenoids and triterpenoids resulted from

The Altyn Tagh Fault (ATF) had formed in Eocene time, however, the temporal evolution of slip along the fault remains elusive, despite its important role in governing growth of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and evaluating models of continental lithosphere deformation. Here we perform a high-resolution magnetostratigraphic study on Neogene sediments from the Suerkuli Basin, a small basin located between

To differentiate the effects of internal and external abrasives on tooth wear, we performed a controlled feeding experiment in rabbits fed diets of varying phytolith content as an internal abrasive and with addition of sand as an external abrasive. 13 rabbits were each fed one of the following four pelleted diets with different abrasive characteristics (no phytoliths: lucerne L; phytoliths: grass G;

New technological developments modulate the light levels of LED street luminaires according to traffic volumes: light levels are increased given traffic and reduced in its absence. Such dimming of street lights reduces the level of artificial light at night (ALAN) and may thus contribute to mitigate light pollution. To quantify the impact of traffic-driven dimming of street lights on nocturnal insect

Ciliates are globally distributed eukaryotic organisms inhabiting virtually all environments on Earth. Although ciliates range from 10 µm to few mm in cell size, they are repeatedly reported in the pico‐sized fraction (smaller than 2‐3 µm) of molecular surveys. Here, we used existing datasets (BioMarKs and Tara Oceans) with different size fractions to demonstrate that the ciliate pico‐sized signal

As climate change progresses, reef‐building corals must contend more often with suboptimal conditions, motivating a need to understand coral stress response. Here we test the hypothesis that there is a stereotyped transcriptional response that corals enact under all stressful conditions, functionally characterized by downregulation of growth, and activation of cell death, response to reactive oxygen

Halogenated dipeptides, 3, 5-di-I-tyrosylalanine (DIYA), have been identified as novel disinfection byproducts (DBPs), following chloramination of authentic water. However, little is known about their toxicity. Zebrafish embryos were used to assess the toxicity of novel iodinated DBPs (I-DBPs). Although DIYA did not exhibit high acute toxicity to embryonic zebrafish (LC50 > 2 mM), it significantly

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr) is a ligand-activated transcription factor that mediates the toxicity of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) in vertebrates. Two clades of the Ahr family exist in teleosts (Ahr1 and Ahr2), and it has been demonstrated that Ahr2 is the main protein involved in mediating the toxicity of dioxins and DLCs in most teleost species. Recently, we characterized the Atlantic

Strains of microalgae vary in traits between species and populations due to adaptation or stochastic processes. Traits of individual strains may also vary depending on the acclimatization state and external forces, such as abiotic stress. In this study we tested how metal tolerance differs among marine diatoms at three organizational levels: species, populations, and strains. At the species level we

Triclosan (TCS) is commonly used in home and personal care products (HPCPs), which causes it to be ubiquitously detected in aquatic environments. The toxicity of triclosan to aquatic organisms can vary at different pH values because the ionization states of TCS affect its bioaccumulation properties. The objective of this study was to examine the pH-dependent toxicity of TCS on embryonic zebrafish (Danio

In the aquatic environment, metals are present as mixtures, therefore studies on mixture toxicity are crucial to thoroughly understand their toxic effects on aquatic organisms. Common carp were used to assess the effects of short-term Cu(II) and Cd(II) mixtures, using a fixed concentration of one of the metals, representing 25 % of its individual 96h-LC50 (concentration lethal for 50 % of the population)

Cation diffusion facilitators (CDFs) play central roles in metal homeostasis and tolerance in plants, but the specific functions of Camellia sinensis CDF-encoding genes and the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Previously, transcriptome sequencing results in our lab indicated that the expression of CsMTP8.2 in tea plant shoots was down-regulated exposed to excessive amount of Mn2+ conditions. To

Traditionally, challenges of natural resource management have been addressed with a sectoral policy approach. However, it is increasingly recognised that different sectors are interconnected in a complex and mutually interacting system. A nexus approach is proposed to identify synergies and trade-offs between sectors and to foster the sustainable and efficient use of resources, particularly in light

Context Biophony is the acoustic manifestation of biodiversity, and humans interact with biophony in many ways. However, quantifying biophony across urban landscapes has proven difficult in the presence of anthrophony, or sounds generated by humans. Improved assessment methods are required to progress our understanding of the processes influencing biophony across a variety of spatial–temporal scales

1. Macroalgal (seaweed) beds and forests fuel coastal ecosystems and are rapidly reorganising under global change, but quantifying their functional structure still relies on binning species into coarse groups on the assumption that they adequately capture relevant underlying traits.

