899 research outputs found

    Non-Indigenous Cladocera (Crustacea: Branchiopoda): From a Few Notorious Cases to a Potential Global Faunal Mixing in Aquatic Ecosystems

    Get PDF
    Non-indigenous species may pose a threat to native ecosystems worldwide. In aquatic environments, invasives may have a negative impact on human food security and livelihoods. Several water fleas (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Cladocera) are notorious invasive alien species influencing large freshwater lake systems and even inland seas. In the current review, we discuss the state of knowledge regarding non-indigenous species in the Cladocera and their invasiveness potential in different continents. We argue that the potential impacts and occurrence of cladoceran exotics may be higher than generally assumed. We critically review 79 cases from literature sources, involving 61 cladoceran taxa where records outside of their natural distribution ranges were previously interpreted as invasions. We assessed the probability of natural range expansions versus human-mediated introductions and we discuss several major corridors of invasion. We estimate human-mediated transportations for at least 43 taxa (out of 61; ca 70%), while other cases can be seen as natural expansions of their distribution ranges (not necessarily/not likely human-mediated) and/or taxonomical confusion. We confirm non-indigenous presence in recipient regions for at least 41 cladoceran taxa, of which several are true invasives (i.e., with negative impacts on native ecosystems). The majority are zooplankters with effects on pelagic freshwater ecosystems, yet we also report on introductions by littoral taxa. We argue that cryptic introductions of cladocerans are taking place on a global scale, yet they remain under the radar. We highlight several striking case studies, such as the Ponto-Caspian onychopods that have invaded the Baltic Sea and the Laurentian Great Lakes, and several clones of the anomopod genera Daphnia and Bosmina that have successfully colonised new environments, causing equilibria shifts in native aquatic worlds. At the same time, we dispel some myths about taxa that were misconstrued as invasive in certain localities. Based on our review, the first of its kind for freshwater zooplankton, future environmental monitoring tools including molecular techniques and detailed surveys with rigorous and critical taxonomical assessments may help to provide a clearer picture on the extent of invasiveness of cladocerans.O

    Miocene cyclopid copepod from a saline paleolake in Mojave, California

    Get PDF
    There are remarkably few direct fossil records of Copepoda, which implies that current estimates of the lineage divergence times and inferences on the historical biogeography remain highly dubious for these small-sized crustaceans. The Cyclopidae, a predominantly freshwater copepod family with 1000+ species and distributed worldwide, has no fossil record at all. Recent collections from the middle Miocene Barstow Formation in Southern California resulted in ample material of finely preserved cyclopid fossils, including both adult and larval stages. To document the antennulary setation pattern in the adult and copepodid instars we used a coding system that is coherent between sexes and developmental stages. The majority of the cyclopid fossils, coming from saline lake environment, represent the modern genus Apocyclops, a euryhaline, thermophilic group occurring both in the New World and Old World. A new species Apocyclops californicus is described, based on the short medial spine and spiny ornamentation of the free segment of leg 5, spinule ornamentation of pediger 5, and well-developed protuberances of the intercoxal sclerite of leg 4. The presence of antennal allobasis and the features of the swimming legs unambiguously place the Miocene Apocyclops in the A. panamensis-clade, a predominantly amphi-Pacific group. The middle Miocene fossils with clear affinities to a subgroup of Apocyclops imply an early Miocene or Paleogene origin of the genus. Based on the geographic patterns of the species richness and morphology in Apocyclops and its presumed closest relative, genus Metacyclops, we hypothesize that: (i) the ancestor of Apocyclops, similar in morphology to some cave-dweller Metacyclops occurring today in the peri-Mediterranean region, might have arrived in North America from Europe via the Thulean North Atlantic bridge in the late Paleocene–early Eocene; (ii) Eocene termination of the Thulean land connection might have resulted in the divergence of Apocyclops from the Metacyclops stock

    Hormonal induction of undescribed males resolves cryptic species of cladocerans

    Get PDF
    Cyclic parthenogens have a mixed breeding system with both meiotic and ameiotic eggs. Although investment in sexual stages is often synchronized with seasonal cycles, the degree of investment is a quantitative trait associated with habitat instability. Populations of cyclic parthenogens from stable environments, such as large lakes and oceans, generally show reduced or undetectable investment in males. Indeed, males of many species of lacustrine cyclic parthenogens are unknown to science. Methyl farnesoate (MF), a crustacean juvenile hormone, has been implicated as an inducer of male formation in Daphnia magna (Crustacea: Cladocera), a denizen of unstable habitats with marked sexual recruitment. Here, we show experimentally that MF induces male production in four distantly related lacustrine species of cladocerans under growth conditions unfavourable for male production. The males of three species are new to science. Unlike females, the anatomy of the previously unknown males of Bosmina (Lunobosmina) oriens permitted ready morphological diagnosis of sibling species and subfossils. The results suggest that the role for MF in the sex determination of cladocerans is general

    Features of speech disorders in patients with acute ischemic stroke

    Get PDF
    Introduction. Various speech disorders that lead to impaired communication occur in 3050% of ischemic stroke (IS) survivors. Although most attention is traditionally paid to aphasia, speech disorders also include the following: dysarthria, dysphonia (isolated or in combination with dysarthria and/or dysphagia), fluency disorders, and non-specific speech disorders associated with the severity of condition and a cognitive disorder. Objective: to study the variety of speech disorders and their features in patients with acute IS. Materials and methods. We examined 69 right-handed patients with mild-to-moderate acute IS and NIHSS score of 412. The patients were enrolled in the study on days 17 of the IS. Results. We found aphasia in 27/69 patients (39.1%), dysarthria in 21/69 patients (30.4%), dysphonia (isolated or in combination with dysarthria) in 17/69 patients (24.6%), fluency disorders in 19/69 patients (27.5%; 2 patients with tachylalia and 17 patients with bradylalia). In addition, 30 patients (43.5%) had dysphagia (isolated or in combination with dysarthria). At the initial examination, patients admitted within the 17 days of the acute IS onset presented with global or severe sensory and motor aphasia. At the same time, we discovered a pronounced positive dynamics in speech recovery thanks to speech therapy sessions. A significant remission in a speech disorder component led to the development of cortical aphasia affecting either anterior or posterior language areas at the end of the most acute IS period, while aphasia severity reduced to mild or moderate. Conclusions. A fast reduction in aphasic disorders due to the speech therapy sessions suggests that the focal and connectional diaschisis are the basis for the severe speech disorders

    Conjugacy Separation Problem in Braids: an Attack on the Original Colored Burau Key Agreement Protocol

    Get PDF
    In this paper, we consider the conjugacy separation search problem in braid groups. We deeply redesign the algorithm presented in (Myasnikov & Ushakov, 2009) and provide an experimental evidence that the problem can be solved for 100%100\% of very long randomly generated instances. The lengths of tested randomly generated instances is increased by the factor of two compared to the lengths suggested in the original proposal for 120120 bits of security. An implementation of our attack is freely available in CRAG. In particular, the implementation contains all challenging instances we had to deal with on a way to 100%100\% success. We hope it will be useful to braid-group cryptography community

    Resonant phonon-magnon interactions in free-standing metal-ferromagnet multilayer structures

    Full text link
    We analyze resonant magneto-elastic interactions between standing perpendicular spin wave modes (exchange magnons) and longitudinal acoustic phonon modes in free-standing hybrid metal-ferromagnet bilayer and trilayer structures. Whereas the ferromagnetic layer acts as a magnetic cavity, all metal layers control the frequencies and eigenmodes of acoustic vibrations. The here proposed design allows for achieving and tuning the spectral and spatial modes overlap between phonons and magnons that results in their strong resonant interaction. Realistic simulations for gold-nickel multilayers show that sweeping the external magnetic field should allow for observing resonantly enhanced interactions between individual magnon and phonon modes in a broad range of frequencies spanning from tens of GHz up to several hundreds of GHz, which can be finely tuned through the multilayer design. Our results would enable the systematic study and the deep understanding of resonantly enhanced magneto-elastic coupling between individual phonon and magnon modes up to frequencies of great contemporary fundamental and applied interest.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

    Predicting the invasive potential of the cladoceran Daphnia lumholtzi Sars, 1885 (Crustacea: Cladocera: Daphniidae) in the Neotropics: are generalists threatened and relicts protected by their life-history traits?

    Get PDF
    Invasive species are one of the major threats to biodiversity, which is aggravated in poorly known groups, such as cladocerans. Daphnia lumholtzi Sars (Cladocera: Anomopoda: Daphniidae) is currently invading the Neotropical region, and there are few records of this process. Our goal was to predict the invasive scenario for D. lumholtzi in the Neotropics using species distribution modelling and to assess the climatic overlap of the invader with the native species. We trained our MaxEnt model using occurrence records from native and invaded areas and projected it in the Neotropics. Additionally, we compared the climatic niche of some native species with the invader’s niche. Our model showed high environmental suitability in areas connected by the lowland Paraná River Basin (southwestern Brazil, eastern Argentina and Uruguay), in south-central Chile and Atlantic coastal areas. Widely distributed native species showed climatic overlap with the invader, while relict species did not. Daphnia lumholtzi thrives in warm and stable environments (e.g. the Paraná River basin), which of concern because the invader could already be spreading in that area. Native species could suffer due to climatic niche similarity, while natural barriers and local environmental conditions may protect relict species. We urge the need for further studies to understand this invasion process more fully.   </p
    corecore