Bedeutung von Felsen aus der Sicht des Naturschutzes und ihre Berücksichtigung bei Maßnahmen zur Verkehrssicherheit von Straßen

Offene Felsbildungen sind häufig bedeutende Lebensräume von Pflanzen- und Tierarten. Oft befinden sie sich im Bereich von Mittelgebirgstälern, in denen gleichzeitig Verkehrswege verlaufen. Ausgelöst durch Sukzessionsvorgänge am Fels kann es hier zu Problemen für die Verkehrssicherheit von Straßen kommen. Anders als im Baumschutz, wo es mit den Baumschauen seit langem ein etabliertes Instrument der Benehmensherstellung zwischen Straßenbau- und Naturschutzbehörden gibt, steht die Zusammenarbeit hinsichtlich der Felslebensräume noch am Anfang. Aufgrund der naturräumlichen Ausstattung ist eine solche Zusammenarbeit innerhalb Sachsen-Anhalts wohl am ehesten im Landkreis Harz angezeigt. Im vorliegenden Beitrag sollen zum einen die naturschutzrechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen in Bezug auf die Felsen kurz umrissen und beispielhaft auf bedeutende Artvorkommen im Landkreis Harz hingewiesen werden. Zum anderen wird der Verfahrensablauf einer Felssicherung aus straßenplanerischer Sicht vorgestellt. Als Anregung für einen notwendigen, ressortübergreifenden fachlichen Diskurs werden Anforderungen formuliert, die an Maßnahmen zur Felssicherung zu stellen sind, und abschließend erste Erfahrungen und Lösungsvorschläge vorgestellt

Oluso

Oluso is a new startup offering affordable, inexpensive technology to empower the individual. Our product is designed to keep the user in contact with someone close to them in emergency situations. Over the course of the past several months we have performed interviews with both individuals who may be interested in this product as well as organizations who may be interested in purchasing this product for their members. Our product is nearing completion and all of the companies we have interviewed have displayed a significant amount of interest in our product. The combination of easy communication and peace of mind bundled into a non-intrusive device proved captivating to our interviewees. At the conclusion of this course we have met all the requirements necessary to move our product from development to production

A dual function of echolocation

Fledermäuse nutzen Echoortung bei der nächtlichen Jagd und zur Orientierung. Es ist jedoch noch nicht bekannt, ob Echoortsrufe zusätzlich eine kommunikative Funktion besitzen, beispielsweise in der sozialen Interaktion zwischen Mitgliedern des gleichen Tagesquartiers. Im Prinzip scheint dies möglich, da Echoortungsrufe sich auf dem Niveau der Art, der Geschlechter, der Kolonien und der Individuen unterscheiden können. Wir untersuchten das Antwortverhalten der Kleinen Hasenmaulfledermaus (Noctilio albiventris) auf Echoortungsrufe bekannter und unbekannter Individuen der eigenen Art sowie auf Echoortungsrufe einer Fledermausart, die die gleichen Quartiere bewohnt, und einer Art, die gänzlich andere Quartiere bewohnt. Die Fledermäuse reagierten mit einem komplexen sozialen Verhaltensrepertoire auf die präsentieren Ortungsrufe und sie unterschieden sich signifikant in der Intensität des Antwortverhaltens gegenüber den verschiedenen Stimuluskategorien. Die stärkste Reaktion zeigten die Tiere gegenüber unbekannten Individuen der eigenen Art. Das Antwortverhalten war ebenfalls gegenüber arteigenen Individuen höher als gegenüber Tieren einer anderen Art. Soweit uns bekannt ist, ist dies das erste Mal, dass bei Fledermäusen soziales Verhalten als Antwort auf Echoortungsrufe gezeigt werden konnte. Unsere Daten liefern zudem erste Hinweise auf eine akustische Differenzierung der Fledermäuse zwischen bekannten und unbekannten Tieren der eigenen Art und anderen Arten. Akustische Analysen der Echoortungsrufe bestätigten, dass signifikante Unterschiede zwischen Rufen einzelner Individuen bestehen. Zudem fanden wir Hinweise auf Gruppensignaturen in den Echoortungsrufen von N. albiventris. Unsere Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass Fledermäusen Echoortungsrufe zusätzlich dazu nutzt, um Art- und Gruppenzugehörigkeit sowie Individualität zu kommunizieren. Unsere Untersuchung weist auf das kommunikative Potential allgegenwärtiger Signale im Tierreich hin, die bisher als ‚Cues’ bezeichnet wurden. Daher sind wir der Meinung, dass wir durch Vertiefung unseres Verständnisses der multiplen Funktionen solcher Signale, weitere wichtige Einsichten zur Evolution der Kommunikation im Tierreich gewinnen können.Bats use echolocation for orientation during foraging and navigation. However, it remained unclear whether echolocation calls may also have a communicative function, for instance between members of the same roost site. In principle, this seemed possible because echolocation calls are species-specific and known to differ between sexes, and among colonies and individuals. We performed playback experiments with lesser bulldog bats, Noctilio albiventris, to which we presented calls of familiar/unfamiliar conspecifics, cohabitant/non-cohabitant heterospecifics and ultrasonic white noise. Bats reacted with a complex repertoire of social behaviours and the intensity of their response differed significantly between stimulus categories. The strongest reaction was shown toward unfamiliar conspecifics, and the reaction was significantly stronger toward conspecifics than toward heterospecifics. To our knowledge, this is the first time that bats were found to react to echolocation calls with a suite of social behaviours. Our data also provide the first evidence for acoustical differentiation of bats between familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics, and heterospecifics. Analysis of echolocation calls confirmed significant differences between the echolocation calls of individuals. We found a trend towards group signatures in echolocation calls of N. albiventris. Consequently, we suggest that echolocation calls used during orientation may also communicate species identity, group-affiliation and individual identity in the completely different context of social situations. Our study highlights the communicative potential of ubiquitous signals that have previously been categorized as cues in animal social systems. Hence, by improving our understanding of the multiple functions of such signals, we may gain further important insight into the evolution of communication in animals

