bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ecology of Storage and Allocation of Resources: Animals
Authors: Pond Caroline M 
Published: April 2013

Abstract

Most organisms store lipids and/or carbohydrates for energy production during fasting. Lipids store much more energy per unit mass. Long‐chain fatty acids are absorbed and stored almost unaltered, so serve as indicators of natural diets and food chains. Vertebrates and higher arthropods have tissues specialised for lipid storage and management. Adipocytes are 40–85% triacylglycerols and occur in various intra‐abdominal and superficial sites in all tetrapods and some fish. Some mammalian adipose depots have site‐specific properties specialised to local, paracrine interactions with adjacent cells and tissues. In mammals, adipocyte volume is determined by anatomical location, body size and natural diet as well as fatness. The anatomical patterns of relative sizes of adipocytes are similar in all terrestrial mammals but species differ in the relative abundance of adipocytes in each depot. The chemical compositions of storage molecules are adapted to the ecological processes they serve, including migration, hibernation, lactation or unpredictable food supply. Storage of energy and other materials is essential to many aspects of animals' ecology. Adipose tissue can reach 50% body mass before migration or breeding fasts with superficial depots expanding most, especially in large vertebrates.

Key Concepts:

Storage is essential unless nutrients are continuously available.

Storage materials must minimise weight, volume and toxicity; some vitamins and minerals are too toxic to be stored in more than small quantities.

In animals, glycogen and acylglycerols can be safely stored in large quantities and metabolised to produce energy and/or tissues.

Much more energy can be stored as lipid than as glycogen, though the latter is more quickly mobilised.

The chemical composition of storage lipids is adapted to body temperature and the ecological processes that they support. Triacylglycerols of cold‐adapted poikilotherms and hibernating mammals have more unsaturated fatty acids than those of homeotherms.

Some migratory birds maximises energy density and efficient mobilisation of the storage lipids during prolonged flight by adaptive desaturation.

Specialised lipid storage tissues include the arthropod fat body and vertebrate adipose tissue that sequesters large quantities of triacylglycerols.

Vertebrate adipocytes are nearly spherical cells, 0.01–4 nL in volume, specialised to take up, hold and release storage lipids and to the regulation of appetite and metabolism.

In mammals, the mean volume of adipocytes is determined by anatomical location, body size and natural diet as well as by fatness.

Some mammalian adipocytes have site‐specific properties specialised to paracrine interactions.
Biomechanical Studies of Food and Diet Selection
Authors: Herrel Anthony , Van Wassenbergh Sam , Aerts Peter 
Published: April 2013

AbstractThe ways animals acquire food are largely determined by the medium in which they feed. As water is dense and viscous, resistive forces are important and affect the way prey can be captured resulting in the independent evolution of suction feeding in many vertebrate groups. Alternatively, on land, gravitational forces play an important role and will affect prey capture and transport by imposing limits on the use of adhesive forces and thus tongue‐based capture and transport. Biomechanical approaches involving the analysis of movements and forces can, combined with theoretical models, help explain the selective pressures operating on the feeding system. As such, these approaches may help explain the divergence of the feeding system in animals occupying different ecological niches and may help us understand the proximate factors driving adaptive radiations.Key Concepts:The density of the medium animals live in determines their prey capture strategy.Prey capture using suction has evolved independently in many vertebrate groups.Tongues work only on land.Trade‐offs are inherent to mechanical systems.Biomechanical models are limited by the quality of the input data used.Tooth morphology and wear are powerful indicators of feeding ecology.Functional approaches can help explain ecomorphological patterns.The feeding system and prey mechanical defences co‐evolve.
Behavioural Ecology
Authors: Hager Reinmar , Gini Beatrice 
Published: April 2013

Abstract

Behavioural ecology investigates how animal behaviour is adapted to the physical and social environment of individuals. Over the past 40 years behavioural ecology has been established as a field of research in which both empirical and theoretical studies analyse how evolution has shaped animal behaviour through the process of natural selection. The underlying premise is that individuals adopt strategies (behaviours) that maximise their fitness, that is, the contribution of their genes to future populations. Behavioural ecology seeks to understand why a specific behaviour confers a fitness advantage to an individual given a set of ecological and social conditions. The adoption of methods from genetics, physiology, bioinformatics and developmental biology has greatly expanded the tool kit with which questions in behavioural ecology are addressed.

Key Concepts:

Behavioural ecology is the study of how animal behaviour is adapted to the physical and social environment through natural selection.

Key concepts in behavioural ecology are the comparative approach, game theory, the optimality approach.

Animals are assumed to tradeoff between costs and benefits of different behaviours, for example between maximising food intake or reproduction at a given time.

Competitive interactions often evolve into evolutionary stable strategies, situations where frequency‐dependent dynamics are in equilibrium.

Conflicts exist between species, between members of a species and between genetic elements within individuals; these often result in arms races where exploitation and defences evolve progressively in response to each other.

