Coping with change in predation risk across space and time through complementary behavioral responses

Background

Our picture of behavioral management of risk by prey remains fragmentary. This partly stems from a lack of studies jointly analyzing different behavioral responses developed by prey, such as habitat use and fine-scale behavior, although they are expected to complement each other. We took advantage of a simple system on the Kerguelen archipelago, made of a prey species, European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, a predator, feral cat Felis catus, and a mosaic of closed and open foraging patches, allowing reliable assessment of spatio-temporal change in predation risk. We investigated the way such a change triggered individual prey decisions on where, when and how to perform routine activities.

Results

Rabbit presence and behavior were recorded both day and night in patches with similar foraging characteristics, but contrasted in terms of openness. Cats, individually recognizable, were more active at night and in closed patches, in line with their expected higher hunting success in those conditions. Accordingly, rabbits avoided using closed patches at night and increased their vigilance if they did. Both day and night, rabbits increased their use of closed patches as compared to open patches in windy conditions, thereby probably reducing the thermoregulatory costs expected under such harsh environmental conditions.

Conclusions

Overall, our data map the landscape of fear in this study system and indicate that prey habitat use and vigilance complement each other. Solely focusing on one or the other tactic may lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the way predation risk triggers prey decisions. Finally, future studies should investigate inter-individual variability in the relative use of these different types of complementary behavioral responses to perceived risk, along with the determinants and outcomes of such tactics.

     

Economic growth and nutrition transition: an empirical analysis comparing demand elasticities for foods in China and Russia

This study provides empirical evidence on the link between economic growth and nutrition transition in two emerging economies, China and Russia. Both countries have experienced rising average incomes, accompanied by an increasing rate of nutrition-related chronic diseases in recent years. Given the regional heterogeneity between these two countries, we analyze the extent to which income growth as a major driver of nutrition transition has a significant effect on the consumption of different food aggregates and how these effects differ between Chinese and Russian consumers. Our results indicate that with increasing household incomes over time the demand for carbohydrates decreases, while the demand for meat and dairy products, as well as fruits increases. This is a development generally known as nutrition transition. Further, we estimate a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System(QUAIDS) for nine different food aggregates for China and Russia. Our results indicate that in both countries all food aggregates have positive expenditure elasticities and are thus normal goods. Moreover, our results indicate that in 2008/2009 meat is still a luxury good in China yet a necessity good in Russia. For 2009, the highest own-price elasticities in China are found for non-meat protein sources and dairy products. Within the meat group, beef, poultry and mutton have the highest price elasticities in China. In Russia, the milk and dairy group, together with the vegetable group, is the most price-elastic food group in 2008. In line with the definition of a nutrition transition, our overall results underscore the finding that income growth in China and Russia tends to increase the demand for animal-based products much stronger than, for example, the demand for carbohydrates. Despite being a positive signal for problems of malnutrition in rural China, this trend of increasing meat consumption might further increase the incidence of chronic diseases in urban areas since there is convincing scientific evidence that increasing meat consumption, especially red and processed meat, is associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases.     

Marine-Derived Quorum-Sensing Inhibitory Activities Enhance the Antibacterial Efficacy of Tobramycin against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Bacterial epiphytes isolated from marine eukaryotes were screened for the production of quorum sensing inhibitory compounds (QSIs). Marine isolate KS8, identified as a Pseudoalteromonas sp., was found to display strong quorum sensing inhibitory (QSI) activity against acyl homoserine lactone (AHL)-based reporter strains Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 12472 and CV026. KS8 supernatant significantly reduced biofilm biomass during biofilm formation (−63%) and in pre-established, mature P. aeruginosa PAO1 biofilms (−33%). KS8 supernatant also caused a 0.97-log reduction (−89%) and a 2-log reduction (−99%) in PAO1 biofilm viable counts in the biofilm formation assay and the biofilm eradication assay respectively. The crude organic extract of KS8 had a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 2 mg/mL against PAO1 but no minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) was observed over the concentration range tested (MBC > 16 mg/mL). Sub-MIC concentrations (1 mg/mL) of KS8 crude organic extract significantly reduced the quorum sensing (QS)-dependent production of both pyoverdin and pyocyanin in P. aeruginosa PAO1 without affecting growth. A combinatorial approach using tobramycin and the crude organic extract at 1 mg/mL against planktonic P. aeruginosa PAO1 was found to increase the efficacy of tobramycin ten-fold, decreasing the MIC from 0.75 to 0.075 µg/mL. These data support the validity of approaches combining conventional antibiotic therapy with non-antibiotic compounds to improve the efficacy of current treatments.     