A study of differential tax assessment in selected areas of Washington County, Oregon

Farm Use Assessment used as a planning tool to preserve farmland in Oregon has achieved mixed success. While some land enrolled in the program (especially near urban areas) has been converted to nonfarm use, the majority of land has not. However, this may be due to lack of '1opportunity profits" for landowners rather than to incentives designed into the program to prevent conversion. This paper examines the Farm Use Assessment. program in certain areas of Washington County, Oregon. Tax lot data for the time period since the program was enacted was analyzed for those changes in land use which occurred on land enrolled in the program. This research shows that although farmland owners found the tax benefits of the program advantageous in holding down farming cost, these same benefits were not great enough to affect the profits to be gained from conversion of land to non-farm uses

Terrestrial locomotion imposes high metabolic requirements on bats

The evolution of powered flight involved major morphological changes in Chiroptera. Nevertheless, all bats are also capable of crawling on the ground and some are even skilled sprinters. We asked if a highly derived morphology adapted for flapping flight imposes high metabolic requirements on bats when moving on the ground. We measured the metabolic rate during terrestrial locomotion in mastiff bats, Molossus currentium, a species that is both a fast-flying aerial-hawking bat and an agile crawler on the ground. Metabolic rates of bats averaged 8.0±4.0 ml CO2 min–1 during a 1-min period of sprinting at 1.3±0.6 km h–1. With rising average speed, mean metabolic rates increased, reaching peak values that were similar to those of flying conspecifics. Metabolic rates of M. currentium were higher than those of similar-sized rodents that sprinted at similar velocities under steady-state conditions. When M. currentium sprinted at peak velocities, its aerobic metabolic rate was 3–5 times higher than those of rodent species running continuously in steady-state conditions. Costs of transport (J kg–1 m–1) were more than 10 times higher for running than for flying bats. We conclude that at the same speed bats experience higher metabolic rates during short sprints than quadruped mammals during steady-state terrestrial locomotion, yet running bats achieve higher maximal mass-specific aerobic metabolic rates than non-volant mammals such as rodents

