Reproductive response of a marine annelid to winter storms: an analog to fire adaptation in plants?

Whole blood and blood components from vertebrates differentially affect egg formation in three species of anautogenous mosquitoes

Parasites & Vectors ◽

10.1186/s13071-021-04594-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ruby E. Harrison ◽

Mark R. Brown ◽

Michael R. Strand

Keyword(s):

Serum Albumin ◽

Whole Blood ◽

Digestive Enzyme ◽

Vertebrate Host ◽

Cell Protein ◽

Blood Components ◽

Blood Proteins ◽

Serum Albumins ◽

Egg Formation ◽

Reproductive Response

Abstract Background Most female mosquitoes are anautogenous and must blood feed on a vertebrate host to produce eggs. Prior studies show that the number of eggs females lay per clutch correlates with the volume of blood ingested and that protein is the most important macronutrient for egg formation. In contrast, how whole blood, blood fractions and specific blood proteins from different vertebrates affect egg formation is less clear. Since egg formation is best understood in Aedes aegypti, we examined how blood and blood components from different vertebrates affect this species and two others: the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae and arbovirus vector Culex quinquefasciatus. Methods Adult female mosquitoes were fed blood, blood fractions and purified major blood proteins from different vertebrate hosts. Markers of reproductive response including ovary ecdysteroidogenesis, yolk deposition into oocytes and number of mature eggs produced were measured. Results Ae. aegypti, An. gambiae and C. quinquefasciatus responded differently to meals of whole blood, plasma or blood cells from human, rat, chicken and turkey hosts. We observed more similarities between the anthropophiles Ae. aegypti and An. gambiae than the ornithophile C. quinquefasciatus. Focusing on Ae. aegypti, the major plasma-derived proteins (serum albumin, fibrinogen and globulins) differentially stimulated egg formation as a function of vertebrate host source. The major blood cell protein, hemoglobin, stimulated yolk deposition when from pigs but not humans, cows or sheep. Serum albumins from different vertebrates also variably affected egg formation. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) stimulated ovary ecdysteroidogenesis, but more weakly induced digestive enzyme activities than whole blood. In contrast, BSA-derived peptides and free amino acids had no stimulatory effects on ecdysteroidogenesis or yolk deposition into oocytes. Conclusions Whole blood, blood fractions and specific blood proteins supported egg formation in three species of anautogenous mosquitoes but specific responses varied with the vertebrate source of the blood components tested.

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13 Years of Storms: An Analysis of the Effects of Storms on Lake Physics on the Atlantic Fringe of Europe

Water ◽

10.3390/w12020318 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 318 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Mikkel René Andersen ◽

Elvira de Eyto ◽

Mary Dillane ◽

Russell Poole ◽

Eleanor Jennings

Keyword(s):

Water Column ◽

Western Europe ◽

Thermal Structure ◽

Winter Storms ◽

Water Column Stability ◽

Physical Conditions ◽

Order Of Magnitude ◽

Storm Frequency ◽

Summer Storm ◽

Lake Physics

While winter storms are generally common in western Europe, the rarer summer storms may result in more pronounced impacts on lake physics. Using long-term, high frequency datasets of weather and lake thermal structure from the west of Ireland (2005 to 2017), we quantified the effects of storms on the physical conditions in a monomictic, deep lake close to the Atlantic Ocean. We analysed a total of 227 storms during the stratified (May to September, n = 51) and non-stratified (November to March, n = 176) periods. In winter, as might be expected, changes were distributed over the entire water column, whereas in summer, when the lake was stratified, storms only impacted the smaller volume above the thermocline. During an average summer (May–September) storm, the lake number dropped by an order of magnitude, the thermocline deepened by an average of 2.8 m, water column stability decreased by an average of 60.4 j m−2 and the epilimnion temperature decreased by a factor of five compared to the average change in winter (0.5 °C vs. 0.1 °C). Projected increases in summer storm frequency will have important implications for lake physics and biological pathways.

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Does Habitat Diversity Modify the Dietary and Reproductive Response to Prey Fluctuations in a Generalist Raptor Predator, the Eurasian Buzzard Buteo buteo?

Birds ◽

10.3390/birds2010008 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 114-126

Author(s):

Marek Panek

Keyword(s):

Habitat Quality ◽

Breeding Success ◽

Common Vole ◽

Habitat Diversity ◽

Crop Fields ◽

Buteo Buteo ◽

Nestling Diet ◽

Reproductive Response ◽

Agricultural Habitat ◽

Small Fields

Predators can modify their diet and demography in response to changes in food availability and habitat quality. I tested the prediction that some species can change their predation pattern, between specialist type and generalist type, depending on the complexity of habitat structure. It was hypothesized that their dietary response is stronger in diversified habitats than in simplified ones, but the opposite tendency occurs in the case of reproductive response. The nestling diet and breeding success of the Eurasian Buzzard Buteo buteo, the abundance of its main prey (the common vole Microtus arvalis), and that of the most important alternative prey group (passerines) were estimated over ten years in two types of agricultural habitat in western Poland, i.e., in the diversified habitat of small fields and the simplified habitat of large fields. The vole abundance was higher in large fields, but the abundance of passerines was greater in small fields. The frequency of voles in the Eurasian Buzzard nestling diet was higher in large fields than in small fields and increased with the abundance of this prey in crop fields. However, no difference in the relationship between the vole frequency in the diet of Eurasian Buzzards and the abundance of voles was found between the two habitat types. The breeding success of Eurasian Buzzards was dependent on the vole abundance, but this relationship did not differ between the two field types. It seems that the pattern of dietary and reproductive response of Eurasian Buzzards depends on the actual availability of individual prey species, which can be modified by habitat quality, rather than on relative prey abundance.

