When is general wariness favored in avoiding multiple predator types?

Free access to article and electronic appendices via DOI.Adaptive responses to predation are generally studied assuming only one predator type exists, but most prey species are depredated by multiple types. When multiple types occur, the optimal antipredator response level may be determined solely by the probability of attack by the relevant predator: "specific responsiveness." Conversely, an increase in the probability of attack by one predator type might increase responsiveness to an alternative predator type: "general wariness." We formulate a mathematical model in which a prey animal perceives a cue providing information on the probability of two predator types being present. It can perform one of two evasive behaviors that vary in their suitability as a response to the "wrong" predator type. We show that general wariness is optimal when incorrect behavioral decisions have differential fitness costs. Counterintuitively, difficulty in discriminating between predator types does not favor general wariness. We predict that where responses to predator types are mutually exclusive (e.g., referential alarm-calling), specific responsiveness will occur; we suggest that prey generalize their defensive responses based on cue similarity due to an assumption of response utility; and we predict, with relevance to conservation, that habituation to human disturbance should generalize only to predators that elicit the same antipredator response as humans

Chick diet in UK Little Terns <em>Sternula albifrons</em>

\ua9 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor &amp; Francis Group. Capsule: We studied the diet of Little Tern chicks in the UK using new data collected as part of the EU LIFE-funded Little Tern Recovery Project (2014–2018) (the LIFE Project), which shows that, despite a wide variety of prey items being recorded, diet at UK colonies is dominated by two types of lipid-rich marine fish: sandeel Ammodytes spp. and clupeid species (Atlantic Herring Clupea harengus and European Sprat Sprattus sprattus). Aims: To analyse data on the diet of Little Tern chicks from the LIFE Project and assess what additional insight these provide in comparison to the findings in previous literature. Methods: Timed chick-feeding observations were made at 12 English and Welsh Little Tern colonies between 2014 and 2018 and compared to descriptions of chick diet from other UK studies (published and unpublished). Results: Chick diet data from the LIFE Project were dominated by lipid-rich marine fish, principally sandeels and clupeid species (82% of all recorded prey items). Adult Little Terns feeding chicks with crustaceans or other invertebrates were recorded at 75% of colonies, but there was no evidence that these routinely made up a substantial proportion of chick diet. We found no significant inter-annual differences in diet composition between individual colonies. However, analysis of records of chick diet over a longer time series (Long Nanny colony in Northumberland, with data available for 17 of the years between 1998 and 2018) showed some significant differences in diet composition between years. Conclusion: Although Little Terns are generalist feeders, 82% of the prey diet consisted of two prey types: sandeels and clupeids. This may leave existing UK Little Tern colonies vulnerable to any future climate change impacts affecting either the distribution or nutritional quality of their main prey species

Agriculturally Improved and Semi-Natural Permanent Grasslands Provide Complementary Ecosystem Services in Swedish Boreal Landscapes

\ua9 2024 by the authors. Permanent grasslands cover more than a third of European agricultural land and are important for a number of ecosystem services. Permanent grasslands used for agriculture are broadly separated into agriculturally improved and semi-natural grasslands. High cultural and natural values linked to semi-natural grasslands are well documented. However, in boreal and hemi-boreal agricultural landscapes, less information is available about the areal coverage of improved permanent grasslands and their role for ecosystem service provision and biodiversity. In Sweden, grasslands are administratively separated into semi-natural (i.e., land that cannot be ploughed) or arable (i.e., improved temporary or permanent grassland on land that can be ploughed). We used data from a large-scale environmental monitoring program to show that improved permanent grassland (i.e., permanent grasslands on arable fields) may be a previously unrecognised large area of the agricultural land use in Sweden. We show that improved permanent grasslands together with semi-natural grasslands are both comparable but also complementary providers of a range of ecosystem services (plant species richness, plant resources for pollinators and forage amount for livestock production). However, as expected, semi-natural grasslands with the highest-level AESs (special values) show high species richness values for vascular plants, plants indicating traditional semi-natural management conditions and red-listed species. Improved permanent grasslands on arable fields are likely an underestimated but integral part of the agricultural economy and ecological function in boreal landscapes that together with high nature value semi-natural grasslands provide a broad range of ecosystem services

