Color Diversity Research Articles

Integrated transcriptome and metabolome analysis reveals anthocyanin biosynthesis mechanisms in pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) leaves under continuous blue light irradiation

BackgroundDifferent metabolic compounds give pepper leaves and fruits their diverse colors. Anthocyanin accumulation is the main cause of the purple color of pepper leaves. The light environment is a critical factor affecting anthocyanin biosynthesis. It is essential that we understand how to use light to regulate anthocyanin biosynthesis in plants.ResultPepper leaves were significantly blue–purple only in continuous blue light or white light (with a blue light component) irradiation treatments, and the anthocyanin content of pepper leaves increased significantly after continuous blue light irradiation. This green-to-purple phenotype change in pepper leaves was due to the expression of different genes. We found that the anthocyanin synthesis precursor-related genes PAL and 4CL, as well as the structural genes F3H, DFR, ANS, BZ1, and F3’5’H in the anthocyanin synthesis pathway, had high expression under continuous blue light irradiation. Similarly, the expression of transcription factors MYB1R1-like, MYB48, MYB4-like isoform X1, bHLH143-like, and bHLH92-like isoform X3, and circadian rhythm-related genes LHY and COP1, were significantly increased after continuous blue light irradiation. A correlation network analysis revealed that these transcription factors and circadian rhythm-related genes were positively correlated with structural genes in the anthocyanin synthesis pathway. Metabolomic analysis showed that delphinidin-3-O-glucoside and delphinidin-3-O-rutinoside were significantly higher under continuous blue light irradiation relative to other light treatments. We selected 12 genes involved in anthocyanin synthesis in pepper leaves for qRT-PCR analysis, and the accuracy of the RNA-seq results was confirmed.ConclusionsIn this study, we found that blue light and 24-hour irradiation together induced the expression of key genes and the accumulation of metabolites in the anthocyanin synthesis pathway, thus promoting anthocyanin biosynthesis in pepper leaves. These results provide a basis for future study of the mechanisms of light quality and photoperiod in anthocyanin synthesis and metabolism, and our study may serve as a valuable reference for screening light ratios that regulate anthocyanin biosynthesis in plants.

Biomimetic Anticoagulated Porous Particles with Self-Reporting Structural Colors.

Anticoagulation is vital to maintain blood fluidic status and physiological functions in the field of clinical blood-related procedures. Here, novel biomimetic anticoagulated porous inverse opal hydrogel particles is presented as anticoagulant bearing dynamic screening capability. The inverse opal hydrogel particles possess abundant sulfonic and carboxyl groups, which serve as binding sites with multiple coagulation factors and inhibit the blood coagulation process. Owing to the variations of refractive index and pore sizes during the binding process, the particles appeared corresponding structure color variations, which can be adopted as sensory index of anticoagulation. Based on these features, a sensor containing these diverse structure color particle units is constructed for pattern recognition of coagulation factors level in clinical plasma samples. By analyzing the sensory information of the unit, the colorimetric "fingerprint" for each target can be obtained and summarized as a database. Besides, a portable test-strip integrating sensory units is developed to distinguish the sample regarding abnormal coagulation factors-derived diseases via multivariate data analysis. It is believed that such biomimetic anticoagulated structural color particles and their derived sensor will open new avenue for clinical detection and disease diagnosis.

Potential Regulatory Networks and Heterosis for Flavonoid and Terpenoid Contents in Pak Choi: Metabolomic and Transcriptome Analyses.

