Short-term Adaptation Research Articles

Sustainable adaptation of commercial inland fishing?—Lessons learnt from subarctic Lake Inari, Finland

We studied commercial fishers’ observations and experience-based knowledge in combination with long-term monitoring data in order to gain a holistic view of the adaptation of fishers to climate change and other drivers on Lake Inari. Fishers’ main sustainability concerns included degradation of the environment, overfishing, and lack of decision-making power. The fishery and fishing have changed due to increased water temperature and lake productivity; the open-water period has become longer and winter fishing season shorter and spring-spawning species, such as pike and perch, have become more common. Fishers’ responses to reduce risks and cope with future uncertainty included both long- and short-term adaptation—achieved through diversification, flexibility, innovation, and mobility. The responses of fishers to multiple changes are variable and based on individual rather than community behavior. We argue that diverse fishing strategies support the adaptation capacity and sustainability of commercial fishing. Sustainable adaptation of commercial inland fisheries could be further enhanced by better monitoring of the hydrology and fishery, by supporting social relations and communication, and through decision-making based on both scientific and fishers’ knowledge.

The GRAS gene family and its roles in pineapple (Ananas comosus L.) developmental regulation and cold tolerance

BackgroundPineapple (Ananas comosus L.) is a major tropical fruit crop with considerable economic importance, and its growth and development are significantly impacted by low temperatures. The plant-specific GRAS gene family plays crucial roles in diverse processes, including flower and fruit development, as well as in stress responses. However, the role of the GRAS family in pineapple has not yet been systematically analyzed.ResultsIn this study, 43 AcGRAS genes were identified in the pineapple genome; these genes were distributed unevenly across 19 chromosomes and 6 scaffolds and were designated as AcGRAS01 to AcGRAS43 based on their chromosomal locations. Phylogenetic analysis classified these genes into 14 subfamilies: OS19, HAM-1, HAM-2, SCL4/7, LISCL, SHR, PAT1, DLT, LAS, SCR, SCL3, OS43, OS4, and DELLA. Gene structure analysis revealed that 60.5% of the AcGRAS genes lacked introns. Expression profiling demonstrated tissue-specific expression, with most AcGRAS genes predominantly expressed in specific floral organs, fruit tissues, or during particular developmental stages, suggesting functional diversity in pineapple development. Furthermore, the majority of AcGRAS genes were induced by cold stress, but different members seemed to play distinct roles in short-term or long-term cold adaptation in pineapple. Notably, most members of the PAT1 subfamily were preferentially expressed during late petal development and were upregulated under cold stress, suggesting their special roles in petal development and the cold response. In contrast, no consistent expression patterns were observed among genes in other subfamilies, suggesting that various regulatory factors, such as miRNAs, transcription factors, and cis-regulatory elements, may contribute to the diverse functions of AcGRAS members, even within the same subfamily.ConclusionsThis study provides the first comprehensive analysis of GRAS genes in pineapple, offers valuable insights for further functional investigations of AcGRASs and provides clues for improving pineapple cold resistance breeding.

Adaptation to Flooding in St. Augustine, USA

While sea level rise is usually considered as a problem that will be faced in the future, the cumulative effect of decades of slowly rising water levels have meant that many low-lying communities around the planet are already experiencing an increased frequency in tidal flooding. This includes many communities in the United States, such as the city of St. Augustine, in Florida, which has also been devastated by several hurricanes in the early 21st century. The process of how communities will adapt or relocate is notably complicated, and in the present work the authors outline an improved framework that can help to explain the process which individuals undergo as a consequence of individual stressors caused by climate change. Particularly, the feelings of individuals has so far not been studied in detail, and the authors thus conducted a qualitative analysis of the adaptation response by interviewing 20 individuals in two different neighborhoods of St. Augustine, focusing on how “eco-anxiety” might influence them. The results suggest that adaptation countermeasures have been implemented at the city, and sometimes individual level, though community-level strategies have so far been lagging. While short-term adaptation strategies to flooding might be adequate even if individuals are not aware -or deny- long-term climate change, it is unclear whether long-term adaptation by such retroactive approaches might lead to maladaptation practices.

