Stable nitrogen isotopes in octocorals as an indicator of water quality decline from the northwestern region of Cuba

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Eutrophication is one of the causes of the degradation of reefs worldwide. The aim of this research is to determine if sewage discharge reaches the...     

Bibliometric analysis of studies involving e-waste: a critical review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The correct destination of waste is an essential factor for sustainable development. Electronic waste, which is very toxic, is the type of waste with...     

Gill and liver transcriptomic responses of Achirus lineatus (Neopterygii: Achiridae) exposed to water-accommodated fraction (WAF) of light crude oil reveal an onset of hypoxia-like condition

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Crude oil is one of the most widespread pollutants released into the marine environment, and native species have provided useful information about the...     

Occurrence and ecological risk assessment of pharmaceuticals and cocaine in the urban drainage channels of Santos beaches (São Paulo,Brazil): a neglected,but sensitive issue

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In some Brazilian coastal cities, it is common to observe ‘black tongues’ in beaches, i.e. a mixture of urban runoff and untreated...     

Trophic structure of fish communities in mangrove systems subject to different levels of anthropogenic intervention,Tropical Eastern Pacific,Colombia

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Mangroves are important ecosystems of tropical and subtropical shorelines. Anthropogenic activity decreases their habitat quality, affecting...     

The tolerance of grapevine rootstocks to copper excess and to the use of calcium and phosphorus to mitigate its phytotoxicity

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - High soil copper (Cu) concentrations in vineyards can cause phytotoxicity to grapevine rootstocks. In order to mitigate toxicity, the use of grapevine...     

Numerical Study of Physical and Biogeochemical Processes Controlling Dissolved Oxygen in an Urbanized Subtropical Estuary: Vitória Island Estuarine System,Brazil

Environmental Modeling & Assessment - Subtropical estuaries such as the Vitória Island Estuarine System (VIES), located on the central coast of Brazil, are under strong anthropic pressure....     

Climate Change: Use of Non-Homogeneous Poisson Processes for Climate Data in Presence of a Change-Point

Environmental Modeling & Assessment - In this study, non-homogeneous Poisson processes (NHPP) are used to analyze climate data. The data were collected over a certain period time and consist of...     

Colony life history and demography of a swarm-founding social wasp

Colonies of social insects are sometimes viewed as superorganisms. The birth, reproduction, and death of colonies can be studied with demographic measures analogous to those normally applied to individuals, but two additional questions arise. First, how do adaptive colony demographies arise from individual behaviors? Second, since these superorganisms are made up of genetically distinct individuals, do conflicts within the colony sometimes modify and upset optima for colonies? The interplay between individual and superindividual or colony interests appears to be particularly complex in neotropical, swarm-founding, epiponine wasps such as Parachartergus colobopterus. In a long-term study of this species, we censused 286 nests to study colony-level reproduction and survivorship and evaluated individual-level factors by assessing genetic relatedness and queen production. Colony survivorship followed a negative exponential curve very closely, indicating type II survivorship. This pattern is defined by constant mortality across ages and is more characteristic of birds and other vertebrates than of insects. Individual colonies are long-lived, lasting an average of 347 days, with a maximum of over 4.5 years. The low and constant levels of colony mortality arise in part from colony initiation by swarming, nesting on protected substrates, and an unusual expandable nest structure. The ability to requeen rapidly was also important; relatedness data suggest that colonies requeen on average once every 9–12 months. We studied whether colony optima with respect to the timing of reproduction could be upset by individual worker interests. In this species, colonies are normally polygynous but new queens are produced only after a colony reaches the monogynous state, a result which is in accord with the genetic interests of workers. Therefore colony worker interests might drive colonies to reproduce whenever queen number happens to cycled down to one rather than at the season that is otherwise optimal. However, we found reproduction to be heavily concentrated in the rainy season. The number of new colonies peaked in this season as did the percentages of males and queens. Relatedness among workers reached a seasonal low of 0.21–0.27, reflecting the higher numbers of laying queens. This seasonality was achieved in part by a modest degree of synchrony in the queen reduction cycle. Worker relatedness reached peaks of around 0.4 in the dry season, reflecting a decrease to a harmonic mean queen number of about 2.5. Thus, a significant number of colonies must be approaching monogyny entering the rainy season. Coupled with polygynous colonies rearing only males (split sex ratios), this makes it possible for a colony cycle driven by selfish worker interests to be consistent with concentrating colony reproduction during a favorable season.