Pak choi exhibits a diverse color range and serves as a rich source of flavonoids and terpenoids. However, the mechanisms underlying the heterosis and coordinated regulation of these compounds-particularly isorhamnetin-remain unclear. This study involved three hybrid combinations and the detection of 528 metabolites from all combinations, including 26 flavonoids and 88 terpenoids, through untargeted metabolomics. Analysis of differential metabolites indicated that the heterosis for the flavonoid and terpenoid contents was parent-dependent, and positive heterosis was observed for isorhamnetin in the two hybrid combinations (SZQ, 002 and HMG, ZMG). Moreover, there was a high transcription level of flavone 3'-O-methyltransferase, which is involved in isorhamnetin biosynthesis. The third group was considered the ideal hybrid combination for investigating the heterosis of flavonoid and terpenoid contents. Transcriptome analysis identified a total of 12,652 DEGs (TPM > 1) in various groups that were used for comparison, and DEGs encoding enzymes involved in various categories, including "carotenoid bio-synthesis" and "anthocyanin biosynthesis", were enriched in the hybrid combination (SZQ, 002). Moreover, the category of anthocyanin biosynthesis also was enriched in the hybrid combination (HMG, ZMG). The flavonoid pathway demonstrated more differential metabolites than the terpenoid pathway did. The WGCNA demonstrated notable positive correlations between the dark-green modules and many flavonoids and terpenoids. Moreover, there were 23 ERF genes in the co-expression network (r ≥ 0.90 and p < 0.05). Thus, ERF genes may play a significant role in regulating flavonoid and terpenoid biosynthesis. These findings enhance our understanding of the heterosis and coordinated regulation of flavonoid and terpenoid biosynthesis in pak choi, offering insights for genomics-based breeding improvements.

Avian colouration in a polluted world: a meta-analysis.

Brilliant, diverse colour ornaments of birds were one of the crucial cues that led Darwin to the idea of sexual selection. Although avian colouration plays many functions, including concealment, thermoregulation, or advertisement as a distasteful prey, a quality-signalling role in sexual selection has attracted most research attention. Sexually selected ornaments are thought to be more susceptible to external stressors than naturally selected traits, and as such, they might be used as a test for environmental quality. For this reason, the last two decades have seen numerous studies on the impact of anthropogenic pollution on the expression of various avian colour traits. Herein, we provide the first meta-analytical summary of these results and examine whether there is an interaction between the mechanism of colour production (carotenoid-based, melanin-based and structural) and the type of anthropogenic factor (categorised as heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, urbanisation, or other). Following the assumption of heightened condition dependence of ornaments under sexual selection, we also expected the magnitude of effect sizes to be higher in males. The overall effect size was close to significance and negative, supporting a general detrimental impact of anthropogenic pollutants on avian colouration. In contrast to expectations, there was no interaction between pollution types and colour-producing mechanisms. Yet there were significant differences in sensitivity between colour-producing mechanisms, with carotenoid-based colouration being the most affected by anthropogenic environmental disturbances. Moreover, we observed no significant tendency towards heightened sensitivity in males. We identified a publication gap on structural colouration, which, compared to pigment-based colouration, remains markedly understudied and should thus be prioritised in future research. Finally, we call for the unification of methods used in colour quantification in ecological research to ensure comparability of results among studies.

PEMBUATAN KERAJINAN TANGAN GANTUNGAN TASBIH DAN AKSESORIS CINCIN DI SMPN 1 SERANG BARU

The process of making beads and rings from beads is a handicraft that requires high skill and accuracy. Handicrafts in the form of tasbih hangers from beads have become a trend that is in demand by teenagers, because diverse colors, sizes and types of beads can affect the beauty of the product. The purpose of this program is so that the participants always remember Allah SWT, can develop creativity and exercise patience in themselves, and become new ideas for the future. The author uses demonstration and training methods, so that participants can implement them in everyday life. The Program was carried out in Class 8 of SMPN 1 Serang Baru, on Seelasa day, February 27, 2024 at 10.00 WIB, with a target number of 31 students. The results of this activity showed a high enthusiasm of participants in making handicrafts from beads of various shapes and colors. This activity has a positive impact on the community, one of which can build a business to help the economy. The author hopes that after the implementation of this activity, people can apply the knowledge that has been obtained.

C3-Symmetric Luminescent Diketone with Amido-Linkage as a Polymorphic Fluorescence Emitter.

