Occurrence Of Various Species Research Articles

Effects of continuous warming on homogeneity of periphytic protozoan fauna in marine ecosystems

As a powerful biological indicator, multivariate dispersion in a community is widely used to evaluate the biological evaluation of environmental heterogeneity. To investigate the effects of persistent warming on microbial fauna in marine environments, the periphytic protozoan communities were used as test organisms and incubated in five temperature-controlled circulation system at 22 (control), 25, 28, 31 and 34 °C, respectively. The results showed that (1) there was a clear variation in species occurrence, and the α-/γ-diversity measures decreased with the increase of temperatures; (2) the compositional pattern was significantly driven by the persistent warming compared to community pattern from species-abundance data; and (3) both traditional β-diversity and multivariate dispersion measures on species compositional matrix were significantly correlative with changes in the temperature. Therefore, it is suggested that continuous temperature fluctuations have a greater impact on homogeneity of species composition of protozoan communities than that of their community structure.

Clinicomycological profile of dermatophytosis in a tertiary care teaching hospital, Vadodara

Dermatophytosis is the most common type of cutaneous fungal infection seen in man infecting the superficial keratinized layer of the skin, hair and nails. The aim of the study is to isolate and identify the dermatophytes from clinically suspected cases of dermatophytosis, to determine the frequency of occurrence of various species of dermatophytes, to know the prevalence of age and sex of dermatophytosis in the locality.: The present study was carried out in the Department of Microbiology, Medical College and SSG Hospital, Vadodara. A total of 150 clinically diagnosed cases of dermatophytosis were taken for this study. Skin, hair and nail samples were aseptically collected and were subjected to KOH mount examination and culture. Differentiation of the dermatophyte species was performed based on the macroscopic and microscopic examination of culture and physiological test including urease test.: Tinea corporis (41.3%) was the commonest clinical type with a male to female ratio of 1.05:1. Out of these samples, dermatophytes were isolated in 108 cases with the overall isolation rate of 72%. Seven species of dermatophytes were isolated. 53 (49.1%) was the commonest species followed by 22(20.4%).: Identifying dermatophyte species and knowledge of their host preference and ecology play an important role in treating the patient. Correct and efficient laboratory methods for diagnosis of dermatophytosis is the need of the hour to provide correct and timely treatment and prevent the further spread and chronicity of the disease.

Eelgrass Meadow Edge Habitat Heterogeneity Enhances Fish Diversity on the Pacific Coast of Canada

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) meadows are important fish habitats in temperate coastal areas. Understanding the relationships between seascape patterns—the spatial and temporal variability of biological and physiochemical drivers—and fish diversity in eelgrass meadows is crucial to conserving and managing these important habitats. The main objective of this study was to determine the environmental variables that influence the diversity of fish in eelgrass meadows in British Columbia, and whether a rich mosaic of edge habitats is positively associated with species richness and diversity, owing to the increased niche dimensionality and foraging opportunities provided by heterogeneous adjacent habitats. Using a spatiotemporal multispecies model based on long-term eelgrass fish diversity monitoring program data (2004–2020), we found that seascape variables, particularly those derived from unmanned aerial vehicles (meadow area, edge habitat heterogeneity), explained the most variation in species occurrence and abundance. We also found a positive effect of edge habitat heterogeneity on species richness in small and medium-sized meadows, with higher species richness and diversity in small and medium-sized meadows with high edge habitat heterogeneity. The relationship between edge habitat heterogeneity and species richness and diversity in large meadows was less clear. We also found that species richness has declined through time while diversity has been variable through time, remaining relatively stable in one region and generally decreasing in the other region. This analysis provides key insights into how seascape variables influence the distribution of species and the diversity of fish assemblages in nearshore eelgrass habitats in British Columbia.

Biodiversity of Coleoptera (Insecta) in Mordovia State Nature Reserve (Russia) using fermental traps.

Protected areas are unique ecosystems that are minimally affected by anthropogenic activities. Therefore, in many cases, they are refugia and relevance of faunistic research is undeniable here. A simple method of catching insects, such as trapping with the help of fermental traps, was used in this area for the first time. The authors of the dataset used this method from 2018 to 2021. One thousand and fifty-one traps of our own design were installed. The dataset includes data on 367 species from 52 families (6,497 records of 44,600 specimens). Ten species were dominant in the traps (Cryptarchastrigata, Protaetiamarmorata, Glischrochilusgrandis, Glischrochilushortensis, Soroniagrisea, Rhagiummordax, Lepturathoracica, Lepturaquadrifasciata, Quediusdilatatus and Protaetiafieberi). These species accounted for 76.9% of all individuals in the total amount of captured specimens. Cryptarchastrigata was the most numerous species (28.8% of the total) and the most frequently encountered species (64.9%). The greatest species diversity was recorded in the families Cerambycidae (53 species), Elateridae and Curculionidae (39 species each), Nitidulidae and Coccinellidae (22 species each). The dataset contains information on the occurrence of 15 rare species. We have recently published a checklist of the Coleoptera of Mordovia State Nature Reserve (Egorov et al. 2020). It included 2,145 species from 88 families. However, the published list did not contain information about the occurrence of various species of beetles, especially caught in recent years. Part of this list contained information about species collected using fermental traps. However, the list of species did not provide information about specific locations.

Disentangling spatial and environmental effects: Flexible methods for community ecology and macroecology

AbstractCommunity ecologists and macroecologists have long sought to evaluate the importance of environmental conditions in determining species distributions, community composition, and diversity across sites. Different methods have been used to estimate species–environment relationships, but their differences to jointly fit and disentangle spatial autocorrelation and structure remain poorly studied. We compared how methods in four broad families of statistical models estimated the contribution of the environment and space to variation in species occurrence and abundance. These methods included redundancy analysis (RDA), generalized linear models (GLMs), generalized additive models (GAMs), and three types of tree‐based machine learning (ML) methods: boosted regression trees (BRT), random forests, and regression trees. The spatial component of the model consisted of Moran's eigenvector maps (MEMs; in RDA, GLM, and ML), smooth spatial splines (in GAM), or tree‐based nonlinear modeling of spatial coordinates (in ML). We simulated typical site‐by‐species data to assess the methods' performance in (1) fitting environmental and spatial models, and (2) partitioning the variation explained by environmental and spatial predictors. We observed marked differences in performance among methods generally caused by their different performances in fitting spatial structures. Generalized linear model and BRT with MEMs were generally the most reliable methods for partitioning the variation explained by environmental and spatial effects across a wide range of simulated scenarios. The remaining methods tended to underestimate pure spatial effects, because of either underfitting of simulated spatial structures or overestimation of environmental effects compared to spatial effects when jointly estimated. Performing variation partitioning on nine different empirical datasets using these methods yielded contrasting results, especially in the estimation of the spatial fraction of variation. Our results suggest that previously overlooked methods for performing variation partitioning, especially tree‐based ML, offer flexible approaches to analyze site‐by‐species matrices. We provide general guidelines on the usefulness of different models under different ecological and sampling scenarios, for species distribution modeling, community ecology, and macroecology.

Speciation and Antibiotic Susceptibility Pattern of Coagulase Negative Staphylococci in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Manipur, India

Introduction: Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CoNS) are common opportunistic pathogens. They are increasingly being recognised as nosocomial pathogens and are associated with multiple antimicrobial resistance mechanisms particularly methicillin resistance. Therefore, rapid and reliable identification upto the species level is necessary to predict the potential pathogenicity or antibiotic susceptibility of each clinical isolate. Aim: Isolation and speciation of CoNS from various clinical samples, and to determine their antibiotic susceptibility pattern. Materials and Methods: This study was a hospital-based crosssectional study carried out in the Department of Microbiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS), Imphal, Manipur, India, during the period from September 2017- August 2019. CoNS isolates were identified using conventional microbiological procedures and speciation was done following the scheme of Kloos and Schleifer. Antibiotic susceptibility was determined by using the Kirby Bauer’s disk diffusion method. Detection of methicillin resistance among CoNS was performed using cefoxitin disk (30 µg) diffusion method. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Results: CoNS isolates were identified from different clinical specimens, which included 88 (65.2%) from urine, 37 (27.5%) from blood, 3 (2.2%) from pus, 2 (1.5%) from catheter tip, 2 (1.5%) from wound swab, 1 (0.7%) each from aural swab, sputum and ascitic fluid. Predominant isolates were Staphylococcus epidermidis (40.7%) followed by Staphylococcus haemolyticus (19.3%), Staphylococcus hominis (11.9%), Staphylococcus xylosus (7.4%), Staphylococcus saprophyticus (6.0%), Staphylococcus schleiferi (5.2%), Staphylococcus simulans (4.4%), Staphylococcus warneri (3.0%), Staphylococcus lugdunensis (0.7%), Staphylococcus capitis (0.7%) and Staphylococcus cohnii (0.7%). Most isolates were resistant to penicillin (84.5%) and erythromycin (59.3%), and least to tigecycline (2.2%). No resistance to vancomycin and linezolid was seen. Methicillin sensitive CoNS (MSCoNS) was detected in 79 (58.5%) isolates and methicillin resistant CoNS (MRCoNS) in 56 (41.5%) isolates. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the occurrence of various species of CoNS in our healthcare set up with varying antimicrobial susceptibility pattern. Therefore, there is a need for accurate identification to species level by simple, inexpensive methodology and their antibiogram.

