Visitor Perceptions of Nature Conservation at Helsinki Zoo

These days zoos often claim that their main objective is the promotion of nature conservation and that they strive to educate their visitors about animals and nature conservation. But how do zoo visitors themselves perceive this emphasis on conservation education? In order to determine how Helsinki Zoo visitors perceive nature conservation during their visit, we undertook a qualitative analysis of 75 structured situational interviews and five autoethnographical visits. Our results show that there was only a limited understanding of nature conservation among the zoo visitors. Their perception follows the typical framing of nature conservation in zoos: conservation projects that embrace captive breeding, in-situ conservation collaboration, and the reintroduction of those species. Moreover, in the Helsinki Zoo case these perceptions may have been influenced by the fact that the zoo did not give concrete advice on how the visitors themselves can contribute to conservation, except in terms of donating money. Framing nature conservation in such ways distances it from visitors’ everyday lives.     

Ecological characterization of a tick community across a landscape gradient exhibiting differential anthropogenic disturbance in the Atlantic Forest ecoregion in Argentina

An ecological analysis of a tick (Ixodida: Ixodidae) community across a landscape gradient presenting differential anthropogenic disturbance in the Atlantic Forest ecoregion in Argentina was performed. Ticks were collected from vegetation and hosts between September 2014 and August 2016. A total of 12 697 free‐living ticks and 3347 specimens from hosts were collected, including 317 ticks infesting humans. The values obtained show considerable species diversity in the forest environment accompanied by low equitability. The similarity index derived from a comparison of forest and agricultural environments was higher than that calculated by comparing forest and urban environments. The data suggest that although a cycle of one generation per year is apparent in some species, more than one cohort may co‐exist within the populations of some of these species. Well‐marked patterns of the seasonal distribution of free‐living tick species emerged in environments with no anthropic modification. The results indicate that forest environments are more suitable habitats than agricultural and urban environments for many species of native tick, but are unsuitable for exotic species that have successfully established in environments that have been modified by man.     

The effects of olfactory stimulation on the behavior of captive ring‐tailed lemurs (Lemur catta)

Ring‐tailed lemurs reside in many animal collections worldwide. Lemur welfare may be a cause of concern due to some captive individuals exhibiting stereotypic behavior. Despite these concerns, there has been little exploration of methods of environmental enrichment for ring‐tailed lemurs. Olfactory stimulation can enhance captive animal welfare by encouraging species‐typical behaviors, enhancing behavioral diversity, and decreasing stereotypic behaviors. We aimed to investigate the effects of olfactory stimulation via lavender, peppermint, coconut, and prey odor upon the behavior of eight captive ring‐tailed lemurs. We exposed the lemurs to six individual odor conditions (odor control, novel object control, lavender, peppermint, coconut, and Morio worms) and observed them for 4 hr a day for 3 days with an intervening period of 4 days between conditions. We recorded the lemurs’ behavior under each condition using instantaneous scan sampling. We found significant effects of olfactory stimulation on the ring‐tailed lemurs’ behavior in the initial analysis but these did not survive correction for multiple testing. Overall, while our findings are suggestive of a general effect of olfactory stimulation on the captive ring‐tailed lemurs they did not indicate a marked influence of olfactory condition. However, further investigation with a larger sample size and more biologically relevant odors may be beneficial to fully examine potential effects of olfactory stimulation in captive lemurs.     

Environmental DNA detection of rare and invasive fish species in two Great Lakes tributaries

The extraction and characterization of DNA from aquatic environmental samples offers an alternative, noninvasive approach for the detection of rare species. Environmental DNA, coupled with PCR and next‐generation sequencing (“metabarcoding”), has proven to be very sensitive for the detection of rare aquatic species. Our study used a custom‐designed group‐specific primer set and next‐generation sequencing for the detection of three species at risk (Eastern Sand Darter, Ammocrypta pellucida; Northern Madtom, Noturus stigmosus; and Silver Shiner, Notropis photogenis), one invasive species (Round Goby, Neogobius melanostomus) and an additional 78 native species from two large Great Lakes tributary rivers in southern Ontario, Canada: the Grand River and the Sydenham River. Of 82 fish species detected in both rivers using capture‐based and eDNA methods, our eDNA method detected 86.2% and 72.0% of the fish species in the Grand River and the Sydenham River, respectively, which included our four target species. Our analyses also identified significant positive and negative species co‐occurrence patterns between our target species and other identified species. Our results demonstrate that eDNA metabarcoding that targets the fish community as well as individual species of interest provides a better understanding of factors affecting the target species spatial distribution in an ecosystem than possible with only target species data. Additionally, eDNA is easily implemented as an initial survey tool, or alongside capture‐based methods, for improved mapping of species distribution patterns.     

Evolution of heat‐shock protein expression underlying adaptive responses to environmental stress

Heat‐shock proteins (Hsps) and their cognates are primary mitigators of cell stress. With increasingly severe impacts of climate change and other human modifications of the biosphere, the ability of the heat‐shock system to affect evolutionary fitness in environments outside the laboratory and to evolve in response is topic of growing importance. Since the last major reviews, several advances have occurred. First, demonstrations of the heat‐shock response outside the laboratory now include many additional taxa and environments. Many of these demonstrations are only correlative, however. More importantly, technical advances in “omic” quantification of nucleic acids and proteins, genomewide association analysis, and manipulation of genes and their expression have enabled the field to move beyond correlation. Several consequent advances are already evident: The pathway from heat‐shock gene expression to stress tolerance in nature can be extremely complex, mediated through multiple biological processes and systems, and even multiple species. The underlying genes are more numerous, diverse and variable than previously appreciated, especially with respect to their regulatory variation and epigenetic changes. The impacts and limitations (e.g., due to trade‐offs) of natural selection on these genes have become more obvious and better established. At last, as evolutionary capacitors, Hsps may have distinctive impacts on the evolution of other genes and ecological consequences.     

Differential biodiversity responses between kingdoms (plants,fungi, bacteria and metazoa) along an Alpine succession gradient

Biological diversities of multiple kingdoms potentially respond in similar ways to environmental changes. However, studies either compare details of microbial diversity across general vegetation or land use classes or relate details of plant community diversity with the extent of microbially governed soil processes, via physiological profiling. Here, we test the hypothesis of shared responses of plant and rhizosphere bacterial, fungal and metazoan biodiversities (especially across‐habitat β‐diversity patterns) along a disturbance gradient encompassing grazed to abandoned Alpine pasture, on acid soil in the European Central Alps. Rhizosphere biological diversity was inferred from eDNA fractions specific to bacteria, fungi and metazoans from contrasting plant habitats indicative of different disturbance levels. We found that soil β‐diversity patterns were weakly correlated with plant diversity measures and similarly ordinated along an evident edaphic (pH, C:N, assimilable P) and disturbance gradient but, contrary to our hypothesis, did not demonstrate the same diversity patterns. While plant communities were well separated along the disturbance gradient, correlating with fungal diversity, the majority of bacterial taxa were shared between disturbance levels (75% of bacteria were ubiquitous, cf. 29% plant species). Metazoa exhibited an intermediate response, with communities at the lowest levels of disturbance partially overlapping. Thus, plant and soil biological diversities were only loosely dependent and did not exhibit strictly linked environmental responses. This probably reflects the different spatial scales of organisms (and their habitats) and capacity to invest resources in persistent multicellular tissues, suggesting that vegetation responses to environmental change are unreliable indicators of below‐ground biodiversity responses.     

