Formation of ionospheric irregularities over Southeast Asia during the 2015 St. Patrickˈs Day storm

We investigate the geospace response to the 2015 St. Patrickˈs Day storm leveraging on instruments spread over Southeast Asia (SEA), covering a wide longitudinal sector of the low-latitude ionosphere. A regional characterization of the storm is provided, identifying the peculiarities of ionospheric irregularity formation. The novelties of this work are the characterization in a broad longitudinal range and the methodology relying on the integration of data acquired by Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers, magnetometers, ionosondes, and Swarm satellites. This work is a legacy of the project EquatoRial Ionosphere Characterization in Asia (ERICA). ERICA aimed to capture the features of both crests of the equatorial ionospheric anomaly (EIA) and trough (EIT) by means of a dedicated measurement campaign. The campaign lasted from March to October 2015 and was able to observe the ionospheric variability causing effects on radio systems, GNSS in particular. The multiinstrumental and multiparametric observations of the region enabled an in-depth investigation of the response to the largest geomagnetic storm of the current solar cycle in a region scarcely reported in literature. Our work discusses the comparison between northern and southern crests of the EIA in the SEA region. The observations recorded positive and negative ionospheric storms, spread F conditions, scintillation enhancement and inhibition, and total electron content variability. The ancillary information on the local magnetic field highlights the variety of ionospheric perturbations during the different storm phases. The combined use of ionospheric bottomside, topside, and integrated information points out how the storm affects the F layer altitude and the consequent enhancement/suppression of scintillations.Published12211–122331A. Geomagnetismo e Paleomagnetismo2A. Fisica dell'alta atmosfera1IT. Reti di monitoraggio e Osservazioni5IT. Osservazioni satellitariJCR Journalope

Predicting River Macroinvertebrate Communities Distributional Shifts under Future Global Change Scenarios in the Spanish Mediterranean Area

Several studies on global change over the next century predict increases in mean air temperatures of between 1°C to 5°C that would affect not only water temperature but also river flow. Climate is the predominant environmental driver of thermal and flow regimes of freshwater ecosystems, determining survival, growth, metabolism, phenology and behaviour as well as biotic interactions of aquatic fauna. Thus, these changes would also have consequences for species phenology, their distribution range, and the composition and dynamics of communities. These effects are expected to be especially severe in the Mediterranean basin due its particular climate conditions, seriously threatening Southern European ecosystems. In addition, species with restricted distributions and narrow ecological requirements, such as those living in the headwaters of rivers, will be severely affected. The study area corresponds to the Spanish Mediterranean and Balearic Islands, delimited by the Köppen climate boundary. With the application of the MEDPACS (MEDiterranean Prediction And Classification System) predictive approach, the macroinvertebrate community was predicted for current conditions and compared with three posible scenarios of watertemperature increase and its associated water flow reductions. The results indicate that the aquatic macroinvertebrate communities will undergo a drastic impact, with reductions in taxa richness for each scenario in relation to simulated current conditions, accompanied by changes in the taxa distribution pattern. Accordingly, the distribution area of most of the taxa (65.96%) inhabiting the mid-high elevations would contract and rise in altitude. Thus, families containing a great number of generalist species will move upstream to colonize new zones with lower water temperatures. By contrast, more vulnerable taxa will undergo reductions in their distribution area.This work was funded by GUADALMED-II (REN2001-3438-C07-06/HID), a project of excellence from “Junta de Andalucía” (RNM-02654/FEDER), the Spanish “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación” (CGL2007-61856/BOS), projects and a collaboration agreement between the “Spanish Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, Medio Rural y Marino” and the University of Granada (21.812-0062/8511)

