scholarly journals Potential for climate effects on the size-structure of host–parasitoid indirect interaction networks

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1605) ◽  
pp. 3018-3024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic C. Henri ◽  
David Seager ◽  
Tiffany Weller ◽  
F. J. Frank van Veen

Communities of insect herbivores are thought to be structured mainly by indirect processes mediated by shared natural enemies, such as apparent competition. In host–parasitoid interaction networks, overlap in natural enemy communities between any pair of host species depends on the realized niches of parasitoids, which ultimately depend on the foraging decisions of individuals. Optimal foraging theory predicts that egg-limited parasitoid females should reject small hosts in favour of future opportunities to oviposit in larger hosts, while time-limited parasitoids are expected to optimize oviposition rate regardless of host size. The degree to which parasitoids are time- or egg-limited depends in part on weather conditions, as this determines the proportion of an individual's lifespan that is available to foraging. Using a 10-year time series of monthly quantitative host–parasitoid webs, we present evidence for host-size-based electivity and sex allocation in the common secondary parasitoid Asaphes vulgaris. We argue that this electivity leads to body-size-dependent asymmetry in apparent competition among hosts and we discuss how changing weather patterns, as a result of climate change, may impact foraging behaviour and thereby the size-structure and dynamics of host–parasitoid indirect interaction networks.

Author(s):  
K.Thomas Jensen ◽  
Nora Fernández Castro ◽  
Guy Bachelet

The common cockle Cerastoderma edule is intermediate host to several species of digenean trematodes. However, little is known about the factors influencing the settlement of trematode larvae in cockles as well as their effects on the host. Aspects of the transmission ecology, behaviour and effects on juvenile host specimens of trematode larvae belonging to the genus Himasthla and utilizing mudsnails Hydrobia ulvae as their first intermediate host and various waterbirds as their definitive host have been studied. Cercariae of Himasthla spp. (more than 90% of the metacercariae were identified as H. continua post-experimentally) exhibited a host size-dependent selection within the host size range from 2 to 6 mm. Infection efficiency was reduced by the presence of substratum allowing cockles to burrow, suggesting that the foot and visceral region may be attacked by cercariae. No increased mortality due to parasite infections could be demonstrated within 5 d after infestation. The metacercariae within experimentally infected cockles were primarily located in the connective tissue within the foot and visceral region. Although some cockles were completely filled with metacercariae only small functional effects were detected, such as a slightly prolonged burrowing time of infected specimens.


Author(s):  
И.А. Уткина ◽  
В.В. Рубцов

Ранняя (Quercus robur var. praecox Czern.) и поздняя (Q. robur var. tardiflora Czern.) фенологические формы дуба черешчатого, выделенные в самостоятельные таксоны в середине XIX в., неоднократно становились объектами исследований для специалистов разного профиля. Собрано немало данных о различиях в их росте, требованиях к условиям местообитания, устойчивости к неблагоприятным внешним факторам. Иногда кроме ранней и поздней феноформ выделяют еще и промежуточные между ними. Наиболее отчетливо различия между феноформами, обусловленные разными сроками листораспускания, проявляются в реакции на поздние весенние заморозки и повреждение листвы насекомыми-филлофагами. Так как на деревьях поздней формы листовые и цветочные почки раскрываются намного позже, чем на ранней, поздняя форма избегает повреждения весенними заморозками. Кроме того, обладая меньшей способностью к формированию летних побегов, она меньше повреждается и ранними осенними заморозками, а также зимними морозами, что способствует образованию у нее более прямых и полнодревесных стволов, по сравнению с ранней формой. Ранняя форма чаще и сильнее повреждается филлофагами ранневесеннего комплекса, у которых отрождение гусениц из яиц синхронизировано с раскрытием почек и распусканием листьев. Есть данные, что видовой состав вредителей листвы на деревьях ранней и поздней форм дуба при их совместном произрастании примерно одинаков, зато численность отдельных видов филлофагов и их соотношение различны. На деревьях ранней формы их больше в несколько раз, что объясняется совпадением фаз развития большинства ранневесенних видов филлофагов и листвы этой формы дуба. Согласно результатам проведенных исследований, поздняя форма предпочтительнее для создания лесных культур дуба как более устойчивая к неблагоприятным погодным условиям и насекомым-вредителям. Early (Quercus robur var. praecox Czern.) and late (Q. robur var. tardiflora Czern.) phenological forms of the common oak, recognized as independent taxa in the mid-nineteenth century, have been subjects of multiple studies by specialists of different fields. Abundant data on the differences in their growth requirements, habitat conditions, and resistance to unfavorable external factors have been collected. Some specialists in addition to early and late phenoforms distinguish intermediate forms. Most clearly the differences between these forms appear in response to late spring frosts and damage of leaves by phyllophagous insects due to different timing of the forms' leafing. As leaf and flower buds in late oaks are revealed much later than in early oaks, late form avoids damage by spring frosts. In addition, due to lower ability to form summer shoots, late oaks are less damaged by early autumn frosts and winter freeze, which contributes to the formation of more straight and full trunks comparing to early oaks. Early oaks are damaged more severely by phyllophagous insects of spring complex, in which hatching of caterpillars from eggs is synchronized with opening buds and unfolding of leaves. There is evidence that species composition of foliage pests on co-occurant early and late forms of oak is nearly the same, but the number of individual species of phyllophagous insects and their ratio are different. In the early form the number of phyllophagous insects is greater by several fold due to concurrence of developmental phases in most early spring phyllophagous species and foliage of this oak form. The obtained results show that the late form of common oak is preferable for forest plantations as more resistant to unfavorable weather conditions and insect pests.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Pugh ◽  
M. M. Stack

