Spatial Distribution of Dorylaimid and Mononchid Nematodes from Southeast Iberian Peninsula: Chorological Relationships among Species

The spatial distribution of 138 Dorylaimid and Mononchid species collected in a natural area from the Southeast Iberian Peninsula was studied. A chorological classification was used to examine distribution patterns shared by groups of species. Eighty species were classified into 14 collective and 16 individual chorotypes. The geographical projections of several collective chorotypes are illustrated along with their corresponding distribution maps. The importance of this analysis to nematological study is briefly discussed.     

Factors influencing the distribution of chironomids and oligochaetes in profundal areas of Spanish reservoirs

A canonical correlation analysis was performed in order to explain the distribution and abundance of the profundal macrozoobenthos in 71 Spanish reservoirs. Two sets of variables were considered: one set consisted of subgroups of benthic organisms based on their feeding strategy, and the other consisted of environmental variables related to the trophic state of the reservoir.The results showed that densities of phytophagous chironomids decreased with water depth and increased with oxygen content in the bottom waters, while Tanypodinae densities increased with rising densities of phytophagous chironomids and/or oligochaetes, revealing their strong dependence on the abundance of available prey. The abundance of oligochaetes and phytophagous chironomids showed a disjunct distribution with season and depth, suggesting the importance of food quality and sediment texture.Oxygen availability and water depth acted as governing factors for the zoobenthos. Chlorophyll-a was of secondary importance and correlated inversely with the abundance of benthic fauna, especially in summer. Autogenic production coupled with inputs of allochthonous coarse particulate organic matter and a long stratification period lead to long lasting anoxia that reduces the benthic fauna in Spanish reservoirs.Only up to 18% of the variability in the biological data could be associated with the environmental factors considered. Thus, factors other than the trophic state are much more important in reservoirs. Fluctuations of the water level and inputs of organic and inorganic materials coming from the basin are greater than in lakes and act as stressing factors for the benthic fauna.     

Chironomids and regional water types

The distribution pattern of 115 chironomid taxa at 664 sites, distributed over all kinds of water, was analyzed and related to 42 water types, based on the complete macrofauna composition. The distinction of chironomid groups was not useful to recognize water types. The use of individual chironomid taxa was more sensitive, though also too limited to recognize water types clearly. Chironomids are distributed along a continuum which is directed by master factors and detailed by habitat factors.     

Predicting the spatio-temporal spread of West Nile virus in Europe

West Nile virus is a widely spread arthropod-born virus, which has mosquitoes as vectors and birds as reservoirs. Humans, as dead-end hosts of the virus, may suffer West Nile Fever (WNF), which sometimes leads to death. In Europe, the first large-scale epidemic of WNF occurred in 1996 in Romania. Since then, human cases have increased in the continent, where the highest number of cases occurred in 2018. Using the location of WNF cases in 2017 and favorability models, we developed two risk models, one environmental and the other spatio-environmental, and tested their capacity to predict in 2018: 1) the location of WNF; 2) the intensity of the outbreaks (i.e. the number of confirmed human cases); and 3) the imminence of the cases (i.e. the Julian week in which the first case occurred). We found that climatic variables (the maximum temperature of the warmest month and the annual temperature range), human-related variables (rain-fed agriculture, the density of poultry and horses), and topo-hydrographic variables (the presence of rivers and altitude) were the best environmental predictors of WNF outbreaks in Europe. The spatio-environmental model was the most useful in predicting the location of WNF outbreaks, which suggests that a spatial structure, probably related to bird migration routes, has a role in the geographical pattern of WNF in Europe. Both the intensity of cases and their imminence were best predicted using the environmental model, suggesting that these features of the disease are linked to the environmental characteristics of the areas. We highlight the relevance of river basins in the propagation dynamics of the disease, as outbreaks started in the lower parts of the river basins, from where WNF spread towards the upper parts. Therefore, river basins should be considered as operational geographic units for the public health management of the disease.     

