Applications of steroid drugs entrapped in cyclodextrins

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Steroids are abundant in living organisms and are responsible for various biological functions. They are good candidates for inclusion complexes formation with...     

Assessing biodiversity vulnerability to climate change: testing different methodologies for Portuguese herpetofauna

Assessing biodiversity vulnerability to future climate change is essential for developing robust adaptation strategies. A number of vulnerability assessment methodologies have been developed, from bioclimatic envelop models to more complex approaches that also consider biological traits and population status. However, the lack of comparative studies leaves the user to choose among the different methodologies without much guidance. This study applied three vulnerability assessment approaches to the Portuguese herpetofauna: (I) impact assessment approach based on bioclimatic models; (II) integrated vulnerability assessment approach, adding the evaluation of adaptive capacity to approach I; and (III) integrated vulnerability assessment and validation based on expert consultation. Results showed disagreement between the different approaches for 19 % of the species studied. Most differences were found between approach III and the two other approaches. All approaches showed advantages and limitations, the choice of a methodology being ultimately dependent on the study goals. Approach I has proven efficient to capture general vulnerability patterns. Approach II, although presenting results similar to approach I, allows for the identification of key factors affecting the species adaptive capacity and may be useful in tailoring adaptation measures. Approach III further allows us to identify knowledge gaps and to evaluate vulnerability when data availability or quality is reduced. Further, because this approach is based on an expert workshop, it has proven a perfect means to build on the vulnerability assessment results to identify indicator species and prioritize specific adaptation options.     

Regaining the traditional use of wildlife in wetlands on the coastal plain of Veracruz,Mexico: ensuring food security in the face of global climate change

Regional Environmental Change - Wetlands play important roles that benefit social-ecological systems. They are threatened by climate change and human activities, i.e., raising livestock and...     

Gendered medicinal plant knowledge contributions to adaptive capacity and health sovereignty in Amazonia

Local medical systems are key elements of social-ecological systems as they provide culturally appropriate and locally accessible health care options, especially for populations with scarce access to biomedicine. The adaptive capacity of local medical systems generally rests on two pillars: species diversity and a robust local knowledge system, both threatened by local and global environmental change. We first present a conceptual framework to guide the assessment of knowledge diversity and redundancy in local medicinal knowledge systems through a gender lens. Then, we apply this conceptual framework to our research on the local medicinal plant knowledge of the Tsimane’ Amerindians. Our results suggest that Tsimane’ medicinal plant knowledge is gendered and that the frequency of reported ailments and the redundancy of knowledge used to treat them are positively associated. We discuss the implications of knowledge diversity and redundancy for local knowledge systems’ adaptive capacity, resilience, and health sovereignty.     

Female-specific colouration, carotenoids and reproductive investment in a dichromatic species, the upland goose Chloephaga picta leucoptera

Although studies on the evolution and function of female ornaments have become more numerous in the last years, the majority of these studies were carried out in cases where female ornaments were a smaller and duller version of the ornaments found in males. There are substantially fewer studies on species with female-specific ornaments. However, no study so far investigated the potential of female-specific colouration as a quality signal in birds with conventional sex roles. We studied female-specific ornamentation in a strongly sexually dichromatic species, the upland goose Chloephaga picta leucoptera, in two consecutive years. Male upland geese have white head and breast feathers and black legs, whereas females have reddish-brown head and breast feathers and conspicuous yellow-orange legs. We found that female-specific colouration in upland geese can reliably indicate different aspects of female phenotypic quality. Females with more orange coloured legs and more red-like head colours had higher clutch and egg volumes than females with a paler leg and head colouration, and a more reddish plumage colouration was related to a higher body condition. These relationships provide the theoretic possibility for males to assess female phenotypic quality on the basis of colouration. Furthermore, the females with a more orange-like tarsus colouration had higher plasma carotenoid levels. Both tarsus colouration and carotenoid concentrations of individual females were highly correlated across years, indicating that tarsus colour is a stable signal. Despite this correlation, small individual differences in plasma carotenoid concentrations between the two study years were related to differences in tarsus colouration. We thus show for the first time in a wild bird and under natural conditions that carotenoid-based integument colouration remains consistent between individuals in consecutive years and is also a dynamic trait reflecting individual changes in carotenoid levels. In this species, where pairs form life-long bonds, the honesty of the carotenoid-based integument colouration suggests that it may be a sexually selected female ornament that has evolved through male mate choice.     

Free ‐ living animals as indicators of environmental pollution by chlorinated hydrocarbons

As some species of game and free‐living animals promptly respond to ecosystem damage by a reaction that is easy to interpret, they are important ecological indicators in assessing the total contamination of the environment. Consumers of the highest order like predators, predatory and fish‐eating birds are among the most important bioindicators of environmental contamination by chlorinated hydrocarbons and PCB.

Data on chlorinated hydrocarbons and PCB levels were collected throughout 1988–1992 and obtained from 16 species of free‐living animals from 9 protected areas of Slovakia. Muscle tissue, liver, kidney and egg samples were examined for HCB, HCH isomers, DDT and its analogues, and PCB.

Levels of organic chlorinated contaminants reveal a decreasing tendency and thus cease to be a toxicologically important risk factor in game, with the exception of predatory birds, as significant values have been recorded in their eggs and reproductive organs.     

The relationship between maternal ornamentation and feeding rate is explained by intrinsic nestling quality

In altricial birds, parental feeding is essential, and its amount may depend on the quality of both parents. A relationship between parental quality and feeding rate is generally attributed to an active adjustment by parents in order to retain good quality mates or ensure high fitness through raising high-quality offspring. However, the behaviour and need of young may also change with parental quality, and this may affect parental behaviour. A further problem is that most studies have investigated post-hatching parental investment in relation to the secondary sexual signals of males, but not females. In a cross-fostering experiment, we examined the feeding rates of rearing parents in relation to the size and ornamentation of both original and rearing parents in collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis). Using this setup, we could examine whether the observed feeding patterns were the results of the decision of the parents based on their own and their partner’s traits or the constraints imposed by the behaviour or need of offspring. When correcting for clutch size and year, we found that feeding rate of both foster parents correlated with the wing patch size of the original female. This implies that original maternal quality had an offspring-mediated indirect effect on investment of foster parents, that is intrinsic nestling quality may constrain parental feeding decisions. This explanation should not be overlooked in future studies on preferential parental investment, and our results also point out that maternal ornaments deserve more attention in such studies.     

Analysis of lipid peroxidation in animal and plant tissues as field-based biomarker in Mediterranean irrigated agroecosystems (Extremadura,Spain)

ABSTRACT

The development of field-based biomarkers can allow for a more reliable assessment of the exposure of organisms to pollutants. Different sampling sites, along two streams running through an irrigable agricultural area, were selected to evaluate the effect of agrochemical load on the measured endpoints. The levels of lipid peroxidation were evaluated in several organs of Procambarus clarkii. The same method was applied to leaves of two woody species. Determining levels of MDA (malonaldehyde) by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances assay allows measuring the levels of lipid peroxidation. Differences in lipid peroxidation levels were observed in P. clarkii individuals collected at different sites; however, the patterns varied depending on the organ (when accounting for variations due to sex). The use of a MDA-gills/MDA-hepatopancreas index allowed for discrimination between reference and polluted sites. Significant differences in oxidative damage between sites were found in the leaves of Quercus rotundifolia but not in Salix sp. The lipid peroxidation of crayfish organs and holm oak leaves as a suitable biomarker of environmental pollution deserves further investigation.     

Canopy leaching of nutrients and metals in a mountain spruce forest

Precipitation and throughfall fluxes of major ions, nutrients (C, N, P), and metals (Al, Fe, Mn), and the chemical composition of litter fall and living plant tissue in Norway spruce stands (the Bohemian Forest; Czech Republic), were used to evaluate how microbial processes and decay of plant tissue in canopies influence canopy leaching (CL) of elements. Proton exchange for Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, and K⁺ in decaying biomass and co-transport of Ca²⁺ and K⁺ out of plant cells with organic acid anions were the most likely processes contributing to CL of base cations. The CL of total P and N (and also NO₃^?) was minor. Important proportions of the N and P mineral forms were transformed to organic forms by microbial processes (primary and bacterial production), with the respective CL of ?13.9 and 16.4 mmol m^?2 yr^?1 for NH₄⁺ and organic N, and ?0.33 and 0.22 mmol m^?2 yr^?1 for dissolved reactive P (DRP) and organic P. Most of particulate P and N in throughfall (～90%) originated from microbial DRP and NH₄⁺ transformations, but particulate C mostly came from the fragmentation of plant tissue (58%). Among metals, CL was not observed for Al, was small for Fe (0.3 mmol m^?2 yr^?1), and greatest for Mn (0.9 mmol m^?2 yr^?1) due to leaching from decaying tissue by acidic precipitation.