The impact of breeding Yellow-Legged Gulls on vegetation cover and plant composition of Grey Dune habitats

The establishment of large populations of yellow-legged gull Larus michahellis in coastal and urban areas can lead to strong changes in vegetation cover and composition through creating physical disturbance in the vegetation and impacting the soil quality through defecation. In this study, we evaluated the effects of breeding yellow-legged gull populations on tall and short vegetation cover and plant species composition in old (occupied for 13 years) and new (occupied for 3 years) colony sites in grey dunes of the Algarve, southern Portugal. In each site, sampling plots were used to measure the percentage of vegetation cover in areas with and without breeding gulls. In the old colony site, the cover by tall vegetation was substantially reduced and the cover by short vegetation substantially increased in the areas where gulls are breeding in comparison with the adjacent areas. In the new colony sites, there were only minor differences. The increase in cover of short vegetation in the breeding area of the old colony site was mostly by nitrophilous species (Paronychia argentea and Malcolmia littorea) and should be explained by the decrease in vegetation cover of tall plant species and by feces deposition. Tall and slow-growing species Suaeda maritima and Helichrysum italicum covers were negatively affected. Our results showed that yellow-legged gulls affected vegetation cover and composition of grey dunes after 3 years of consecutive breeding, and this should be considered in the management of these habitats where breeding yellow-legged gulls are increasing.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fatty acids composition in yellow-legged (Larus michahellis) and lesser black-backed (Larus fuscus) gulls from natural and urban habitats in relation to the ingestion of anthropogenic materials

Research Areas: Environmental Sciences & EcologyUrban habitats offer spatially and temporally predictable anthropogenic food sources for opportunistic species, such as several species of gulls that are known to exploit urban areas and take advantage of accessible and diverse food sources, reducing foraging time and energy expenditure. However, human-derived food may have a poorer nutritional quality than the typical natural food resources and foraging in urban habitats may increase birds' susceptibility of ingesting anthropogenic debris materials, with unknown physiological consequences for urban dwellers. Here we compare the fatty acids (FA) composition of two opportunistic gull species (the yellow-legged gull, Larus michahellis, and the lesser black-backed gull, Larus fuscus) from areas with different levels of urbanization, to assess differences in birds' diet quality among foraging habitats, and we investigate the effects of ingesting anthropogenic materials, a toxicological stressor, on gulls' FA composition. Using GC–MS, 23 FAs were identified in the adipose tissue of both gull species. Significant differences in gulls' FA composition were detected among the three urbanization levels, mainly due to physiologically important highly unsaturated FAs that had lower percentages in gulls from the most urbanized habitats, consistent with a diet based on anthropogenic food resources. The deficiency in omega (ω)-3 FAs and the higher ω-6:ω-3 FAs ratio in gulls from the most urbanized location may indicate a dietinduced susceptibility to inflammation. No significant differences in overall FA composition were detected between gull species.While we were unable to detect any effect of ingested anthropogenic materials on gulls' FA composition, these data constitute a valuable contribution to the limited FA literature in gulls.We encourage studies to explore the long-term physiological effects of the lower nutritional quality diet for urban dwellers, and to detect the sub-lethal impacts of the ingestion of anthropogenic materialsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Methodology for phytoplankton taxonomic group identification towards the development of a lab-on-a-chip

