http://precedings.nature.com/subjects/ecology/ Recently posted documents in Ecology Nature Publishing Group en Nature Precedings http://precedings.nature.com/images/header_logo.gif http://precedings.nature.com http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3967.1 Increasing public engagement in volunteer science1, either through data collection2 or processing3, is both raising public awareness of science and gathering useful information for scientists. While the payoffs of citizen science4 are potentially large, achieving them requires new approaches to data management and analysis that can only result from strong cross-disciplinary collaborations. This is especially true in ecology and conservation biology, where historically the understanding of species’ responses to environmental change has been constrained by the limited spatial5 or temporal scale6 of available data. Here we describe collaborative research in ecology, computer science, and statistics to generate essential information for conservation management of North American birds: accurate dynamic bird distributions models based on habitat associations across much of North America. Unique is our ability to describe the broad-scale dynamics of seasonal bird distributions and the associated seasonal patterns of habitat use. Our source of bird distribution data is eBird7, an online bird checklist program that currently gathers more than 74,000 checklists monthly from a large network of contributors. Our results were made possible through a data intensive scientific workflow8 that includes analytical methods merged from the fields of machine learning and statistics. We believe that this novel approach of data collection, synthesis, analysis, and visualization will serve as a hallmark for future research initiatives, with broad applicability across many scientific domains. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3967.1 Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:05:44 UTC Obtaining New Insights for Biodiversity Conservation from Broad-Scale Citizen Science Data doi:10.1038/npre.2009.3967.1 2009-11-13 Steve Kelling Nature Precedings 2009-11-13T15:05:44Z Manuscript Ecology http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3972.1 Background/Question/MethodsAs urbanization increases across the globe, more ecologists have taken note of its consequences to stream systems. Sufficient data have been collected to document repeated patterns in urbanized streams for many abiotic parameters, aquatic insects, and fish. For example, we now know that urbanized streams experience more frequent and intense spates as a result of increased runoff form impervious surfaces in the urban watershed. The spates eventually lead to a more incised and wider stream bed. Such abiotic shifts consistently result in decreased aquatic invertebrate and fish diversity. More recently, stream-breeding salamanders have been observed to decrease in density in urban areas. We monitored the density of southern two-lined salamanders for the duration of two cohorts in 12 streams in western Georgia, USA. We then used path analysis to determine the relationships between land-use change, abiotic shifts in the stream environment, and larval salamander density. Results/ConclusionsWe found that southern two-lined salamanders in the streams we monitored exhibited no change in reproductive output between urban and reference habitats. However, repeated sampling throughout the larval period revealed a large decline in density of larvae in urban areas prior to metamorphosis, while a similar decline was not seen in reference habitats. We evaluated several hypotheses that might explain the observed decline in urban areas, and a model in which increased impervious surface causes an increase in spate frequency and magnitude, which then leads to decreased larval density had the most support. This is the first attempt to compare multiple plausible hypotheses as to why salamander density and diversity decreases in urban habitats. By describing larval density at the beginning and end of the larval period, and by identifying a likely mechanism for the observed decline in density, species-specific and stream restoration efforts can be enhanced. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3972.1 Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:07:36 UTC Increased flood frequency and magnitude decreases density of a stream-breeding salamander in urbanized watersheds doi:10.1038/npre.2009.3972.1 2009-11-13 Kyle Barrett Nature Precedings 2009-11-13T12:07:36Z Poster Ecology http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3957.1 Sustainable management of water resources requires quantitative description of spatio-temporal variability, and the map is a universal medium to reflect the spatio-temporal distribution of water resources. The long history of cartography and the recent digital revolution have culminated in the Google Earth web portal with unprecedented frequency of daily use. System analysis with combination of a cyber model of landscapes, multidimensional methods of data analysis, and GIS cartography of water resources in Minnesota started in 1996 with support from faculty of Department of Geology University of Minnesota-Duluth and has continued ever since. The “Water Resource Sustainability” project, funded by the Legislative Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources (2007-2009) was the most resent phase of the research. Research using river flow monitoring data available from USGS for Minnesota and bordering areas of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin was completed for the territory. Analysis of landscapes properties for watersheds taken from maps – Bailey’s Ecological Provinces, Soil Taxonomy Order, topographic characteristics (average altitude, average watershed slope, total, intermittent, and perennial drainage density), thickness of quaternary sediments, and Hydrogeological Hierarchical Regionalization – revealed control of geological conditions on water resource variability. The trends of interannual patterns and seasonality of river runoff depend on bedrock type and presence or absence of thick depositions of quaternary sediments in NE and SE of research territory and also on thickness of quaternary sediments in NW. The same parts of territory have main differences in annual and February monthly yields for interval of observations 1955-1978. The numbers of river discharge yield reach difference from 5 to 20 times. The control over water resource distribution and variability belongs to geological boundaries for types of bedrocks, lithology, and thickness of quaternary sediments. Groups of watersheds recognized by mutual landscape properties (geological conditions) with statistically proven influence on hydrologic characteristics provide a basis for regionalization and creation of a water resource map. The regionalization on the water resource map opens the way to study and climate change for regional level. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3957.1 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:16:03 UTC Geological Controls on Water Resource Variability in Minnesota, USA doi:10.1038/npre.2009.3957.1 2009-11-09 Boris Shmagin Nature Precedings 2009-11-09T16:16:03Z Presentation Ecology Earth & Environment http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3937.1 C4 photosynthesis is an important example of convergent evolution in plants, having arisen in eudicots, monocots and diatoms. Comparisons between such diverse groups are confounded by phylogenetic and ecological differences, so that only broad generalisations can be made about the role of C4 photosynthesis indetermining ecophysiological traits. However, 60% of C4 species occur in the grasses (Poaceae) and molecular phylogenetic techniques confirm that there are between 8 and 17 independent origins of C4 photosynthesis in the Poaceae. In a screening experiment, we compared leaf physiology and growth traits across several majorindependent C3 & C4 groups within the Poaceae, asking 1) which traits differ consistently between photosynthetictypes and 2) which traits differ consistently between clades within each photosynthetic type. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3937.1 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:45:59 UTC Ecophysiological traits of grasses: resolving the effects of photosynthetic pathway and phylogeny doi:10.1038/npre.2009.3937.1 2009-11-04 Samuel H. Taylor Nature Precedings 2009-11-04T10:45:59Z Poster Ecology http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ http://precedings.nature.com/documents/3892/version/1 Serial endosymbiosis theory provides a unifying paradigm for examining the interaction of cognitive modules at vastly different scales of biological, social, and cultural organization. A trivial but not unimportant model associates a dual information source with a broad class of cognitive processes, and punctuated phenomena akin to phase transitions in physical systems, and associated coevolutionary processes, emerge as consequences of the homology between information source uncertainty and free energy density. The dynamics, including patterns of punctuation similar to ecosystem resilience transitions, are largely dominated by the availability of ‘Roman roads’ constituting channels for the transmission of information between modules. http://precedings.nature.com/documents/3892/version/1 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:47:58 UTC Roman roads: The hierarchical endosymbiosis of cognitive modules hdl:10101/npre.2009.3892.1 2009-11-02 Rodrick Wallace Nature Precedings 2009-11-02T09:47:58Z Manuscript Ecology Neuroscience Earth & Environment Evolutionary Biology http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ http://precedings.nature.com/documents/3922/version/1 Perfect behaviours that are optimal to the environment an agent operates within rarely exist in real animals or in robotic systems. The costs (be they biological or economic) of building sensors and processing the information they capture become excessive compared to the small advantages that occur from the modifications of behaviour. Many self-organised systems are thought to change their properties as a result of changes in individual behaviour. Here, using both natural systems and computer simulations, we demonstrate that intertidal snail aggregations slightly decrease in size when individuals forage for shorter periods due to hotter and more desiccating conditions – a non-optimal behaviour for the snails since aggregation reduces desiccation stress. However, this decrease only occurs in simple experimental systems (and simulations of these systems). When studied in their more complex natural environment, and when simulated in such an environment, using the same information-processing behaviours, no difference in aggregation behaviour was found between hot and cool days. These results give an indication of the robustness of self-organised systems to changes in individual-level behaviour. They demonstrate that information processing capabilities of self-organised groups may not need to be as great as for agents that perform solitary tasks, and also that oversimplified tests of swarm intelligence may not give a true indication of how tasks may be performed in a more complex environment. http://precedings.nature.com/documents/3922/version/1 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:30:29 UTC Robustness of self-organised systems to changes in individual level behaviour: an example from real and simulated self-organised snail aggregations hdl:10101/npre.2009.3922.1 2009-10-30 Richard Stafford Nature Precedings 2009-10-30T20:30:29Z Manuscript Biotechnology Ecology Evolutionary Biology http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ http://precedings.nature.com/documents/3898/version/1 A bacterial strain, designated Aeromonas sp. kumar, was isolated from a water sample collected from Red tide Bloom occurred in the region of Gulf of Mannar region, Puthumadam Coast, India and the strain was identified using 16S rRNA based identification. During the sample collection, microbiology analysis was done to study the morphology of the bacteria. Pure culture of strain was maintained through out the study. DNA was isolated and sequenced using 16S rRNA primers. A length of 1452 nucleotide was sequenced and was put in public data base for obtaining accession number. The sequence was studied using MEGA 