Parallel mechanisms signal a hierarchy of sequence structure violations in the auditory cortex

The brain predicts regularities in sensory inputs at multiple complexity levels, with neuronal mechanisms that remain elusive. Here, we monitored auditory cortex activity during the local-global paradigm, a protocol nesting different regularity levels in sound sequences. We observed that mice encode local predictions based on stimulus occurrence and stimulus transition probabilities, because auditory responses are boosted upon prediction violation. This boosting was due to both short-term adaptation and an adaptation-independent surprise mechanism resisting anesthesia. In parallel, and only in wakefulness, VIP interneurons responded to the omission of the locally expected sound repeat at the sequence ending, thus providing a chunking signal potentially useful for establishing global sequence structure. When this global structure was violated, by either shortening the sequence or ending it with a locally expected but globally unexpected sound transition, activity slightly increased in VIP and PV neurons, respectively. Hence, distinct cellular mechanisms predict different regularity levels in sound sequences.

Parallel mechanisms signal a hierarchy of sequence structure violations in the auditory cortex.

The brain predicts regularities in sensory inputs at multiple complexity levels, with neuronal mechanisms that remain elusive. Here, we monitored auditory cortex activity during the local-global paradigm, a protocol nesting different regularity levels in sound sequences. We observed that mice encode local predictions based on stimulus occurrence and stimulus transition probabilities, because auditory responses are boosted upon prediction violation. This boosting was due to both short-term adaptation and an adaptation-independent surprise mechanism resisting anesthesia. In parallel, and only in wakefulness, VIP interneurons responded to the omission of the locally expected sound repeat at the sequence ending, thus providing a chunking signal potentially useful for establishing global sequence structure. When this global structure was violated, by either shortening the sequence or ending it with a locally expected but globally unexpected sound transition, activity slightly increased in VIP and PV neurons, respectively. Hence, distinct cellular mechanisms predict different regularity levels in sound sequences.

House sparrow (<i>Passer domesticus</i>) nesting behaviours in a rural habitat of the western Himalayas

This article presents different nesting strategies of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) during the 2018 breeding season in a rural area of the outer western Himalayas of Uttarakhand state, India. These observations show house sparrows breeding in a usurped nest of red-rumped swallows (Cecropis daurica), probably the first such record from the western part of India. The unusual use of an anthropogenic object, a shoe, as a nest site was observed. However, more generally, a preference for secondary cavity-nesting strategies associated with the traditional, concrete, and modified traditional houses was found. Behavioural strategies associated with these breeding records have also been reported in this study, showing short-term adaptation or behavioural flexibility of the house sparrow to cope with intra- and interspecific pressures in the breeding season.

Environmental complexity modulates information processing and the balance between decision-making systems.

Behavior in naturalistic scenarios occurs in diverse environments. Adaptive strategies rely on multiple neural circuits and competing decision systems. However, past studies of rodent decision making have largely measured behavior in simple environments. To fill this gap, we recorded neural ensembles from hippocampus (HC), dorsolateral striatum (DLS), and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) while rats foraged for food under changing rules in environments with varying topological complexity. Environmental complexity increased behavioral variability, lengthened HC nonlocal sequences, and modulated action caching. We found contrasting representations between DLS and HC, supporting a competition between decision systems. dmPFC activity was indicative of setting this balance, in particular predicting the extent of HC non-local coding. Inactivating mPFC impaired short-term behavioral adaptation and produced long-term deficits in balancing decision systems. Our findings reveal the dynamic nature of decision-making systems and how environmental complexity modulates their engagement with implications for behavior in naturalistic environments.

Applied Motor Noise Affects Specific Learning Mechanisms during Short-Term Adaptation to Novel Movement Dynamics.

Short-term motor adaptation to novel movement dynamics has been shown to involve at least two concurrent learning processes: a slow process that responds weakly to error but retains information well and a fast process that responds strongly to error but has poor retention. This modeling framework can explain several properties of motion-dependent motor adaptation (e.g., 24 h retention). An important assumption of this computational framework is that learning is only based on the experienced movement error, and the effect of noise (either internally generated or externally applied) is not considered. We examined the respective error sensitivity by quantifying adaptation in three subject groups distinguished by the noise added to the motion-dependent perturbation. We assessed the feedforward adaptive changes in motor output and examined the adaptation rate, retention, and decay of learning. Applying a two-state modeling framework showed that the applied noise during training mainly affected the fast learning process, with the slow process largely unaffected; participants in the higher noise groups demonstrated a reduced force profile following training, but the decay rate across groups was similar, suggesting that the slow process was unimpaired across conditions. Collectively, our results provide evidence that noise significantly decreases motor adaptation, but this reduction may be due to its influence over specific learning mechanisms. Importantly, this may have implications for how the motor system compensates for random fluctuations, especially when affected by brain disorders that result in movement tremor (e.g., essential tremor).

Soil community history strengthens belowground multitrophic functioning across plant diversity levels in a grassland experiment

Biodiversity experiments revealed that plant diversity loss can decrease ecosystem functions across trophic levels. To address why such biodiversity-function relationships strengthen over time, we established experimental mesocosms replicating a gradient in plant species richness across treatments of shared versus non-shared history of (1) the plant community and (2) the soil fauna community. After 4 months, we assessed the multitrophic functioning of soil fauna via biomass stocks and energy fluxes across the food webs. We find that soil community history significantly enhanced belowground multitrophic function via changes in biomass stocks and community-average body masses across the food webs. However, variation in plant diversity and plant community history had unclear effects. Our findings underscore the importance of long-term community assembly processes for soil fauna-driven ecosystem function, with species richness and short-term plant adaptations playing a minimal role. Disturbances that disrupt soil community stability may hinder fauna-driven ecosystem functions, while recovery may require several years.

Deep Crotonylproteomics Analysis of High-Altitude Exposure Hearts in Mice.

The potential molecular mechanisms of short-term adaptation and long-term structural deteriorations in the cardiac structure in response to high altitude remain not fully understood. This study aims to investigate changes in the crotonylproteome in the hearts of mice exposed to high altitude at different time points. The hearts were obtained from mice living at the lowland and 3, 10, and 30 days after arriving at a plateau. Crotonyllysolylated proteins were subsequently comprehensively evaluated. Among the identified 13,731 crotonyllysine sites, 11,140 were quantified. Furthermore, 1247 differentially expressed crotonyllysine sites on 764 proteins in 46 pathways were analyzed, and the results showed that the abundance of crotonylation increased with the increase of exposure time to altitude. Functional enrichment analysis showed that most of these significantly altered crotonylated proteins were enriched in the regulation of metabolism and myocardial function, indicating that these enriched biological processes may be involved in the acute adaptation and chronic remodeling of cardiac function and structural changes at a high altitude. Our study uncovers some crotonylation-affected processes and pathways in the heart's response to high-altitude exposure, giving novel insights into molecular processes of cardiac function and structure changes at high altitude (ProteomeXchange identifier: PXD044178).

Agility Ladder Training Combined With Plyometric or Multidirectional Speed Drills: Short-Term Adaptations on Jump, Speed, and Change of Direction Performance in Young Female Volleyball Players.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of agility ladder training combined with plyometric or multidirection speed drills, on performance in young female volleyball players. Seventy-six young female volleyball players were randomly distributed into 3 maturity-matched groups: (1) the agility ladder + plyometric drills group, (2) the agility ladder + multidirection speed drills group, and (3) the control group. Both experimental groups followed a 6-week training program, twice weekly, in addition to the regular volleyball training sessions, while the control group participated only in the regular volleyball training sessions. Assessments pretraining and posttraining included countermovement jump, 20-m sprint, and agility T test.Results: Both experimental groups improved T-test performance (P < .005) but only agility ladder + multidirection speed drills group outperformed the control group (P < .05). Agility ladder training programs combined with either plyometric or speed drills can improve change of direction performance in young female volleyball players but only the combination of agility ladder with multidirection speed drills is more effective than volleyball training per se. The small effectiveness of these protocols may be attributed to the short training period, or to the fact that training elements were combined in a single session. This hypothesis remains to be further investigated.

Diversity of Transcriptional Regulatory Adaptation in E. coli.

The transcriptional regulatory network (TRN) in bacteria is thought to rapidly evolve in response to selection pressures, modulating transcription factor (TF) activities and interactions. In order to probe the limits and mechanisms surrounding the short-term adaptability of the TRN, we generated, evolved, and characterized knockout (KO) strains in Escherichia coli for 11 regulators selected based on measured growth impact on glucose minimal media. All but one knockout strain (Δlrp) were able to recover growth and did so requiring few convergent mutations. We found that the TF knockout adaptations could be divided into four categories: (i) Strains (ΔargR, ΔbasR, Δlon, ΔzntR, and Δzur) that recovered growth without any regulator-specific adaptations, likely due to minimal activity of the regulator on the growth condition, (ii) Strains (ΔcytR, ΔmlrA, and ΔybaO) that recovered growth without TF-specific mutations but with differential expression of regulators with overlapping regulons to the KO'ed TF, (iii) Strains (Δcrp and Δfur) that recovered growth using convergent mutations within their regulatory networks, including regulated promoters and connected regulators, and (iv) Strains (Δlrp) that were unable to fully recover growth, seemingly due to the broad connectivity of the TF within the TRN. Analyzing growth capabilities in evolved and unevolved strains indicated that growth adaptation can restore fitness to diverse substrates often despite a lack of TF-specific mutations. This work reveals the breadth of TRN adaptive mechanisms and suggests these mechanisms can be anticipated based on the network and functional context of the perturbed TFs.

Human short-latency reflexes show precise short-term gain adaptation after prior motion.

The central nervous system adapts the gain of short-latency reflex loops to changing conditions. Experiments on biomimetic robots showed that reflex modulation could substantially increase energy efficiency and stability of periodic motions if, unlike known mechanisms, the reflex modulation both acted precisely on the muscles involved and lasted after the motion. This study tests the presence of such a mechanism by having participants repeatedly rotate either their right elbow or shoulder joint before perturbing either joint. The results demonstrate a mechanism that modulates short-latency reflex gains after prior motion with joint-specific precision. Enhanced gains were observed hundreds of milliseconds after movement cessation, a timescale well suited to quickly adapt overall periodic motion cycles. A serotonin antagonist significantly decreased these postmovement gains diffusely across joints. But blocking serotonin did not affect the joint specificity of the gain scaling more than a placebo, suggesting that serotonin sets the overall reflex gain across joints after movement by an effect that is modulated in a joint-specific manner by an unidentified neural circuit. These results confirm the existence of a new, joint-specific, fast, persistent adaptation of short-latency reflex loops induced by motion in human arms.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our results expose a new spinal cord mechanism that modulates motoneuron gains, uniquely equipped to adapt movement in changing environments: it acts with joint-specific precision, reacts quickly to mechanical changes, and still persists long enough to accumulate information across movement cycles. The overall motoneuron gain across joints can be scaled down by an antagonist to serotonergic neuromodulation, whereas its joint specificity is unaffected by the antagonist and thus due to a complementary, unknown spinal mechanism.

Reinforcement learning in motor skill acquisition: using the reward positivity to understand the mechanisms underlying short- and long-term behavior adaptation.

According to reinforcement learning, humans adjust their behavior based on the difference between actual and anticipated outcomes (i.e., prediction error) with the main goal of maximizing rewards through their actions. Despite offering a strong theoretical framework to understand how we acquire motor skills, very few studies have investigated reinforcement learning predictions and its underlying mechanisms in motor skill acquisition. In the present study, we explored a 134-person dataset consisting of learners' feedback-evoked brain activity (reward positivity; RewP) and motor accuracy during the practice phase and delayed retention test to investigate whether these variables interacted according to reinforcement learning predictions. Results showed a non-linear relationship between RewP and trial accuracy, which was moderated by the learners' performance level. Specifically, high-performing learners were more sensitive to violations in reward expectations compared to low-performing learners, likely because they developed a stronger representation of the skill and were able to rely on more stable outcome predictions. Furthermore, contrary to our prediction, the average RewP during acquisition did not predict performance on the delayed retention test. Together, these findings support the use of reinforcement learning models to understand short-term behavior adaptation and highlight the complexity of the motor skill consolidation process, which would benefit from a multi-mechanistic approach to further our understanding of this phenomenon.

Comparative Characteristics of Short-term and Long-term Adaptation by Blood Analysis of Foreign Female Students (India) to the Educational Process System

The article is devoted to the study of the comparative characteristics of the analysis of the leukocyte formula indicators of foreign female students from India during short-term and long-term sociocultural and other demographic factors of adaptation to educational process systems. We found little difference in the blood analysis of foreign Indian female students with short-term, long-term and social adaptation to the educational environment. Based on the evidence of the studied material, it is determined that the body reacts to each environmental requirement with a special effect. If, in one case, as at the initial stage of training, a student is faced with a situation of non-variability, then this requires the mobilization of many resources of the body, while in another case, at a longer and already established stage of training, the student’s body successfully copes with various influencing factors.

Enhancing Olive Cultivation Resilience: Sustainable Long-Term and Short-Term Adaptation Strategies to Alleviate Climate Change Impacts

Olive cultivation, an icon of Mediterranean agriculture, economy, and cultural heritage, faces significant challenges due to climate change and soil degradation. Climate projections indicate that altered precipitation patterns, rising temperatures, and increased frequency of extreme weather events will adversely affect olive tree growth, fruit quality, and yield. This review provides a novel perspective on addressing these challenges through both long-term and short-term adaptation strategies, emphasizing innovative products, advanced technologies, and practical solutions that must work synergistically and be tailored to regional conditions. Long-term practices refer to proactive strategies for enduring climate resilience, including cover cropping, mulching, soil amendments, and breeding programs which enhance soil health, improve water retention, and increase the trees’ resilience. Short-term strategies focus on immediate impacts, offering immediate stress relief and enhanced plant physiological responses, including optimized irrigation systems, pruning management, particle coating films, biostimulants, and plant growth regulators. The review underscores the importance of aligning agricultural practices with sustainability goals and evolving environmental policies and the education of farmers and policymakers. By integrating adaptive practices and technological advancements, the olive sector can better address climate challenges, contribute to global food security, and advance environmental sustainability.

Relationship Between Genetic and Phenotypic Variations in Natural Populations of Perennial and Biennial Sagebrush.

Plant responses to environmental heterogeneity depend on life-history traits, which could relate to phenotypical and genetic characteristics. To elucidate this relationship, we examined the variation in population genetics and functional traits of short- and long-lived Artemisia species that are co-occurring in the steppes of Mongolia. Mongolian steppes represent stressful and water-limited habitats, demanding phenotypic modifications in the short term and/or genetic adaptation in the long term. However, detailed knowledge is missing about both plant phenotypic and genetic differentiation, and their interrelationships in temperate grasslands. Here, we investigated 21 populations of the widely distributed subshrub Artemisia frigida and the herbaceous biennial Artemisia scoparia. Genetic variation was assessed with newly developed simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers. Functional trait data were collected from each individual, and data on environmental variables was collected for each population. We detected significantly higher genetic diversity in the biennial species (H E = 0.86) compared with the perennial (H E = 0.79). For both species, the largest share of genetic variation was partitioned within populations (96%). Population genetic structure in the biennial A. scoparia was weak, while the perennial A. frigida showed some spatial genetic structure, which was impacted by geographical factors, soil nutrients, and precipitation amount. Morphology-related functional traits (i.e., plant height) were predominantly associated with environmental variables rather than with genetic variation, whereas physiology-related trait (i.e., specific leaf area [SLA]) was partly genetically determined.

Distributed robust [formula omitted]asso-[formula omitted] based on [formula omitted]ash optimization for smart grid: Guaranteed robustness and stability

The integration of variable renewable energy supplies into smart grid energy management poses several obstacles to system operation. An efficient solution for resource management is essential to ensuring reliable operation. This research presents distributed robust Lasso-model predictive control (D − RLMPC) as a way to handle energy problems in a multi-layer and multi-time frame optimization method. The D − RLMPC is a hierarchical system that integrates a centralized supervisory management (SM) layer for long-term optimization with a distributed coordination management (CM) layer for short-term adaptation to high power fluctuations. The higher layer, known as the SM, is responsible for providing the grid operator with specific operating plans and offering guidance to the bottom layer, known as the CM. The CM is responsible for coordinating the interaction between the centralized optimization goals and the physical power system layer. Furthermore, a distributed extended Kalman filter (DEKF) is used to ascertain the inter-dependencies among subsystems. Next, an iterative approach based on Nash optimization is proposed to get the globally optimum solution of the whole system in a partly distributed manner. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach, which combines the advantages of centralized and distributed control to provide a comprehensive solution for the grid operating issue. To verify and assess the effectiveness of the suggested approach, the acquired outcomes are compared to those of the centralized robust, distributed robust, and distributedMPC approaches. The simulation findings confirm the practicality of using the suggested system to manage future smart grid assets.

Bidirectional locomotion induces unilateral limb adaptations.

Humans can acquire and maintain motor skills throughout their lives through motor learning. Motor learning and skill acquisition are essential for rehabilitation following neurological disease or injury. Adaptation, the initial stage of motor learning, involves short-term changes in motor performance in response to a new demand in the person's environment. Repeated adaptation can improve skill performance and result in long-term skill retention. Locomotor adaptation is extensively studied using split-belt treadmill paradigms. In this study we explored whether bidirectional walking (BDW) on a split-belt treadmill can induce short-term gait adaptations. Twelve healthy volunteers participated in our single session, starting with 2 minutes of normal walking (NW), followed by four 5-minute blocks of BDW with a 1-minute passive rest in between blocks, and ending with another 2-minute of NW. We recorded body kinematics and ground reaction forces throughout the experiment. Participants quickly adapted to BDW with both legs showing decreased step lengths. However, only the backward-walking leg exhibited aftereffects upon returning to NW, indicating short-term adaptation. Notable kinematic changes were observed, particularly in hip extension and pelvis tilt, though these varied among participants. Our findings suggest that BDW induces unilateral adaptations despite bilateral changes in gait, offering new insights into locomotor control and spinal CPG organization.

The State of Lipid Metabolism in Old Rats in High Altitude Conditions Against the Background of the Use of Coenzyme Q10

The problem of population aging is relevant both in Kyrgyzstan and in the global space. At the same time, the preservation of the functional capabilities of the body of elderly people living in adverse climatic conditions is of particular importance. 20-30% of the inhabitants live in the mountainous area of Kyrgyzstan at an altitude of 2000-4000 meters above sea level. It is known that in high-altitude conditions, the body is influenced by extreme factors of the highlands, which accelerate the aging process and reduce life expectancy. This article presents data from experimental studies of energy metabolism disorders in old rats and its correction of coenzyme Q10 at an altitude of 3200 m above sea level. It was found that in old rats, under conditions of short-term adaptation in the mountains, an increase in the level of total cholesterol, triglycerides and low-density lipoproteins was shown, and the level of high-density lipoproteins decreased, indicating a violation of lipid metabolism. Also, due to oxidative stress in high-altitude conditions, the level of malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase and catalase in the blood of animals was increased. Oral administration of coenzyme Q10 at a dose of 30 mg/kg of body weight 1 time per day for 30 days to old rats led to a decrease in total cholesterol, low-density lipoproteins, triglycerides and an increase in high-density lipoproteins, due to the fact that coenzyme Q10 protects the plasma membrane of the cell from lipid peroxidation, preventing oxidative modifications lipids, which leads to a reduced risk of coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke.