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Topic Review
Thermal Effects on Ecological Traits of Salmonids
A thermal window bounded by the upper and lower incipient lethal temperatures (UILT and LILT) determines where salmonids can survive. For most salmonids, LILT is close to 0 and UILT is between 20 and 30 °C. UILT and LILT are influenced by the acclimation temperature. Thermal tolerance is affected by fish size and ambient oxygen content, which decreases with increasing temperature.
  • 245
  • 30 Jun 2023
Topic Review
The Role of Flavonoids in Plant Terrestrialization
Plants evolved an impressive arsenal of specialized metabolites to cope with the novel environmental pressures imposed by the terrestrial habitat when moving from water. Flavonoids are maybe the most important specilized metabolites that show multifarious roles in the sucess of plant terrestrialization. These compounds modulated auxin transport and signaling and promoted the symbiosis between plants and fungi (e.g., arbuscular mycorrhizal, AM), a central event for the conquest of land by plants. AM improved the ability of early plants to take up nutrients and water from highly impoverished soils. Therefore, flavonoids were essential to plant development in the “new world” scarce of water and nutrients.
  • 639
  • 30 May 2022
Topic Review
The Role of Commensal and other Non-Pathogenic Bacteria
Not only pathogenic bacteria are reservoirs of antibiotic resistance and virulence genes. Opportunistic pathogenic bacteria, commensal bacteria, and mutualistic bacteria (here named non-pathogenic for simplification) may also carry resistance and virulence genes. However, contrary to pathogenic strains, which are the target of the immune system, non-pathogenic bacteria can colonize hosts for prolonged periods because hosts do not need to be rid of them. Thus, the basic reproductive number of a non-pathogenic bacterial strain, a measure of the strain’s fitness and denoted as R0, is likely to be much higher than one. That is, the expected number of colonized hosts by a single colonized host in a population not yet colonized by that strain is higher than one, which implies that this strain can spread exponentially among hosts. This spread has peculiar consequences for the spread of virulence and resistance genes. For example, computer models that simulate the spread of these genes have shown that their diversities should correlate positively throughout microbiomes. Bioinformatics analysis with real data corroborates this expectation.
  • 760
  • 07 Feb 2023
Topic Review
The Crayfish Plague Pathogen Aphanomyces astaci in Ireland
Crayfish plague is a devastating disease of European freshwater crayfish and is caused by the oomycete Aphanomyces astaci (A. astaci), believed to have been introduced to Europe around 1860. All European species of freshwater crayfish are susceptible to the disease, including the white-clawed crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes. A. astaci is primarily spread by North American crayfish species and can also disperse rapidly through contaminated wet gear moved between water bodies. This spread, coupled with competition from non-indigenous crayfish, has drastically reduced and fragmented native crayfish populations across Europe. Remarkably, the island of Ireland remained free from the crayfish plague pathogen for over 100 years, providing a refuge for A. pallipes. However, this changed in 1987 when a mass mortality event was linked to the pathogen, marking its introduction to the region. 
  • 97
  • 18 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Tawny Owl and Urbanization Structure
Tawny owl (Strix aluco) is a ubiquitous and resilient raptor that successfully exploits heterogeneous patchy habitats. Due to its abundance and broad geographic range, it is an appropriate bird species model with which to test how raptors colonize urban environments and which drivers from these urban habitats play a role in explaining the occurrence of these species. It is necessary to understand how urbanization affects the tawny owl at the landscape scale. The effect of habitat fragmentation (i.e., forest fragmentation) on tawny owl populations has been studied previously ; however, to our knowledge, the effect of urban habitat fragmentation remains unknown. In addition, it is not common to study habitat selection through a multiscale approach, even though different variables can be important to a species at different spatial scales. As such, studies conducted at arbitrarily defined scales may suffer from serious limitations .
  • 351
  • 29 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Street Dog Sterilisation Programmes
Humane Society International (HSI) facilitates dog sterilisation programmes internationally, which includes population surveys of street dogs to gain basic demographic information and to set a baseline for future monitoring operations. HSI has developed a web and mobile application suite called ‘HSIApps’ with custom tailored workflows to improve the efficiency (lower programmatic cost) and improve the welfare of dogs in care throughout the sterilisation process.
  • 598
  • 30 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Soil Microorganisms on Plant Performance
The spatially heterogeneous distribution of soil nutrients is ubiquitous in terrestrial ecosystems and has been shown to promote the performance of plant communities, influence species coexistence, and alter ecosystem nutrient dynamics. Plants interact with diverse soil microbial communities that lead to an interdependent relationship (e.g., symbioses), driving plant community productivity, belowground biodiversity, and soil functioning.
  • 350
  • 11 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Soil Bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a rod-shaped, Gram-positive soil bacterium that belongs to the phylum Firmicutes and the genus Bacillus. It is a spore-forming bacterium. During sporulation, it produces a wide range of crystalline proteins that are toxic to different orders of insects. Sporulation, structure assembly, and germination are essential stages in the cell cycle of B. thuringiensis. The majority of studies on these issues have focused on the model organism Bacillus subtilis, followed by Bacillus cereus and Bacillus anthracis. The machinery for sporulation and germination extrapolated to B. thuringiensis. However, in the light of the findings concerning the role of the sporulation proteins (SPoVS), the germination receptors (Gr), and the cortical enzymes in Bt, the theory strengthened that conservation in sporulation, structure assembly, and germination programs drive the survival and success of B. thuringiensis in the environment and the insect host. 
  • 344
  • 19 May 2023
Topic Review
Shorebird in West and East Coast of India
Shorebirds constitute a highly diverse group of migrant species that require a high amount of energy in association with their long-distance migration. They are documented in nearly all shorelines of the world except Antarctica. The seasonal migration of shorebirds is an important biological event, characterized by long-distance travel among breeding, stopover and wintering sites driven by seasonal influences on resources. 
  • 901
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Seaweeds Compounds
Seaweeds’ compounds present important qualities for cosmetic application, such as low cytotoxicity and low allergens content. Several seaweeds’ molecules already demonstrated a high potential as a cosmetic active ingredient (such as, mycosporine-like amino acids, fucoidan, pigments, phenolic compounds) or as a key element for the products consistency (agar, alginate, carrageenan). Moreover, it focuses on the ecological and sustainable scope of seaweed exploitation to guarantee a safe source of ingredients for the cosmetic industry and consumers.
  • 679
  • 17 Jan 2022
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