Variable strength of predator‐mediated effects on species occurrence in an arctic terrestrial vertebrate community

Indirect effects resulting from species sharing the same enemy can shape spatio‐temporal variations in species occurrence. The strength of such effects remains poorly known in natural communities composed of species from different trophic levels interacting in heterogeneous landscapes. Benefiting from a well‐known arctic vertebrate community and marked spatio‐temporal variations in the density of key prey species, we examined the effects of direct predator‐prey and indirect predator‐mediated effects on species occurrence in the landscape. We found both positive effects of one prey (lemmings), as well as negative indirect effects of another prey (colonial nesting snow geese) on the occurrence of species (ground‐nesting birds) belonging to different guilds and trophic levels but sharing a common predator (arctic fox). However, species using prey refuges available in the landscape were not or less affected by predator‐mediated effects. Similarly, the smallest (a passerine) and the largest and most dangerous species (an owl) for the shared predator were not affected by these effects. Our study provides one of the rare empirical evidence of predator‐mediated effects ascending the food web (i.e. negative indirect effect of an herbivore on avian predators) and underlines how habitat structure and species traits can modulate the strength of indirect effects in natural communities.

Double constrained ordination for assessing biological trait responses to multiple stressors: A case study with benthic macroinvertebrate communities

Benthic macroinvertebrate communities are used as indicators for anthropogenic stress in freshwater ecosystems. To better understand the relationship between anthropogenic stress and changes in macroinvertebrate community composition, it is important to understand how different stressors and species traits are associated, and how these associations influence variation in species occurrence and abundances. Here, we show the capacity of the multivariate technique of double constrained correspondence analysis (dc-CA) to analyse trait-environment relationships, and we compare it with the redundancy analysis method on community weighted mean values of traits (CWM-RDA), which is frequently used for this type of analysis. The analyses were based on available biomonitoring data for macroinvertebrate communities from the Danube River. Results from forward selection of traits and environmental variables using dc-CA analyses showed that aquatic stages, reproduction techniques, dispersal tactics, locomotion and substrate relations, altitude, longitudinal and transversal distribution, and substrate preferendum were significantly related to habitat characteristics, hydromorphological alterations and water quality measurements such as physico-chemical parameters, heavy metals, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Environmental variables significantly associated with traits using the CWM-RDA method were generally consistent with those found in dc-CA analysis. However, the CWM-RDA does neither test nor explicitly select traits, while dc-CA tests and selects both traits and environmental variables. Moreover, the dc-CA analysis revealed that the set of environmental variables was much better in explaining the community data than the available trait set, a kind of information that can neither be obtained from CWM-RDA nor from RLQ (Environment, Link and Trait data), which is a close cousin of dc-CA but not regression-based. Our results suggest that trait-based analysis based on dc-CA may be useful to assess mechanistic links between multiple anthropogenic stressors and ecosystem health, but more data sets should be analysed in the same manner.

Use of a broad β-diversity measure of pelagic ciliate communities for assessing vertical heterogeneity of water columns in the Pacific Arctic Ocean.

Multivariate dispersion has proven to be a broad β-diversity measure that shows the heterogeneity of environmental conditions. The dispersion patterns of pelagic ciliate communities were investigated at eight water depths in the northern Bering Sea of the western Arctic Ocean and Chukchi Sea. Multivariate analysis indicated that (1) pelagic ciliates showed significant variability in multivariate dispersion on a vertical scale, (2) dispersion patterns were shaped by both the species composition and individual abundance, (3) vertical variation in species occurrence was significantly related to nutrients and chlorophyll a, and (4) the dispersion measures at both species occurrence and species abundance resolutions were significantly negatively related to salinity and dissolved oxygen. This suggests that multivariate dispersion measures driven by both species composition and the individual abundance of pelagic ciliates may be a useful indicator of environmental heterogeneity in marine ecosystems.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of wild herbivore species richness and occupancy across a savannah rangeland: Implications for conservation

Private lands are critical for maintaining biodiversity beyond protected areas. Across Kenyan rangelands, wild herbivores frequently coexist with people and their livestock. Human population and livestock numbers are projected to increase dramatically over the coming decades. Therefore, a better understanding of wildlife-livestock interactions and their consequences for biodiversity conservation on private lands is needed. We used a Bayesian hierarchical, multi-species and multi-year occupancy model on aerial survey data of 15 wild-herbivore species, spanning 15 years (2001–2016) to investigate a) spatiotemporal trends in species occurrence and richness across a mosaic of properties with different land uses in Laikipia County, central Kenya; and b) the effects of distance to water, vegetation and livestock relative abundance on species occurrence and richness. Although mean herbivore species richness varied little over time, we observed high spatial variation in species occurrence across Laikipia, mainly driven by negative effects of high livestock relative abundance. As expected, ‘wildlife friendly’ properties had higher herbivore species richness than other areas. However, high variability suggests that some pastoral properties support rich herbivore communities. The area occupied by five species with global conservation concerns (reticulated giraffe, Grevy's zebra, Beisa Oryx, Defassa waterbuck and gerenuk) and for which Laikipia County is one of the last refuges was <50% across years. We conclude that ‘wildlife friendly’ properties remain crucial for conservation, although some pastoralist areas offer suitable habitats for wild herbivores. Effective management of stocking rates is critical for maintaining ecosystems able to sustain livestock and wildlife on private lands, ensuring protection for endangered species.

Impacts of livestock grazing, topography and vegetation on distribution of wildlife in Wanglang National Nature Reserve, China

Successful conservation requires that we identify factors affecting species co-occurrence in the wild and understanding the consequence for wildlife management. We investigated species diversity in Wanglang National Nature Reserve using camera traps. We conducted vegetation surveys and obtained topographic information at each camera trapping site. We determined the characteristic species of trees and wildlife at each site using PCA. Generalized Linear Models of the effect of landscape structure (including the terrain and vegetation) and co-occurrence of wildlife species on occurrence of characteristic species were compared. Model selection showed that the global model out-performed all other models. The effect of species co-occurrence explained the most variation in species occurrence, while terrain and dominant tree species also had explained a high proportion. The co-occurrence of wildlife is affected by the distribution of terrain-dependent vegetation and dominant tree species, especially in the case of arboreal animals, which implies a high degree of niche partitioning. In contrast, terrestrial animals are more affected by species co-occurrence. Obvious mutual exclusivity is shown between grazing livestock (e.g. the cattle) and medium-to-large mammals such as giant panda and tufted deer. This may be attributed to the complete niche differentiation between these species, and indicates the effects of anthropogenic activities on wildlife in the reserve. These results indicate that the maintenance of a complex landscape is helpful for maintaining diverse resources and niches for wildlife. Reducing or adequately managing grazing activity is urgent for protecting medium- and large-sized mammals in the reserve.

