A game demonstrating aspects of bumblebee natural history

The Bumblebee Game is an exciting outdoor game, which demonstrates aspects of bumblebee natural history including food chains, food webs and competition for food, predation by crab spiders, parasitism by Conopidae (Diptera) and brood parasitism by cuckoo bees. It has been played successfully with groups of 10-25 people. Although most suitable for 6-14 year olds, adults have had a lot of fun playing this game

Ocean acidification needs more publicity as part of a strategy to avoid a global decline in calcifier populations

Ocean acidification (OA) is caused by increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, which dissolves in seawater to produce carbonic acid. This carbonic acid reduces the availability of dissolved aragonite needed for production of some invertebrate exoskeletons with potentially severe consequences for marine calcifier populations. There is a lack of public information on OA with less than 1% of press coverage on OA compared with climate change; OA is not included in UK GCSE and A Level specifications and textbooks; environmental campaigners are much less active in campaigning about OA compared with climate change. As a result of the lack of public awareness OA is rarely discussed in the UK Parliament. Much more public education about OA is needed so that people can respond to the urgent need for technological and lifestyle changes needed to massively reduce carbon dioxide emissions

The role of the North Atlantic Oscillation in controlling U.K. butterfly population size and phenology

Copyright @ 2012 The Authors. This article can be accessed from the links below.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.1. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) exerts considerable control on U.K. weather. This study investigates the impact of the NAO on butterfly abundance and phenology using 34 years of data from the U.K. Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS). 2. The study uses a multi-species indicator to show that the NAO does not affect overall U.K. butterfly population size. However, the abundance of bivoltine butterfly species, which have longer flight seasons, were found to be more likely to respond positively to the NAO compared with univoltine species, which show little or a negative response. 3. A positive winter NAO index is associated with warmer weather and earlier flight dates for Anthocharis cardamines (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), Melanargia galathea (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), Aphantopus hyperantus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), Pyronia tithonus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), Lasiommata megera (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) and Polyommatus icarus (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). In bivoltine species, the NAO affects the phenology of the first generation, the timing of which indirectly controls the timing of the second generation. 4. The NAO influences the timing of U.K. butterfly flight seasons more strongly than it influences population size.This study was supported by a multi-agency consortium led by the U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), including the Countryside Council for Wales, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Forestry Commission, Natural England, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage. This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund

Temporal variations in English Populations of a forest insect pest, the green spruce aphid (Elatobium abietinum), associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation and global warming

Based on an exceptionally long modern ecological dataset (41 years), it has been possible to show that warm weather in England associated with a positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index causes the spring migration of the green spruce aphid (Elatobium abietinum), a pest species of spruce trees (Picea) to start earlier, continue for longer and contain more aphids. An upward trend in the NAO index during the period 1966-2006 is associated with an increasing population size of E. abietinum. It is important to understand the mechanisms behind the population fluctuations, because this aphid causes considerable damage to Picea plantations. Present day weather associated fluctuations in forest insect pests may be useful analogues in understanding past pest outbreaks in forests

The North Atlantic Oscillation, climate change and the ecology of British insects

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Evidence is accumulating that climate change is having a significant effect on a wide range of organisms spanning the full range of biodiversity found on this planet. This study investigates the ecological role of climate change, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and habitat change on British insect populations. Despite the NAO having a considerable effect on British weather, the role of the NAO on British insects has not previously been studied in great detail. The World's two best entomological time series datasets were used – the United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) and the Rothamsted Insect Survey of aphids – both surveys with very large sample sizes and high quality data. Summary of main findings: 1. Warm weather associated with a positive NAO index caused the spring migration of the green spruce aphid (Elatobium abietinum), a pest species of spruce trees (Picea) to start earlier, continue for longer and contain more aphids. An upward trend in the NAO index during the period 1966-2006 is associated with an increasing population size of E. abietinum. 2. The NAO does not affect the overall UK butterfly population size. However, the abundance of bivoltine butterfly species, which have a longer flight season, were more likely to respond positively to the NAO compared to univoltine species, which show little or a negative response. 3. A positive winter NAO index was associated with warmer weather and earlier butterfly flight dates. For bivoltine (two generations in a year) species, the NAO affects the phenology of the first generation, and then the timing of the second generation is indirectly controlled by the timing of the first generation. The NAO influences the timing of the butterfly flight seasons more strongly than it influences population size. 4. Butterfly data from Monks Wood National Nature Reserve in Cambridgeshire showed that the NAO does not affect the abundance of the whole butterfly community, but it does affect the population size of some species. The NAO does not affect butterfly diversity, but there were decreases in butterfly diversity and number of species with time. 5. The total number of butterflies counted at Monks Wood was constant for most of the time series. However, the population size of the ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus) increased from very low numbers to more than half the total number of butterflies counted each year. Therefore the total population size of all the other species has decreased considerably. 6. The NAO was more important than climate change in determining the flight phenology of the meadow brown butterfly (Maniola jurtina) at Monks Wood. In conclusion, the NAO affects the abundance of some species of British butterfly, and an aphid species, with a stronger effect on the timing of flight rather than abundance. There was evidence for a long-term decrease in the biodiversity of butterflies at Monks Wood and this decrease is likely to continue.Brunel University

The North Atlantic Oscillation and U.K. Butterfly Populations

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a natural climate fluctuation that has a considerable influence on the weather in Scandinavia, western Europe and the Mediterranean. The NAO influences the direction of travel of autumn and winter storms and depressions across the North Atlantic and has been shown to have an effect on a range of species as diverse as Red Deer, Soay Sheep, Cod and marine Copepods. Here we consider whether the NAO can also control the population size of butterflies in the UK

Portion size and meal consumption in domesticated dogs: An experimental study

Increases in food portion sizes have been identified as a possible contributor to the increased prevalence of obesity in humans. However, little is known about the origin of behavioural tendencies to overeat from larger portion sizes or whether other non-human animals are affected by meal portion size. In the present experimental study, we examined the effect that larger portion sizes have on meal consumption among domesticated dogs (N = 32). Dogs were fed three meals that varied in size on different occasions (150%, 200% and 300% of usual portion size). A repeated measures design was used and food consumption was measured for each meal. Portion size positively affected food consumption, with dogs eating significantly more food as the portion size of meal increased. The effect of portion size on food consumption was also observed when the dogs that finished all available food were excluded from analyses, however not among dogs who did not finish any of the meals. We conclude that the influence larger portions have on food consumption observed in humans is also observed in domesticated dogs. However, it is unclear whether portion size directly biases the amount of food dogs choose to consume, as has been suggested in humans. Further research is now warranted to examine commonalities between human and non-human animal eating behaviour to understand shared behavioural tendencies and their origins

Dog bite prevention:Effect of a short educational intervention for preschool children

This study aimed to investigate whether preschool children can learn how to interpret dogs' behaviours, with the purpose of helping avoid dog bites. Three- to five-year-old children (N = 70) were tested on their ability to answer questions about dogs' emotional states before and after participating in either an educational intervention about dog behaviour (intervention group) or an activity about wild animals (control group). Children who had received training about dog behaviour (intervention group) were significantly better at judging the dogs' emotional states after the intervention compared to before. The frequency with which they referred to relevant behaviours in justifying their judgements also increased significantly. In contrast, the control group's performance did not differ significantly between the two testing times. These results indicate that preschool children can be taught how to correctly interpret dogs' behaviours. This implies that incorporating such training into prevention programmes may contribute to reducing dog bite incidents