This paper presents the absorbance and fluorescence optical properties of various phytoplankton species, looking to achieve an accurate method to detect and identify a number of phytoplankton taxonomic groups. The methodology to select the excitation and detection wavelengths that results in superior identification of phytoplankton is reported. The macroscopic analyses and the implemented methodology are the base for designing a lab-on-a-chip device for a phytoplankton group identification, based on cell analysis with multi-wavelength lighting excitation, aiming for a cheap and portable platform. With such methodology in a lab-on-a-chip device, the analysis of the phytoplankton cells’ optical properties, e.g., fluorescence, diffraction, absorption and reflection, will be possible. This device will offer, in the future, a platform for continuous, autonomous and in situ underwater measurements, in opposition to the conventional methodology. A proof-of-concept device with LED light excitation at 450 nm and a detection photodiode at 680 nm was fabricated. This device was able to quantify the concentration of the phytoplankton chlorophyll a. A lock-in amplifier electronic circuit was developed and integrated in a portable and low-cost sensor, featuring continuous, autonomous and in situ underwater measurements. This device has a detection limit of 0.01 µ/L of chlorophyll a, in a range up to 300 µg/L, with a linear voltage output with chlorophyll concentration.European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg VA Spain-Portugal (POCTEP) 2014–2020 Program under grant agreement 0591_FOODSENS_1_E, under the national support to R&D units grant, through the reference project UIDB/04436/2020 and UIDP/04436/2020, and by project NORTE-08-5369-FSE-000039 co-founded by the European Social Fund FSE and through National funds NORTE 2020 and Regional Operacional Programa of North 2014/2020. The University of Vigo work was funded by a Xunta de Galicia grant to the Biological Oceanography Research Group (Consolidación e estruturación de unidades). This output reflects only the views of the authors, and the program authorities cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therei

Microwave hydrodiffusion and gravity: an emergent technology for green extraction of non-volatile compounds

Microwave technologies are more and more present in food applications due to their performance in shortening the time of treatments such as drying, pasteurization, defrosting, or postharvesting. While solvent-free microwave extraction has been extensively used as a green procedure for essential oil and volatile compounds from aromatic herbs [1], its applications have been extended to enhance extraction of phytocompounds simultaneously with drying. In this work, microwave hydrodiffusion and gravity was performed in a laboratory microwave oven (NEOS-GR, Milestone, Italy), in order to evaluate its efficiency in the extraction of nonvolatile compounds such as: free sugars, f1bers, colour, and phenolic compounds. Five different matrices were tested: broccoli by-products (90% moisture), apple pomace (80% moisture), spent coffee grounds (65% moisture), Pterospartum tridentatum inflorescences, and brown algae, the latter two in dried state. The flow behaviour was very dependent on matrix (Figure 1): for broccoli, the time to obtain 50 ml aliquots increased along time while for apple pomace it was always the same after the initial and final heating periods, and for the spent coffee grounds it was always decreasing. Good recoveries were observed when using high water content matrices, such as apple pomace and broccoli. However, when using hydrated matrices, such as brown algae and Pterospartum tridentatum inflorescences, it was observed that the amount of material extracted is very low. In the case of spent coffee qrounds (a material where water is added to the ground coffee when preparing espresso coffee), the initial low recoveries can be overcome by the eo-addition of ethanol, allowing to obtain fractions rich in phenolic compounds, as well as brown compounds (with antioxidant activity) and caffeine. NEOS-GR, using microwave hydrodiffusion and gravity is a green extraction technology obtain hydrophilic compounds from wet matrices using its own water, allowing the extraction of valuable non-volatile compounds.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Defining positioning in a core ontology for robotics

Unambiguous definition of spatial position and orientation has crucial importance for robotics. In this paper we propose an ontology about positioning. It is part of a more extensive core ontology being developed by the IEEE RAS Working Group on ontologies for robotics and automation. The core ontology should provide a common ground for further ontology development in the field. We give a brief overview of concepts in the core ontology and then describe an integrated approach for representing quantitative and qualitative position information.3-7 November 201

Microwave hydrodiffusion and gravity: an emergent technology for green extraction of non-volatile compounds

Microwave technologies are more and more present in food applications due to their performance in shortening the time of treatments such as drying, pasteurization, defrosting, or post-harvesting [1]. While solvent-free microwave extraction has been extensively used as a green procedure for essential oil and volatile compounds from aromatic herbs [2], its applications have been extended to enhance extraction of phytocompounds simultaneously with drying. In microwave drying, operational cost is lower because energy is not consumed in heating the walls of the apparatus or the environment [3].info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio