Determinants of Eurasian Otter (Lutra Lutra) Diet in a Seasonally Changing Reservoir

This is an accepted version of the published document. This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-020-04208-y[Abstract] Otter diet in reservoirs is known to experience seasonal changes. We selected a reservoir with a large population of exclusively wintering great cormorants and seasonal changes in stored water volume to test the relative influence of abiotic and biotic factors on otter foraging ecology. DNA metabarcoding of otter spraints revealed a dietary change from autumn to winter. Otters had a diet dominated by the exotic goldfish in autumn, but predated intensively on the native northern straight-mouth nase in winter. This change was likely caused by predation of cormorants on goldfish and to fish biology. Secondly, macroscopic analysis of spraints revealed that otters shifted from a diet dominated by fish (in terms of biomass) to a diet dominated by red swamp crayfish during spring–summer, when the latter became overabundant. As revealed by modelling, this second shift was most likely influenced by the sudden increase in stored water volume in spring, but also by the cumulative effect of cormorant predation on fish during autumn–winter. Macroscopic analyses of otter spraints collected in a second reservoir with no cormorants revealed a lack of seasonality. Hence, the combined influence of both biotic and abiotic factors explained otter diet seasonality in a lentic-water novel ecosystem.This work received funding from Xunta de Galicia (Grants GRC2014/050 and ED431C 2018/57) and Universidade da Coruña. A Martínez-Abraín was supported by an Isidro Parga Pondal research contract by Xunta de Galicia during the period 2011–2016Xunta de Galicia; GRC2014/050Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2018/5

La gestación por sustitución en el punto de mira de la bioética

Surrogate gestation is gestation agreed by means of a contract, with or without a price, in which a woman renounces the maternal filiation of the future child (the legal bond that unites mother and unborn child), in favour of the contracting party or a third party. Although this practice is null and void in Spain by Law 14/2006, of 26 May, on Assisted Human Reproduction Techniques, there are different international legislations that allow it in other countries. For this reason, it is important to carry out a bioethical analysis of the facts and values underlying this practice, such as commercialisation, mother-fetus bonds, the best interests of minors, as well as a global perspective with a gender and planetary perspective. This analysis will allow us to provide arguments from a bioethical point of view against a practice that undermines women's rights, harms the best interests of children and increases inequality on a planetary levelLa gestación por sustitución es la gestación convenida mediante un contrato, con o sin precio, en el que una mujer renuncia a la filiación materna del futuro hijo/a (vínculo jurídico que une a madre y nasciturus), a favor del contratante o de un tercero. A pesar de que esta práctica es nula de pleno derecho en España por la Ley 14/2006, de 26 de mayo, sobre Técnicas de Reproducción Humana Asistida, existen distintas legislaciones internacionales que la permiten en otros países. Por este motivo, es importante realizar un análisis con mirada bioética a los hechos y valores que subyacen bajo esta práctica, como la comercialización, los vínculos madre-feto, el interés superior de los/las menores así como una mirada global con perspectiva de género y planetaria. Este análisis nos va a permitir aportar argumentos desde el punto de vista bioético contra una práctica que entraña un menoscabo de los derechos de la mujer, un daño a los intereses superiores de los/las menores y un aumento de la desigualdad a nivel planetario

PCR cycles above routine numbers do not compromise high-throughput DNA barcoding results

High-throughput DNA barcoding has become essential in ecology and evolution, but some technical questions still remain. Increasing the number of PCR cycles above the routine 20-30 cycles is a common practice when working with old-type specimens, which provide little amounts of DNA, or when facing annealing issues with the primers. However, increasing the number of cycles can raise the number of artificial mutations due to polymerase errors. In this work, we sequenced 20 COI libraries in the Illumina MiSeq platform. Libraries were prepared with 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60 PCR cycles from four individuals belonging to four species of four genera of cephalopods. We found no relationship between the number of PCR cycles and the number of mutations despite using a nonproofreading polymerase. Moreover, even when using a high number of PCR cycles, the resulting number of mutations was low enough not to be an issue in the context of high-throughput DNA barcoding (but may still remain an issue in DNA metabarcoding due to chimera formation). We conclude that the common practice of increasing the number of PCR cycles should not negatively impact the outcome of a high-throughput DNA barcoding study in terms of the occurrence of point mutations

OTU representative sequences

Representative sequences for all OTUs for the forward (Euk20F) and Reverse (Euk302r) sequencing direction

Bioinformatic scripts

Full scripts for bioinformatic pipeline as applied for sequence data analysis for Geisen et al. 2015 Mol. Ecolog

Enabling large-scale feather mite studies: an Illumina DNA metabarcoding pipeline

Feather mites are among the most common and diverse ectosymbionts of birds, yet basic questions such as the nature of their relationship remain largely unanswered. One reason for feather mites being understudied is that their morphological identification is often virtually impossible when using female or young individuals. Even for adult male specimens this task is tedious and requires advanced taxonomic expertise, thus hampering large-scale studies. In addition, molecular-based methods are challenging because the low DNA amounts usually obtained from these tiny mites do not reach the levels required for high-throughput sequencing. This work aims to overcome these issues by using a DNA metabarcoding approach to accurately identify and quantify the feather mite species present in a sample. DNA metabarcoding is a widely used molecular technique that takes advantage of high-throughput sequencing methodologies to assign the taxonomic identity to all the organisms present in a complex sample (i.e., a sample made up of multiple specimens that are hard or impossible to individualise). We present a high-throughput method for feather mite identification using a fragment of the COI gene as marker and Illumina Miseq technology. We tested this method by performing two experiments plus a field test over a total of 11,861 individual mites (5360 of which were also morphologically identified). In the first experiment, we tested the probability of detecting a single feather mite in a heterogeneous pool of non-conspecific individuals. In the second experiment, we made 2 × 2 combinations of species and studied the relationship between the proportion of individuals of a given species in a sample and the proportion of sequences retrieved to test whether DNA metabarcoding can reliably quantify the relative abundance of mites in a sample. Here we also tested the efficacy of degenerate primers (i.e., a mixture of similar primers that differ in one or several bases that are designed to increase the chance of annealing) and investigated the relationship between the number of mismatches and PCR success. Finally, we applied our DNA metabarcoding pipeline to a total of 6501 unidentified and unsorted feather mite individuals sampled from 380 European passerine birds belonging to 10 bird species (field test). Our results show that this proposed pipeline is suitable for correct identification and quantitative estimation of the relative abundance of feather mite species in complex samples, especially when dealing with a moderate number (> 30) of individuals per sample.Funding was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ramón y Cajal research contract RYC-2009-03967 to RJ, research project CGL2011-24466 to RJ, and CGL2015-69650-P to RJ and DS). JD was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Severo Ochoa predoctoral contract SVP-2013-067939), and SV was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR-6-04-00486)

Amoebozoa alignment

Allignment of 18S sequences (NEXUS-file), as used for phylogenetic analysis on Amoebazoa, as presented in Fig.3 of Geisen et al. 2015, Mol Ecology. Allignment includes OTUs recovered in this study, as well as sequences associated with those OTUs (downloaded from NCBI)

Comparing two field protocols to measure individual shrubs’ root density distribution

[Purpose] A large fraction of a plant’s biomass is belowground, especially in shrublands that typically occur in episodically water-limited climates. Nonetheless, we have no standardized method to map the distribution of the root density (i.e., biomass per soil volumetric unit) of plant individuals (hereafter, Individual-level Root Density Distribution, IRDD). This type of information is difficult to collect, especially in woody plant communities in natural conditions where roots of different individuals can be highly intermingled.[Methods] We assess three methods to map IRDD of field shrubs: soil drilling to extract roots, plant injection with dyes, and microsatellite analysis for individual-level root identification. Using the resulting data, we fitted IRDD models obtaining comparable predictions of the root density of shrubs for each method.[Results] The proportion of identified roots was higher using plan injection, but the cost per linked roots was two orders of magnitude higher using microsatellite. Model results show that microsatellite markers had a similar success as compared to plant injection for those plant individuals for which it worked well, but it failed completely for several genotypes or individuals.[Conclusion] Core drilling machines and plant injection with dyes of different colors to link root fragments from the sample pool to plant individuals represent an affordable, reliable way to study the foraging behavior of woody plants which roots are highly intermingled.This work was funded by Princeton University’s High Meadows Environmental Institute-Carbon Mitigation Initiative (HMEI-CMI). CC acknowledges funding from The May Fellowship in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University.Peer reviewe

La lectura, cada día una aventura

Contiene: 1.- carpeta que incluye el proyecto, un álbum de fotografías de la biblioteca y el material utilizado para la realización de las actividadesEl proyecto consiste en ampliar los fondos de la biblioteca escolar y potenciar el uso de la biblioteca municipal, por medio de actividades de animación a la lectura. Se trata de que el alumnado aprenda a valorar los libros y adquiera el hábito lector. Los objetivos son trabajar la lectura y el lenguaje escrito como forma de comunicación con los demás; utilizar la biblioteca como fuente de información, instrumento de aprendizaje y centro de investigación; despertar el interés por la lectura; conocer y utilizar diferentes tipos de literatura. La metodología es activa y participativa a través de asambleas, representaciones y trabajos en grupo. Las actividades, desarrolladas en la biblioteca municipal y en el centro educativo, son de animación a la lectura, dramatización -guiñol, marionetas y teatro-, plástica y lógico-matemático. La evaluación valora el proceso global de enseñanza-aprendizaje a través de la observación directa del alumnado mediante las fichas de trabajo, proyectos de trabajo o fichas.Madrid (Comunidad Autónoma). Consejería de EducaciónMadridMadrid (Comunidad Autónoma). Subdirección General de Formación del Profesorado. CRIF Las Acacias; General Ricardos 179 - 28025 Madrid; Tel. + 34915250893ES

A tu salud

Se trata de conocer y prevenir los principales problemas de salud del centro y ofrecer al alumnado información adecuada para conseguir hábitos, actitudes y valores positivos sobre la salud. El proyecto, en el que participan todos los profesores y la asociación de padres, se desarrolla en torno a cinco bloques temáticos: el cuerpo y su cuidado, higiene y limpieza; enfermedades por hábitos de alimentación y consumo inadecuados; educación vial y prevención de accidentes; educación sexual; y drogodependencias, alcohol y tabaco. Entre las actividades destacan sesiones y charlas para profesores sobre educación sexual y habilidades sociales, elaboración por los alumnos de canciones, recetas y fichas de actividades, visionado de cintas y realización de un vídeo sobre drogodependencias. Concluye con la incidencia del proyecto en el alumnado: empleo del tiempo libre, situaciones de riesgo, fomento de un comportamiento afectivo y cómo resistir a la presión del grupo. Incluye material elaborado, por ciclos, para cada uno de los bloques temáticos desarrollados.Madrid (Comunidad Autónoma). Consejería de Sanidad y Servicios SocialesMadridNo disponibleES