Ongoing population decline and range contraction in Norwegian forest grouse

Forest grouse diverge in niche, where Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus thrives in older forests, Hazelgrouse Bonasa bonasia is a habitatspecialist (middle-aged decidous-rich coniferous forest) and Black Grouse T. tetrix is an early succesionalist. We analysed the hunting statistics over four decades in Norway to explore divergence among forest grouse in spatio-temporal trends and discuss these findings in relation to factors changing habitats for these species. Overall, modern forestry has continuously modified the forests, especially Hazelgrouse and Capercaillie habitats. In the same time, climate has become warmer and more humid pushing climate zones northwards. In this study, all species revealed declines compared to the 1970s, especially profound into south and in the northernmost county. This response was strongest for Hazelgrouse and next Capercaillie. Central, inland counties along the Swedish border reveal smaller declines and are probably source areas. We propose that the effect of climate and forestry interact to reduce habitat optimality for forest grouse, and that these effects are stronger in sinks, potentially initiating range-contraction

Wildlife cameras effectively survey Black Grouse Lyrurus tetrix leks

Within the fields of behavioral ecology, population ecology and wildlife management, Black Grouse Lyrurus tetrix is of special interest, as it is a promiscuous, polygamous and lekking game species. In 2011 and 2012 we surveyed six leks in Eastern Norway with wildlife cameras. Here, we show how wildlife cameras can ease data sampling on leks and give us good data on numbers and temporal patterns of visits. Wildlife cameras allow continuous sampling of large amounts of data for long time periods but may underestimate actual visit percent. Our results show that Black Grouse males visit leks most of the year. The fact that we may underestimate actual visit percent means that leks could be even more important than our data suggest

Old bilberry forest increases likelihood of Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus lek occupancy in Southern Norway

Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus prefers old forest, and bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus is a key dietary component. This study aimed to explore lek occupancy and size in relation to those habitat qualities (old forest proportion and type), by examining 246 leks situated in south-eastern Norway. Lek occupancy, lek size and proportion old forest/old bilberry forest were estimated within 0.3 and 1 km radius respectively. Our results showed that lek occupancy and size depended strongly on the proportion of old bilberry forest. Other old forest had no effects on lek occupancy or size after accounting for the effects of old bilberry forest. These findings can be implemented in forest management plans to improve lek habitats and population size.Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus prefers old forest, and bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus is a key dietary component. This study aimed to explore lek occupancy and size in relation to those habitat qualities (old forest proportion and type), by examining 246 leks situated in south-eastern Norway. Lek occupancy, lek size and proportion old forest/old bilberry forest were estimated within 0.3 and 1 km radius respectively. Our results showed that lek occupancy and size depended strongly on the proportion of old bilberry forest. Other old forest had no effects on lek occupancy or size after accounting for the effects of old bilberry forest. These findings can be implemented in forest management plans to improve lek habitats and population size

Contemporary temperature-driven divergence in a Nordic freshwater fish under conditions commonly thought to hinder adaptation

BACKGROUND: Evaluating the limits of adaptation to temperature is important given the IPCC-predicted rise in global temperatures. The rate and scope of evolutionary adaptation can be limited by low genetic diversity, gene flow, and costs associated with adaptive change. Freshwater organisms are physically confined to lakes and rivers, and must therefore deal directly with climate variation and change. In this study, we take advantage of a system characterised by low genetic variation, small population size, gene flow and between-trait trade-offs to study how such conditions affect the ability of a freshwater fish to adapt to climate change. We test for genetically-based differences in developmental traits indicating local adaptation, by conducting a common-garden experiment using embryos and larvae from replicate pairs of sympatric grayling demes that spawn and develop in natural cold and warm water, respectively. These demes have common ancestors from a colonization event 22 generations ago. Consequently, we explore if diversification may occur under severely constraining conditions. RESULTS: We found evidence for divergence in ontogenetic rates. The divergence pattern followed adaptation predictions as cold-deme individuals displayed higher growth rates and yolk conversion efficiency than warm-deme individuals at the same temperature. The cold-deme embryos had a higher rate of muscle mass development. Most of the growth- and development differences occurred prior to hatch. The divergence was probably not caused by genetic drift as there was a strong degree of parallelism in the divergence pattern and because phenotypic differentiation (Q(ST)) was larger than estimated genetic drift levels (microsatellite F(ST)) between demes from different temperature groups. We also document that these particular grayling populations cannot develop successfully at temperatures above 12°C, whereas other European populations can, and that increasing the muscle mass development rate comes at the cost of some skeletal trait development rates. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that genetically based phenotypic divergence can prevail even under conditions of low genetic variation and ongoing gene flow. Furthermore, population-specific maximum development temperatures along with musculoskeletal developmental trade-offs may constrain adaptation

