Tree climbing by the snail Cepaea nemoralis (L.): a possible method for regulating temperature and hydration

1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 1010-1014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Jaremovic ◽  
C. David Rollo

Three sheltering strategies employed by the snail Cepaea nemoralis are described: climbing objects, aestivating on the soil surface, and returning to underground refuges. The number of snails that climbed bushes was analysed by correlation regression. An equation incorporating maximum daily temperature, rainfall for the last 3 days, and the interaction of these factors explained 95% of the variation observed (P < 0.0001). Snails more than 1.8 m above the ground were significantly more dehydrated than those individuals found lower (P < 0.05). The distance climbed by snails, however, was not related to their size (P = 0.4112). The interrelationship of habitat structure, sheltering behavior, and microclimate is discussed in relation to selection of color morphs.

1994 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaukat Ali ◽  
L. A. Goonewardene ◽  
J. A. Basarab

Water consumption (WC) by 39.5 animal units (AU) of grazing cattle was studied at a central Alberta site in summer. Average WC AU−1 was estimated at 48.9 L d−1. WC increased by 0.68 L AU−1 (P < 0.01) for each percentage decrease in relative humidity, increased by 0.81 L AU−1 (P < 0.02) for each degree Celsius increase in maximum daily temperature, and increased by 0.15 L AU−1 (P < 0.06) as cattle grew and the season progressed. Relative humidity is shown to be an important determinant of WC in grazing cattle. Key words: Water consumption, animal unit, temperature, humidity, grazing cattle


1974 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellis W. Hauser ◽  
Gale A. Buchanan

Abstract Florida beggarweed (Desmodium tortuosum (Sw.) DC.) and sicklepod (Cassia obtusifolia L.), two of the worst weeds in peanuts grown in the Southeastern states, were most susceptible to dinoseb (the alkanolamine salt of 2-sec-butyl-4, 6-dinitrophenol) applied to seedlings before the true leaves expanded. If either of these weeds was not controlled by the first application of dinoseb, especially at the lowest rate of 0.63 kg/ha, it often survived later applications and became a problem when harvesting the peanuts. Sicklepod growing in soil previously treated with vernolate (S-propyl dipropylthiocarbamate) was more susceptible to low rates of dinoseb than sicklepod growing in soil free of vernolate. A single treatment of dinoseb at 0.63 kg/ha killed seedling Florida beggarweed if the maximum daily temperature exceeded 32C; however, twice that rate was necessary under cool conditions. Repeated treatments with higher rates (such as 1.26 kg/ha) of dinoseb usually were necessary for satisfactory control of sicklepod. However, where dinoseb did not kill the early weeds, repeated treatments suppressed weed growth and reduced the mass of weeds present at harvest. Peaunt plants generally tolerated the repeated dinoseb treatments, although yields trended lower if dinoseb at 1.26 kg/ha was applied after treatment with naptalam (N-1-naphthylphthalamic acid). However, any reduction in yields of peanuts attributable to either naptalam or dinoseb treatments was much less than potential reductions in yield from uncontrolled sicklepod and Florida beggarweed.


AoB Plants ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene W Schupp ◽  
Rafal Zwolak ◽  
Landon R Jones ◽  
Rebecca S Snell ◽  
Noelle G Beckman ◽  
...  

