17 research outputs found
Thermal Fluctuations Yield Sex-Specific Differences of Ingestion Rates of the Littoral Mysid Neomysis integer
Shallow aquatic environments are characterized by strong environmental variability. For ectotherms, temperature is the main driver of metabolic activity, thus also shaping performance. Ingestion rates in mysids are fast responses, influenced by metabolic and behavioral activity. We examined ingestion rates of the mysid Neomysis integer, collected in the Baltic Sea, after one-week exposure to different constant and fluctuating temperature regimes (5, 10, 15, 20°C and 9 ± 5, 14 ± 5°C, respectively). To investigate possible differences between sexes, thermal performance curves (TPCs) were established for female and male mysids based on ingestion rates measured at constant temperatures. TPCs of ingestion rates at constant temperatures differed between sexes, with female mysids showing a higher total ingestion rate as well as a higher thermal optimum compared to male mysids. Females showed reduced ingestion rates when exposed to fluctuating temperatures around their thermal optimum, whereas ingestion of male mysids was not reduced when exposed to fluctuating temperatures. The observed sex-specific differences might be related to potentially higher lipid and energy demands of the females. We suggest future studies should investigate males and females to improve our understanding about impacts of environmental variability on natural populations
Development as a form of religious engineering? Religion and secularity in development discourse
The burgeoning literature on religion and development tends to
frame development as a project of post-WWII secular modernism
and hence postulates a new ‘discovery of religions’ in
development discourse. This perception is based on a two-fold
forgetfulness of history. On the one hand, the colonial genealogy
of development in the ‘civilising mission’ came with a decisive
Christian input. On the other hand, the notion of secular
modernism conceals the conceptual interconnectedness of
religion and secularity in Western debates from the neoclassical
secularization theories to the recent ‘return of God’ narratives.
Drawing out the contours of a long history of international
development, the article argues that scholarship needs to move
beyond simple diagnoses of the presence or absence of religion
in development discourse, but highlight how the ideology of
development has tended to follow narratives about progress and
values that are closely connected to discourses about global
religion and secularity