高密高异质性城市街区景观对心理健康影响评价及循证优化设计

高密高异质性城市环境不仅影响空间审美感受,也影响着城市居民的心理健康。实证研究表明通过引入绿色自然、优化空间设计可缓解这种负面影响。本文结合已有的神经认知学和医学研究,将风景园林学科核心价值之一环境愉悦体验提升到公共健康高度。我们利用神经生物测量等一系列先进技术量化环境体验,并在医学和神经认知学已有实证证据的基础上进一步进行健康影响评价,提出基于健康影响评价的循证设计方法。具体包括测量高密高异质性街道中不同环境空间要素组合对人的健康影响,分析识别具体案例中最容易诱发压力和认知负荷的空间要素,针对性地提出设计干预策略并依托增强现实/虚拟现实技术进行绩效预估。研究整合了技术量化环境体验和环境神经健康评价这2个密切联系的学术前沿,其成果可以直接指导具体案例的循证设计优化。     

Variation in adult stress resistance does not explain vulnerability to climate change in copper butterflies

Ongoing climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. However, although many species clearly suffer from ongoing climate change, others benefit from it, for example, by showing range expansions. However, which specific features determine a species’ vulnerability to climate change? Phenotypic plasticity, which has been described as the first line of defence against environmental change, may be of utmost importance here. Against this background, we here compare plasticity in stress tolerance in 3 copper butterfly species, which differ arguably in their vulnerability to climate change. Specifically, we investigated heat, cold and desiccation resistance after acclimatization to different temperatures in the adult stage. We demonstrate that acclimation at a higher temperature increased heat but decreased cold tolerance and desiccation resistance. Contrary to our predictions, species did not show pronounced variation in stress resistance, though plastic capacities in temperature stress resistance did vary across species. Overall, our results seemed to reflect population—rather than species‐specific patterns. We conclude that the geographical origin of the populations used should be considered even in comparative studies. However, our results suggest that, in the 3 species studied here, vulnerability to climate change is not in the first place determined by stress resistance in the adult stage. As entomological studies focus all too often on adults only, we argue that more research effort should be dedicated to other developmental stages when trying to understand insect responses to environmental change.     

Effects of Growing Location on the Contents of Main Active Components and Antioxidant Activity of Dasiphora fruticosa (L.) Rydb. by Chemometric Methods

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a very important raw material source for natural medicines in China. The content and activity of active component are main indexes that evaluate the quality of TCM, however, they may vary with environmental factors. In this study, the effects of environmental factors on the active component contents and antioxidant activity of Dasiphora fruticosa collected from the five main growing areas of China were investigated. The contents of tannin, total flavonoids and rutin were determined to be 7.65 – 10.69%, 2.30 – 5.39% and 0.18 – 0.81%, respectively. Antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH assay, with the DPPH IC₅₀ values ranged from 8.791 to 32.534 μg mL^?1. In order to further explore the cause of these significant geographical variations, the chemometric methods including correlation analysis, principal component analysis, gray correlation analysis and path analysis were applied. The results showed that environmental factors had significant effect on the contents of active components and antioxidant activity. Rapidly available phosphorus (RAP) and rapidly available nitrogen (RAN) were common dominant factors, and a significant positive action existed between RAP and active components and antioxidant activity (P < 0.05). Contributed by their high active components and strong antioxidant activity, Bange in Tibet and Geermu in Qinghai Province were selected as a favorable growing location, respectively.     

Variation in Phenolic Content,Profile, and Antioxidant Activity of Seeds among Different Paeonia ostii Cultivated Populations in China

The purpose of this study was to analyze the phenolic profiles of seeds from fifteen Paeonia ostii cultivated populations in China and identify their relationship with antioxidant activities and associated environmental factors. Thirteen individual phenolic compounds were quantitatively determined by HPLC, and (+)‐catechin was the most abundant phenolic compound in the seeds. Correlation analysis showed that phenolics were the most effective antioxidant compound class by evaluating DPPH, ABTS, and hydroxyl radical scavenging activities as well as ferric reducing antioxidant power. Latitude and annual rainfall had significant effects on the contents of many phenolic compounds, and elevation was only significantly correlated with gallic acid content. Within fifteen P. ostii cultivated populations, the seeds of Tongling population exhibited the highest phenolic contents and strongest antioxidant activities. These results suggest that Tongling population has a relatively high utilization value and a potential for sources of natural antioxidants.