Seed Germination Ecology of the Cold Desert Annual Isatis violascens (Brassicaceae): Two Levels of Physiological Dormancy and Role of the Pericarp

The occurrence of various species of Brassicaceae with indehiscent fruits in the cold deserts of NW China suggests that there are adaptive advantages of this trait. We hypothesized that the pericarp of the single-seeded silicles of Isatis violascens restricts embryo expansion and thus prevents germination for 1 or more years. Thus, our aim was to investigate the role of the pericarp in seed dormancy and germination of this species. The effects of afterripening, treatment with gibberellic acid (GA3) and cold stratification on seed dormancy-break were tested using intact silicles and isolated seeds, and germination phenology was monitored in an experimental garden. The pericarp has a role in mechanically inhibiting germination of fresh seeds and promotes germination of nondormant seeds, but it does not facilitate formation of a persistent seed bank. Seeds in silicles in watered soil began to germinate earlier in autumn and germinated to higher percentages than isolated seeds. Sixty-two percent of seeds in the buried silicles germinated by the end of the first spring, and only 3% remained nongerminated and viable. Twenty to twenty-five percent of the seeds have nondeep physiological dormancy (PD) and 75–80% intermediate PD. Seeds with nondeep PD afterripen in summer and germinate inside the silicles in autumn if the soil is moist. Afterripening during summer significantly decreased the amount of cold stratification required to break intermediate PD. The presence of both nondeep and intermediate PD in the seed cohort may be a bet-hedging strategy.

Distribution of plant species and species-soil relationship in the east central Gurbantunggut Desert, China

The distribution of plant species and relationships between species and soil factors in the east central part of Gurbantunggut Desert was studied to provide more insight into the flora and determine differences in vegetation across various parts of the desert. Two-way Cluster Analysis showed that the vegetation in the area could be divided into three groups, the first group was dominated by the shrub species, Ephedra przewalskii and the grass species, Carex physodes mainly in areas of flat grounds and gentle slopes; the second group was dominated by C. physodes, Artemisia songorica and A. xerophytica mainly on the slope of sand dunes and the third group was dominated by the shrub species, Haloxylon persicum mainly on the top of sand dunes. There was no difference in plant density between Groups 1 and 2 but there was a significant decrease in Group 3. Soil water under vegetation Group 3 was much lower than that in the other two groups at all soil depths. The EC, organic matter, total P and soluble Na, Ca and Mg varied very similarly with soil water. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) satisfactorily assessed the species-soil relations in the area. The distribution of plant species was strongly correlated with the soil factors of water content, organic matter, EC and nutrients. The variations in species occurrence explained by the three CCA axes were about 70%, indicating that some explanatory site variables may exist outside our studied parameters. Soil texture is suggested to be included in future studies to improve the explanation of CCA.

The Microfloras and Sensory Profiles of Selected Protected Designation of Origin Italian Cheeses.

Approximately 39 Italian cheeses carry protected designation of origin (PDO) status. These cheeses differ in their manufacturing technology and the microbial flora which comprise the finished products. The evolution of lactic microflora in cheeses with PDO status is of particular interest because the biochemical activities of these organisms participate in cheesemaking and may play an acknowledged role in the development of organoleptic characteristics during ripening. Nonstarter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) constitute complex microbial associations that are characterized by the occurrence of various species and many biotypes as a result of a number of selective conditions persisting during the manufacturing process and different ecological niches. The evolution of different species during ripening of Fiore Sardo showed that, when present, Lactobacillus paracasei persists and dominates the microflora of the cheese in the last period of ripening, suggesting that this species, more resistant to the constraints of the mature cheese, could be involved in proteolysis and in other enzymatic processes occurring during cheese ripening. In contrast, the stretching step typical of pasta filata cheese, such as Ragusano, induced a simplification of the raw milk profiles, allowing the persistence only of some predominant species, such as Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis, Lactococcus lactis, and Streptococcus macedonicus, after the stretching step. Lactobacillus plantarum and L. paracasei were isolated from ripened Castelmagno PDO cheese samples with the highest frequencies. These species, generally absent in the milk, occur in dairy ecosystems and dominate the bacterial flora of many ripened semihard cheeses. In PDO long-ripened Italian cheese such as Parmigiano Reggiano, the NSLAB population is mainly formed by L. paracasei, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Pediococcus acidilactici. Lactobacillus helveticus, L. delbrueckii subsp. lactis, and L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus were also detected. Continued insight into the microbial populations of traditional Italian cheeses will allow continued production of characteristic, high-quality cheeses which have been enjoyed for many centuries.

Biodiversity, Antimicrobial Potential, and Phylogenetic Placement of an Endophytic Fusarium oxysporum NFX 06 Isolated from Nothapodytes foetida

Biodiversity of endophytic fungi associated with the medicinal plant Nothapodytes foetida of Agumbe forest was determined and evaluated for its microbial activity. A total of 170 endophytic isolates were obtained from leaf, stem, seed, and fruit tissues of Nothapodytes foetida. The dominant endophytic fungi belong to genera Fusarium, Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Colletotrichum. Maximum endophytic isolates were obtained from leaves segments followed by fruit, stem, and seed tissues. Hyphomycetes were the dominant group found with 75.29% over other fungal groups. Shannon-Weiner and Simpson indexes showed rich diversity of endophytic fungi suggesting even and uniform occurrence of various species. 88.57%, 74.28%, 62.85%, and 65.71% of isolates have shown activity against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), and Candida albicans (ATCC 69548), respectively. One of the isolate NFX 06 isolated from leaf has showed considerable antimicrobial activity against all the test pathogens. It was identified as Fusarium oxysporum by ITS sequence analysis; the nucleotide sequence was submitted in the GenBank with an accession number KC914432. Phylogenetic relationship confirmed that the strain F. oxysporum NFX 06 has evolved from an endophytic ancestor.

Inventory and distribution of Oligochaeta (Annelida, Clitellata) in first-order streams in preserved areas of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Data resulting from species inventories shed light on the richness and distribution of various groups. In Minas Gerais, work on inventory and distribution of the oligochaetes of lotic environments in preserved areas are non-existent. Therefore, this study aimed to inventory the limnic oligochaetes fauna of first-order streams located in four preserved areas, to expand knowledge of the ecology and distribution of this group. In total, 19 taxa were inventoried, belonging to the families Naididae and Enchytraeidae and the superorder Megadrili (earthworms), with the genus Pristina having the largest number of species. The number of species found in this investigation corresponds to 22% of oligochaetes species recorded in Brazilian aquatic environments. The results obtained add important knowledge of the distribution of some oligochaetes species in Brazil, represent the first records of species for the four preserved areas studied and confirm the first occurrence of various species in the state.

Late Maastrichtian-Late Palaeocene planktic foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the matrix of the Bornova Flysch Zone around Bornova (İzmir, Western Anatolia, Turkey)

The Bornova Flysch Zone (BFZ), located between the Menderes Massif and the İzmir-Ankara Suture in westernmost Anatolia (Turkey), forms the westernmost part of the Anatolide-Taurides. The BFZ comprises intensely sheared Upper Cretaceous-Palaeocene matrix and blocks of various origins. The matrix of the BFZ is mainly made up of unfossiliferous flysch-type sediments (alternations of sandstones and shales). In Bornova (İzmir, western Turkey) and its surroundings, these clastics locally include planktic foraminifera-bearing pelagic micritic limestone and calcareous shale lenses and interbeds (Beytitepe Limestone). As a result of studies focusing on the planktic foraminifera-bearing pelagic interlayers in three areas (Gökdere, Işıklar and Kocaçay areas) around Bornova, a detailed planktic foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the rocks is documented for the first time. The thickness of the laminated micritic limestones attains 360 m in the Gökdere area. Occurrences of late Maastrichtian species such as Abathomphalus mayaroensis (Bolli), Contusotruncana contusa (Cushman), Globotruncanita conica (White) and Racemiguembelina fructicosa (Egger) within planktic foraminifera assemblages obtained from the laminated micritic limestones and red calcareous shales in the three areas suggest a late Maastrichtian age for these rocks. The occurrence of various species of Globanomalina, Morozovella, Igorina and Parasubbotina within the calcareous shales in the Işıklar area suggests a late Palaeocene age. The Kocaçay area has well-preserved outcrops showing the stratigraphy of the matrix, despite the more complex geology. The upper Maastrichtian laminated micritic limestones are gradationally overlain by upper Maastrichtian calcareous shales. The calcareous shales are represented by rich planktic foraminiferal assemblages and include blocks derived from laminated micritic limestones. The upper Mastrichtian calcareous shales are overlain by Palaeocene red calcareous shales. Poor assemblages including Parasubbotina varianta (Subbotina), Subbotina triangularis (White), Subbotina cf. velascoensis (Cushman), Globanomalina compressa (Plummer) and Globanomalina planoconica (Subbotina) indicate a late Palaeocene age for the lower part and a latest Palaeocene age for the upper part of the calcareous shale sequence. Therefore, the age of conglomerates and flysch overlying the calcareous shales should be latest Palaeocene or younger in the Kocaçay area.

Effect of climate on malarial vector distribution in Monsoon Asia: coupled model for Ecophysiological and Climatological Distribution of mosquito generations (ECD-mg)

The relationship between the life cycle and climate conditions of the malaria vector mosquito Anopheles was modeled in order to describe its temporal and geographic distribution at a fine resolution. Since the mosquito grows through immature life stages in an aquatic environ- ment, the model was designed to express the surface moisture conditions conducive to the mos- quito's growth. The development of the mosquito was estimated using either air or water temper- ature, depending on the developmental stage of the mosquito's life cycle. To achieve this, the previous model was modified in order to improve the estimation of the water conditions of its habi- tat. As a result, the modified model was able to predict seasonal patterns of occurrence of Anophe- les at representative sites with a more reasonable degree of accuracy than the previous model. This model was then applied using simple climate data in order to obtain the geographic distrib- ution of the occurrence of various species of Anopheles in Monsoon Asia. The most notable results of the simulated spatio-temporal emergence of the Anopheles mosquito is that although the mod- ified model did not include unique parameters of each species, distribution was clearly divided into sub-regions for each dominant species that corresponded to the climate conditions.

Bird communities in different phytophysiognomies of the cerrado biome

The Brazilian cerrado is a global biodiversity hotspot and one of the most poorly sampled regions in the Neotropics. We describe the bird community structure among the distinct cerrado phytophysiognomies and among different periods of the day, in five environments of this biome. Bird observations were carried out from October 2003 to March 2005, by visual and acoustical records, using transect and point-count surveys. We found a total of 128 species in the area, including six species endemic to the cerrado biome, and found evidence of breeding in nine species. The bird community differed significantly among phytophysiognomies. Our data show that, even at a small spatial scale, high richness, endemism and nesting are likely to be found in the cerrado. The variation in species occurrence also reveals the unique community structure of each cerrado habitat type over time, even if the same vegetal formations were considered between habitats. Our results support the decision to convert the study site into the first university cerrado conservation unit, since this will protect a broad range of species and will guarantee habitats for some endemic birds.

The occurrence and depth penetration of macroalgae along environmental gradients in the northern Baltic Sea

Eutrophication is known to affect the community structure of macroalgae by e.g. decreasing the depth penetration of species and by shifting dominance from perennial to annual species. However, there is substantial lack of knowledge in the Baltic Sea regarding the distribution of many of the macroalgal species, how natural environmental factors affect their occurrence and how they respond to eutrophication. As macroalgae are used as indicators of the quality of the sea areas in the EU legislation (Water Framework Directive, Marine Strategy Framework Directive), this kind of knowledge is essential. The aim of this study was to determine which variables were related to variation in species occurrence and their lower limit of occurrence in the Finnish marine area. The study was carried out on data from five study areas along the Finnish coastline and included about 30 taxa. Our results showed that both the macroalgal communities and the occurrence (presence/absence) of most of the species differed between the study areas and that the differences were mainly related to salinity and exposure, although also eutrophication related factors played a role. Of the perennial species, eutrophied conditions seemed to favour only the occurrence of Sphacelaria arctica and Polysiphonia fucoides. Secchi depth was important in determining the lower limit of occurrence of brown and red algal species. However, Secchi depth was rarely the only factor causing variation in the lower limit of occurrence as also exposure, salinity and slope of the shore affected it. We conclude that in the northern Baltic Sea, the taxonomic composition of the macroalgal communities is not a very useful indicator of eutrophication as perennial species seem to tolerate rather eutrophied conditions, when suitable substrate is available. The lower limit of occurrence of many of the brown and red algal species is a good indicator of eutrophication but due to lack of suitable substrate in more eutrophied areas, especially in the depths where light becomes limiting, it is only applicable in the middle and outer archipelago areas. Furthermore, when planning monitoring programmes or setting thresholds for evaluating the ecological status of the sea, the natural variation in the lower limit of occurrence of macroalgae across sea areas is problematic and should carefully be taken into account.