Abstract There is growing realization that intraspecific variation in seed dispersal can have important ecological and evolutionary consequences. However, we do not have a good understanding of the drivers or causes of intraspecific variation in dispersal, how strong an effect these drivers have, and how widespread they are across dispersal modes. As a first step to developing a better understanding, we present a broad, but not exhaustive, review of what is known about the drivers of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal, and what remains uncertain. We start by decomposing ‘drivers of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal’ into intrinsic drivers (i.e. variation in traits of individual plants) and extrinsic drivers (i.e. variation in ecological context). For intrinsic traits, we further decompose intraspecific variation into variation among individuals and variation of trait values within individuals. We then review our understanding of the major intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal, with an emphasis on variation among individuals. Crop size is the best-supported and best-understood intrinsic driver of variation across dispersal modes; overall, more seeds are dispersed as more seeds are produced, even in cases where per seed dispersal rates decline. Fruit/seed size is the second most widely studied intrinsic driver, and is also relevant to a broad range of seed dispersal modes. Remaining intrinsic drivers are poorly understood, and range from effects that are probably widespread, such as plant height, to drivers that are most likely sporadic, such as fruit or seed colour polymorphism. Primary extrinsic drivers of variation in seed dispersal include local environmental conditions and habitat structure. Finally, we present a selection of outstanding questions as a starting point to advance our understanding of individual variation in seed dispersal.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behrouz Pirouz ◽  
Sina Shaffiee Haghshenas ◽  
Sami Shaffiee Haghshenas ◽  
Patrizia Piro

Nowadays, sustainable development is considered a key concept and solution in creating a promising and prosperous future for human societies. Nevertheless, there are some predicted and unpredicted problems that epidemic diseases are real and complex problems. Hence, in this research work, a serious challenge in the sustainable development process was investigated using the classification of confirmed cases of COVID-19 (new version of Coronavirus) as one of the epidemic diseases. Hence, binary classification modeling was used by the group method of data handling (GMDH) type of neural network as one of the artificial intelligence methods. For this purpose, the Hubei province in China was selected as a case study to construct the proposed model, and some important factors, namely maximum, minimum, and average daily temperature, the density of a city, relative humidity, and wind speed, were considered as the input dataset, and the number of confirmed cases was selected as the output dataset for 30 days. The proposed binary classification model provides higher performance capacity in predicting the confirmed cases. In addition, regression analysis has been done and the trend of confirmed cases compared with the fluctuations of daily weather parameters (wind, humidity, and average temperature). The results demonstrated that the relative humidity and maximum daily temperature had the highest impact on the confirmed cases. The relative humidity in the main case study, with an average of 77.9%, affected positively, and maximum daily temperature, with an average of 15.4 °C, affected negatively, the confirmed cases.


1994 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph E. Franklin ◽  
Virgil L. Quisenberry ◽  
Billy J. Gossett ◽  
Edward C. Murdock

Extension workers are sensing pressure to use soils information and chemical characteristics data to guide farmers in selecting pesticides least prone to leach into groundwater. Our objective was to estimate differences in herbicide migration to groundwater under conditions typical for the Southeast Coastal Plain, and to consider how a farmer might be advised to use such knowledge in selecting herbicides. We used a simple computer code for microcomputers to predict persistence and migration of 17 herbicides through a hypothetical, coarse-textured soil typical of the Southeast Coastal Plain. Appropriate herbicides were selected for several common crop-weed problems, such as sicklepod in soybean and Palmer amaranth in corn. Groundwater was assumed to be 3.15 m below the soil surface. Herbicides selected covered a broad range of half-lives and organic carbon partition coefficients. Only after the first-order degradation rate constant was reduced by a factor of five did predicted soil water concentrations of several herbicides at the groundwater interface reach normal detection limits. Still, predicted concentrations were below the level established for health effects advisory purposes. Due to the large number of uncertainties and the inability to estimate practical benefits, we conclude that data relating to soil and herbicide characteristics cannot be used at this time to override cost effectiveness, efficacy, and other factors normally considered by farmers and Extension professionals in herbicides for weed control.


Author(s):  
S.V. Savchuk ◽  
V.E. Timofeev ◽  
O.A. Shcheglov ◽  
V.A. Artemenko ◽  
I.L. Kozlenko

