How many is enough? Determining optimal count totals for ecological and palaeoecological studies of testate amoebae

Testate amoebae are increasingly used in ecological and palaeoecological studies of wetlands. To characterise the amoeba community a certain number of individuals need to be counted under the microscope. To date, most studies have aimed for 150 individuals, but that sample size is not based on adequate evidence. When testate amoeba concentrations are low, it can be difficult or impossible to reach this total. The impacts of lower count totals have never been seriously scrutinised. We investigated the impact of count size on number of taxa identified, quantitative inferences of environmental variables and the strength of the links between amoebae and environmental data in the context of predicting depth to water table. Low counts were simulated by random selection of individuals from four existing datasets. Results show progressively diminishing returns by all criteria as count size increases from low numbers to counts of 150. A higher count is required to identify all taxa than to adequately characterise the community for transfer function inference. We suggest that in most cases, it will be a more efficient use of time to count a greater number of samples to a lower count. While a count of 50 individuals may be sufficient for some samples from some sites we recommend that counts of 100 individuals should be sufficient for most samples. Counts need only be increased to 150 or more where the aim is to identify relatively minor, but still potentially ecologically relevant community changes. This approach will help reduce lack of replication and low resolution, which are common limitations in testate amoeba-based palaeoecological and ecological studies

Widespread drying of European peatlands in recent centuries

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Research via the DOI in this record Climate warming and human impacts are thought to be causing peatlands to dry,potentially converting them from sinks to sources of carbon. However, it is unclear whether the hydrological status of peatlands has moved beyond their natural envelope. Here we show that European peatlands have undergone substantial, widespread drying during the last ~300 years. We analyse testate amoeba-derived hydrological reconstructions from 31 peatlands across Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and continental Europe to examine changes in peatland surface wetness during the last 2000 years. 60% of our study sites were drier during the period CE 1800-2000 than they have been for the last 600 years; 40% of sites were drier than they have been for 1000 years; and 24% of sites were drier than they have been for 2000 years. This marked recent transition in the hydrology of European peatlands is concurrent with compound pressures including climatic drying, warming and direct human impacts on peatlands, although these factors vary between regions and individual sites. Our results suggest that the wetness of many European peatlands may now be moving away from natural baselines. Our findings highlight the need for effective management and restoration of European peatlands.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC

mTOR intersects antibody-inducing signals from TACI in marginal zone B cells

Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) enhances immunity in addition to orchestrating metabolism. Here we show that mTOR coordinates immunometabolic reconfiguration of marginal zone (MZ) B cells, a pre-activated lymphocyte subset that mounts antibody responses to T-cell-independent antigens through a Toll-like receptor (TLR)-amplified pathway involving transmembrane activator and CAML interactor (TACI). This receptor interacts with mTOR via the TLR adapter MyD88. The resulting mTOR activation instigates MZ B-cell proliferation, immunoglobulin G (IgG) class switching, and plasmablast differentiation through a rapamycin-sensitive pathway that integrates metabolic and antibody-inducing transcription programs, including NF-κB. Disruption of TACI-mTOR interaction by rapamycin, truncation of the MyD88-binding domain of TACI, or B-cell-conditional mTOR deficiency interrupts TACI signaling via NF-κB and cooperation with TLRs, thereby hampering IgG production to T-cell-independent antigens but not B-cell survival. Thus, mTOR drives innate-like antibody responses by linking proximal TACI signaling events with distal immunometabolic transcription programs.T.T. was supported by the Academy of Finland (285725), Finnish Cultural Foundation, Orion-Farmos Research Foundation and Emil Aaltonen Foundation. K.J.K. is supported by a NIGMS Fellowship (F32GM115208). This work was supported by NIH grants U54DK105566, R01MH101820 and R01GM104371 to D.G.M. The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project was supported by the Common Fund of the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health. Additional funds were provided by the NCI, NHGRI, NHLBI, NIDA, NIMH and NINDS. Donors were enrolled at Biospecimen Source Sites funded by NCI\SAIC-Frederick, Inc. (SAIC-F) subcontracts to the National Disease Research Interchange (10XS170), Roswell Park Cancer Institute (10XS171) and Science Care, Inc. (X10S172). The Laboratory, Data Analysis, and Coordinating Center (LDACC) was funded through a contract (HHSN268201000029C) to The Broad Institute; this grant also provided funding to D.G.M. and T.T. Biorepository operations were funded through an SAIC-F subcontract to the Van Andel Institute (10ST1035). Additional data repository and project management were provided by SAIC-F (HHSN261200800001E). The Brain Bank was supported by supplements to University of Miami grants DA006227 and DA033684 and to contract N01MH000028. Statistical Methods development grants were made to the University of Geneva (MH090941 and MH101814), the University of Chicago (MH090951, MH090937, MH101820 and MH101825), the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (MH090936 and MH101819), Harvard University (MH090948), Stanford University (MH101782), Washington University St. Louis (MH101810) and the University of Pennsylvania (MH101822)

Chlorite-illite/muscovite interlayered and interstratified crystals: A TEM/STEM study

Phyllosilicates in rocks which are transitional from mudstone to slate from Lehigh Gap, Pa., have been studied by a variety of techniques, including high resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy and Analytical Electron Microscopy. The principal minerals are “white mica” which is transitional from illite in mudstone to ordered twolayer mica in slate, and chlorite. 7Å berthierine occurs more rarely. Dioctahedral and trioctahedral layers are shown to be interleaved in individual crystals at all scales between the following two end members: (1) both random and regular 1∶1 interlayering at the scale of individual layers, as shown, in part, by lattice fringe images. (2) packets of trioctahedral and dioctahedral layers up to a few thousand Ångstroms or microns in thickness, detectable with ordinary optical techniques. The complete range of intermediate structures is represented in samples which are in transition to slate. Bulk analytical (EMPA), X-ray diffraction or other measurements are shown to result in averages over both kinds of layers when TEM techniques are not used.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47340/1/410_2004_Article_BF00376762.pd