| 1. |
- Allen, Andrew, et al.
(författare)
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Linking Movement Ecology with Wildlife Management and Conservation
- 2016
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-701X. ; 3
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- A common challenge in species conservation and management is how to incorporate species movements into management objectives. There often is a lack of knowledge of where, when, and why species move. The field of movement ecology has grown rapidly in the last decade and is now providing the knowledge needed to incorporate movements of species into management planning. This knowledge can also be used to develop management strategies that are flexible in time and space and may improve the effectiveness of management actions. Therefore, wildlife management and conservation may benefit by strengthening the link with movement ecology. We present a framework that illustrates how animal movement can be used to enhance conservation planning and identify management actions that are complementary to existing strategies. The framework contains five steps that identify (1) the movement attributes of a species, (2) their impacts on ecosystems, (3) how this knowledge can be used to guide the scale and type of management, (4) the implementation, and (5) the evaluation of management actions. We discuss these five steps in detail, highlighting why the step is important and how the information can be obtained. We illustrate the framework through a case study of managing a highly mobile species, the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), a harvested species of conservation concern. We believe that the movement-management framework provides an important, and timely, link between movement ecology and wildlife management and conservation, and highlights the potential for complementary, dynamic solutions for managing wildlife.
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| 2. |
- Ekroos, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Sparing land for biodiversity at multiple spatial scales
- 2016
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-701X. ; 3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A common approach to the conservation of farmland biodiversity and the promotion of multifunctional landscapes, particularly in landscapes containing only small remnants of non-crop habitats, has been to maintain landscape heterogeneity and reduce land-use intensity. In contrast, it has recently been shown that devoting specific areas of non-crop habitats to conservation, segregated from high-yielding farmland (“land sparing”), can more effectively conserve biodiversity than promoting low-yielding, less intensively managed farmland occupying larger areas (“land sharing”). In the present paper we suggest that the debate over the relative merits of land sparing or land sharing is partly blurred by the differing spatial scales at which it is suggested that land sparing should be applied. We argue that there is no single correct spatial scale for segregating biodiversity protection and commodity production in multifunctional landscapes. Instead we propose an alternative conceptual construct, which we call “multiple-scale land sparing,” targeting biodiversity and ecosystem services in transformed landscapes. We discuss how multiple-scale land sparing may overcome the apparent dichotomy between land sharing and land sparing and help to find acceptable compromises that conserve biodiversity and landscape multifunctionality.
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| 3. |
- Ersmark, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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From the Past to the Present : Wolf Phylogeography and Demographic History Based on the Mitochondrial Control Region
- 2016
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. - : FRONTIERS MEDIA SA. - 2296-701X. ; 4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The global distribution of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) is a complex assembly consisting of a large number of populations and described subspecies. How these lineages are related to one another is still not fully resolved, largely due to the fact that large geographical regions remain poorly sampled both at the core and periphery of the species' range. Analyses of ancient wolves have also suffered from uneven sampling, but have shown indications of a major turnover at some point during the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary in northern North America. Here we analyze variation in the mitochondrial control region in 122 contemporary wolves from some of the less studied populations, as well as six samples from the previously unstudied Greenland subspecies (Canis I. orlon) and two Late Pleistocene samples from Siberia. Together with the publicly available control region sequences of both modern and ancient wolves, this study examines genetic diversity on a wide geographical and temporal scale that includes both Eurasia and North America. We identify 13 new haplotypes, of which the majority is found in northern and eastern Asia. The results show that the Greenland samples are all represented by one haplotype, previously identified in North American wolves, among which this population seems to trace its maternal lineage. The phylogeny and network analyses show a wide spatial distribution of several lineages, but also some clusters with more distinct geographical affiliation. In North America, we find support for an end-Pleistocene population bottleneck through coalescent simulations under an approximate Bayesian framework in contrast to previous studies that suggested an extinction-replacement event. However, we find no support for a similar bottleneck in Eurasia. Overall, this global analysis helps to clarify our understanding of the complex history for wolves in Eurasia and North America.
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| 4. |
- Gonzalez, Francisco, et al.