HAT: Hypergeometric Analysis of Tiling-arrays with application to promoter-GeneChip data

Background  

Tiling-arrays are applicable to multiple types of biological research questions. Due to its advantages (high sensitivity, resolution, unbiased), the technology is often employed in genome-wide investigations. A major challenge in the analysis of tiling-array data is to define regions-of-interest, i.e., contiguous probes with increased signal intensity (as a result of hybridization of labeled DNA) in a region. Currently, no standard criteria are available to define these regions-of-interest as there is no single probe intensity cut-off level, different regions-of-interest can contain various numbers of probes, and can vary in genomic width. Furthermore, the chromosomal distance between neighboring probes can vary across the genome among different arrays.     

Biological activity ofTreponema hyodysenteriae hemolysin

The biological properties ofTreponema hyodysenteriae hemolysin (TH), which in some aspects resembles streptolysin S, were studied. Aside from different erythrocyte species, TH had no lytic activity on prokaryotic (protoplasts and spheroplasts) and eukaryotic (Chinese hamster ovary and spleen) cells. However, TH decreased the response of spleen cells to concanavalin A and lipopolysaccharide. In vivo, TH was found to induce fluid accumulation in ligated rat ileal loops as well as histological modifications similar to those observed in the swine dysentery. These results further differentiate TH from streptolysin S, and suggest that it is a new oxygen-resistant hemolysin produced by a Gram-negative bacterium.     

Conservation biogeography of ecologically interacting species: the case of the Iberian lynx and the European rabbit

Aim To relate the recent Iberian lynx decline to changes in the distribution of the European rabbit after the haemorrhagic disease outbreak of 1989. As Iberian rabbits evolved in two geographically separated lineages, being the recent lynx range practically restricted to the southwestern lineage, we also test if differential range dynamics exists for these lineages, with the consequent implications for lynx conservation and reintroduction planning. Location The Iberian Peninsula. Methods We modelled environmental favourability for the lynx based on its distribution before 1989, and for the rabbit using distribution data collected primarily after 1989, and validated them using independent abundance data. We compared both models and combined them in a lynx occurrence forecast. We correlated the prevalence of southwestern rabbit lineage with the environmental favourability for the rabbit. Results The environmental lynx model correlated with past lynx abundance data, but did not reflect its recent strong range contraction. The rabbit model correlated with recent rabbit abundance, but was negatively correlated with the environmental model for the lynx. The combination of both models forecasted lynx occurrence in a few separated nuclei, which encompass all recent lynx records. The prevalence of rabbit's southwestern lineage correlated negatively with favourability for the rabbit. Main conclusions The region to which the lynx became confined before 1989 is currently less favourable for rabbits, whereas more favourable areas remain outside lynx reach. This differential favourability correlates with rabbit phylogeographical structure, suggesting that the southwestern lineage is facing more unfavourable conditions or is less resilient to recent diseases. The loss of concordance between lynx distribution and the whole rabbit phylogeographical structure has prevented lynx persistence in northeastern rabbit lineage areas, which should be considered in lynx reintroduction planning. Similar conservation problems could affect other ecologically interacting species whose distributions’ overlapping has sharply diminished.     

Fault bars timing and duration: the power of studying feather fault bars and growth bands together

Growth bands and fault bars, widespread features of feathers that form during regeneration, have largely been studied independently. Growth bands result from normal regeneration: each pair of dark/light bands forms every 24 h. Fault bars are a response to stress during regeneration, creating a translucent line that can break the feather. We studied the relative position and width of these two structures in feathers of nestling and adult white storks Ciconia ciconia. We first confirmed that one growth band represents 24 h of feather regeneration. Fault bars did not occur at random within growth bands: 65.7% (in nestlings) and 45.6% (in adults) of them occurred in one out of six defined segments within a growth band, namely that segment corresponding to the first one‐third of night time hours. The width of fault bars relative to growth bands suggested that fault bars were produced during a median (range) of 7.0 h (2.7–27.0) in nestlings and 3.7 h (1.8–7.9) in adults. Fault bars were concentrated at feather tips in nestlings, but at central locations in adult feathers. Our results suggest that, in general, fault bars are a discrete event of a finite duration occurring mainly during the night (particularly in nestlings). This, along with current knowledge, suggests that acute stressors, rather than chronic ones, are responsible for fault bar formation. Thus, such acute punctual stressors (a matter of minutes) can have long‐lasting (months?years) physiological effects due to the wing load increase from feather breakage caused by fault bars.