Documenting marine species traits in the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS): current status, future plans and encountered challenges

The importance of describing species patterns and the underlying processes explaining these patterns is essential to assess the status and future evolution of marine ecosystems. This requires biological information on functional and structural species traits such as feeding ecology, body size, reproduction, life history, etc.To accommodate this need, the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) (WoRMS Editorial Board 2017) is expanding its content with trait information (Costello et al. 2015), subdivided into 3 main categories: (1) taxonomy related traits, e.g. paraphyletic groups, (2) biological and ecological traits-specific characteristics of a taxon, e.g. body size or feeding type and (3) human defined traits, e.g. the legal protection status of species, whether a species is introduced, harmful, or used as an ecological indicator.Initially, priority was given to the inclusion of traits that could be applied to the majority of marine taxa and where the information was easily available. The main driver for this approach was that the inclusion of these traits should result in new research, which in turn would drive improvements in the quality and quantity of trait information. Pilot projects were carried out for different species groups, allowing a thorough documentation of a selection of traits. In parallel, a standard vocabulary was put together (http://www.marinespecies.org/traits/wiki/), based on already existing resources to cover all marine life. All documented traits needed to be compliant with this vocabulary, in order to make the data as widely useable as possible, across groups. Defining a trait across all marine life is not trivial, as scientists can use terms in a different way between groups. This stresses the importance for users to realize these differences in terminology, before they analyse a trait across all taxa.Some traits were thought to be quite straightforward to document, although practice proved otherwise. Such a trait is body size, where the aim was to document the numerical value of the ‘maximum body size in length’. In reality, a lot of variation is possible (e.g. for fish: fork length versus standard length) and maximum size is not always considered relevant from an ecological point of view. On the other hand, documenting numerical body size for each marine species is quite time consuming. Therefore, a complementary size trait will be documented, indicating whether taxa are considered as micro, meio, macro or mega.Whereas the initial approach was to complete the register for each tackled trait relevant for all marine species, we now complement this by (1) documenting several traits within a specific group, regardless whether this trait is also present in other taxon groups, and (2) documenting one specific trait, covering a variety – but not all – taxonomic groups, e.g. the composition of the skeleton for calcareous animals.Where possible, we aim to document a trait on a higher taxonomic level to allow the work to progress more rapidly. As the database allows top-down inheritance of traits, exceptions can easily be documented. In addition, collaborations are sought with already running initiatives such as Encyclopedia of Life.Very soon, all the documented traits will be searchable through the Marine Species Traits Portal. The human-defined traits are already accessible through the EMODnet Biology Portal (http://www.emodnet-biology.eu/toolbox), in combination with distribution information from the European Ocean Biogeographic Information System (EurOBIS; www.eurobis.org; Vandepitte et al. 2011; Vandepitte et al. 2015) and taxonomy from WoRMS (www.marinespecies.org). Through the LifeWatch Taxonomic Backbone (LW-TaxBB) (http://www.lifewatch.be/data-services/), services are offered to access these traits, combined with data and information from other resources such as WoRMS and (Eur)OBIS.We would like to acknowledge the EMODnet Biology and the LifeWatch project, in which the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) – host institute of WoRMS – is responsible for the development of the LW-TaxBB. Both projects provide funding for the documentation of trait data and development of services allowing researchers to easily access the available data, in combination with data from other sources

Probing interactions in mesoscopic gold wires

We have measured in gold wires the energy exchange rate between quasiparticles, the phase coherence time of quasiparticles and the resistance vs. temperature, in order to probe the interaction processes which are relevant at low temperatures. We find that the energy exchange rate is higher than expected from the theory of electron-electron interactions, and that it has a different energy dependence. The dephasing time is constant at temperatures between 8 K and 0.5 K, and it increases below 0.5 K. The magnetoresistance is negative at large field scales, and the resistance decreases logarithmically with increasing temperatures, indicating the presence of magnetic impurities, probably Fe. Whereas resistivity and phase coherence measurements can be attributed to magnetic impurities, the question is raised whether these magnetic impurities could also mediate energy exchanges between quasiparticles.Comment: latex pothier.tex, 12 files, 15 pages in: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Size Dependent Magnetic Scattering, Pesc, Hungary, May 28 - June 1st, 2000 Chandrasekhar V., Van Haesendonck C. eds (Kluwer, 2001) [SPEC-S00/083

Risk factor for footpad dermatitis and hock burns in broiler chickens

Footpad dermatitis (FPD) and hock burn (HB) are a major welfare concern in broiler chicken farming. In general, foot lesions are linked to poor environmental conditions. Ulcers caused by advanced lesions can negatively affect the gait of the birds, with effects on the welfare of animals, including, in the worst cases, inability to reach the feed or water. FPD and HB score data were collected manually at two broiler farms across Europe, during welfare assessments performed within the EU-PLF (Precision Livestock Farming) project, which is supported by the European Commission. This ongoing project aims to create "added value" for the farmer through the application of sensors and information technology at farm level. On those broiler farms, a number of variables such as temperature, relative humidity, ventilation rate, bird weight, light schedule, and feed and water consumption rates are measured automatically. The welfare of the chickens was assessed three times per cycle (at week 3, 4 and 5), scoring FPD, HB, gait score, cleanliness of the birds and litter quality. Data analysis was performed by combining data from the welfare assessments with environmental data collected by the automatic monitoring systems. The analysis showed that FPD and HB were more frequent when the flock was exposed to poor environmental conditions for prolonged periods of time. As environmental conditions can be measured continuously, and the risk factor for FPD and HB increases with poor environmental conditions, there is potential to develop a detection and control system for foot and hock lesions.</p

Genomic consequences and selection efficacy in sympatric sexual versus asexual kelps

Genetic diversity can influence resilience and adaptative capacity of organisms to environmental change. Genetic diversity within populations is largely structured by reproduction, with the prevalence of asexual versus sexual reproduction often underpinning important diversity metrics that determine selection efficacy. Asexual or clonal reproduction is expected to reduce genotypic diversity and slow down adaptation through reduced selection efficacy, yet the evolutionary consequences of clonal reproduction remain unclear for many natural populations. Here, we examine the genomic consequences of sympatric sexual (haplodiplontic) and clonal morphs of the kelp Ecklonia radiata that occur interspersed on reefs in Hamelin Bay, Western Australia. Using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms, we confirm significant asexual reproduction for the clonal populations, indicated by a significantly lower number of multi-locus lineages and higher intra-individual diversity patterns (individual multi-locus heterozygosity, MLH). Nevertheless, co-ancestry analysis and breeding experiments confirmed that sexual reproduction by the clonal morph and interbreeding between the two morphs is still possible, but varies among populations. One clonal population with long-term asexuality showed trends of decreased selection efficacy (increased ratio non- vs. synonymous gene diversities). Yet, all clonal populations showed distinct patterns of putative local adaptation relative to the sexual morph, possibly indicating maladaptation to local environmental conditions and high vulnerability of this unique clonal morph to environmental stress