Additive manufacturing for electrochemical labs: An overview and tutorial note on the production of cells, electrodes and accessories

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an ever-growing part of modern scientific research due to its ability to create complex features, low wastage, ever-decreasing cost of entry and rapid prototyping capabilities. Up to this point, the use of AM in electrochemical research has focused around two of the main components of the experimental setup: the working electrode, and the electrochemical cell. In this paper we highlight how researchers have utilised AM in the literature and offer our own insights into how this technology can be exploited to benefit all areas of electrochemical research. For the development of electrodes, much of the literature utilises commercially available conductive PLA filaments in conjunction with FFF printing, with only a few groups expanding into the development of their own bespoke conductive materials. AM offers huge advantages in the production of electrochemical cells, allowing users to produce bespoke designs to fit their experimental needs, rapidly producing these at low cost and easily modifying the design to improve performance. However, the use of AM in electrochemical laboratories should not stop there. We present basic designs of electrodes, cells and even accessories that can benefit all electrochemical researchers (new and experienced) in their quest for reproducible and reliable results. These designs are offered free of charge, are available to download from the Supporting Information and can be easily modified to meet any users’ specific needs. As such, we feel AM should be a staple of every laboratory and hope this work inspires people to think about all the ways that AM can benefit their research environments

Adjusting the connection length of additively manufactured electrodes changes the electrochemical and electroanalytical performance

Changing the connection length of an additively manufactured electrode (AME) has a significant impact on the electrochemical and electroanalytical response of the system. In the literature, many electrochemical platforms have been produced using additive manufacturing with great variations in how the AME itself is described. It is seen that when measuring the near-ideal outer-sphere redox probe hexaamineruthenium (III) chloride (RuHex), decreasing the AME connection length enhances the heterogeneous electrochemical transfer (HET) rate constant ((Formula presented.)) for the system. At slow scan rates, there is a clear change in the peak-to-peak separation (ΔEp) observed in the RuHex voltammograms, with the ΔEp shifting from 118 ± 5 mV to 291 ± 27 mV for the 10 and 100 mm electrodes, respectively. For the electroanalytical determination of dopamine, no significant difference is noticed at low concentrations between 10- and 100-mm connection length AMEs. However, at concentrations of 1 mM dopamine, the peak oxidation is shifted to significantly higher potentials as the AME connection length is increased, with a shift of 150 mV measured. It is recommended that in future work, all AME dimensions, not just the working electrode head size, is reported along with the resistance measured through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to allow for appropriate comparisons with other reports in the literature. To produce the best additively manufactured electrochemical systems in the future, researchers should endeavor to use the shortest AME connection lengths that are viable for their designs

Redefining ecosystem multifunctionality

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in ecosystem multifunctionality, a concept that has developed in the largely separate fields of biodiversity-ecosystem function and land management research. Here we discuss the merit of the multifunctionality concept, the advances it has delivered, the challenges it faces and solutions to these challenges. This involves the redefinition of multifunctionality as a property that exists at two levels: ecosystem function multifunctionality and ecosystem service multifunctionality. The framework presented provides a road map for the development of multifunctionality measures that are robust, quantifiable and relevant to both fundamental ecological science and ecosystem management

Building development and roads: implications for the distribution of stone curlews across the Brecks