Fedtsyreprofilen i mælk fra malkekøer – Potentiale og perspektiver

Projektet SOBcows har i samarbejde med RYK gennem 16 måneder i 2015/16 analyseret for indholdet af 11 fedtsyrer/fedtsyregrupper i kontrolmælken fra alle ydelseskontrollerede køer i Danmark. Dataanalyser af godt 3,5 mio. mælkeprøver viser, at det er muligt at påvirke sammensætning af mælkefedtet gennem avl. En foreløbig beregning af arvbarheden hen over laktationen viser, at alle fedtsyrekategorier har en genetisk variation og enkeltfedtsyrerne har arvbarheder på højde med den samlede fedtydelse. Det betyder arvbarheder i intervallet 0,25-0,44 afhængig af race og paritet. De genetiske sammenhænge varierer betydeligt gennem laktationen og er påvirket af den øgede kropsmobilisering i de første måneder efter kælvning. En anvendelse af fedtstyrebestemmelserne i avlen vil derfor kræve en opdeling af laktationen i mindst to perioder. Samlet kan det konkluderes, at der er et betydeligt avlsmæssigt potentiale, og hvis der kommer et dansk marked for mælkeprodukter med særlige egenskaber, vil det være oplagt at ændre genetikken i gunstig retning og samtidigt udnytte de fodringsmæssige muligheder for at producere mælk med en sundhedsfremmende fedtsyreprofil. Datamaterialet her og fedtsyremåling af samtlige mælkeprøver i ydelseskontrollen giver en unik position i forhold til det

Samarbeid om rehabilitering

Regjeringen legger opp til at det skal bli tydeligere arbeidsdeling og samarbeid mellom sykehus og kommuner om rehabilitering. Denne rapporten bygger på et prosjekt der ett sykehus, tre kommuner og høgskolen samarbeidet for å avklare hvilke utfordringer man hadde med hensyn til samarbeid om rehabiliteringspasienter. Undersøkelsen er gjennomført før det er helt avklart hvordan samarbeidet mellom sykehus og kommuner skal organiseres og gjennomføres. De aktuelle kommunene er likevel kommet langt og har opprettet egne lokale rehabiliteringsavdelinger. Undersøkelsen viser at det er utfordringer knyttet til brukermedvirkning og inkludering av pårørende. Det er tegn i våre data som tyder på at formell kommunikasjon og misforståelser som følge av at den ikke er tilstrekkelig god, bidrar til en viss grad av mistro mellom sykehusansatte og ansatte i kommunen. Det anbefales derfor at man tilrettelegger for bedre kommunikasjon. Kommunene har i noen grad etablert en praksis der representanter for kommunens tildelingskontor møter pasientene allerede mens de er på sykehuset. Erfaringene med denne løsningen er gode og ordningen anbefales videreført og utvidet

Modifier Effects between Regulatory and Protein-Coding Variation

Genome-wide associations have shown a lot of promise in dissecting the genetics of complex traits in humans with single variants, yet a large fraction of the genetic effects is still unaccounted for. Analyzing genetic interactions between variants (epistasis) is one of the potential ways forward. We investigated the abundance and functional impact of a specific type of epistasis, namely the interaction between regulatory and protein-coding variants. Using genotype and gene expression data from the 210 unrelated individuals of the original four HapMap populations, we have explored the combined effects of regulatory and protein-coding single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We predict that about 18% (1,502 out of 8,233 nsSNPs) of protein-coding variants are differentially expressed among individuals and demonstrate that regulatory variants can modify the functional effect of a coding variant in cis. Furthermore, we show that such interactions in cis can affect the expression of downstream targets of the gene containing the protein-coding SNP. In this way, a cis interaction between regulatory and protein-coding variants has a trans impact on gene expression. Given the abundance of both types of variants in human populations, we propose that joint consideration of regulatory and protein-coding variants may reveal additional genetic effects underlying complex traits and disease and may shed light on causes of differential penetrance of known disease variants

Diversity and dispersal of a ubiquitous protein family: acyl-CoA dehydrogenases

Acyl-CoA dehydrogenases (ACADs), which are key enzymes in fatty acid and amino acid catabolism, form a large, pan-taxonomic protein family with at least 13 distinct subfamilies. Yet most reported ACAD members have no subfamily assigned, and little is known about the taxonomic distribution and evolution of the subfamilies. In completely sequenced genomes from approximately 210 species (eukaryotes, bacteria and archaea), we detect ACAD subfamilies by rigorous ortholog identification combining sequence similarity search with phylogeny. We then construct taxonomic subfamily-distribution profiles and build phylogenetic trees with orthologous proteins. Subfamily profiles provide unparalleled insight into the organisms’ energy sources based on genome sequence alone and further predict enzyme substrate specificity, thus generating explicit working hypotheses for targeted biochemical experimentation. Eukaryotic ACAD subfamilies are traditionally considered as mitochondrial proteins, but we found evidence that in fungi one subfamily is located in peroxisomes and participates in a distinct β-oxidation pathway. Finally, we discern horizontal transfer, duplication, loss and secondary acquisition of ACAD genes during evolution of this family. Through these unorthodox expansion strategies, the ACAD family is proficient in utilizing a large range of fatty acids and amino acids—strategies that could have shaped the evolutionary history of many other ancient protein families

Greenland Geothermal Heat Flow Database and Map (Version 1)

We compile and analyze all available geothermal heat flow measurements collected in and around Greenland into a new database of 419 sites and generate an accompanying spatial map. This database includes 290 sites previously reported by the International Heat Flow Commission (IHFC), for which we now standardize measurement and metadata quality. This database also includes 129 new sites, which have not been previously reported by the IHFC. These new sites consist of 88 offshore measurements and 41 onshore measurements, of which 24 are subglacial. We employ machine learning to synthesize these in situ measurements into a gridded geothermal heat flow model that is consistent across both continental and marine areas in and around Greenland. This model has a native horizontal resolution of 55ĝ€¯km. In comparison to five existing Greenland geothermal heat flow models, our model has the lowest mean geothermal heat flow for Greenland onshore areas. Our modeled heat flow in central North Greenland is highly sensitive to whether the NGRIP (North GReenland Ice core Project) elevated heat flow anomaly is included in the training dataset. Our model's most distinctive spatial feature is pronounced low geothermal heat flow (<ĝ€¯40ĝ€¯mWĝ€¯m-2) across the North Atlantic Craton of southern Greenland. Crucially, our model does not show an area of elevated heat flow that might be interpreted as remnant from the Icelandic plume track. Finally, we discuss the substantial influence of paleoclimatic and other corrections on geothermal heat flow measurements in Greenland. The in situ measurement database and gridded heat flow model, as well as other supporting materials, are freely available from the GEUS Dataverse (10.22008/FK2/F9P03L; Colgan and Wansing, 2021).publishedVersionPeer reviewe