4, to estimate the evolutionary distances and to construct the Phylogenetic tree. Along with that Regulatory elements and Transcription factors were studied using BPROM tool. In genetics, a promoter is a region of DNA that facilitates the transcription of a particular gene. Promoters are typically located near the genes they regulate, on the same strand and upstream (towards the 5’ region of the sense strand). The objective of the study is to predict the regulatory elements which are -10 box, -35box and three Transcription Factors (rpoD19, rpoD17 and araC) with their binding sites in the 16S rRNA gene of Aeromonas sp. kumar. The gene bank accession number for 16S rRNA gene of Aeromonas sp. kumar is FJ896014. http://precedings.nature.com/documents/3898/version/1 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:41:34 UTC 16S rRNA based identification of Aeromonas sp. kumar by constructing phylogenetic tree and identification of regulatory elements from the harmful Red Tide bloom, Gulf of Mannar hdl:10101/npre.2009.3898.1 2009-10-28 P. Kumar Nature Precedings 2009-10-28T14:41:34Z Manuscript Ecology Microbiology Bioinformatics http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3875.1 Background/Question/MethodsStanford SEEDS and the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve have worked together with Redwood High School to implement an experiential ecology education program. The Redwood Environmental Academy of Leadership(REAL) is designed to bring underserved high school students out of the classroom and into the outdoors to create a unique and effective learning experience. Though the program focuses on riparian ecosystem restoration, the course curriculum is interdisciplinary and designed to inspire continuation high school students to attend college or pursue environmental careers. Through a SEEDS special grant, REAL students were taken to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Half Moon Bay, California, to learn about marine ecology and intertidal ecosystems at a minus tide. Redwood High School students were joined by their teachers and Stanford faculty and students to study the adaptations of intertidal organisms to their harsh environment.Results/ConclusionsSEEDS and REAL were able to evaluate the success of the field trip by comparing the students’ knowledge of intertidal habitat, the nature of the ocean ecosystems, plants, animals, and reproduction both before and after the trip. This opportunity provides insight into the effectiveness of experiential education for the REAL program and recommendations for future ecology outreach programs. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3875.1 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:04:24 UTC Evaluating experiential education through an intertidal ecology field trip. doi:10.1038/npre.2009.3875.1 2009-10-21 Kate E. Lowry Nature Precedings 2009-10-21T13:04:24Z Poster Ecology http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ http://precedings.nature.com/documents/3865/version/1 The origin of tetrapods has not been resolved for decades. Three principal hypotheses (lungfish-tetrapod, coelacanth-tetrapod, or lungfish-coelacanth sister group) have been proposed. We used the Bayesian method under the coalescence model with the latest program (BEST) to perform a phylogenetic analysis for seven relevant taxa and 43 nuclear genes encoding amino acid residues with the jackknife method for taxon sub-sampling. The results, combined with those of other three genome-scale approaches, successfully prove the hypothesis that lungfishes and coelacanths form a monophyletic sister group and are equally related to tetrapods supported by high Bayesian posterior probabilities of the branch (a lungfish-coelacanth clade) and high taxon jackknife supports. http://precedings.nature.com/documents/3865/version/1 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:24:13 UTC Genome-scale approach proves that the lungfish-coelacanth sister group is the closest living relative of tetrapods with the BEST program hdl:10101/npre.2009.3865.1 2009-10-15 Yunfeng Y. S. Shan Nature Precedings 2009-10-15T09:24:13Z Manuscript Ecology Genetics & Genomics Bioinformatics Evolutionary Biology http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3805.1 Alpine ibex is characterized by strong sexual differences, both morphological and in population dynamics. Host sex has been shown to strongly affect parasite load with males usually more infected than females. Moreover ibex exhibit a peculiar pattern of survival with subadult males having a slow growing rate coupled with high survival which rapidly decline in old individual. This peculiar life history has been suggested to have been developed as adaptation to an harsh environment. In this way by investing fewer resources in growing the ibex can direct more energy in survival. At the same time the investment in immunodefence can change over the age. To verify the hypothesis that sex and age affect parasite infection, we analysed the abomasal parasite community of swiss ibexes shot during the 2007 hunting season. We analysed the parasite community of 31 abomasa coming from 17 males,12 females, ranging from 1 to 16 years old. The ibex analysed harboured a mean of 1472 helminth/individual. Seven parasites species have been identified with Teladorsagia circumcincta and Marshallagia marshalli covering the 90% of total parasite count. The mean abundance of total parasite count and of M. marshalli was different between sexes, with more parasites found in males. Age alone did not show any significant effect, but its interaction with sex evidenced different relationship such as T. circumcincta increased with age in males and decreased in females.While these data suggest the influence of sex and age on parasitic infection a comparison with other sampling areas, year and season is needed. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3805.1 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:02:50 UTC Host factors affecting abomasal parasites in Alpine Ibex doi:10.1038/npre.2009.3805.1 2009-09-28 Nicola Ferrari Nature Precedings 2009-09-25T19:02:50Z Poster Ecology Microbiology Earth & Environment http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/