(författare)
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Protocol for Heterologous Expression of Insect Odourant Receptors in Drosophila
- 2016
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-701X. ; 4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Insect olfactory receptors (ORs) are tuned to volatile chemicals, they are expressed in the membrane of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), housed in sensilla on the antenna. The olfactory apparatus is under strong selection and ORs are tuned to vital chemical signals, mediating social communication, feeding and oviposition, and avoidance of predators and pathogens. An emerging technique to reliably and efficiently identify the key ligands of ORs is to express single ORs in heterologous cell systems for subsequent screening. Several in vivo and in vitro platforms have been developed; we here provide a step-by-step protocol for OR expression in Drosophila melanogaster OSNs. Following RNA extraction, molecular cloning of ORs and injection of plasmid vectors into Drosophila embryos to create flies with OR transgenes, single ORs are expressed, via crossing with specific transgene promoters in OSNs of ab3 and T1 antennal sensilla. This approach enables replicable single sensillum electrophysiological recordings (SSR) from readily distinguishable Drosophila sensilla, containing OSNs expressing transgenic ORs. We expect this method to be applicable to ORs across insect orders and to increasingly contribute to chemical ecology research. Heterologous expression enables thorough investigation of single ORs, towards the identification of yet unknown, behaviourally and ecologically relevant chemical signals. It also enables investigations of the functional properties of ORs and their evolutionary diversification, through comparative structure-activity studies across phylogenies.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Lebreton, Sebastien, et al.
(författare)
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The Adipokinetic Hormone Receptor Modulates Sexual Behavior, Pheromone Perception and Pheromone Production in a Sex-Specific and Starvation-Dependent Manner in Drosophila melanogaster
- 2016
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-701X. ; 3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Food availability and nutritional status shape the reproductive activity of many animals. In rodents, hormones such as gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), restore energy homeostasis not only through regulating e.g., caloric intake and energy housekeeping, but also through modulating sex drive. We investigated whether the insect homolog of the GnRH receptor, the adipokinetic hormone receptor (AKHR) modulates sexual behavior of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster depending on nutritional status. We found that AKHR regulates male, but not female sexual behavior in a starvation-dependent manner. Males lacking AKHR showed a severe decrease in their courtship activity when starved, as well as an increase in mating duration when fed. AKHR expression is particularly strong in the subesophageal zone (SEZ, Ito et al., 2014). We found axonal projections from AKHR-expressing neurons to higher brain centers including specific glomeruli in the antennal lobe. Among the glomeruli that received projections were those dedicated to detecting the male specific pheromone cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA). Accordingly, responses to cVA were dependent on the nutritional status of flies. AKHR was also involved in the regulation of the production of cuticular pheromones, 7,11-heptacosadiene and 7-tricosene. This effect was observed only in females and depended on their feeding state. AKHR has therefore a dual role on both pheromone perception and production. For the first time our study shows an effect of AKHR on insect sexual behavior and physiology. Our results support the hypothesis of a conserved role of the GnRH/AKH pathway on a nutritional state-dependent regulation of reproduction in both vertebrates and invertebrates.
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| 7. |
- Walker, William, et al.
(författare)
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Functional Characterization of Insect Chemoreceptors: Receptivity Range and Expression
- 2016
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-701X. ; 4
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Chemosensory systems play an oversize role in shaping the life of an insect, such that fundamental behaviors—mating, food choice and seeking, predator and parasitoid avoidance, and egg-laying—are strongly regulated by external chemical stimuli. The recent focus on the molecular mechanisms of chemosensory detection in insect chemical ecology research has identified canonical chemosensory receptors in insects that consist of odorant receptors (ORs), gustatory receptors (GRs), and ionotropic receptors (IRs). Much has been learned about the structure, function and evolution of chemosensory receptors since the initial discovery of ORs in Drosophila melanogaster in 1999, however, many outstanding questions remain. With this research topic, we aim to shine a light on expression patterns, reception properties, and evolutionary trends pertinent to insect chemosensory receptors. While intended to cover all chemosensory receptor families, this research topic is clearly biased toward ORs, reflecting the paucity of research conducted on GRs and IRs.
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