Correlation Between Mandibular Morphology and Specific Diet of Some Desert Grassland Acrididae (Orthoptera)

1984 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
pp. 296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce D. Patterson
Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 976
Author(s):  
Fiorenzo Moscatelli ◽  
Francesco Sessa ◽  
Anna Valenzano ◽  
Rita Polito ◽  
Vincenzo Monda ◽  
...  

At the end of 2019, a new coronavirus (COVID-19) appeared on the world scene, which mainly affects the respiratory system, causing pneumonia and multi-organ failure, and, although it starts with common symptoms such as shortness of breath and fever, in about 2–3% of cases it leads to death. Unfortunately, to date, no specific treatments have been found for the cure of this virus and, therefore, it is advisable to implement all possible strategies in order to prevent infection. In this context, it is important to better define the role of all behaviors, in particular nutrition, in order to establish whether these can both prevent infection and improve the outcome of the disease in patients with COVID-19. In the literature, it is widely shown that states of malnutrition, overweight, and obesity negatively affect the immune system, leading to viral infections, and several studies have shown that nutritional interventions can act as immunostimulators, helping to prevent viral infections. Even if several measures, such as the assumption of a specific diet regimen, the use of dietary supplements, and other similar interventions, are promising for the prevention, management, and recovery of COVID-19 patients, it is important to highlight that strong data from randomized clinical trials are needed to support any such assumption. Considering this particular scenario, we present a literature review addressing several important aspects related to diet and SARS-CoV-2 infection, in order to highlight the importance of diet and supplementation in prevention and management of, as well as recovery from COVID-19.


1988 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. 415-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Pfadt ◽  
J. A. Lockwood ◽  
T. M. Foppe

AbstractExamination of crop contents of three species of grasshoppers in outbreak densities on desert grassland of eastern Arizona revealed that all three were ingesting a mixed diet of plants. Crops of nymphal and adult Aulocara elliotti (Thomas) contained an average of 67 and 93% dry weight of grass, respectively, placing this species in both the mixed graminivorous and the graminivorous categories. The preferred host plant of A. elliotti was Bouteloua gracilis (H.B.K.) Lag. but it was not an essential item, as a large population developed in a site where this grass was virtually lacking but other perennial grasses were present. Crops of nymphs and adults of both Melanoplus sanguinipes (Fabricius) and M. cuneatus Scudder contained chiefly forbs (88–100% of dry weight). The principal host plants were Erodium cicutarium (L.) L’Hér., Lupinus brevicaulis Wats., Microsteris gracilis (Hook.) Greene, and Plantago purshii Roem. & Schult. Both species of Melanoplus fit into the forbivorous category and evidence indicated they were in competition with each other for food. All three grasshopper species showed preferences for particular plant species and as a consequence had significantly different frequencies of plant taxa in their crop contents from what were present in the field.


2014 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. S74
Author(s):  
V. Aviles ◽  
H. Segurola ◽  
M. Comas ◽  
G. Cárdenas ◽  
N. Castillejos ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruomeng Wang ◽  
Nianpeng He ◽  
Shenggong Li ◽  
Li Xu ◽  
Mingxu Li

AbstractLeaf water content (LWC) has important physiological and ecological significance for plant growth. However, it is still unclear how LWC varies over large spatial scale and with plant adaptation strategies. Here, we measured the LWC of 1365 grassland plants, along three comparative precipitation transects from meadow to desert on the Mongolia Plateau (MP), Loess Plateau, and Tibetan Plateau, respectively, to explore its spatial variation and the underlying mechanisms that determine this variation. The LWC data were normally distributed with an average value of 0.66 g g−1. LWC was not significantly different among the three plateaus, but it differed significantly among different plant life forms. Spatially, LWC in the three plateaus all decreased and then increased from meadow to desert grassland along a precipitation gradient. Unexpectedly, climate and genetic evolution only explained a small proportion of the spatial variation of LWC in all plateaus, and LWC was only weakly correlated with precipitation in the water-limited MP. Overall, the lasso variation in LWC with precipitation in all plateaus represented an underlying trade-off between structural investment and water income in plants, for better survival in various environments. In brief, plants should invest less to thrive in a humid environment (meadow), increase more investment to keep a relatively stable LWC in a drying environment, and have high investment to hold higher LWC in a dry environment (desert). Combined, these results indicate that LWC should be an important variable in future studies of large-scale trait variations.


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