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Dynamics of Cloud-Top Generating Cells in Winter Cyclones. Part I: Idealized Simulations in the Context of Field Observations

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences ◽

10.1175/jas-d-15-0126.1 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 73 (4) ◽

pp. 1507-1527 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Jason M. Keeler ◽

Brian F. Jewett ◽

Robert M. Rauber ◽

Greg M. McFarquhar ◽

Roy M. Rasmussen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Vertical Velocity ◽

Radiative Forcing ◽

Initial Conditions ◽

Vertical Wind Shear ◽

Weather Research And Forecasting ◽

Velocity Spectrum ◽

Latent Heating ◽

Heating Rates ◽

Winter Storms ◽

Radiation Parameterizations

Abstract This paper assesses the influence of radiative forcing and latent heating on the development and maintenance of cloud-top generating cells (GCs) in high-resolution idealized Weather Research and Forecasting Model simulations with initial conditions representative of the vertical structure of a cyclone observed during the Profiling of Winter Storms campaign. Simulated GC kinematics, structure, and ice mass are shown to compare well quantitatively with Wyoming Cloud Radar, cloud probe, and other observations. Sensitivity to radiative forcing was assessed in simulations with longwave-only (nighttime), longwave-and-shortwave (daytime), and no-radiation parameterizations. The domain-averaged longwave cooling rate exceeded 0.50 K h−1 near cloud top, with maxima greater than 2.00 K h−1 atop GCs. Shortwave warming was weaker by comparison, with domain-averaged values of 0.10–0.20 K h−1 and maxima of 0.50 K h−1 atop GCs. The stabilizing influence of cloud-top shortwave warming was evident in the daytime simulation’s vertical velocity spectrum, with 1% of the updrafts in the 6.0–8.0-km layer exceeding 1.20 m s−1, compared to 1.80 m s−1 for the nighttime simulation. GCs regenerate in simulations with radiative forcing after the initial instability is released but do not persist when radiation is not parameterized, demonstrating that radiative forcing is critical to GC maintenance under the thermodynamic and vertical wind shear conditions in this cyclone. GCs are characterized by high ice supersaturation (RHice > 150%) and latent heating rates frequently in excess of 2.00 K h−1 collocated with vertical velocity maxima. Ice precipitation mixing ratio maxima of greater than 0.15 g kg−1 were common within GCs in the daytime and nighttime simulations.

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1. On the Nature and Character of European Winter Storms, with the best means of giving Warning of their Approach

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ◽

10.1017/s0370164600045612 ◽

1869 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. 140-145

Author(s):

R. Russell

Keyword(s):

The Self ◽

Convex Side ◽

Winter Storms ◽

Orkney Islands ◽

Round Numbers ◽

North And South

The object of this paper was to show the true character of storms, illustrated by those of 2d, 3d, and 4th December 1863. It was pointed out that the mode usually adopted of laying down the isobarometric lines was calculated to present an erroneous view of their figure or form. The laying down representative lines in round numbers of 5 millemetres in each, or in two-tenths of an inch of barometric readings, lead deceptively to the conclusion that the areas of least pressure were circular or elliptical.It was then shown that the lines of equal pressures were ribbed into the latitudinal line of minimum barometer, which was usually found running north and south, sometimes nearly straight, but often curved, with its convex side towards the east. The minimum line of barometer was easily fixed by consulting the self-registering barometers. The minimum line of barometer was shown to have been on the meridian of London at 8 a.m. of the 3d December, and apparently nearly straight from Algiers to the Orkney Islands.

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Evaluating the accuracy of C- and X-band weather radars and their application for stream flow simulation

Journal of Hydroinformatics ◽

10.2166/hydro.2012.120 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 15 (4) ◽

pp. 1121-1136 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

N. K. Shrestha ◽

T. Goormans ◽

P. Willems

Keyword(s):

Conceptual Model ◽

Stream Flow ◽

Flow Simulation ◽

Winter Storms ◽

Weather Radars ◽

X Band ◽

Rainfall Estimates

This paper investigates the accuracy of rainfall estimates from C- and X-band weather radars and their application for stream flow simulation. Different adjustment procedures are applied to raw radar estimates using gauge readings from a network of 12 raingauges. The stream flow is simulated for the 48.17 km2 Molenbeek/Parkbeek catchment located in the Flemish region of Belgium based on a lumped conceptual model. Results showed that raw radar estimates can be greatly improved using adjustment procedures. The gauge-radar residuals however, remain large even after adjustments. The adjusted X-band radar estimates are observed to be better estimates than corresponding C-band estimates. Their application for stream flow simulation showed that raingauges and radars can simulate spatially more uniform winter storms with almost the same accuracy, whereas differences are more evident on summer events.

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