Climate change impact and potential adaptation strategies under alternate climate scenarios for yam production in the sub-humid savannah zone of West Africa

Globally, yam (Dioscorea spp.) is the fifth most important root crop after sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas L.) and the second most important crop in Africa in terms of production after cassava (Manihot esculenta L.) and has long been vital to food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Climate change is expected to have its most severe impact on crops in food insecure regions, yet very little is known about impact of climate change on yam productivity. Therefore, we try estimating the effect of climate change on the yam (variety: Florido) yield and evaluating different adaptation strategies to mitigate its effect. Three regional climate models REgional MOdel (REMO), Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute Regional Climate Model (SMHIRCA), and Hadley Regional Model (HADRM3P) were coupled to a crop growth simulation model namely Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) version 3060 to simulate current and future yam yields in the Upper Ouémé basin (Benin Republic). For the future, substantial yield decreases were estimated varying according to the climate scenario. We explored the advantages of specific adaptation strategies suggesting that changing sowing date may be ineffective in counteracting adverse climatic effects. Late maturing cultivars could be effective in offsetting the adverse impacts. Whereas, by coupling irrigation and fertilizer application with late maturing cultivars, highest increase in the yam productivity could be realized which accounted up to 49 % depending upon the projection of the scenarios analyzed.     

Atlantic sturgeons (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Acipenser sturio</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Acipenser oxyrinchus</Emphasis>): American females successful in Europe

Recent molecular data on the maternally inherited mitochondrial (mt) DNA have challenged the traditional view that the now extinct Baltic sturgeon population belonged to the European sturgeon Acipenser sturio. Instead, there is evidence that American sea sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus historically immigrated into the Baltic Sea. In this study, we test the hypothesis that A. oxyrinchus introgressed into, rather than replaced, the A. sturio population in the Baltic. We established four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the nuclear MHC II antigen gene with a species-specific SNP pattern. Using an ancient DNA approach and two independent lines of molecular evidence (sequencing of allele-specific clones, SNaPshot), we detected both A. sturio and A. oxyrinchus alleles in the available museum material of the now extinct Baltic sturgeon population. The hybrid nature of the Baltic population was further confirmed by very high levels of heterozygosity. It had been previously postulated that the immigration of the cold-adapted A. oxyrinchus into the Baltic occurred during the Medieval Little Ice Age, when temperature likely dropped below the degree inducing spawning in A. sturio. Under this scenario, our new findings suggest that the genetic mosaic pattern in the Baltic sturgeon population (oxyrinchus mtDNA, sturio and oxyrinchus MHC alleles) is possibly caused by sex-biased introgression where spawning was largely restricted to immigrating American females, while fertilization was predominantly achieved by abundant local European males. The hybrid nature of the former Baltic sturgeon population should be taken into account in the current reintroduction measures. Electronic supplementary material  Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at and is accessible for authorized users.     

Density and nutritional condition of carabid beetles in wildflower areas of different age

Density and nutritional condition of the five carabid beetle species Agonum mülleri, Anchomenus dorsalis, Anisodactylus binotatus, Pterostichus vernalis and Poecilus cupreus was studied. Carabids were caught in sixteen 1–4-year-old wildflower areas, identified and counted, their nutritional condition was calculated and calculations were related to habitat parameters (i.e. wildflower area age, vegetation cover, soil water content, habitat size, surrounding landscape composition) and sex.Whereas the number of Anisodactylus binotatus caught responded positively to succession in wildflower areas, A. mülleri numbers tended to decrease and the other three species were unaffected. In a stepwise multiple regression species affiliation, sex and age of wildflower area explained together 98.5% of the variance in the pooled nutritional condition of Anchomenus dorsalis, Anisodactylus binotatus, A. mülleri and P. vernalis. Age of wildflower area alone explained 61.7% of the variance and age increased the nutritional condition of carabids. Correspondingly, nutritional condition of Poecilus cupreus was positively correlated with the age of wildflower area. Overall, the nutritional condition of the carabid assemblage studied increased from the first to the second year and then remained stable. To keep the proportion of 1-year-old wildflower areas low, wildflower areas should therefore be maintained for several years to improve the life conditions of carabid beetles and to enhance their beneficial effects in agroecosystems.     

Hepatitis E Seroprevalence and Genotyping in a Cohort of Wild Boars in Southern Germany and Eastern Alsace

In the last few years it has been realized that the hepatitis E virus (HEV) is endemic in most industrialized countries and that it is a zoonotic disease. Potential reservoirs for HEV have been identified to be wild boars and deers, but HEV has also been found in domestic pigs and other animals. Due to the probable spread of the virus via contaminated food or contact to infected animals, HEV antibodies are present in more than 16% of the German adult population and rates are increasing with age. We collected blood from 104 wild boars in southern Germany and the border region of Alsace. We found an anti-HEV seroprevalence of 11.5% in our cohort, using ELISA. Furthermore, we observed active infection in 3.85% of the animals by positive HEV PCR in the sera of the boars. In our cohort, no regional differences of seroprevalence or active infection were seen. Sequencing revealed rather close homology of some detected HEV sequences to genotypes isolated from patients in Germany. Hence wild boars are a potential source of HEV infection in Middle Europe and the rate of infectious animals is quite high.     

Constructing sustainable palm oil: how actors define sustainability

Biofuels as a renewable source of energy have gained considerable importance in recent years. The use of biofuels is expected to rise since national governments of developed nations like the US and European countries see it as one of the ways to fulfill climate targets and increase the security in their energy supply. Production of biofuels is also expected to rise as developing nations see in biofuels the opportunity for connecting to international markets through supplying a new demand in the energy market.Several studies report on the environmental, social and economic gains and detriments that can arise from increased biofuel production and consumption. However, research that provides insight into the way in which such issues are defined by actors within the product chain is scarce. In this article we analyse how the strategies and value definitions of actors involved in the production and consumption of biofuels lead to specific definitions of sustainability. The empirical material concerns the chain of palm oil production in Colombia and electricity generation in the Netherlands. It is analysed using the method of action-in-context, which allows us to uncover the level and source of diversity of sustainability definitions in the product chain.While the current growth in production of palm oil is definitely buyer driven, the analysis of various activities in the chain shows that several aspects of sustainability are defined in more complex actor fields throughout the product chain.     

Giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) mob wasps away from the nest by directed visual patterns

The open nesting behaviour of giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) accounts for the evolution of a series of defence strategies to protect the colonies from predation. In particular, the concerted action of shimmering behaviour is known to effectively confuse and repel predators. In shimmering, bees on the nest surface flip their abdomens in a highly coordinated manner to generate Mexican wave-like patterns. The paper documents a further-going capacity of this kind of collective defence: the visual patterns of shimmering waves align regarding their directional characteristics with the projected flight manoeuvres of the wasps when preying in front of the bees’ nest. The honeybees take here advantage of a threefold asymmetry intrinsic to the prey–predator interaction: (a) the visual patterns of shimmering turn faster than the wasps on their flight path, (b) they “follow” the wasps more persistently (up to 100 ms) than the wasps “follow” the shimmering patterns (up to 40 ms) and (c) the shimmering patterns align with the wasps’ flight in all directions at the same strength, whereas the wasps have some preference for horizontal correspondence. The findings give evidence that shimmering honeybees utilize directional alignment to enforce their repelling power against preying wasps. This phenomenon can be identified as predator driving which is generally associated with mobbing behaviour (particularly known in selfish herds of vertebrate species), which is, until now, not reported in insects.     

Signaltransduktion in Sehzellen

2+   concentration. This review describes our present knowledge about the signal transduction and its fine tuning by a complex network of Ca²⁺-mediated processes in vertebrate photoreceptors.      

Controls on Coarse Wood Decay in Temperate Tree Species: Birth of the LOGLIFE Experiment

Dead wood provides a huge terrestrial carbon stock and a habitat to wide-ranging organisms during its decay. Our brief review highlights that, in order to understand environmental change impacts on these functions, we need to quantify the contributions of different interacting biotic and abiotic drivers to wood decomposition. LOGLIFE is a new long-term ‘common-garden’ experiment to disentangle the effects of species’ wood traits and site-related environmental drivers on wood decomposition dynamics and its associated diversity of microbial and invertebrate communities. This experiment is firmly rooted in pioneering experiments under the directorship of Terry Callaghan at Abisko Research Station, Sweden. LOGLIFE features two contrasting forest sites in the Netherlands, each hosting a similar set of coarse logs and branches of 10 tree species. LOGLIFE welcomes other researchers to test further questions concerning coarse wood decay that will also help to optimise forest management in view of carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation.     

Adaptation potential of ecosystem-based management to climate change in the eastern Canadian boreal forest

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) of forests is gaining acceptance for its focus on the maintenance of the long-term integrity of ecosystem processes, but climate change challenges this view because of its impacts on these very processes. We have therefore evaluated the robustness of EBM to projected climate change, considering the role of climate on forest growth and fire regime in a boreal forest of eastern Canada. A climate sensitive growth index model was calibrated for three commercial species and used to project the evolution of merchantable volume for two climate scenarios (B1 and A2) under conventional and EBM strategies. Current burn rate and burn rates under future climate scenarios were also considered. Under the most extreme projected climate scenario, the periodic timber supply could be reduced by up to 79% through direct (growth reduction) and indirect (fire) effects. However, ecological indicators show that EBM is a more robust forest management strategy than conventional one demonstrating its adaptation potential to climate change at least in the short term.