The study introduces a novel C3-symmetric β-diketone compound, BTA-D3, and its monomeric counterpart, D, with a focus on their synthetic procedure, photophysical properties and aggregation behavior. Both compounds exhibit characteristic absorption and weak fluorescence in solution, with BTA-D3 displaying higher absorption coefficients due to its larger number of diketone units. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations suggest increased co-planarity of diketone groups in BTA-D3. A significant finding is the Aggregation-Induced Emission (AIE) property of BTA-D3, as its fluorescence intensity increases dramatically when exposed to specific solvent ratios. The AIE behavior is attributed to intermolecular excitonic interaction between BTA-D3 molecules in self-organized aggregates. We also studied fluorescence anisotropy of BTA-D3 and D. Despite its larger size, BTA-D3 showed reduced anisotropy values because of efficient intramolecular energy migration among three diketone units. Furthermore, BTA-D3 demonstrates unique polymorphism, yielding different emission colors and structures depending on the solvent used. A unique approach is presented for promoting the growth of self-organized aggregate structures via solvent evaporation, leading to distinct fluorescence properties. This research contributes to the understanding of C3-symmetric structural molecules and provides insights into strategies for controlling molecular alignment to achieve diverse fluorescence coloration in molecular materials.

Morphological Characterization of Elite Indian Bean Genotypes of Bundelkhand Region

The morphological characterization of Indian bean genotypes of Bundelkand region was conducted at Vegetable Research Farm, RLBCAU, Jhansi during kharif season 2020-21. A total of 21 genotypes of Indian bean were collected from various districts of Uttar Pradesh. The randomized block design with two replications was used and morphological characterization was conducted. Observations were recorded on ten morphological characters selected from DUS. Dolichos bean germplasm exhibits significant diversity in various qualitative traits, including plant growth habit (ranging from pole to bush), stem colour variations (green, dark green, and purple), diverse flower colours (purple, white, and dark purple), leaf vein colours (light green, green, and purple), distinct leaf densities (sparse, intermediate, and dense), pod colours encompassing green, light green, white, purple, and dark purple, as well as pod characteristics such as curvature (straight, curved, and highly curved) and shape (straight, intermediate, and curved).

Learning a physics-based filter attachment for hyperspectral imaging with RGB cameras

Countless RGB cameras are ubiquitously distributed in our daily lives, serving to perceive and depict the diverse colors of the world. Reconstructing hyperspectral images (HSI) from these trichromatic cameras emerges as a promising solution to address the limitations of existing, costly hyperspectral imaging systems. The performance of HSI reconstruction relies heavily on the camera spectral response (CSR). Thus, designing a better CSR and putting it into practice is the critical issue for RGB-based HSI reconstruction. However, the CSR curves designed in the existing works are overly random, making them challenging to manufacture directly. Additionally, the designed CSR curves require modifications to the camera hardware, resulting in the loss of RGB imaging functionality. In this paper, we propose a hyperspectral imaging system, which involves enhancing the CSR curve of existing RGB cameras and preserving RGB imaging functionality by adding a learnable physics-based spectral filter. Specifically, we first parameterize the spectral filter transmittance as a function of the filter thicknesses, based on the physical constraints of the multilayer interference principle. Then, we propose a joint optimization framework in which the thicknesses of the filter and the hyperspectral reconstruction network are optimized. In this manner, the thicknesses of the filter are obtained and used to manufacture the filter directly. Finally, we construct a prototype and verify the benefits of our spectral filter design method through experiments including both synthetic data and real images.

The genetic basis of apple shape and size unraveled by digital phenotyping.

