Herbivore teeth predict climatic limits in Kenyan ecosystems

A major focus in evolutionary biology is to understand how the evolution of organisms relates to changes in their physical environment. In the terrestrial realm, the interrelationships among climate, vegetation, and herbivores lie at the heart of this question. Here we introduce and test a scoring scheme for functional traits present on the worn surfaces of large mammalian herbivore teeth to capture their relationship to environmental conditions. We modeled local precipitation, temperature, primary productivity, and vegetation index as functions of dental traits of large mammal species in 13 national parks in Kenya over the past 60 y. We found that these dental traits can accurately estimate local climate and environment, even at small spatial scales within areas of relatively uniform climate (within two ecoregions), and that they predict limiting conditions better than average conditions. These findings demonstrate that the evolution of key functional properties of organisms may be more reflective of demands during recurring adverse episodes than under average conditions or during isolated severe events.Peer reviewe

Infokommunikációs technológia az óvodában, az óvodáskorúak otthonában és az óvodapedagógusképzésben : áttekintés az elmúlt évtized eredményeiről

Az óvodába lépve a gyerekek jelentős része már használja az infokommunikációs technológiákat. Az óvodapedagógus-képző intézményeknek fel kell készülniük arra, hogy a módszertani repertoárjukban digitális eszközöket alkalmazó szakembereket képezzenek. Az óvodapedagógusoknak késznek kell lenniük arra, hogy pedagógiai munkájukba beépítsék az IKT-eszközöket, s a szülőkkel együttműködve segítsék a gyermekek fejlődését, médiahasználatát. A tanulmány a digitális pedagógia főbb, a pedagógusképzésben megjelenő irányait mutatja be, illetve azokat a Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar Alkalmazott Pedagógiai Intézetéhez kapcsolódó kutatásokat, amelyek az IKT-eszközök kisgyermekkori és óvodai használatának jellemzőit írják le

Infokommunikációs technológia az óvodában, az óvodáskorúak otthonában és az óvodapedagógus-képzésben: áttekintés az elmúlt évtized eredményeiről.

Az óvodába lépve a gyerekek jelentős része már használja az infokommunikációs technológiákat. Az óvodapedagógus-képző intézményeknek fel kell készülniük arra, hogy a módszertani repertoárjukban digitális eszközöket alkalmazó szakembereket képezzenek. Az óvodapedagógusoknak késznek kell lenniük arra, hogy pedagógiai munkájukba beépítsék az IKT-eszközöket, s a szülőkkel együttműködve segítsék a gyermekek fejlődését, médiahasználatát. A tanulmány a digitális pedagógia főbb, a pedagógusképzésben megjelenő irányait mutatja be, illetve azokat a Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar Alkalmazott Pedagógiai Intézetéhez kapcsolódó kutatásokat, amelyek az IKT-eszközök kisgyermekkori és óvodai használatának jellemzőit írják le

Infokommunikációs technológia az óvodában, az óvodáskorúak otthonában és az óvodapedagógusképzésben: áttekintés az elmúlt évtized eredményeiről

By entering kindergarten, a significant proportion of children already use information communication technologies. Kindergarten teacher education institutions need to be prepared to teach professionals how to use digital devices in their methodological repertoire. Kindergarten teachers must be ready to incorporate ICT into their pedagogical work and, in cooperation with parents, to help children develop and use media. The study presents the main directions of digital pedagogy in teacher education, as well as the research conducted under the aegis of SZTE SZG JGYPK, which explores the characteristics of ICT use in early childhood and kindergarten.Az óvodába lépve a gyerekek jelentős része már használja az infokommunikációs technológiákat. Az óvodapedagógus-képző intézményeknek fel kell készülniük arra, hogy a módszertani repertoárjukban digitális eszközöket alkalmazó szakembereket képezzenek. Az óvodapedagógusoknak késznek kell lenniük arra, hogy pedagógiai munkájukba beépítsék az IKT-eszközöket, s a szülőkkel együttműködve segítsék a gyermekek fejlődését, médiahasználatát. A tanulmány a digitális pedagógia főbb, a pedagógusképzésben megjelenő irányait mutatja be, illetve azokat a Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar Alkalmazott Pedagógiai Intézetéhez kapcsolódó kutatásokat, amelyek az IKT-eszközök kisgyermekkori és óvodai használatának jellemzőit írják le

Matrix effect in the hydroxyl radical induced degradation of ß-lactam and tetracycline type antibiotics

Due to the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria, elimination of antibiotics from purified wastewater is a highly important task. Purified wastewater contains large variety of organic/inorganic compounds that strongly influence the efficiency of advanced oxidation processes (AOP). In this work, we investigate the radiation-induced degradation of selected antibiotic contaminants (oxacillin and cloxacillin from the beta-lactams; tetracycline and chlortetracycline from the tetracyclines) in four matrices: pure water, tap water, synthetic wastewater and purified wastewater received from a wastewater treatment plant. Changes in technically important parameters, such as COD, TOC, BOD, OUR, acute toxicity and antibacterial activity, were investigated at 0.1 mmol dm(-3) (40-48 mg dm(-3)) antibiotic concentration. None of the four antibiotics were biodegradable in any of the four matrices, however, after irradiation with relatively low doses the obtained products were biodegradable. Oxacillin and cloxacillin were not toxic in Vibrio fischeri test, while tetracycline and chlortetracycline showed toxicity that was strongly reduced by the irradiation treatment. Both COD and TOC decreased after irradiation, their ratio shifted towards TOC indicating an increase in the average oxidation state (AOS). The increase in AOS was lower in purified wastewater matrices: this matrix may contain various small, highly oxidized molecules in high concentration, which degrade very slowly in AOP. The antibacterial activity in most of matrices was greatly reduced or completely disappeared at around 2-4 kGy. However, in purified wastewater matrices some antibiotic activity remained even at 4 kGy. Here the degradation of antibiotic is slow (small delta COD/dose value) because a large fraction of the reactive radicals is scavenged presumably by small, highly oxidized molecules in the solution. Although the water radiolysis product H2O2 affected some of the bioassays, this phenomenon was absent in purified wastewater. The purified wastewater after ionizing radiation treatment can be safely released into the receiving lakes or rivers

Investigating Biotic Interactions in Deep Time

Recent renewed interest in using fossil data to understand how biotic interactions have shaped the evolution of life is challenging the widely held assumption that long-term climate changes are the primary drivers of biodiversity change. New approaches go beyond traditional richness and co-occurrence studies to explicitly model biotic interactions using data on fossil and modern biodiversity. Important developments in three primary areas of research include analysis of (i) macroevolutionary rates, (ii) the impacts of and recovery from extinction events, and (iii) how humans (Homo sapiens) affected interactions among non-human species. We present multiple lines of evidence for an important and measurable role of biotic interactions in shaping the evolution of communities and lineages on long timescales.Peer reviewe

Reorganization of surviving mammal communities after the end-Pleistocene megafaunal extinction

Large mammals are at high risk of extinction globally. To understand the consequences of their demise for community assembly, we tracked community structure through the end- Pleistocene megafaunal extinction in North America.We decomposed the effects of biotic and abiotic factors by analyzing co-occurrence within the mutual ranges of species pairs. Although shifting climate drove an increase in niche overlap, co-occurrence decreased, signaling shifts in biotic interactions. Furthermore, the effect of abiotic factors on cooccurrence remained constant over time while the effect of biotic factors decreased. Biotic factors apparently played a key role in continental-scale community assembly before the extinctions. Specifically, large mammals likely promoted co-occurrence in the Pleistocene, and their loss contributed to the modern assembly pattern in which co-occurrence frequently falls below random expectations. Includes supplementary materials

A Century of Change in Kenya's Mammal Communities: Increased Richness and Decreased Uniqueness in Six Protected Areas

<div><p>The potential for large-scale biodiversity losses as a result of climate change and human impact presents major challenges for ecology and conservation science. Governments around the world have established national parks and wildlife reserves to help protect biodiversity, but there are few studies on the long-term consequences of this strategy. We use Kenya as a case study to investigate species richness and other attributes of mammal communities in 6 protected areas over the past century. Museum records from African expeditions that comprehensively sampled mammals from these same areas in the early 1900's provide a baseline for evaluating changes in species richness and community structure over time. We compare species lists assembled from archived specimens (1896–1950) to those of corresponding modern protected areas (1950–2013). Species richness in Kenya was stable or increased at 5 out of 6 sites from historical to modern times. Beta-diversity, in contrast, decreased across all sites. Potential biases such as variable historical vs. modern collection effort and detection of small-bodied, rare, and low-visibility species do not account for the observed results. We attribute the pattern of decreased beta diversity primarily to increased site occupancy by common species across all body size classes. Despite a decrease in land area available to wildlife, our data do not show the extinctions predicted by species-area relationships. Moreover, the results indicate that species-area curves based solely on protected areas could underestimate diversity because they do not account for mammal species whose ranges extend beyond protected area boundaries. We conclude that the 6 protected areas have been effective in preserving species richness in spite of continuing conversion of wild grasslands to cropland, but the overall decrease in beta diversity indicates a decline in the uniqueness of mammal communities that historically characterized Kenya's varied landscape.</p></div

Study area.

<p>Map of modern sites with estimated areas of historical sampling superimposed (see Appendix C 2.1 in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0093092#pone.0093092.s010" target="_blank">File S2</a> for more information). GIS data from WRI <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0093092#pone.0093092-World1" target="_blank">[41]</a>.</p