Comparative analysis of the anthelmintic efficacy of European heather extracts on Teladorsagia circumcincta and Trichostrongylus colubriformis egg hatching and larval motility

Abstract Background Gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) control is traditionally achieved with the use of anthelmintic drugs, however due to regulations in organic farming and the rise in anthelmintic resistance, alternatives are sought after. A promising alternative is the use of bioactive plant feeding due to the presence of plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) such as proanthocyanidins (PAs). This study focussed on the perennial shrub heather (Ericaceae family), a plant rich in PAs, highly abundant across Europe and with previously demonstrated anthelmintic potential. Methods In vitro assays were used to investigate heather’s anthelmintic efficacy against egg hatching and larval motility. Heather samples were collected from five European countries across two seasons, and extracts were tested against two GIN species: Teladorsagia circumcincta and Trichostrongylus colubriformis. Polyphenol group-specific ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis was performed to identify relevant polyphenol subgroups present, including the PA concentration and size and ratio of the subunits. Partial least squares analysis was performed to associate efficacy with variation in PSM composition. Results Heather extracts reduced egg hatching of both GIN species in a dose-dependent manner by up to 100%, while three extracts at the highest concentration (10 mg/ml) reduced larval motility to levels that were not significantly different from dead larvae controls. PAs, particularly the procyanidin type, and flavonol derivatives were associated with anthelmintic activity, and the particular subgroup of polyphenols associated with the efficacy was dependent on the GIN species and life stage. Conclusions Our results provide in vitro evidence that heather, a widely available plant often managed as a weed in grazing systems, has anthelmintic properties attributed to various groups of PSMs and could contribute to sustainable GIN control in ruminant production systems across Europe. Graphical Abstrac

Evaluating the terrestrial carbon dioxide removal potential of improved forest management and accelerated forest conversion in Norway

As a carbon dioxide removal measure, the Norwegian government is currently considering a policy of large-scale planting of spruce (Picea abies (L) H. Karst) on lands in various states of natural transition to a forest dominated by deciduous broadleaved tree species. Given the aspiration to bring emissions on balance with removals in the latter half of the 21st century in effort to limit the global mean temperature rise to “well below” 2°C, the effectiveness of such a policy is unclear given relatively low spruce growth rates in the region. Further convoluting the picture is the magnitude and relevance of surface albedo changes linked to such projects, which typically counteract the benefits of an enhanced forest CO2 sink in high-latitude regions. Here, we carry out a rigorous empirically based assessment of the terrestrial carbon dioxide removal (tCDR) potential of large-scale spruce planting in Norway, taking into account transient developments in both terrestrial carbon sinks and surface albedo over the 21st century and beyond. We find that surface albedo changes would likely play a negligible role in counteracting tCDR, yet given low forest growth rates in the region, notable tCDR benefits from such projects would not be realized until the second half of the 21st century, with maximum benefits occurring even later around 2150. We estimate Norway's total accumulated tCDR potential at 2100 and 2150 (including surface albedo changes) to be 447 (±240) and 852 (±295) Mt CO2-eq. at mean net present values of US$12 (±3) and US$ 13 (±2) per ton CDR, respectively. For perspective, the accumulated tCDR potential at 2100 represents around 8 years of Norway's total current annual production-based (i.e., territorial) CO2-eq. emissions.publishedVersio

Data for: Parasitoids indicate major climate-induced shifts in Arctic communities

Climatic impacts are especially pronounced in the Arctic, which as a region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe. Here, we investigate how mean climatic conditions and rates of climatic change impact parasitoid insect communities in 16 localities across the Arctic. We focus on parasitoids in a wide-spread habitat, Dryas heathlands, and describe parasitoid community composition in terms of larval host use (i.e. parasitoid use of herbivorous Lepidoptera versus pollinating Diptera) and functional groups (i.e. parasitoids adhering to an idiobiont versus koinobiont lifestyle). Of the latter, we expect idiobionts to be generally associated with poorer tolerance to cold temperatures. To further test our findings, we assess whether similar climatic variables are associated with host abundances in a 22-year time series from Northeast Greenland. We find that sites which have experienced a temperature rise in summer while retaining cold winters to be dominated by parasitoids of Lepidoptera, with the pattern reversed among the parasitoids of Diptera. The rate of summer temperature rise is further associated with higher levels of herbivory, suggesting higher availability of lepidopteran hosts and changes in ecosystem functioning. We also detect a matching signal over time, as higher summer temperatures, coupled with cold early winter soils, are related to high herbivory by lepidopteran larvae, and to declines in the abundance of dipteran pollinators. Collectively, our results suggest that in parts of the warming Arctic, Dryas is being simultaneously exposed to increased herbivory and reduced pollination. Our findings point to potential drastic and rapid consequences of climate change on multitrophic-level community structure and on ecosystem functioning and highlight the value of collaborative systematic sampling effort.,1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: This dataset comprises of parasitoids caught in 2016 at 19 Arctic and Sub-Arctic localities during two consecutive six-day-long trapping periods aimed to take place during the flowering peak of the mountain avens (Dryas spp.). Each location had three to four trapping sites (A-D) in Dryas heath type habitats, each with ten 5cm by 4.5cm white sticky traps cut out from sticky board (Barrettine Environmental, UK [product no longer available]). Sticky traps were embedded in growths of Dryas spp. The parasitoids were subsequently picked of off the sticky traps, their whole DNA was extracted and half of their Cytochrome Oxidase I barcode region was amplified using Primers B-F and HCO. The processing of samples was done in three parts (Data1, Data2, Data2) with slightly different methodology. See the supplementary information of the recommended publication for more details. Datasets were sequenced at the Helsinki Functional Genomics Unit (FuGU) in two separate MiSeq v3 2x300bp runs (Data1 and Data2). Additionally, a set of samples from a specific site (Zackenberg) were sequenced as part of larger set at the FIMM Technology Centre in a HiSeq2500 2x250bp run (Data3). Additionally, Dryas flower count, flowering phenology and flower damage by insect herbivores was recorded at the start, after a week (day 6) and in the end (day 12). These counts were done in 3 to 5 1/4 square meter monitoring plots per trapping site. Microclimate was recorded at one trapping site per locality using Lascar EL-USB-2 tempeerature and air humidity loggers under a small white plastic dome at ~ 10 cm height. 2. Methods for processing the data: Initially, paired-end reads were merged and trimmed for quality using 32-bit usearch version 11 (Edgar 2010) with the command ‘fastq_mergepairs’. Primers were removed using software cutadapt version 1.14 (Martin 2011) with 15% mismatch rate. The reads were then collapsed into unique sequences (singletons removed) with command ‘fastx_uniques’. The subsequent clustering steps differed slightly for different data sets, due to the origin of the data (MiSeq vs. HiSeq2500), as follows. For Data1 and Data2, the newly-collapsed unique sequences were cleaned of chimeras using command ‘uchime_denovo’ and clustered into 96% OTUs (OTU = Operational Taxonomical Unit) using command ‘cluster_size’ using USEARCH. The choice of 96% clustering threshold was based on empirical optimization, considering both the rapid genetic divergence in CO1, as well as potential sequencing errors. For Data3, the unique sequences were denoised (i.e., chimeras were removed) and reads were clustered into ZOTUs (= ‘zero-radius OTU’) with command ‘unoise3’ using USEARCH version 11. These ZOTUs do not practically differ from traditional clustering of OTUs (which are based on pre-set percentage threshold), but according to Edgar and Flyvbjerg (2015), the UNOISE algorithm performs better for certain heterogenous data sets in (i) removing chimeras, (ii) PhiX sequences and (iii) Illumina artefacts. Then OTUs and ZOTUs were mapped back to the original trimmed reads with command ‘usearch_global’ (‘search_exact’ for Data3) to establish the total number of reads in each sample using 64-bit software vsearch (Rognes et al. 2016). Overall, we were able to map 25,673,920 reads (Data1: 4,261,291; Data2: 12,095,141; Data3: 9,317,488) to our original samples. These reads were subject to further filtering: from each sample, each OTU/ZOTU with less reads than 2% of the total reads in that sample were discarded, which also cleared most of the extraction and PCR negative controls. Finally, samples producing less than 37 reads (a threshold chosen by analysing the data as a whole) were removed from the subsequent analysis. The taxonomic assignations were initially done independently for each dataset (using identical criteria), but the final assignations were carried out using the whole, combined (Data1+Data2+Data3) dataset. The OTUs/ZOTUs were initially identified into genus-level using the RDP classifier with a very recently constructed COI-RDP database v3.2 (with 60% probability threshold for genus-level assignation) following Porter and Hajibabaei (2018). In cases where the database was clearly insufficient to reach a genus-level assignation, we used local BLAST against all the retrieved COI sequences in BOLD (Altschul et al. 1990; Ratnasingham and Hebert 2007) and chose the most probable match. Taxonomic information for remaining hits was retrieved manually from BOLD using BIN code (from earlier steps) or the actual OTU/ZOTU sequence. Finally, identifications were checked against our preliminary identification notes taken at the beginning of DNA extraction, and potentially false assignations (due to for example contamination in certain steps, or clear errors in the database) were either removed or assigned to the likely correct out/ZOTU. As the end result of all the bioinformatic steps, we arrived at a list of 460 parasitoid taxa (listed in OTU_info.csv Those dataset specific OTUs which were collapsed to one in the merging of the datasets are also listed in this file).,The included README_PanArcticParasitods.txt file contains detailed metadata on all included variables. There are some missing data e.g.: In the in situ microclimate measurements misising values are denoted with, NA In the parasitoid data, samples which failed to to produce parasitoid reads are marked with NA. In the Dryas data, two localities have their data data missing, and are not included in this table, where as one site Kobbejford had no Dryas and has counts of Loiseleuria procumbens as a phenological indicator in stead. This is marked in the datapoint notes. Concerning OTUs: Our OTUs are based on only a half of the CO1 barcode region and we used a quite wide clustering treshold of 96%. Also the clustering was done globally on a dataset containing closely related species from different continents. While this works well for the intended purpose of looking at functional group dominance at site level, the taxonomic resolution is inadequate for applications requiring true species level information. In such occasiton we encourage contacting the corresponding author. The DNA extracts are stored at the Department of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Helsinki, Finland.

Climate Warming as a Possible Trigger of Keystone Mussel Population Decline in Oligotrophic Rivers at the Continental Scale

The effects of climate change on oligotrophic rivers and their communities are almost unknown, albeit these ecosystems are the primary habitat of the critically endangered freshwater pearl mussel and its host fishes, salmonids. The distribution and abundance of pearl mussels have drastically decreased throughout Europe over the last century, particularly within the southern part of the range, but causes of this wide-scale extinction process are unclear. Here we estimate the effects of climate change on pearl mussels based on historical and recent samples from 50 rivers and 6 countries across Europe. We found that the shell convexity may be considered an indicator of the thermal effects on pearl mussel populations under warming climate because it reflects shifts in summer temperatures and is significantly different in viable and declining populations. Spatial and temporal modeling of the relationship between shell convexity and population status show that global climate change could have accelerated the population decline of pearl mussels over the last 100 years through rapidly decreasing suitable distribution areas. Simulation predicts future warming-induced range reduction, particularly in southern regions. These results highlight the importance of large-scale studies of keystone species, which can underscore the hidden effects of climate warming on freshwater ecosystems.© The Author(s) 201

Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns (code)

COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020 reduced human mobility, providing an opportunity to disentangle its effects on animals from those of landscape modifications. Using GPS data, we compared movements and road avoidance of 2300 terrestrial mammals (43 species) during the lockdowns to the same period in 2019. Individual responses were variable, with no change in average movements or road avoidance behavior, likely due to variable lockdown conditions. However, under strict lockdowns, 10-day 95th percentile displacements increased by 73%, suggesting increased landscape permeability. Animals' 1-hour 95th percentile displacements declined by 12%, and animals were 36% closer to roads in areas of high human footprint, indicating reduced avoidance during lockdowns. Overall, lockdowns rapidly altered some spatial behaviors, highlighting variable but substantial impacts of human mobility on wildlife worldwide

Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns

COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020 reduced human mobility, providing an opportunity to disentangle its effects on animals from those of landscape modifications. Using GPS data, we compared movements and road avoidance of 2300 terrestrial mammals (43 species) during the lockdowns to the same period in 2019. Individual responses were variable, with no change in average movements or road avoidance behavior, likely due to variable lockdown conditions. However, under strict lockdowns, 10-day 95th percentile displacements increased by 73%, suggesting increased landscape permeability. Animals' 1-hour 95th percentile displacements declined by 12%, and animals were 36% closer to roads in areas of high human footprint, indicating reduced avoidance during lockdowns. Overall, lockdowns rapidly altered some spatial behaviors, highlighting variable but substantial impacts of human mobility on wildlife worldwide