Great diversity of shape, size, and skin color is observed among the fruits of different apple genotypes. These traits are critical for consumers and therefore interesting targets for breeding new apple varieties. However, they are difficult to phenotype and their genetic basis, especially for fruit shape and ground color, is largely unknown. We used the FruitPhenoBox to digitally phenotype 525 genotypes of the apple reference population (apple REFPOP) genotyped for 303,148 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. From the apple images, 573 highly heritable features describing fruit shape and size as well as 17 highly heritable features for fruit skin color were extracted to explore genotype-phenotype relationships. Out of these features, seven principal components (PCs) and 16 features with the Pearson's correlation r < 0.75 (selected features) were chosen to carry out genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for fruit shape and size. Four PCs and eight selected features were used in GWAS for fruit skin color. In total, 69 SNPs scattered over all 17 apple chromosomes were significantly associated with round, conical, cylindrical, or symmetric fruit shapes and fruit size. Novel associations with major effect on round or conical fruit shapes and fruit size were identified on chromosomes 1 and 2. Additionally, 16 SNPs associated with PCs and selected features related to red overcolor as well as green and yellow ground color were found on eight chromosomes. The identified associations can be used to advance marker-assisted selection in apple fruit breeding to systematically select for desired fruit appearance.

اللون في شعر الجواهري د.

Al-Jawahiri is considered one of the most important Arabic poets in the modern era. His poetry is distinguished by multiple artistic aesthetics, the most important of which is his unique and masterful use of colors. The colors he used played a prominent role in enriching his poetry and making it more expressive of his feelings .and thoughts :research aims .Analysis of Al-Jawahiri's use of colors in his poetry .Identifying the functions of color in the jeweler’s poetry He linked Al-Jawahiri's use of colors to the environment in which he lived, Arab .culture, and the poets he influenced :Research Methodology Descriptive analytical method :research results Al-Jawahiri's use of colors was distinguished by its diversity, clarity, and impact on .the reader's emotions Diversity of colors: Al-Jawahiri used a variety of colors in his hair, including primary .and secondary colors, and warm and cool colors Clarity of colors: The jeweler used colors clearly and precisely, so that the reader .can easily understand the intended meaning .Use colors skillfully to influence the reader's emotions and arouse their interest Al-Jawahiri was influenced by the multiplicity of colors present in the Arab and Iraqi .environment, and this led to his use of a variety of colors in his poems :Recommendations The researcher is recommended to conduct more research on the application of colors in the poems of other Arab poets. It is also recommended to conduct a comparative study between the use of colors in Al-Jawahiri’s poems and their use .in the poems of other Arab poets Keywords: colors, jeweler

헝가리 민족의 문화적 정체성과 분리파 양식

During the late 19th century, the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy brought modern transformations to Hungary, as a result of political compromise. Hungary, which was primarily an agrarian and underdeveloped nation, rapidly evolved into an industrial and agricultural state during this era. This transformation significantly influenced Hungary’s social structure, culture, and art fields. Additionaly, during the Dual Monarchy, Hungary actively pursued cultural exchanges with major European cities. This period laid the foundation for internationalization and Europeanization, while emphasizing national characteristics and originality. The influx and expansion of diverse pan-European cultural and artistic trends in Hungary were prominent during this time. The Hungarian Secession style played a pivotal role in creating a unique style grounded in the nation’s traditional folk motifs, which was influenced by modernism and avant-garde tendencies. The Hungarian Secession style in architecture aimed to go beyond static societal, philosophical, scientific, and artistic positivism by showcasing intricate trends. Stylization and ornamentation were utilized as a response to naturalism and as a continuation of symbolism and artistic abstraction.&#x0D; This style is characterized by organic and curvilinear lines inspired by nature, which are present in both the exteriors and interior decorations of buildings. The architecture style of Hungary in the early 20th century was characterized by complex decorations and bright, diverse colors, especially in tile and glasswork. Buildings were not only functional spaces but also used to express cultural identity. In the field of art, Hungarian artists emphasized national identity by combining traditional folk art and patterns with contemporary styles in their works, often featuring plants, animals, and other natural elements. During this period, literature utilized metaphor and synesthesia as tools for stylization and ornamentation. The preferred genres were dramas, fairy tales, fantastical short stories, psychological novels, and lyric poetry. The focus was on expressing inner worlds and life's sentiments directly. The Secession style had a significant influence on the genre of short stories and played a crucial role in literary journalism of the time. This movement emphasized the cultural and national values of the economically prosperous liberal middle class, recognizing traditional Christian national values and the aesthetic tastes of the middle class. The new realism of writers such as Móricz Zsigmond and Babits Mihály would have been impossible without this style.&#x0D; The Hungarian Secession style originated from the attempts of Hungarian artists to combine national traditions and folk art with a contemporary style. The performance particularly highlighted national and folkloric elements, demonstrating a distinctive way of expressing regional characteristics and national identity in Hungary.