The three Rs of river ecosystem resilience : Resources, recruitment, and refugia

This review article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived VersionResilience in river ecosystems requires that organisms must persist in the face of highly dynamic hydrological and geomorphological variations. Disturbance events such as floods and droughts are postulated to shape life history traits that support resilience, but river management and conservation would benefit from greater understanding of the emergent effects in communities of river organisms. We unify current knowledge of taxonomic-, phylogenetic-, and trait-based aspects of river communities that might aid the identification and quantification of resilience mechanisms. Temporal variations in river productivity, physical connectivity, and environmental heterogeneity resulting from floods and droughts are highlighted as key characteristics that promote resilience in these dynamic ecosystems. Three community-wide mechanisms that underlie resilience are (a) partitioning (competition/facilitation) of dynamically varying resources, (b) dispersal, recolonization, and recruitment promoted by connectivity, and (c) functional redundancy in communities promoted by resource heterogeneity and refugia. Along with taxonomic and phylogenetic identity, biological traits related to feeding specialization, dispersal ability, and habitat specialization mediate organism responses to disturbance. Measures of these factors might also enable assessment of the relative contributions of different mechanisms to community resilience. Interactions between abiotic drivers and biotic aspects of resource use, dispersal, and persistence have clear implications for river conservation and management. To support these management needs, we propose a set of taxonomic, phylogenetic, and life-history trait metrics that might be used to measure resilience mechanisms. By identifying such indicators, our proposed framework can enable targeted management strategies to adapt river ecosystems to global change

The relationships between biotic uniqueness and abiotic uniqueness are context dependent across drainage basins worldwide

[EN] Context: Global change, including land-use change and habitat degradation, has led to a decline in biodiversity, more so in freshwater than in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the research on freshwaters lags behind terrestrial and marine studies, highlighting the need for innovative approaches to comprehend freshwater biodiversity. Objectives: We investigated patterns in the relationships between biotic uniqueness and abiotic environmental uniqueness in drainage basins worldwide. Methods: We compiled high-quality data on aquatic insects (mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies at genus-level) from 42 drainage basins spanning four continents. Within each basin we calculated biotic uniqueness (local contribution to beta diversity, LCBD) of aquatic insect assemblages, and four types of abiotic uniqueness (local contribution to environmental heterogeneity, LCEH), categorized into upstream land cover, chemical soil properties, stream site landscape position, and climate. A mixed-effects meta-regression was performed across basins to examine variations in the strength of the LCBD-LCEH relationship in terms of latitude, human footprint, and major continental regions (the Americas versus Eurasia). Results: On average, relationships between LCBD and LCEH were weak. However, the strength and direction of the relationship varied among the drainage basins. Latitude, human footprint index, or continental location did not explain significant variation in the strength of the LCBD-LCEH relationship. Conclusions: We detected strong context dependence in the LCBD-LCEH relationship across the drainage basins. Varying environmental conditions and gradient lengths across drainage basins, land-use change, historical contingencies, and stochastic factors may explain these findings. This context dependence underscores the need for basin-specific management practices to protect the biodiversity of riverine systemsSIOpen Access funding provided by University of Oulu (including Oulu University Hospital). The work for this article was supported by the Academy of Finland’s grant to JHeino for the project GloBioTrends (Grant No. 331957). JGG was funded by the European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR (Grant No. AG325). Work by LMB has been continuously supported by the National Council for Scientifc & Technological Development (CNPq) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás (FAPEG) (grants 308974/2020–4 and 465610/2014–5). PB and ZC were fnancially supported by the National Research Development and Innovation Ofce (NKFIH FK 135 136), and PB was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences BO-00106–21. LB thanks the National Council for Scientifc and Technological Development (CNPq) for the Scientifc Initiation Fellowship for JVASS and the productivity fellowship in research to LSB (process nº. 305929/2022–4). MC was awarded National Council for Scientifc & Technological Development (CNPq) research productivity grant 304060/2020–8 and received grants (PPM 00104–18, APQ-00261–22) from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais. SD and JRGM acknowledge funding by the Leibniz Competition (Grant No. J45/2018) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF grant agreement number no. 033W034A). DRM was supported by National Council for Scientifc & Technological Development (CNPq) (Grant No. PQ-309763–2020-7). DMPC received a postdoctoral scholarship from P&D Aneel- Cemig GT-611. PH was partially funded by the eLTER PLUS project (Grant Agreement No. 871128). LJ is grateful to 33 Forest, CIKEL Ltd. and Instituto de Floresta Tropical (IFT), Biodiversity Research Consortium Brazil-Norway (BRC), and Norsk Hydro for the fnancial and logistical support for sampling. Brazilian National Council for Scientifc and Technological Development (CNPq) is acknowledged for fnancing the projects and for granting a research productivity fellowship to LJ (304710/2019–9). APJF was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científco e Tecnológico (CNPq, Brazil, process no. 449315/2014–2 and 481015/2011–6). RL also received a research productivity fellowship from CNPq (grant # 312531/2021–4). MSL received a postdoctoral scholarship from ANEEL/CEMIG (Project GT-599). Part of feld sampling and aquatic insects processing were funded by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científco e Tecnológico (CNPq; 403758/2021–1); Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM; Programa Biodiversa) and INCT ADAPTA II – (CNPq: 465540/2014–7; FAPEAM: 062.1187/2017). NH (308970/2019–5) received productivity fellowships from CNPq. RTM received a fellowship from Biodiversa/FAPEAM (01.02.016301.03271/2021–93). KLM acknowledges fnancial support from the Swiss Federal Ofce for the Environment to undertake data collection. Funding for the Segura River basin project was provided by the Seneca Foundation and the European Fund of Regional Development (PLP10/FS/97). FOR was supported by CNPq research grant. TS was partially funded by grant 13/50424–1 and 21/00619–7 from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), and by grant 309496/2021–7 from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científco e Tecnológico (CNPq). FVN was supported by grant #2021/13299–0, São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). ALA acknowledges Brazilian National Council for Scientifc and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil) for granting a postdoctoral scholarship to her (process number: 167873/2022–9

Effective but Costly, Evolved Mechanisms of Defense against a Virulent Opportunistic Pathogen in Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila harbor substantial genetic variation for antibacterial defense, and investment in immunity is thought to involve a costly trade-off with life history traits, including development, life span, and reproduction. To understand the way in which insects invest in fighting bacterial infection, we selected for survival following systemic infection with the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa in wild-caught Drosophila melanogaster over 10 generations. We then examined genome-wide changes in expression in the selected flies relative to unselected controls, both of which had been infected with the pathogen. This powerful combination of techniques allowed us to specifically identify the genetic basis of the evolved immune response. In response to selection, population-level survivorship to infection increased from 15% to 70%. The evolved capacity for defense was costly, however, as evidenced by reduced longevity and larval viability and a rapid loss of the trait once selection pressure was removed. Counter to expectation, we observed more rapid developmental rates in the selected flies. Selection-associated changes in expression of genes with dual involvement in developmental and immune pathways suggest pleiotropy as a possible mechanism for the positive correlation. We also found that both the Toll and the Imd pathways work synergistically to limit infectivity and that cellular immunity plays a more critical role in overcoming P. aeruginosa infection than previously reported. This work reveals novel pathways by which Drosophila can survive infection with a virulent pathogen that may be rare in wild populations, however, due to their cost

Control of Alginate Core Size in Alginate-Poly (Lactic-Co-Glycolic) Acid Microparticles

Core-shell alginate-poly (lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) microparticles are potential candidates to improve hydrophilic drug loading while facilitating controlled release. This report studies the influence of the alginate core size on the drug release profile of alginate-PLGA microparticles and its size. Microparticles are synthesized through double-emulsion fabrication via a concurrent ionotropic gelation and solvent extraction. The size of alginate core ranges from approximately 10, 50, to 100 μm when the emulsification method at the first step is homogenization, vortexing, or magnetic stirring, respectively. The second step emulsification for all three conditions is performed with magnetic stirring. Interestingly, although the alginate core has different sizes, alginate-PLGA microparticle diameter does not change. However, drug release profiles are dramatically different for microparticles comprising different-sized alginate cores. Specifically, taking calcein as a model drug, microparticles containing the smallest alginate core (10 μm) show the slowest release over a period of 26 days with burst release less than 1 %. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-015-1222-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

A Macroecological Analysis of SERA Derived Forest Heights and Implications for Forest Volume Remote Sensing

Individual trees have been shown to exhibit strong relationships between DBH, height and volume. Often such studies are cited as justification for forest volume or standing biomass estimation through remote sensing. With resolution of common satellite remote sensing systems generally too low to resolve individuals, and a need for larger coverage, these systems rely on descriptive heights, which account for tree collections in forests. For remote sensing and allometric applications, this height is not entirely understood in terms of its location. Here, a forest growth model (SERA) analyzes forest canopy height relationships with forest wood volume. Maximum height, mean, H100, and Lorey's height are examined for variability under plant number density, resource and species. Our findings, shown to be allometrically consistent with empirical measurements for forested communities world-wide, are analyzed for implications to forest remote sensing techniques such as LiDAR and RADAR. Traditional forestry measures of maximum height, and to a lesser extent H100 and Lorey's, exhibit little consistent correlation with forest volume across modeled conditions. The implication is that using forest height to infer volume or biomass from remote sensing requires species and community behavioral information to infer accurate estimates using height alone. SERA predicts mean height to provide the most consistent relationship with volume of the height classifications studied and overall across forest variations. This prediction agrees with empirical data collected from conifer and angiosperm forests with plant densities ranging between 102–106 plants/hectare and heights 6–49 m. Height classifications investigated are potentially linked to radar scattering centers with implications for allometry. These findings may be used to advance forest biomass estimation accuracy through remote sensing. Furthermore, Lorey's height with its specific relationship to remote sensing physics is recommended as a more universal indicator of volume when using remote sensing than achieved using either maximum height or H100

A shared role for RBF1 and dCAP-D3 in the regulation of transcription with consequences for innate immunity

Previously, we discovered a conserved interaction between RB proteins and the Condensin II protein CAP-D3 that is important for ensuring uniform chromatin condensation during mitotic prophase. The Drosophila melanogaster homologs RBF1 and dCAP-D3 co-localize on non-dividing polytene chromatin, suggesting the existence of a shared, non-mitotic role for these two proteins. Here, we show that the absence of RBF1 and dCAP-D3 alters the expression of many of the same genes in larvae and adult flies. Strikingly, most of the genes affected by the loss of RBF1 and dCAP-D3 are not classic cell cycle genes but are developmentally regulated genes with tissue-specific functions and these genes tend to be located in gene clusters. Our data reveal that RBF1 and dCAP-D3 are needed in fat body cells to activate transcription of clusters of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) genes. AMPs are important for innate immunity, and loss of either dCAP-D3 or RBF1 regulation results in a decrease in the ability to clear bacteria. Interestingly, in the adult fat body, RBF1 and dCAP-D3 bind to regions flanking an AMP gene cluster both prior to and following bacterial infection. These results describe a novel, non-mitotic role for the RBF1 and dCAP-D3 proteins in activation of the Drosophila immune system and suggest dCAP-D3 has an important role at specific subsets of RBF1-dependent genes

Regulation of Hemocytes in Drosophila Requires dappled Cytochrome b5

A major category of mutant hematopoietic phenotypes in Drosophila is melanotic tumors or nodules, which consist of abnormal and overproliferated blood cells, similar to granulomas. Our analyses of the melanotic mutant dappled have revealed a novel type of gene involved in blood cell regulation. The dappled gene is an essential gene that encodes cytochrome b5, a conserved hemoprotein that participates in electron transfer in multiple biochemical reactions and pathways. Viable mutations of dappled cause melanotic nodules and hemocyte misregulation during both hematopoietic waves of development. The sexes are similarly affected, but hemocyte number is different in females and males of both mutants and wild type. Additionally, initial tests show that curcumin enhances the dappled melanotic phenotype and establish screening of endogenous and xenobiotic compounds as a route for analysis of cytochrome b5 function. Overall, dappled provides a tractable genetic model for cytochrome b5, which has been difficult to study in higher organisms