1. Facilitation of foundation species is critical to the structure, function, and persistence of ecosystems. Understanding the dependence of the strength of this facilitation on environmental conditions is important for informed ecosystem management and for predicting the impacts of global change. In coastal seagrass habitats, chemosymbiotic lucinid bivalves can facilitate seagrasses by decreasing

Understanding how climate influences plant reproduction and growth at contrasting range limits is crucial for predicting how species’ ranges may shift in response to ongoing climate change. Trees and shrubs have shown warming‐induced increases in performance at upper elevation limits but reduced performance at lower distributional limits due to warming‐driven drought limitation. Whether these differential

Passive acoustic telemetry data are used to study animal movement in aquatic environments, but tools to process the data are limited. In areas that are too large to be fully covered by the limited detection ranges of receivers or acoustic listening stations, researchers generally assume that animals are residing in an area when they are detected frequently at specific receivers. There is, however,

1) Interactions among neighbors can alter demography and traits of commingled species via adaptation or plasticity in phenotypic expression and understanding these two mechanisms in diverse communities is important for determining the ecological and evolutionary consequences of plant–plant interactions.

Precocious breeding is a major challenge in the culturing of Coptodon rendalli. Laboratory experiments were undertaken to evaluate the biological control potential of two predatory aquatic insects, Anisops debilis and Gerris swakopensis against tilapia fry. The functional response of these insects was determined at different prey densities during a 24 hr experiment. Anisops debilis and G. swakopensis

The thirteen springs of Cracow-Częstochowa Upland were analized in respected of their geological structure, hydrogeology, physical and chemical water conditions, and groundwater pollution. The study of the causes and consequences of land-use and other human induced changes was examined by the estimation of biodiversity and environmental requirements of individual species. The studied biotic variables

The climate change and urbanization have interacted synergistically to impact the water environment problem of urban lakes in the late twentieth century. In this paper, an integrated model describing hydrology, hydrodynamics and water quality was developed based on SWMM and the DEM-based hydrodynamic and water quality model. The Tangxun Lake was used as a testbed here, and the impacts of rainfall intensity

Thinning profoundly affects soil microbial communities and carbon (C) cycling through altering soil microclimate, plant growth, C inputs and allocations. However, these effects are uncertain and may change with thinning intensity, recovery stage, forest type, and climate. Here, we conducted a global meta-analysis, based on 337 observations from 49 studies, to quantify the responses of soil properties

In forests in Mongolia, tree roots and ectomycorrhizal fungi must survive several months of soil freezing in winter. To investigate the ectomycorrhizal community after winter, we collected fine roots of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica) and associated soil from Nukht forest in the Bogd-Khan National Reserve, Mongolia. Soil samples were collected from frozen soil at the

1. Hundreds of recent studies have voiced concern over the negative impacts of non‐target pesticides on pollinator health. However, pesticide loads are highly variable across agricultural landscapes and it is unclear whether pollinators exhibit behavioral responses (e.g., aversion) that mediate their exposure risk under realistic foraging environments.

The corporate sector is one of the most important contributors to the global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. According to a representative public opinion survey 34% of Hungarian citizens believe that corporations are responsible for climate change. The business sector is motivated to take an active role in the mitigation and adaptation of climate change. As a result, the last

Purulia, the land of distinctive geological and archaeological features, abundant natural resources and a home to a number of aboriginals, has been studied widely to apprehend the role of ethnic remedies against myriad of diseases. Availability of natural remedies and practice of traditional knowledge have popularized the use of medicinal plants among local communities. The objective of the study is

Some species of fish have been used as bioindicators of aquatic environmental pollution all over the world. Pejerrey (Odontesthes bonariensis) was selected for the current study due to its sensitivity to pollutants and because is one of the emblematic fish species that inhabits shallow lakes of the Pampa region (Argentina). Recently, in Chascomús lake were recorded concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu and

The Austral Opossum is one of the most unique vertebrates in Patagonian forests. It is not only endemic to this habitat; it also plays a key role acting as a seed disperser, nest predator, and is prey to species of conservation concern. However, specific information about its nesting behaviour is scattered and rudimentary at best. Here, we: (i) use personal observations along with published data to

In Brazil, five species of sea turtles use the region for feeding and reproduction. For these endangered species, one of the biggest impacts on their populations is incidental catches in fishing gear. In the state of Santa Catarina (SC) ‐ Brazil, fishing is an important economic activity, with distinct and numerous industrial and artisanal fleets. These fleets incidentally capture all five species

Geospatial models are used to predict the distribution of terrestrial and marine species, according to their ecological and ethological habits. The bottlenose dolphin is a cosmopolitan marine top predator, inhabiting most of the ocean, with the exception of polar and subpolar waters. This wide distribution is associated with a remarkable plasticity in ecological and behavioural habits, which makes

Heavy metals leaching from municipal solid waste landfills have resulted in severe environmental pollution and may influence human health status. This study aimed to determine the total concentrations of metals, environmental risk and evaluate the potential human health risk including non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic effects. Soil samples were collected from the open municipal solid waste landfill