The object of the study is the maximum daily air temperature during the months of the year over 1991-2016 by the data of 186 meteorological stations of Ukraine. Extreme values of the maximum daily temperature equal to or exceeded their 95th (Tmax95p and above, ºС) percentile were taken as extreme. The article sets the dates (137 cases) of extreme values of maximum air temperature on more than 60 % of the territory. For these dates, 13 meteorological parameters were selected: average, minimum, and maximum air temperatures; average, minimum and maximum relative humidity; station and sea-level pressure; average, maximum (from 8 synoptic hours) wind speed; rainfall; height of snow cover. The purpose of this work is to determine the correlation coefficient (K), in particular, statistically significant (K≤-0.6, K≥0.6), on these dates between selected meteorological parameters at 186 meteorological stations of Ukraine for 1991-2013. The density of the cases of statistically significant dependence between the meteorological parameters in extremely warm days in separate seasons is determined. In extremely warm days, meteorological parameters and areas with statistically significant correlations at K≤-0.6 were detected: T and F (focally in southern and some western regions with significant density) − in winter; T and F (with the highest density ubiquitous or almost ubiquitous), P and V (in a large number of regions, usually west or right-bank, but with less frequency) − in the transition seasons, and in the autumn between − T and F (in the south with smaller density) and P and F (in some areas of the north, northwest, west, lower east). In all seasons, such a correlation between other meteorological parameters had a focal distribution, usually with a smaller density. In these days, a focal distribution with a small frequency of dependencies at K≥0.6 was found between the meteorological parameters detected (F and V in transition seasons, T and F in winter), except for similar ones. However, such dependence is observed between T and V in some regions in winter and autumn and in some areas of south, southeast, east with a smaller density. The study of the maximum daily temperature is relevant, because from the level of natural hydrometeorological phenomena it is accompanied by dangerous phenomena, negatively affecting the weather dependent industries.


1981 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 924-932 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre L. Savard ◽  
J. Bruce Falls

The influence of habitat structure on the nesting height of five species of birds in an urban area was investigated. All rock dove (Columba livia) nests were on two-story buildings. The nesting height of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) and starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) was influenced by building height being higher in two-story residential areas than in areas with bungalows. House sparrows were more versatile than starlings in the selection of nest sites. They occasionally nested in coniferous foliage but preferred man-made structures. The height of American robin (Turdus migratorius) nests ranged widely in response to vertical distribution of foliage. The largest number of nests in a given plot always occurred in the layer of foliage just below the layer with the largest volume of foliage. Robins nested in coniferous foliage early in the breeding season but switched to deciduous foliage as the season progressed. Common grackles (Quiscalus quiscula) nested exclusively in coniferous foliage and their nesting height was also influenced by the vertical structure. Habitat structure was found to be the main determinant of nesting height of birds in the urban environment and height in itself was not an important feature in the nest site selection of the species studied. Disturbance as measured by house density had a relatively minor influence.


A number of samples of subfossil Cepaea nemoralis and hortensis from sites in southern Britain of archaeological interest, ranging in date from about 4500 b .c . to Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon, have been scored for frequency of the major banding morphs, and compared with present-day samples taken on each site or as near to it as these species could be found. In C. nemoralis there is a significant decrease of unbandeds from pre-iron Age samples to the corresponding ones for the present day, but no indication of systematic change from Iron Age samples to the present day. Spread banded also shows changes from pre-iron Age samples to present-day ones, but very little change from the early Iron Age to the present day. The smaller samples of C. hortensis available give no sign of a trend although there is much change from pre-iron Age times to the present; Iron Age samples and the corresponding present-day ones do not show the relative constancy of composition seen in C. nemoralis —as usual these two very closely related species are behaving differently. At the present day there is evidence (experimental and distributional) that the frequencies of banding morphs of C. nemoralis are affected by climate, unbandeds and mid-bandeds being favoured by better summers than those normal in Britain at present. The available evidence, from pollen analysis and other sources, of changes in the climate of southern Britain in the last 6500 years suggests that the observed differences in morph frequencies can be related to known climatic changes, in agreement with present-day evidence. One area effect (south-west M arlborough Downs) has contracted and become less intense since pre-iron Age times, as perhaps have others; in some cases a site has remained in an area effect, but the effect itself has changed. Two pairs of samples from lowland sites appear to have changed from frequencies indicating area effects in pre-iron Age times to others consistent with visual selection at the present day. Area effects seem to have been rather constant from the Iron Age to the present day.


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