Background: Substantial new housing and infrastructure development planned within England has the potential to conflict with the nature conservation interests of protected sites. The Breckland area of eastern England (the Brecks) is designated as a Special Protection Area for a number of bird species, including the stone curlew (for which it holds more than 60% of the UK total population). We explore the effect of buildings and roads on the spatial distribution of stone curlew nests across the Brecks in order to inform strategic development plans to avoid adverse effects on such European protected sites. Methodology: Using data across all years (and subsets of years) over the period 1988 – 2006 but restricted to habitat areas of arable land with suitable soils, we assessed nest density in relation to the distances to nearest settlements and to major roads. Measures of the local density of nearby buildings, roads and traffic levels were assessed using normal kernel distance-weighting functions. Quasi-Poisson generalised linear mixed models allowing for spatial auto-correlation were fitted. Results: Significantly lower densities of stone curlew nests were found at distances up to 1500m from settlements, and distances up to 1000m or more from major (trunk) roads. The best fitting models involved optimally distance-weighted variables for the extent of nearby buildings and the trunk road traffic levels. Significance : The results and predictions from this study of past data suggests there is cause for concern that future housing development and associated road infrastructure within the Breckland area could have negative impacts on the nesting stone curlew population. Given the strict legal protection afforded to the SPA the planning and conservation bodies have subsequently agreed precautionary restrictions on building development within the distances identified and used the modelling predictions to agree mitigation measures for proposed trunk road developments

Utilising bio-based plasticiser castor oil and recycled PLA for the production of conductive additive manufacturing feedstock and detection of bisphenol A

The production of electrically conductive additive manufacturing feedstocks from recycled poly(lactic acid) (rPLA), carbon black (CB), and bio-based plasticiser castor oil is reported herein. The filament was used to print additively manufactured electrodes (AMEs), which were electrochemically benchmarked against geometrically identical AMEs printed from a commercially available conductive filament. The castor oil/rPLA AMEs produced an enhanced heterogeneous electrochemical rate constant of (1.71 ± 0.22) × 10−3 cm s−1 compared to (0.30 ± 0.03) × 10−3 cm s−1 for the commercial AME, highlighting the improved performance of this filament for the production of working electrodes. A bespoke electroanalytical cell was designed and utilised to detect bisphenol A (BPA). The AMEs made from the castor oil/rPLA gave an enhanced electroanalytical performance compared to the commercial filament, producing a sensitivity of 0.59 μA μM−1, a LOD of 0.10 μM and LOQ of 0.34 μM. This system was then successfully applied to detect BPA in spiked bottled and tap water samples, producing recoveries between 89-104%. This work shows how the production of conductive filaments may be done more sustainably while improving performance

How to transition to reduced-meat diets that benefit people and the planet

Initiation Grant of IIT Kanpur, India (project number 2018386); Wellcome Trust, Our Planet Our Health (Livestock, Environment and People - LEAP), award number 205212/Z/16/Z. L.E.R.; research program NE/N018125/1 LTS-M ASSIST -Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems, funded by NERC and BBSRC

Predicting mental imagery based BCI performance from personality, cognitive profile and neurophysiological patterns

Mental-Imagery based Brain-Computer Interfaces (MI-BCIs) allow their users to send commands to a computer using their brain-activity alone (typically measured by ElectroEncephaloGraphy— EEG), which is processed while they perform specific mental tasks. While very promising, MI-BCIs remain barely used outside laboratories because of the difficulty encountered by users to control them. Indeed, although some users obtain good control performances after training, a substantial proportion remains unable to reliably control an MI-BCI. This huge variability in user-performance led the community to look for predictors of MI-BCI control ability. However, these predictors were only explored for motor-imagery based BCIs, and mostly for a single training session per subject. In this study, 18 participants were instructed to learn to control an EEG-based MI-BCI by performing 3 MI-tasks, 2 of which were non-motor tasks, across 6 training sessions, on 6 different days. Relationships between the participants’ BCI control performances and their personality, cognitive profile and neurophysiological markers were explored. While no relevant relationships with neurophysiological markers were found, strong correlations between MI-BCI performances and mental-rotation scores (reflecting spatial abilities) were revealed. Also, a predictive model of MI-BCI performance based on psychometric questionnaire scores was proposed. A leave-one-subject-out cross validation process revealed the stability and reliability of this model: it enabled to predict participants’ performance with a mean error of less than 3 points. This study determined how users’ profiles impact their MI-BCI control ability and thus clears the way for designing novel MI-BCI training protocols, adapted to the profile of each user