Hunt for Palytoxins in a Wide Variety of Marine Organisms Harvested in 2010 on the French Mediterranean Coast

During the summer of 2010, 31 species including fish, echinoderms, gastropods, crustaceans, cephalopods and sponges were sampled in the Bay of Villefranche on the French Mediterranean coast and screened for the presence of PLTX-group toxins using the haemolytic assay. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used for confirmatory purposes and to determine the toxin profile. The mean toxin concentration in the whole flesh of all sampled marine organisms, determined using the lower- (LB) and upper-bound (UB) approach was 4.3 and 5.1 µg·kg⁻¹, respectively, with less than 1% of the results exceeding the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) threshold of 30 µg·kg⁻¹ and the highest values being reported for sea urchins (107.6 and 108.0 µg·kg⁻¹). Toxins accumulated almost exclusively in the digestive tube of the tested species, with the exception of octopus, in which there were detectable toxin amounts in the remaining tissues (RT). The mean toxin concentration in the RT of the sampled organisms (fishes, echinoderms and cephalopods) was 0.7 and 1.7 µg·kg⁻¹ (LB and UB, respectively), with a maximum value of 19.9 µg·kg⁻¹ for octopus RT. The herbivorous and omnivorous organisms were the most contaminated species, indicating that diet influences the contamination process, and the LC-MS/MS revealed that ovatoxin-a was the only toxin detected.     

Standorteigenschaften und Anbaumanagement erklären regionale Unterschiede im Kohlherniebefall in Deutschland

In the years 2013 and 2014 the presence and the infestation level of Plasmodiophora brassicae in six federal states of Germany were assessed using a bioassay method. Soils were sampled from 237 oilseed rape fields and the farmers provided information about the soil type, the soil pH values and the last year of oilseed rape cultivation. Clubroot was detected in 66 % of the fields investigated with a mean disease severity (BI) of 0.34. Between and within the federal states differences in presence and infestation level of P. brassicae were detected. In Schleswig-Holstein significantly more fields were infected by P. brassicae (90 %) and BI was relatively high (0.49) compared to Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and North Rhine-Westphalia with 50 % infected fields and a mean BI of 0.27. Highly infested fields (BI > 0.8) were prevalent on 15 and 25 % of fields investigated in every federal state. Within the federal states the soil climate regions (BKR) differed significantly from each other. In BKR with light and sandy soils P. brassicae was less widespread compared to neighboring BKR with loamy soils. In addition, BKR with high infestation levels on fields investigated revealed a high presence of clubroot infested fields within this BKR. The infestation level in our study was significantly influenced by soil type, content of sand and soil pH value: soil types with a sand content of 30–35 % and a pH values lower than 5.6 showed high clubroot severity and disease incidences.     

Testing a Soil Magnetometry Technique in a Highly Polluted Industrial Region in North-Eastern Germany

The paper presents the results of a study in the region Dübener Heide (Central Germany) testing the suitability of field measurements of magnetic susceptibility for the detection of historical fly-ash deposition. The measurements supported the verification of historically documented deposition zones along an emission gradient. Mean values, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation can be used to characterize the former deposition zones, although the study revealed several problems, which will be the subject of future work: (1) the volume susceptibility measurements used in the study do not allow the calculation of the actual fly-ash amount stored in the soil and thus must be calibrated with correction factors from laboratory measurements; and (2) measurements in regions with similar conditions but without fly-ash deposition are needed to obtain reference values for the natural range of magnetic susceptibility.     

Evaluation of Antioxidant,Lipid, and Protein Fractions of Accessions of Oryza Species

The genus Oryza has given rise to rice (Oryza sativa L.), a major source of food for much of the human population. The Oryza genus is small, including only 23 species, but it is remarkably diverse in terms of its ecological adaptation. This diversity may not be only restricted to ecological characteristics but also to kernel end‐use quality characteristics. This study was undertaken to evaluate Oryza species as a gene pool for improving the properties of rice bran for human consumption. Several accessions of 13 Oryza species were grown in a greenhouse, along with eight rice (Oryza sativa L.) accessions displaying low and high bran oil content, as well as low and high palmitic acid content. The total lipid content of the Oryza species was within the range found for Oryza sativa accessions. However, the level of palmitic acid in the O. species was as high as that reported for soybean high‐palmitic acid mutants. Oryza species also contained higher levels of the γ‐oryzanol and phenolic fractions compared to cultivated rice. Low or not significant phenotypic correlations between lipid, palmitic acid, and γ‐oryzanol suggest that these fractions in cultivated rice could be increased simultaneously using several of the Oryza species accessions identified in this study. A cultivar with enhanced levels of these fractions would be suitable for use in the production of high γ‐oryzanol margarine, shortening, and frying oils.