Rain increases the energy cost of bat flight

Similar to insects, birds and pterosaurs, bats have evolved powered flight. But in contrast to other flying taxa, only bats are furry. Here, we asked whether flight is impaired when bat pelage and wing membranes get wet. We studied the metabolism of short flights in Carollia sowelli, a bat that is exposed to heavy and frequent rainfall in neotropical rainforests. We expected bats to encounter higher thermoregulatory costs, or to suffer from lowered aerodynamic properties when pelage and wing membranes catch moisture. Therefore, we predicted that wet bats face higher flight costs than dry ones. We quantified the flight metabolism in three treatments: dry bats, wet bats and no rain, wet bats and rain. Dry bats showed metabolic rates predicted by allometry. However, flight metabolism increased twofold when bats were wet, or when they were additionally exposed to rain. We conclude that bats may not avoid rain only because of sensory constraints imposed by raindrops on echolocation, but also because of energetic constraints

Unravelling the Stability of Nightingale Song Over Time and Space Using Open, Citizen Science and Shared Data

Open science approaches enable and facilitate the investigation of many scientific questions in bioacoustics, such as studies on the temporal and spatial evolution of song, as in vocal dialects. In contrast to previous dialect studies, which mostly focused on songbird species with a small repertoire, here we studied the common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), a bird species with a complex and large repertoire. To study dialects on the population level in this species, we used recordings from four datasets: an open museum archive, a citizen science platform, a citizen science project, and shared recordings from academic researchers. We conducted the to date largest temporal and geographic dialect study of birdsong including recordings from 1930 to 2019 and from 13 European countries, with a geographical coverage of 2,652 km of linear distance. To examine temporal stability and spatial dialects, a catalog of 1,868 song types of common nightingales was created. Instead of dialects, we found a high degree of stability over time and space in both, the sub-categories of song and in the occurrence of song types. For example, the second most common song type in our datasets occurred over nine decades and across Europe. In our case study, open and citizen science data proved to be equivalent, and in some cases even better, than data shared by an academic research group. Based on our results, we conclude that the combination of diverse and open datasets was particularly useful to study the evolution of song in a bird species with a large repertoire.Peer Reviewe

Driving style recognition for intelligent vehicle control and advanced driver assistance: a survey

Driver driving style plays an important role in vehicle energy management as well as driving safety. Furthermore, it is key for advance driver assistance systems development, toward increasing levels of vehicle automation. This fact has motivated numerous research and development efforts on driving style identification and classification. This paper provides a survey on driving style characterization and recognition revising a variety of algorithms, with particular emphasis on machine learning approaches based on current and future trends. Applications of driving style recognition to intelligent vehicle controls are also briefly discussed, including experts' predictions of the future development

Nathusius’ bats, Pipistrellus nathusii, bypass mating opportunities of their own species, but respond to foraging heterospecifics on migratory transit flights

In late summer, migratory bats of the temperate zone face the challenge of accomplishing two energy-demanding tasks almost at the same time: migration and mating. Both require information and involve search efforts, such as localizing prey or finding potential mates. In non-migrating bat species, playback studies showed that listening to vocalizations of other bats, both con-and heterospecifics, may help a recipient bat to find foraging patches and mating sites. However, we are still unaware of the degree to which migrating bats depend on con-or heterospecific vocalizations for identifying potential feeding or mating opportunities during nightly transit flights. Here, we investigated the vocal responses of Nathusius’ pipistrelle bats, Pipistrellus nathusii, to simulated feeding and courtship aggregations at a coastal migration corridor. We presented migrating bats either feeding buzzes or courtship calls of their own or a heterospecific migratory species, the common noctule, Nyctalus noctula. We expected that during migratory transit flights, simulated feeding opportunities would be particularly attractive to bats, as well as simulated mating opportunities which may indicate suitable roosts for a stopover. However, we found that when compared to the natural silence of both pre-and post-playback phases, bats called indifferently during the playback of conspecific feeding sounds, whereas P. nathusii echolocation call activity increased during simulated feeding of N. noctula. In contrast, the call activity of P. nathusii decreased during the playback of conspecific courtship calls, while no response could be detected when heterospecific call types were broadcasted. Our results suggest that while on migratory transits, P. nathusii circumnavigate conspecific mating aggregations, possibly to save time or to reduce the risks associated with social interactions where aggression due to territoriality might be expected. This avoidance behavior could be a result of optimization strategies by P. nathusii when performing long-distance migratory flights, and it could also explain the lack of a response to simulated conspecific feeding. However, the observed increase of activity in response to simulated feeding of N. noctula, suggests that P. nathusii individuals may be eavesdropping on other aerial hawking insectivorous species during migration, especially if these occupy a slightly different foraging niche