Meer zoogdieren bij minder vaak maaien van slootkanten

Meer natuur langs perceelranden hoeft dus niet altijd te leiden tot een verminderde agrarische productie op de percelen

Investigating ocean deoxygenation during the PETM through the Cr isotopic signature of foraminifera

Over the past several decades, oxygen minimum zones have rapidly expanded due to rising temperatures raising concerns about the impacts of future climate change. One way to better understand the drivers behind this expansion is to evaluate the links between climate and seawater deoxygenation in the past especially in times of geologically abrupt climate change such as the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a well characterised period of rapid warming ~56 million years ago. We have developed and applied the novel redox proxies of foraminiferal Cr isotopes(δ53Cr) and Ce anomalies (Ce/Ce*) to assess changes in paleo-redox conditions arising from changes in oxygen availability. Both δ53Cr and Cr concentrations decrease notably over the PETM at intermediate to upper abyssal water depths,indicative of widespread reductions in dissolved oxygen concentrations. An apparent correlation between the sizes of δ53Cr and benthic δ18O excursions during the PETM suggests temperature is one of the main controlling factors of deoxygenation in the open ocean. ODP Sites 1210 in the Pacific and 1263 in the Southeast Atlantic suggest that deoxygenation is associated with warming and circulation changes, as supported by Ce/Ce* data. Our geochemical data are supported by simulations from an intermediate complexity climate model (cGENIE), which show that during the PETM anoxia was mostly restricted to the Tethys Sea, while hypoxia was more widespread as a result of increasing atmospheric CO2 (from 1 to 6 times pre-industrial values)

Factors affecting consistency and accuracy in identifying modern macroperforate planktonic foraminifera

Planktonic foraminifera are widely used in biostratigraphic, palaeoceanographic and evolutionary studies, but the strength of many study conclusions could be weakened if taxonomic identifications are not reproducible by different workers. In this study, to assess the relative importance of a range of possible reasons for among-worker disagreement in identification, 100 specimens of 26 species of macroperforate planktonic foraminifera were selected from a core-top site in the subtropical Pacific Ocean. Twenty-three scientists at different career stages – including some with only a few days experience of planktonic foraminifera – were asked to identify each specimen to species level, and to indicate their confidence in each identification. The participants were provided with a species list and had access to additional reference materials. We use generalised linear mixed-effects models to test the relevance of three sets of factors in identification accuracy: participant-level characteristics (including experience), species-level characteristics (including a participant’s knowledge of the species) and specimen-level characteristics (size, confidence in identification). The 19 less experienced scientists achieve a median accuracy of 57 %, which rises to 75 % for specimens they are confident in. For the 4 most experienced participants, overall accuracy is 79 %, rising to 93 % when they are confident. To obtain maximum comparability and ease of analysis, everyone used a standard microscope with only 35× magnification, and each specimen was studied in isolation. Consequently, these data provide a lower limit for an estimate of consistency. Importantly, participants could largely predict whether their identifications were correct or incorrect: their own assessments of specimen-level confidence and of their previous knowledge of species concepts were the strongest predictors of accuracy

BBLN-1 is essential for intermediate filament organization and apical membrane morphology

Epithelial tubes are essential components of metazoan organ systems that control the flow of fluids and the exchange of materials between body compartments and the outside environment. The size and shape of the central lumen confer important characteristics to tubular organs and need to be carefully controlled. Here, we identify the small coiled-coil protein BBLN-1 as a regulator of lumen morphology in the C. elegans intestine. Loss of BBLN-1 causes the formation of bubble-shaped invaginations of the apical membrane into the cytoplasm of intestinal cells and abnormal aggregation of the subapical intermediate filament (IF) network. BBLN-1 interacts with IF proteins and localizes to the IF network in an IF-dependent manner. The appearance of invaginations is a result of the abnormal IF aggregation, indicating a direct role for the IF network in maintaining lumen homeostasis. Finally, we identify bublin (BBLN) as the mammalian ortholog of BBLN-1. When expressed in the C. elegans intestine, BBLN recapitulates the localization pattern of BBLN-1 and can compensate for the loss of BBLN-1 in early larvae. In mouse intestinal organoids, BBLN localizes subapically, together with the IF protein keratin 8. Our results therefore may have implications for understanding the role of IFs in regulating epithelial tube morphology in mammals