Functional Traits Drive Dispersal Interactions Between European Waterfowl and Seeds

Endozoochory by waterfowl is important for a broad range of angiosperms, most of which lack a fleshy fruit. This dispersal function contributes to the formation and maintenance of plant communities and may allow range shifts for plant species under global change. However, our current understanding of what seed or plant traits are important for this dispersal mechanism, and how they relate to variation in waterbird traits, is extremely limited. We addressed this question using a unique dataset identifying the plant species whose seeds are ingested by 31 different waterfowl species in Europe. We used RLQ and fourth-corner analyses to explore relationships between (1) bird morphological and foraging strategy traits, and (2) plant traits related to seed morphology, environmental preferences, and growth form. We then used Generalized Additive Models to identify relationships between plant/seed traits and the number of waterfowl species that disperse them. Although many waterfowl feed intentionally on seeds, available seed trait data provided little explanation for patterns compared to plant traits such as Ellenberg indicators of habitat preference and life form. Geese were associated with terrestrial plants, ingesting seeds as they graze on land. Diving ducks were associated with strictly aquatic plants, ingesting seeds as they feed at greater depths. Dabbling ducks ingest seeds from plants with high light and temperature requirements, especially shoreline and ruderal species growing in or around the dynamic and shallow microhabitats favored by these birds. Overall, the number of waterfowl vector species (up to 13 per plant species) increases for plants with greater soil moisture requirements and salinity tolerance, reflecting the inclination of most waterfowl species to feed in coastal wetlands. Our findings underline the importance of waterfowl dispersal for plants that are not strictly aquatic, as well as for plants associated with high salinities. Furthermore, our results reveal a soil moisture gradient that drives seed-bird interactions, in line with differences between waterfowl groups in their microhabitat preferences along the land-water continuum. This study provides an important advance in our understanding of the interactions that define plant dispersal in wetlands and their surroundings, and of what plants might be affected by ongoing changes in the distributions of waterfowl species

Next-generation ARIA care pathways for rhinitis and asthma: a model for multimorbid chronic diseases

Background In all societies, the burden and cost of allergic and chronic respiratory diseases are increasing rapidly. Most economies are struggling to deliver modern health care effectively. There is a need to support the transformation of the health care system into integrated care with organizational health literacy. Main body As an example for chronic disease care, MASK (Mobile Airways Sentinel NetworK), a new project of the ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma) initiative, and POLLAR (Impact of Air POLLution on Asthma and Rhinitis, EIT Health), in collaboration with professional and patient organizations in the field of allergy and airway diseases, are proposing real-life ICPs centred around the patient with rhinitis, and using mHealth to monitor environmental exposure. Three aspects of care pathways are being developed: (i) Patient participation, health literacy and self-care through technology-assisted "patient activation", (ii) Implementation of care pathways by pharmacists and (iii) Next-generation guidelines assessing the recommendations of GRADE guidelines in rhinitis and asthma using real-world evidence (RWE) obtained through mobile technology. The EU and global political agendas are of great importance in supporting the digital transformation of health and care, and MASK has been recognized by DG Sante as a Good Practice in the field of digitally-enabled, integrated, person-centred care. Conclusion In 20 years, ARIA has considerably evolved from the first multimorbidity guideline in respiratory diseases to the digital transformation of health and care with a strong political involvement

Ratios of dijet production cross sections as a function of the absolute difference in rapidity between jets in proton-proton collisions at √s = 7TeV

A study of dijet production in proton-proton collisions was performed at root s = 7 TeV for jets with p(T) > 35 GeV and vertical bar y vertical bar < 4.7 using data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2010. Events with at least one pair of jets are denoted as "inclusive". Events with exactly one pair of jets are called "exclusive". The ratio of the cross section of all pairwise combinations of jets to the exclusive dijet cross section as a function of the rapidity difference between jets vertical bar Delta y vertical bar is measured for the first time up to vertical bar Delta y vertical bar = 9.2. The ratio of the cross section for the pair consisting of the most forward and the most backward jet from the inclusive sample to the exclusive dijet cross section is also presented. The predictions of the Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA6 and PYTHIA8 agree with the measurements. In both ratios the HERWIG++ generator exhibits a more pronounced rise versus vertical bar Delta y vertical bar than observed in the data. The BFKL-motivated generators CASCADE and HEJ+ARIADNE predict for these ratios a significantly stronger rise than observed

Comparing the diversity and composition of waterbird functional traits between natural, restored, and artificial wetlands

The restoration of degraded areas and the creation of artificial ecosystems have partially compensated for the continuing loss of natural wetlands. However, the success of these wetlands in terms of the capacity of supporting biodiversity and ecosystem functions is unclear. Research is needed to improve our understanding of the value of restored and constructed wetlands for functional diversity of freshwater fauna. We compared natural, restored, and artificially created wetlands present within the Doñana Natural Space, Spain and valued as important for waterbirds. We evaluated if these wetlands are equivalent in terms of waterbird functional trait diversity and composition, during both the wintering and breeding seasons. We modelled functional diversity measures and functional group species richness describing species diet, body mass, and foraging techniques with generalised linear mixed models in 20 wetlands monitored between 2006 and 2011. We used three different statistical approaches to evaluate the robustness of our results. Artificial wetlands constructed for conservation failed to reach the functional diversity of natural and restored wetlands. Unexpectedly, artificial ponds constructed for fish production performed better, and even exceeded natural wetlands for functional richness during winter. Fish ponds stood out as having a unique functional composition, connected with increase in richness of opportunistic gulls and decrease of species sensitive to high salinity. Overall, the functional structure of breeding communities was more affected by wetland type than wintering communities. Our findings suggest that compensating the loss of natural wetlands with restored and artificial wetlands results in systems with altered waterbird‐supported functions, such as seed dispersal or nutrient cycling. Protection of natural Mediterranean wetlands is vital to maintain the original diversity and composition of waterbird functional traits. Furthermore, restoration must be prioritised over the creation of artificial wetlands, which, even when intended for conservation, may not provide an adequate replacement.B.A.A. was supported by grant PDSE/88881.133362/2016‐01 from the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). E.S.G. was supported by a Juan de la Cierva contract (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, IJCI‐2015‐24947) and Generalitat Valenciana (SEJI/2018/024). L.d.A. received grant 307643/2018‐2 from the Brazilian Council for Development of Science and Technology (CNPq). A.J.G. was supported by Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad project CGL2016‐76067‐P (AEI/FEDER, EU).Peer reviewe

Two sides of a coin: Effects of climate change on the native and non-native distribution of <i>Colossoma macropomum</i> in South America - Fig 2

<p>Principal component loadings on the first two axes of PCA representing the suitability of <i>Colossoma macropomum</i> for native region at the present time (A), 2050 (B) and 2080 (C); for South America considering natural environment occurrences at the present time (D), 2050 (E) and 2080 (F); and for South America considering the total occurrences (natural environments and fish farming together) at the present time (G), 2050 (H) and 2080 (I). B = Bioclim, ED = Euclidian Distance, GD = Gower Distance; MD = Mahalanobis Distance, M = Maxent; E = Enfa and C = consensus model.</p

Two sides of a coin: Effects of climate change on the native and non-native distribution of <i>Colossoma macropomum</i> in South America - Fig 5

<p>Climate change refugia of <i>Colossoma macropomum</i> in South America at present time (A), 2050 (B) and 2080 (C).</p

Geographical distribution (number of occupied cells) of <i>Colossoma macropomum</i> in South American basins.

<p>The “Total” columns correspond to the modeling results considering natural environmental occurrences along with fish farm occurrences.</p

Two sides of a coin: Effects of climate change on the native and non-native distribution of <i>Colossoma macropomum</i> in South America - Fig 4

<p>Habitat suitability for <i>Colossoma macropomum</i> derived from a consensus model for the native region (A) and South America (B) in 2050, and for the native region (C) and South America (D) in 2080.</p

Two sides of a coin: Effects of climate change on the native and non-native distribution of <i>Colossoma macropomum</i> in South America - Fig 3

<p>Habitat suitability for <i>Colossoma macropomum</i> occurrence derived from the consensus model for the native region (A) and South America (B) at the present time.</p

Values of the PCA loadings of different modeling methods for native region and South America.

<p>The “Total” column corresponds to the results of modeling considering natural environmental occurrences along with fish farm occurrences.</p