Associations between social isolation, pro-social behaviour and emotional development in preschool aged children:a population based survey of kindergarten staff

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The role of non-foraging nests in polydomous wood ant colonies

A colony of red wood ants can inhabit more than one spatially separated nest, in a strategy called polydomy. Some nests within these polydomous colonies have no foraging trails to aphid colonies in the canopy. In this study we identify and investigate the possible roles of non-foraging nests in polydomous colonies of the wood ant Formica lugubris. To investigate the role of non-foraging nests we: (i) monitored colonies for three years; (ii) observed the resources being transported between non-foraging nests and the rest of the colony; (iii) measured the amount of extra-nest activity around non-foraging and foraging nests. We used these datasets to investigate the extent to which non-foraging nests within polydomous colonies are acting as: part of the colony expansion process; hunting and scavenging specialists; brood-development specialists; seasonal foragers; or a selfish strategy exploiting the foraging effort of the rest of the colony. We found that, rather than having a specialised role, non-foraging nests are part of the process of colony expansion. Polydomous colonies expand by founding new nests in the area surrounding the existing nests. Nests founded near food begin foraging and become part of the colony; other nests are not founded near food sources and do not initially forage. Some of these non-foraging nests eventually begin foraging; others do not and are abandoned. This is a method of colony growth not available to colonies inhabiting a single nest, and may be an important advantage of the polydomous nesting strategy, allowing the colony to expand into profitable areas

TeenCovidLife: a resource to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents in Scotland

TeenCovidLife is part of Generation Scotland’s CovidLife projects, a set of longitudinal observational studies designed to assess the psychosocial and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. TeenCovidLife focused on how adolescents in Scotland were coping during the pandemic. As of September 2021, Generation Scotland had conducted three TeenCovidLife surveys. Participants from previous surveys were invited to participate in the next, meaning the age ranges shifted over time. TeenCovidLife Survey 1 consists of data from 5,543 young people age 12 to 17, collected from 22 May to 5 July 2020, during the first school closures period in Scotland. TeenCovidLife Survey 2 consists of data from 2,245 young people aged 12 to 18, collected from 18 August to 14 October 2020, when the initial lockdown measures were beginning to ease, and schools reopened in Scotland. TeenCovidLife Survey 3 consists of data from 597 young people age 12 to 19, collected from 12 May to 27 June 2021, a year after the first survey, after the schools returned following the second lockdown in 2021. A total of 316 participants took part in all three surveys. TeenCovidLife collected data on general health and well-being, as well as topics specific to COVID-19, such as adherence to COVID-19 health guidance, feelings about school closures, and the impact of exam cancellations. Limited work has examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people. TeenCovidLife provides relevant and timely data to assess the impact of the pandemic on young people in Scotland. The dataset is available under authorised access from Generation Scotland; see the Generation Scotland website for more information

Dispersal for survival: some observations on the trunk ant (Formica truncorum Fabricius)

The survival chance of the trunk ant (Formica truncorum) is compared with the survival chance of two other species of red wood ants: F.rufa and F.polyctena. Nest populations of F.truncorum are much smaller than nest populations of the other red wood ant species, which makes the species a weaker competitor. Moreover, F.truncorum has to move more often, as its nests are small and untidily built, which makes the species more dependent on external heat for raising its brood. In order to survive, the greater extinction chance of F.truncorum should be compensated by a greater colonization chance. The colonization chance depends on the number of queens produced, their chance of becoming fertilized and their chance of becoming adopted by F.fusca. It appeared that nest populations of F. truncorum produced less sexuals than those of the other red wood ant species, while there are no good arguments to assume that their queens will have a greater chance of becoming fertilized or that the queens are more skillful in finding a suitable nesting place. It is argued that local populations of the trunk ant are more prone to extinction than those of F.polyctena and F.rufa, at least in the sandy areas of west and central Europe, where most F.truncorum colonies are monodomous and largely also monogynous. So F.truncorum queens should have a greater chance to become adopted by F. fusca than F. rufa and F.polyctena. Adoption experiments can solve this problem

Can the black bog ant (Formica picea Nyl.) survive in the Bieszczady National Park (SE Poland)

In the peat bogs of the Bieszczady National Park an inventory of the Black bog ant (Formica picea Nyl.) was made in order to get an impression of the probability of its survival in SE Poland. Three habitat networks are distinguished, which are situated too far from each other for (re)colonization by means of flying queens. The largest network includes five peat bogs. In two of them F. picea was found. The species was not found in peat bogs which belong to the other habitat networks. The quality of the peat bogs depends on management strategies, currently challenged by two main threats: desiccation and the influx of nutrients. This process will speed up the succession of the vegetation. As a result dwarf shrubs are encroaching on habitat areas of F. picea, where Sphagnum species are still dominating in the moss laye

Evaluating the Impact of the 'Big Eat In'

No abstract available