Production of Hair Art Based on Rare Species of Flowers

Flowers are the outcome of plants. They have been commonly used as a material for art because they can express beauty with various colors and make diverse expressions possible. With the growth and development of the beauty art industry, people’s interest in hair art has increased. At the same time, materials for hair art have become diversified. For example, waste hair has been used for painterly-style art. In addition, color is emphasized for a formative meaning. In hair art created with flower images, hair is used to express flowers' diverse colors and 3-dimensional effects. The study results found the following: In Design I, dark colors were used to dynamically express the natural colors and vigor of wildflowers. In Design II, wildflowers were expressed like living creatures with the movements of petals. In Design III, dark colors were used to make flower stalks look like the janggu (Korean drum) stick, naturally expressing petals. In Design IV, the lively energy of the color yellow was expressed with flowers, vibrantly expressing leaves. In Design V, dark colors were used to create a straight look, expressing flowers and leaves with a natural violet color. In Design VI, the vigor of wildflowers was expressed with the diverse colors of flowers and petals, while their liveliness was created with leaves. This study further developed hair art into a practical field of study with rare flowers in the pictorial book of wildflowers, allowing anyone to make various attempts.

Classify Tomato Fruit Images Using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) Method

The agricultural and forestry product processing industry is developing very rapidly. The stage in the process of processing plant products is selecting products according to their quality, for example fruit ripeness. The process of selecting agricultural and horticultural products is often largely based on human perception of the color composition of fruit images (manual selection). The weakness of manual fruit classification is greatly influenced by the subjectivity of the classifier. To reduce subjectivity and manual methods, a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) deep learning method is needed. Tomatoes are chosen for image classification based on color diversity, aiding accurate recognition through distinct ripeness variations. The aim of this research is to detect and recognize tomato images and determine its accuracy value by applying the CNN Deep Learning method. The first stage is preparing the required tomato image data set. The second stage is preprocessing and sorting the tomato image. The third stage is model formation and system training. The last is to carry out system testing. This research uses 14 tomato images which are used as testing data from 56 tomato images used in the training dataset. Testing tomatoes produces an average data testing accuracy value of 97%.

A Review of Microplastic Identification and Characterization Methods in Aquatic Environments

Plastic waste has become a major global issue, with over 390.7 million tons of plastic produced in 2021. Because of its durability, low recycling rates, poor waste management, and maritime use, a considerable portion of plastic waste ends up in aquatic environments. Photo-oxidation and other mechanisms degrade plastics into microplastics (MPs), which are particles smaller than 5 mm. MPs can spread through the aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic areas, and running waterways serve as conduits for MP transport across various ecosystems. MPs have been found at various levels of the food web, and animals can ingest, inhale, or absorb them through their skin. MPs pose a significant health risk to flora and fauna, including marine creatures and humans, due to their small size, diverse colors, high abundance, and ability to adsorb antibiotic-resistant pathogens, causing cytotoxicity, acute reactions, undesirable immunological responses, neurotoxicity, and DNA alteration. MPs have a negative economic impact on industries such as agriculture, fishing, tourism, etc. Detecting and quantifying the presence of MPs is therefore critical. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the various techniques and equipment used to detect and characterize MPs in aqueous environments. Identifying and educating the public about the primary sources of plastic pollution can help reduce the number of MPs in the environment.

Pollen, anther, stamen, and androecium mimicry.

