| 1. |
- Renner, Samuel, et al.
(författare)
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Man-made lakes form species-rich dragonfly communities in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (Odonata)
- 2016
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Ingår i: Odonatologica. - Bergen : Societas Internationalis Odonatologica / International Odonatological Foundation. - 0375-0183. ; 45:3-4, s. 135-154
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of the forest types occurring in Southern Brazil is the Mixed Ombrophilous Forest (MOF), a subtype of the Atlantic Forest and one of the biodiversity hotspots on Earth. We sampled adult Odonata at 30 locations in the Floresta Nacional de São Francisco de Paula (FLONA-SFP), Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, a national reserve which is divided into several sectors of MOF, planted Araucaria angustifolia, Pinus elliottii used for sustainable and financial purposes, and open fields. There are three types of aquatic environments in the reserve: lakes, swamps, and rivers/streams. Our aim was to obtain an overview of the species’ distribution patterns in the three types of aquatic environments and to evaluate the species occurring in lakes, an exclusively man-made habitat in this area. We recorded 46 species from seven odonate families; 25 species (x = 5.71 ± 1.77 SD) occurring in rivers/ streams, 24 in lakes (11.57 ± 2.15) and 21 in swamps (5.22 ± 3.60). Using Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NmDS), we showed that the species composition differed clearly between the three types of aquatic habitats. While swamps and rivers/streams had a relatively similar and uniform species composition, species in the lakes were more varied but the total species number was almost as high as that of the rivers/streams. The lake communities also differed distinctly from those of the other habitats, and we assume that the lake species originate from other degraded areas in the vicinity, indicating that the remains of the Atlantic Forest has already been strongly altered by humans. Given the poor knowledge of the Odonata in the Atlantic Forest/MOF, we hope that our study may increase the understanding of the communities, and contribute to the development of conservation measures for this fragmented biome.
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| 2. |
- Persson, Anders, 1956-, et al.
(författare)
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Vertical distribution of benthic community responses to fish predators, and effects on algae and suspended material
- 2006
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Ingår i: Aquatic Ecology. - Dordrecht, Netherlands : Springer Netherlands. - 1386-2588 .- 1573-5125. ; 40:1, s. 85-95
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The vertical positioning of benthic invertebrates should be a trade-off between the risky, but productive, sediment surface and the safer, but physiologically harsher, conditions deeper down in the sediment. This is because the foraging efficiency of benthic fish decreases with sediment depth, whereas the sediment surface is generally better oxygenated and has a higher resource quality than lower layers. We studied how two benthic fish predators, bream (Abramis brama) and ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernuus), affected the community composition and vertical distribution of benthos, and their indirect effects on algae and suspended material, in field enclosures. Whereas bream had significant effects on the density, composition and distribution of the benthos, ruffe had no such effects. The total benthos biomass in bream treatments was an-order of magnitude lower in the upper sediment layer (0-1 cm) and three times lower in the middle layer (1-3 cm) than in the controls, whereas there were no significant effects in the deepest layer (3-10 cm). Bivalves persisted in the deepest layer although their density was reduced in shallow sediment, whereas gastropods faced the risk of local extinction in the presence of bream. As indirect effects, small-bodied cladocerans, phytoplankton, periphyton and both organic and inorganic suspended material were higher in the bream treatments. We conclude that the impact of bream diminished substantially with increasing sediment depth, enabling invertebrates to survive in the sediment and to persist in the presence of bream. However, there were no indications of any group adjusting their vertical position behaviourally as a response to predation threat.
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| 3. |
- Bonnot, Nadège, et al.
(författare)
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Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? : Variation in the stress response among personalities and populations in a large wild herbivore
- 2018
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Ingår i: Oecologia. - Amsterdam : Springer. - 0029-8549 .- 1432-1939. ; 188:1, s. 85-95
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Faced with rapid environmental changes, individuals may express different magnitude and plasticity in their response to a given stressor. However, little is known about the causes of variation in phenotypic plasticity of the stress response in wild populations. In the present study, we repeatedly captured individual roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) from two wild populations in Sweden exposed to differing levels of predation pressure and measured plasma concentrations of stress-induced cortisol and behavioral docility. While controlling for the marked effects of habituation, we found clear between-population differences in the stress-induced cortisol response. Roe deer living in the area that was recently recolonized by lynx (Lynx lynx) and wolves (Canis lupus) expressed cortisol levels that were around 30% higher than roe deer in the human-dominated landscape free of large carnivores. In addition, for the first time to our knowledge, we investigated the stress-induced cortisol response in free-ranging newborn fawns and found no evidence for hypo-responsiveness during early life in this species. Indeed, stress-induced cortisol levels were of similar magnitude and differed between populations to a similar extent in both neonates and adults. Finally, at an individual level, we found that both cortisol and docility levels were strongly repeatable, and weakly negatively inter-correlated, suggesting that individuals differed consistently in how they respond to a stressor, and supporting the existence of a stress-management syndrome in roe deer. © 2018, The Author(s).
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| 4. |
- Koch, Kamilla, et al.
(författare)
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Morphological differences in the ovary of Libellulidae (Odonata)
- 2009
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Ingår i: International Journal of Odonatology. - Oxford : Taylor & Francis. - 1388-7890 .- 2159-6719. ; 12:1, s. 147-156
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- All female Odonata have been assumed to produce oocytes continuously during their mature life span. However, a recent study of ovariole orientation and development led to the suggestion that Libellulidae are divided into two groups of species, one with continuous, the other with stepwise oocyte production. To find more evidence of this division, we compared the size variation and growth within the vitellarium of the ovary, studying oocytes, and follicle cells. We found that morphological characters discriminate between the two ovary types in eight of the 10 investigated species. In both types we found an increase in all measurements from the anterior to the posterior end of the vitellarium. The increase in oocyte width and follicle cell length was significantly higher in species with a continuous oocyte production. We also noted that follicle cells may have more than one nucleus and that their number can vary during vitellogenesis. Our study confirmed the hypotheses that two different ovary types exist in Libellulidae. The two species not fitting into this grouping could be an artefact of small samp le size due to intraspecific phenotypic plasticity, or else there might be more than two ovary groups, or even a continuum. We could not offer an explanation as to how the process of stepwise oocyte production differs from continuous based production on morphological characters.
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| 5. |
- Rowiński, Piotr K., et al.
(författare)
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Parental effects influence life history traits and covary with an environmental cline in common frog populations
- 2020
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Ingår i: Oecologia. - : Springer Nature. - 0029-8549 .- 1432-1939. ; 192:4, s. 1013-1022
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Across latitudinal clines, the juvenile developmental rates of ectotherms often covary with the length of the growing season, due to life-history trade-offs imposed by the time-constrained environments. However, as the start of the growing season often varies substantially across years, adaptive parental effects on juvenile developmental rates may mediate the costs of a delayed season. By employing a meta-analysis, we tested whether larval developmental rates across a latitudinal cline of the common frog (Rana temporaria) are affected by fluctuating onsets of breeding, across years. We predicted that larval developmental rate will be inversely related to the onset of breeding, and that northern populations will be more prone to shorten their developmental rate in response to late breeding, as the costs of delayed metamorphosis should be highest in areas with a shorter growing season. We found that the larval period of both northern and southern populations responded to parental environmental conditions to a similar degree in absolute terms, but in different directions. In northern populations, a late season start correlated with decreased development time, suggesting that the evolution of parental effects aids population persistence in time-constrained environments. In southern populations, late season start correlated with increased development time, which could potentially be explained as a predator avoidance strategy. Our findings suggest that local ecological variables can induce adaptive parental effects, but responses are complex, and likely trade-off with other ecological factors.
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| 6. |
- Diehl, Sebastian, et al.
(författare)
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Inverse relationship of epilithic algae and pelagic phosphorusin unproductive lakes : Roles of N2 fixers and light
- 2018
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Ingår i: Freshwater Biology. - Chichester : Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Inc.. - 0046-5070 .- 1365-2427. ; 63:7, s. 662-675
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1. Phosphorus (P) often limits the biomass of primary producers in freshwater lakes. However, in unproductive northern lakes, where anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition is low, N instead of P can limit primary producers. In addition, light can be limiting to primary producers at high concentrations of coloured dissolved organic matter (cDOM), as cDOM is the major determinant of light penetration in these lakes.2. To address resource limitation of epilithic algal biomass, we repeatedly sampled epilithon (periphyton on stony substrata) in 20 lakes covering a large, correlated cDOM and N-deposition gradient across boreal and subarctic Sweden. Across these lakes, pelagic total N (TN) and total P (TP) were positively correlated, and benthic light supply was negatively correlated, with cDOM. Microscopically determined algal biovolume and epilithic carbon (C), N and P were subsequently regressed against benthic light supply and pelagic TN and TP.3. Patterns in epilithic biovolume were driven by N2-fixing cyanobacteria, which accounted for 2%–90% of total epilithic biovolume. Averaged over the growing season, epilithic algal biovolume, C and N were negatively related to TP and positively to TN, and were highest in the clearest, most phosphorus-poor lakes, where epilithon was heavily dominated by potentially N2-fixing cyanobacteria.4. A structural equation model supports the hypothesis that cDOM had two counteracting effects on total epilithic algal biovolume: a positive one by providing N to algae that depend on dissolved N for growth, and a negative one by shading N2-fixing cyanobacteria, with the negative effect being somewhat stronger.5. Together, these findings suggest that (1) light and N are the main resources limiting epilithic algal biomass in boreal to subarctic Swedish lakes, (2) epilithic cyanobacteria are more competitive in high-light and low-nitrogen environments, where their N2-fixing ability allows them to reach high biomass, and (3) epilithic N increases with N2 fixer biomass and is—seemingly paradoxically—highest in the most oligotrophic lakes. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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| 7. |
- Cederqvist, Anne-Marie, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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An Exploratory Case Study on Student Teachers’ Experiences of Using the AR App Seek by iNaturalist When Learning About Plants
- 2023
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Ingår i: Learning and Collaboration Technologies. - Cham : Springer. - 0302-9743 .- 1611-3349. - 9783031345500 - 9783031345494 ; , s. 33-52
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this case study we explore the use of Augmented Reality (AR) as a pedagogical tool to promote student teachers learning about plants in a biology course module within teacher education. Traditionally, when studying plants in science education, flora books are used. However, digital technology has contributed to new ways of exploring plants, and AR is suggested as an important tool. This requires teacher educators who are familiar with AR and the pedagogical implications of using AR when teaching about plants. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate student teachers’ experiences of using the AR app Seek by iNaturalist during an excursion to identify and learn about plants, as well as discuss the pedagogical implications of integrating the app into a biology course module. The student teachers took part in the excursion using the app to practice plant identification. Afterwards, semi-structured interviews were conducted with three student teachers. A thematic analysis approach was used to explore the student teachers’ experiences when using Seek. The findings indicate that Seek increases student teachers’ awareness of plants, which promotes their interest and engagement in plants. The easy accessibility in their phone makes them use Seek in their spare time. The increased interest and easy access support learning. By knowing the name of plants, the student teachers establish relationships with plants, which increases awareness of the importance of caring for nature. Hence, Seek could be seen as a pedagogical tool that promotes student teachers’ learning and interest about plants. © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
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| 8. |
- Hagström, Åke, et al.
(författare)
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Composition and Seasonality of Membrane Transporters in Marine Picoplankton
- 2021
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Microbiology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-302X. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study, we examined transporter genes in metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data from a time-series survey in the temperate marine environment of the Baltic Sea. We analyzed the abundance and taxonomic distribution of transporters in the 3 mu m-0.2 mu m size fraction comprising prokaryotes and some picoeukaryotes. The presence of specific transporter traits was shown to be guiding the succession of these microorganisms. A limited number of taxa were associated with the dominant transporter proteins that were identified for the nine key substrate categories for microbial growth. Throughout the year, the microbial taxa at the level of order showed highly similar patterns in terms of transporter traits. The distribution of transporters stayed the same, irrespective of the abundance of each taxon. This would suggest that the distribution pattern of transporters depends on the bacterial groups being dominant at a given time of the year. Also, we find notable numbers of secretion proteins that may allow marine bacteria to infect and kill prey organisms thus releasing nutrients. Finally, we demonstrate that transporter proteins may provide clues to the relative importance of biogeochemical processes, and we suggest that virtual transporter functionalities may become important components in future population dynamics models.
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| 9. |
- Renes, Sophia Elise, et al.
(författare)
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Disturbance history can increase functional stability in the face of both repeated disturbances of the same type and novel disturbances - dataset
- 2020
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 10:1
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Annan publikationabstract
- Climate change is expected to increase the incidences of extremes in environmental conditions. To investigate how repeated disturbances affect microbial ecosystem resistance, natural lake bacterioplankton communities were subjected to repeated temperature disturbances of two intensities (25 °C and 35 °C), and subsequently to an acidification event. We measured functional parameters (bacterial production, abundance, extracellular enzyme activities) and community composition parameters (richness, evenness, niche width) and found that, compared to undisturbed control communities, the 35 °C treatment was strongly affected in all parameters, while the 25 °C treatment did not significantly differ from the control. Interestingly, exposure to multiple temperature disturbances caused gradually increasing stability in the 35 °C treatment in some parameters, while others parameters showed the opposite, indicating that the choice of parameters can strongly affect the outcome of a study. The acidification event did not lead to stronger changes in community structure, but functional resistance of bacterial production towards acidification in the 35 °C treatments increased. This indicates that functional resistance in response to a novel disturbance can be increased by previous exposure to another disturbance, suggesting similarity in stress tolerance mechanisms for both disturbances. These results highlight the need for understanding function- and disturbance-specific responses, since general responses are likely to be unpredictable.
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| 10. |
- Persson, Anders, 1956-, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of benthivorous fish on biogeochemical processes in lake sediments
- 2006
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Ingår i: Freshwater Biology. - West Sussex, UK : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0046-5070 .- 1365-2427. ; 51:7, s. 1298-1309
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1. Studies of aquatic environments have shown that community organisation may strongly affect ecosystem functioning. One common phenomenon is a change in nutrient level following a shift in the fish community composition. Although several hypotheses have been suggested, there is no consensus on which mechanisms are involved. Our study evaluated indirect effects of benthivorous fish on the biogeochemical processes at the sediment-water interface separately from direct effects caused by nutrient excretion or sediment resuspension.2. We assigned field enclosures to three treatments representing typical pond communities; without fish, addition of approximately 10 small tench or addition of one large bream. After one summer, we monitored the water chemistry, benthic invertebrates and periphyton in the enclosures and sampled sediment cores for laboratory analysis of biochemical process rates (oxygen, phosphorus and nitrogen exchange between sediment and water, and denitrification rate).3. Fish had strong negative effects on benthic invertebrates, but weaker effects on periphyton, organic content and porosity of the sediment. Moreover, there were significant positive fish effects on both phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations in the water. However, there were no general treatment effects on sediment processes that could explain the treatment effects on water chemistry in the enclosures.4. Hence, overall treatment effects attenuated along the chain of interactions. We conclude that the observed effect of benthic fish on water chemistry was probably because of direct effects on nutrient excretion or resuspension of sediment. The similarity between bream and tench treatments suggests large niche complementarity despite their different habitat preferences.
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