The use of opportunistic data for IUCN Red List assessments

IUCN Red Lists are recognized worldwide as powerful instruments for the conservation of species. Quantitative criteria to standardize approaches for estimating population trends, geographic ranges and population sizes have been developed at global and sub-global levels. Little attention has been given to the data needed to estimate species trends and range sizes for IUCN Red List assessments. Few regions collect monitoring data in a structured way and usually only for a limited number of taxa. Therefore, opportunistic data are increasingly used for estimating trends and geographic range sizes. Trend calculations use a range of proxies: (i) monitoring sentinel populations, (ii) estimating changes in available habitat, or (iii) statistical models of change based on opportunistic records. Geographic ranges have been determined using: (i) marginal occurrences, (ii) habitat distributions, (iii) range-wide occurrences, (iv) species distribution modelling (including site-occupancy models), and (v) process-based modelling. Red List assessments differ strongly among regions (Europe, Britain and Flanders, north Belgium). Across different taxonomic groups, in European Red Lists IUCN criteria B and D resulted in the highest level of threat. In Britain, this was the case for criterion D and criterion A, while in Flanders criterion B and criterion A resulted in the highest threat level. Among taxonomic groups, however, large differences in the use of IUCN criteria were revealed. We give examples from Europe, Britain and Flemish Red List assessments using opportunistic data and give recommendations for a more uniform use of IUCN criteria among regions and among taxonomic groups

National patterns of functional diversity and redundancy in predatory ground beetles and bees associated with key UK arable crops

1. Invertebrates supporting natural pest control and pollination ecosystem services are crucial to world-wide crop production. Understanding national patterns in the spatial structure of natural pest control and pollination can be used to promote effective crop management and contribute to long-term food security. 2. We mapped the species richness and functional diversity of ground beetles and bees to provide surrogate measures of natural pest control and pollination for Great Britain. Func- tional diversity represents the value and range of morphological and behavioural traits that support ecosystem services. We modelled the rate at which functional diversity collapsed in response to species extinctions to provide an index of functional redundancy. 3. Deficits in functional diversity for both pest control and pollination were found in areas of high arable crop production. Ground beetle functional redundancy was positively corre- lated with the landscape cover of semi-natural habitats where extinctions were ordered by body size and dispersal ability. For bees, functional redundancy showed a weak positive cor- relation with semi-natural habitat cover where species extinctions were ordered by feeding specialization. 4. Synthesis and applications. Increasingly, evidence suggests that functionally diverse assem- blages of ground beetles and bees may be a key element to strategies that aim to support pol- lination and natural pest control in crops. If deficits in both functional diversity and redundancy in areas of high crop production are to be reversed, then targeted implementation of agri-environment schemes that establish semi-natural habitat may provide a policy mecha- nism for supporting these ecosystem services

Tracking disease resistance deployment in potato breeding by enrichment sequencing

Following the molecular characterisation of functional disease resistance genes in recent years, methods to track and verify the integrity of multiple genes in varieties are needed for crop improvement through resistance stacking. Diagnostic resistance gene enrichment sequencing (dRenSeq) enables the highconfidence identification and complete sequence validation of known functional resistance genes in crops. As demonstrated for tetraploid potato varieties, the methodology is more robust and cost-effective in monitoring resistances than whole-genome sequencing and can be used to appraise (trans)gene integrity efficiently. All currently known NB-LRRs effective against viruses, nematodes and the late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans can be tracked with dRenSeq in potato and hitherto unknown polymorphisms have been identified. The methodology provides a means to improve the speed and efficiency of future disease resistance breeding in crops by directing parental and progeny selection towards effective combinations of resistance genes

Microfungi in Drinking Water: The Role of the Frog Litoria caerulea

Microfungi were recovered from all parts of a municipal water distribution system in sub-tropical Australia even though virtually no colony-forming units were recovered from the treated water as it left the treatment plant. A study was then undertaken to determine the potential sources of the microfungal population in the distribution system. Observation of frogs (Litoria caerulea) using the internal infrastructure of a reservoir as diurnal sleeping places, together with observation of visible microfungal growth on their faecal pellets, led to an investigation of the possible involvement of this animal. Old faecal pellets were collected and sporulating fungal colonies growing on their surfaces were identified. Fresh faecal pellets were collected and analysed for microfungal content, and skin swabs were analysed for yeasts. It was found that the faeces and skin of L. caerulea carried large numbers of yeasts as well as spores of various filamentous fungal genera. While there are many possible sources of microfungal contamination of municipal drinking water supplies, this study has revealed that the Australian green tree frog L. caerulea is one of the important sources of filamentous microfungi and yeasts in water storage reservoirs in sub-tropical Australia where the animal is endemic

Biochemical parameters of silver catfish (Rhamdia quelen) after transport with eugenol or essential oil of Lippia alba added to the water

The transport of live fish is a routine practice in aquaculture and constitutes a considerable source of stress to the animals. The addition of anesthetic to the water used for fish transport can prevent or mitigate the deleterious effects of transport stress. This study investigated the effects of the addition of eugenol (EUG) (1.5 or 3.0 mu L L-1) and essential oil of Lippia alba (EOL) (10 or 20 mu L L-1) on metabolic parameters (glycogen, lactate and total protein levels) in liver and muscle, acetylcholinesterase activity (AChE) in muscle and brain, and the levels of protein carbonyl (PC), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and nonprotein thiol groups (NPSH) and activity of glutathione-S-transferase in the liver of silver catfish (Rhamdia quelen; Quoy and Gaimard, 1824) transported for four hours in plastic bags (loading density of 169.2 g L-1). The addition of various concentrations of EUG (1.5 or 3.0 mu L L-1) and EOL (10 or 20 mu L L-1) to the transport water is advisable for the transportation of silver catfish, since both concentrations of these substances increased the levels of NPSH antioxidant and decreased the TBARS levels in the liver. In addition, the lower liver levels of glycogen and lactate in these groups and lower AChE activity in the brain (EOL 10 or 20 mu L L-1) compared to the control group indicate that the energetic metabolism and neurotransmission were lower after administration of anesthetics, contributing to the maintenance of homeostasis and sedation status.Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS/PRONEX) [10/0016-8]; Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Cientifico (CNPq) [470964/2009-0]; Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES); CNPqinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Use of sonic tomography to detect and quantify wood decay in living trees.

Premise of the studyField methodology and image analysis protocols using acoustic tomography were developed and evaluated as a tool to estimate the amount of internal decay and damage of living trees, with special attention to tropical rainforest trees with irregular trunk shapes.Methods and resultsLiving trunks of a diversity of tree species in tropical rainforests in the Republic of Panama were scanned using an Argus Electronic PiCUS 3 Sonic Tomograph and evaluated for the amount and patterns of internal decay. A protocol using ImageJ analysis software was used to quantify the proportions of intact and compromised wood. The protocols provide replicable estimates of internal decay and cavities for trees of varying shapes, wood density, and bark thickness.ConclusionsSonic tomography, coupled with image analysis, provides an efficient, noninvasive approach to evaluate decay patterns and structural integrity of even irregularly shaped living trees

Troubling travellers: are ecologically harmful alien species associated with particular introduction pathways?

Prioritization of introduction pathways is seen as an important component of the management of biological invasions. We address whether established alien plants, mammals, freshwater fish and terrestrial invertebrates with known ecological impacts are associated with particular introduction pathways (release, escape, contaminant, stowaway, corridor and unaided). We used the information from the European alien species database DAISIE (www.europe-aliens.org) supplemented by the EASIN catalogue (European Alien Species Information Network), and expert knowledge. Plants introduced by the pathways release, corridor and unaided were disproportionately more likely to have ecological impacts than those introduced as contaminants. In contrast, impacts were not associated with particular introduction pathways for invertebrates, mammals or fish. Thus, while for plants management strategies should be targeted towards the appropriate pathways, for animals, management should focus on reducing the total number of taxa introduced, targeting those pathways responsible for high numbers of introductions. However, regardless of taxonomic group, having multiple introduction pathways increases the likelihood of the species having an ecological impact. This may simply reflect that species introduced by multiple pathways have high propagule pressure and so have a high probability of establishment. Clearly, patterns of invasion are determined by many interacting factors and management strategies should reflect this complexity

A Conceptual Cortical Surface Atlas

Volumetric, slice-based, 3-D atlases are invaluable tools for understanding complex cortical convolutions. We present a simple scheme to convert a slice-based atlas to a conceptual surface atlas that is easier to visualize and understand. The key idea is to unfold each slice into a one-dimensional vector, and concatenate a succession of these vectors – while maintaining as much spatial contiguity as possible – into a 2-D matrix. We illustrate our methodology using a coronal slice-based atlas of the Rhesus Monkey cortex. The conceptual surface-based atlases provide a useful complement to slice-based atlases for the purposes of indexing and browsing

Patient-reported outcomes in multiple sclerosis: a prospective registry cohort study

Registries have the potential to tackle some of the current limitations in determining the long-term impact of multiple sclerosis. Online assessments using patient-reported outcomes can streamline follow-up enabling large-scale, long-term, cost-effective, home-based, and patient-focused data collection. However, registry data are sparsely sampled and the sensitivity of patient-reported outcomes relative to clinician-reported scales is unknown, making it hard to fully leverage their unique scope and scale to derive insights. This retrospective and prospective cohort study over 11 years involved 15 976 patients with multiple sclerosis from the United Kingdom Multiples Sclerosis Register. Primary outcomes were changes in two patient-reported outcomes: Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale motor component, and Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale. First, we investigated their validity in measuring the impact of physical disability in multiple sclerosis, by looking at their sensitivity to disease subtype and duration. We grouped the available records (91 351 for Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale motor and 68 092 for Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale) by these two factors, and statistically compared the resulting groups using a novel approach based on Monte Carlo permutation analysis that was designed to cope with the intrinsic sparsity of registry data. Next, we used the patient-reported outcomes to draw novel insights into the developmental time course of subtypes; in particular, the period preceding the transition from relapsing to progressive forms. We report a robust main effect of disease subtype on the patient-reported outcomes and interactions of disease subtype with duration (all P < 0.0001). Specifically, patient-reported outcomes worsen with disease duration for all subtypes (all P < 0.0001) apart from benign multiple sclerosis (Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale motor: P = 0.796; Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale: P = 0.983). Furthermore, the patient-reported outcomes of each subtype are statistically different from those of the other subtypes at all time bins (Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale motor: all P < 0.05; Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale: all P < 0.01) except when comparing relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis with benign multiple sclerosis and primary progressive multiple sclerosis with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Notably, there were statistically significant differences between relapsing-remitting and progressive subtypes at disease onset. Critically, the patient-reported outcomes are sensitive to future transitions to progressive subtypes, with individuals who transition presenting with higher patient-reported outcomes in their relapsing-remitting phase compared to individuals who don’t transition since onset (all P < 0.0001). Patient-reported outcomes capture different patterns of physical worsening over disease length and across subtypes; therefore, they are a valid tool to measure the physical impact of multiple sclerosis over the long-term and cost-effectively. Furthermore, more advanced physical disability manifests years before clinical detection of progressive subtypes, adding evidence to the presence of a multiple sclerosis prodrome