Floral colours represent a highly diverse communication signal mainly involved in flower visitors' attraction and guidance, but also flower discrimination, filtering non-pollinators and discouraging floral antagonists. The divergent visual systems and colour preferences of flower visitors, as well as the necessity of cues for flower detection and discrimination, foster the diversity of floral colours and colour patterns. Despite the bewildering diversity of floral colour patterns, a recurrent component is a yellow UV-absorbing floral centre, and it is still not clear why this pattern is so frequent inangiosperms. The pollen, anther, stamen, and androecium mimicry (PASAM) hypothesis suggests that the system composed of the flowers possessing such yellow UV-absorbing floral reproductive structures, the flowers displaying central yellow UV-absorbing structures as floral guides, and the pollen-collecting, as well as pollen-eating, flower visitors responding to such signals constitute the world's most speciose mimicry system. In this review, we call the attention of researchers to some hypothetical PASAM systems around the globe, presenting some fascinating examples that illustrate their huge diversity. We will also present new and published data on pollen-eating and pollen-collecting pollinators' responses to PASAM structures supporting the PASAM hypothesis and will discuss how widespread these systems are around the globe. Ultimately, our goal is to promote the idea that PASAM is a plausible first approach to understanding floral colour patterns in angiosperms.

Revolutionizing Robotic Depalletizing: AI-Enhanced Parcel Detecting with Adaptive 3D Machine Vision and RGB-D Imaging for Automated Unloading.

Detecting parcels accurately and efficiently has always been a challenging task when unloading from trucks onto conveyor belts because of the diverse and complex ways in which parcels are stacked. Conventional methods struggle to quickly and accurately classify the various shapes and surface patterns of unordered parcels. In this paper, we propose a parcel-picking surface detection method based on deep learning and image processing for the efficient unloading of diverse and unordered parcels. Our goal is to develop a systematic image processing algorithm that emphasises the boundaries of parcels regardless of their shape, pattern, or layout. The core of the algorithm is the utilisation of RGB-D technology for detecting the primary boundary lines regardless of obstacles such as adhesive labels, tapes, or parcel surface patterns. For cases where detecting the boundary lines is difficult owing to narrow gaps between parcels, we propose using deep learning-based boundary line detection through the You Only Look at Coefficients (YOLACT) model. Using image segmentation techniques, the algorithm efficiently predicts boundary lines, enabling the accurate detection of irregularly sized parcels with complex surface patterns. Furthermore, even for rotated parcels, we can extract their edges through complex mathematical operations using the depth values of the specified position, enabling the detection of the wider surfaces of the rotated parcels. Finally, we validate the accuracy and real-time performance of our proposed method through various case studies, achieving mAP (50) values of 93.8% and 90.8% for randomly sized and rotationally covered boxes with diverse colours and patterns, respectively.

Real-time identification of collapsed buildings triggered by natural disasters using a modified object-detection network with quasi-panchromatic images

ABSTRACT During disaster response, it is very important to obtain the information of collapsed building distribution accurately and quickly. However, limited by some practical factors, existed methods often suffer from the contradiction between the accuracy and efficiency of building damage extraction. This paper proposed a simple and effective framework to rapid recognize collapsed building objects using pre-disaster building distribution maps and post-disaster quasi-panchromatic remote sensing images. The proposed method is validated using several historical disasters in the xBD dataset and tested using three cases of earthquakes in terms of both effectiveness and efficiency. In addition, we have verified that the texture information of optical remote sensing images can be used as the main basis to judge whether a building is collapsed or not, so the panchromatic images are sufficient to enable the deep learning model to correctly recognize collapsed buildings. The experimental results indicate that using quasi-panchromatic images can alleviate the influence of style variations and diverse roof colors present in multi-spectral images on the model’s generalization performance, resulting in an average overall accuracy improvement of 2.4%. Additionally, the reduced data volume leads to an improvement in inference efficiency.