AbstractErosion rates of wind turbine blades are not constant, and they depend on many external factors including meteorological differences relating to global weather patterns. In order to track the degradation of the turbine blades, it is important to analyse the distribution and change in weather conditions across the country. This case study addresses rainfall in Western Europe using the UK and Ireland data to create a relationship between the erosion rate of wind turbine blades and rainfall for both countries. In order to match the appropriate erosion data to the meteorological data, 2 months of the annual rainfall were chosen, and the differences were analysed. The month of highest rain, January and month of least rain, May were selected for the study. The two variables were then combined with other data including hailstorm events and locations of wind turbine farms to create a general overview of erosion with relation to wind turbine blades.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Francis ◽  
Natasa Skific

The effects of rapid Arctic warming and ice loss on weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere is a topic of active research, lively scientific debate and high societal impact. The emergence of Arctic amplification—the enhanced sensitivity of high-latitude temperature to global warming—in only the last 10–20 years presents a challenge to identifying statistically robust atmospheric responses using observations. Several recent studies have proposed and demonstrated new mechanisms by which the changing Arctic may be affecting weather patterns in mid-latitudes, and these linkages differ fundamentally from tropics/jet-stream interactions through the transfer of wave energy. In this study, new metrics and evidence are presented that suggest disproportionate Arctic warming—and resulting weakening of the poleward temperature gradient—is causing the Northern Hemisphere circulation to assume a more meridional character (i.e. wavier), although not uniformly in space or by season, and that highly amplified jet-stream patterns are occurring more frequently. Further analysis based on self-organizing maps supports this finding. These changes in circulation are expected to lead to persistent weather patterns that are known to cause extreme weather events. As emissions of greenhouse gases continue unabated, therefore, the continued amplification of Arctic warming should favour an increased occurrence of extreme events caused by prolonged weather conditions.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen L. Webb ◽  
Kenneth L. Gee ◽  
Bronson K. Strickland ◽  
Stephen Demarais ◽  
Randy W. DeYoung

Few studies have documented fine-scale movements of ungulate species, including white-tailed deer(Odocoileus virginianus), despite the advent of global positioning system (GPS) technology incorporated into tracking devices. We collected fine-scale temporal location estimates (i.e., 15 min/relocation attempt) from 17 female and 15 male white-tailed deer over 7 years and 3 seasons in Oklahoma, USA. Our objectives were to document fine-scale movements of females and males and determine effects of reproductive phase, moon phase, and short-term weather patterns on movements. Female and male movements were primarily crepuscular. Male total daily movements were 20% greater during rut () than postrut (). Female daily movements were greatest during postparturition (), followed by parturition (), and preparturition (). We found moon phase had no effect on daily, nocturnal, and diurnal deer movements and fine-scale temporal weather conditions had an inconsistent influence on deer movement patterns within season. Our data suggest that hourly and daily variation in weather events have minimal impact on movements of white-tailed deer in southern latitudes. Instead, routine crepuscular movements, presumed to maximize thermoregulation and minimize predation risk, appear to be the most important factors influencing movements.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hoffmann ◽  
Jascha Lehmann ◽  
Bijan H. Fallah ◽  
Fred F. Hattermann

AbstractRecent studies have shown that hydro-climatic extremes have increased significantly in number and intensity in the last decades. In the Northern Hemisphere such events were often associated with long lasting persistent weather patterns. In 2018, hot and dry conditions prevailed for several months over Central Europe leading to record-breaking temperatures and severe harvest losses. The underlying circulation processes are still not fully understood and there is a need for improved methodologies to detect and quantify persistent weather conditions. Here, we propose a new method to detect, compare and quantify persistence through atmosphere similarity patterns by applying established image recognition methods to day to day atmospheric fields. We find that persistent weather patterns have increased in number and intensity over the last decades in Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude summer, link this to hydro-climatic risks and evaluate the extreme summers of 2010 (Russian heat wave) and of 2018 (European drought). We further evaluate the ability of climate models to reproduce long-term trend patterns of weather persistence and the result is a notable discrepancy to observed developments.


Author(s):  
Ian M. Hamilton ◽  
Macie D. Benincasa

Size-based dominance hierarchies influence fitness, group size and population dynamics and link dominance structure to evolutionary and ecological outcomes. While larger individuals often gain dominance, social status may influence growth and size in return, resulting in feedbacks among status, growth and size. Here, we present two models evaluating how these feedbacks influence the emergence of size structure in a dominance hierarchy. In the first, size influences competition for food and investment in suppressing growth of groupmates. Stable size differences emerged when suppression was greatest for similarly sized individuals and size had little effect on competition for food. The model predicted size divergence when size strongly affected competition for food. In the second model, we used a dynamic game to solve for optimal investment in growth suppression as a function of size structure. Investment in growth suppression was favoured only when dominants and subordinates were similar in size, generating size ratios different than those expected by chance. Variation in the feedbacks among growth, size and status can explain variation in emergent size structure of dominance hierarchies and its consequences for conflict within groups. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies’.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-55
Author(s):  
Yangchen Lai ◽  
Jianfeng Li ◽  
Xihui Gu ◽  
Cancan Liu ◽  
Yongqin David Chen

AbstractDuring simultaneous or successive occurrences of precipitation and storm surges, the interplay of the two types of extremes can exacerbate the impact to a greater extent than either of them in isolation. The compound flood hazards from precipitation and storm surges vary across regions of the world because of the various weather conditions. By analyzing in-situ observations of precipitation and storm surges across the globe, we found that the return periods of compound floods with marginal values exceeding the 98.5th percentile (i.e., equivalent to a joint return period of 12 years if the marginal variables are independent) are < 2 years in most areas, while those in northern Europe are > 8 years due to weaker dependence. Our quantitative assessment shows that cyclones (i.e., tropical cyclones (TCs) and extratropical cyclones (ETCs)) are the major triggers of compound floods. More than 80% of compound floods in East Asia and > 50% of those in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Australia are associated with TCs, while in northern Europe and the higher latitude coast of North America, ETCs contribute to the majority of compound floods (i.e., 80%). Weather patterns characterized by deep low pressure, cyclonic wind, and abundant precipitable water content are conducive to the occurrence of compound floods. Extreme precipitation and extreme storm surges over Europe tend to occur in different months, which explains the relatively lower probability of compound floods in Europe. The comprehensive hazard assessment of global compound floods in this study serves as an important reference for flood risk management in coastal regions across the globe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boudewijn van Leeuwen ◽  
Zalán Tobak ◽  
Ferenc Kovács

Changing climate is expected to cause more extreme weather patterns in many parts of the world. In the Carpathian Basin, it is expected that the frequency of intensive precipitation will increase causing inland excess water (IEW) in parts of the plains more frequently, while currently the phenomenon already causes great damage. This research presents and validates a new methodology to determine the extent of these floods using a combination of passive and active remote sensing data. The method can be used to monitor IEW over large areas in a fully automated way based on freely available Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 remote sensing imagery. The method is validated for two IEW periods in 2016 and 2018 using high-resolution optical satellite data and aerial photographs. Compared to earlier remote sensing data-based methods, our method can be applied under unfavorite weather conditions, does not need human interaction and gives accurate results for inundations larger than 1000 m2. The overall accuracy of the classification exceeds 99%; however, smaller IEW patches are underestimated due to the spatial resolution of the input data. Knowledge on the location and duration of the inundations helps to take operational measures against the water but is also required to determine the possibilities for storage of water for dry periods. The frequent monitoring of the floods supports sustainable water management in the area better than the methods currently employed.


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Suraiya Akter ◽  
Erin L. Cortus

Estimating and measuring the occurrence of a sensation, odor, around livestock facilities is challenging. This research compares the estimated frequency of odor nuisance with measured hydrogen sulfide (H2S) concentrations at various distances around a swine and a dairy operation, and discusses the results based on time of day, weather conditions, distance, and topography. The estimated odor annoyance-free and odor annoyance frequencies were based on a publically available calculator of odor impact derived from average odor emission rates, historical, and regional weather patterns, and dispersion modeling. Continuous monitoring of H2S was by single point monitors (SPM) at locations around the operations. Time-weighted average H2S concentrations were less than 10 ppb for odor annoyance-free frequencies, and less than 10 to at least 73 ppb for odor-annoyance frequencies. Verifying a proxy odor indicator can help update odor annoyance models and respond to site-specific concerns for existing facilities.


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