Protein repeats show clade-specific volatility in Aves

Protein repeats are a source of rapid evolutionary and functional novelty. Repeats are crucial in development, neurogenesis, immunity, and disease. Repeat length variability and purity can alter the outcome of a pathway by altering the protein structure and affecting the protein-protein interaction affinity. Such rampant alterations can facilitate species to rapidly adapt to new environments or acquire various morphological/physiological features. With more than 11.000 species, the avian clade is one of the most speciose vertebrate clades, with near-ubiquitous distribution globally. Explosive adaptive radiation and functional diversification facilitated the birds to occupy various habitats. High diversity in morphology, physiology, flight pattern, behavior, coloration, and life histories make birds ideal for studying protein repeats’ role in evolutionary novelty. Our results demonstrate a similar repeat diversity and proportion of repeats across all the avian orders considered, implying an essential role of repeats in necessary pathways. We detected positively selected sites in the polyQ repeat of RUNX2 in the avian clade; and considerable repeat length contraction in the Psittacopasserae. The repeats show a species-wide bias towards a contraction in Galloanseriformes. Interestingly, we detected the length contrast of polyS repeat in PCDH20 between Galliformes and Anseriformes. We speculate that length variability of serine repeat and its interaction with β-catenin in the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway could have facilitated fowls to adapt to their respective environmental conditions. We believe our study emphasizes the role of protein repeats in functional/morphological diversification in birds. We also provide an extensive list of genes with considerable repeat length contrast to further explore the role of length volatility in evolutionary novelty and rapid functional diversification.

Bird color and taxonomic diversity are negatively related to human disturbance in urban parks

Abstract. Recently, studies have shown that highly urbanized areas are numerically dominated by birds with grey plumage, probably favoring camouflage with impervious grey surfaces. However, patterns of bird color diversity in urban green areas remain unexplored. In urban parks, sites surrounded by highly urbanized areas may be dominated by grey bird species, whereas urban parks with pedestrians that feed birds may favor commensal birds which also have grey plumage. Thus, we explore the relationship between environmental variables and bird taxonomic and color diversity in urban parks. Bird surveys were conducted twice by fixed points in urban parks of six cities in central Argentina. Bird color diversity was assessed by characterizing bird plumage coloration in different parts of the bird body and the presence of plumage sexual dimorphism, polymorphism, and iridescence. Then, color richness and color diversity (abundance-based) were calculated with species mean pairwise distance. Null models were used to quantify richness-corrected color diversity. Bird species richness and diversity increased with green-area size, and bird diversity decreased with increasing pedestrian traffic. Color richness decreased with increasing car traffic, whereas color diversity was positively related to green-area size and negatively related to car and pedestrian traffic. Richness-corrected color diversity related negatively to car and pedestrian traffic. The abundance of grey birds increased in parks near the urban centers and related positively to pedestrian and car traffic. The abundance of yellow birds increased in parks near rural areas or small cities. Color diversity increased with green-area size, but richness-corrected color diversity ceased to be related to area size. Therefore, the increase in color diversity with area size was mediated by increases in species richness. Color diversity was clustered in parks with the highest human disturbance, favoring the abundance of grey species which probably took advantage of food discarded by humans.

Flower colour and size-signals vary with altitude and resulting climate on the tropical-subtropical islands of Taiwan.

The diversity of flower colours in nature provides quantifiable evidence for how visitations by colour sensing insect pollinators can drive the evolution of angiosperm visual signalling. Recent research shows that both biotic and abiotic factors may influence flower signalling, and that harsher climate conditions may also promote salient signalling to entice scarcer pollinators to visit. In parallel, a more sophisticated appreciation of the visual task foragers face reveals that bees have a complex visual system that uses achromatic vision when moving fast, whilst colour vision requires slower, more careful inspection of targets. Spectra of 714 native flowering species across Taiwan from sea level to mountainous regions 3,300 m above sea level (a.s.l.) were measured. We modelled how the visual system of key bee pollinators process signals, including flower size. By using phylogenetically informed analyses, we observed that at lower altitudes including foothills and submontane landscapes, there is a significant relationship between colour contrast and achromatic signals. Overall, the frequency of flowers with high colour contrast increases with altitude, whilst flower size decreases. The evidence that flower colour signaling becomes increasingly salient in higher altitude conditions supports that abiotic factors influence pollinator foraging in a way that directly influences how flowering plants need to advertise.