New molecular, genetic and bioinformatic tools are opening up new questions in behavioural ecology, for example in phenotypic plasticity and epigenetics.
Biogeographical Regions
Authors: Huggett Richard 
Published: April 2013

Abstract

Species are not uniformly distributed over the globe. The largest regions of animal and plant assemblages are biogeographical regions, each bearing a distinctive fauna and flora. Some families and even some orders of animals are endemic to particular biogeographical regions; other families are shared by two or more regions; a few families are cosmopolitan and found in all regions. The delineation of traditional biogeographical regions was rather subjective. Recently, increased availability of global species range maps, the development of new multivariate techniques and improved computational power have led to quantitative regionalisations that are broadly similar to traditional regions but do show differences. The transition zones between are sometimes gradual, as in the junction between the Oriental and Australian faunal regions. The state of biogeographical regions is under threat from such human activities as habitat destruction and fragmentation and the introduction of alien species, and it will decline without conservation measures.

Key Concepts:

Regions (in biogeography) are spatial units of varying scales carrying comparatively distinct sets of animals and plants.

Faunal and floral elements are groups of species sharing a similar pattern of geographical distribution.

Biogeographical provincialism is the tendency of different geographical regions to house unique species, genera or families.

Endemism is the state of being unique to a specific geographical region, such as a continental landmass, a biogeographical region or a habitat.

Transition zones (in biogeography) are regions where one biogeographical region grades into another, and contrasts with sharp borders.

The Great American Interchange was the intermingling of South American and North American faunas starting 6 million years ago when a string of islands and then a permanent land connection bridged the ocean gap between North American and South American landmasses.

Habitat loss and fragmentation is one of the chief drivers of biodiversity loss and change in biogeographical regions.

Alien species (also called exotic, introduced and nonnative species) are species accidentally or purposefully carried to areas outside their natural range by humans.
Environmental Impact Assessment
Authors: Noble Bram F 
Published: April 2013

Abstract

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a systematic process designed to identify and predict the potential impacts of human activity on the biophysical and human environment. It also functions as an environmental management tool to identify measures to avoid, mitigate or compensate for those effects. EIA is intended to be an iterative process to follow‐up to projects postimplementation to determine actual environmental outcomes, interpret and communicate information about those outcomes and investigate opportunities for improved project environmental performance. Originating from the United States’ National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, EIA is now amongst the most successful and widely practiced environmental management tools in the world.

Key Concepts:

EIA is an aid to decision making through which concerns about the potential environmental consequences of proposed projects are assessed before those projects become a reality.

Screening in EIA ensures that assessments are done when needed and not done when not needed.

Scope is essential to good EIA and the goal is to focus on a select set of environmental components that are deemed important from scientific, public or regulatory perspectives and are likely to be adversely affected by the project.

The underlying intent of EIA is to allow project proponents, managers and decision makers to enhance the benefits of proposed development projects and to mitigate potentially adverse impacts to the point of acceptability.

EIA must be applied early in the development planning processes if it is to be influential in project design and decision making.

Information gained in EIA follow‐up studies, after the project is implemented, provides feedback to improve predictions and mitigation and management programmes, and an opportunity to learn for subsequent project proposals.
Conservation Biology and Biodiversity
Authors: Pennington Derric N , Ricketts Taylor 
Published: April 2013

Abstract

Human population growth and the corresponding increase in human consumption rate are leading factors contributing to biodiversity degradation and loss worldwide. Conservation biology integrates diverse disciplines within the natural and social sciences, with the goal of preserving the world's biodiversity, or variety of life. This chapter defines biodiversity and different metrics of diversity, and summarises how biodiversity is distributed, emphasising important patterns both across space and taxonomic groups. Next it describes the major threats to global biodiversity. It examines how people assign values to biodiversity, with a focus on ecosystem services. Finally, it highlights future challenges of conservation biology to protect biodiversity as well as human well‐being. Making conservation more relevant to policy makers, and people in general, requires integrated research to understand the provision of ecosystem services, their relationship to biodiversity and the tradeoffs of resource use decisions.

Key Concepts:

Conservation biology is an interdisciplinary endeavour that aims to balance the natural resource uses of a growing human population while sustaining a functioning and diverse biosphere for future generations.

Biodiversity is a hierarchical concept that includes the diversity of alleles, genes, individuals, populations, species, communities and ecosystems.

Each level of biodiversity serves an important function, and human activities can affect biodiversity at any level of organisation.

Biodiversity is unevenly distributed, both across spatial and temporal gradients and across taxa.

Human population growth and the corresponding increase in human consumption rate are impacting land cover, biogeochemical cycling, water quality and availability, and other major features of the world that is contributing to biodiversity degradation and loss.

Biodiversity has both intrinsic value and utilitarian value; the latter is derived from the ecosystem services, or the essential goods and services that ecosystems provide to humanity, including food, medicine, building materials, clean water and flood control.

Quantifying ecosystem services can make conservation more relevant to policy makers and people in general, and research is needed to understand the provision of ecosystem services, their relationship to biodiversity, and the tradeoffs of resource use decisions.
Satellite Remote Sensing of the Environment
Authors: Bamber Jonathan L , Schumann Guy 
Published: April 2013

Abstract

Satellite remote sensing of the environment is a relatively young science, beginning in earnest in the 1970s. Since then, rapid developments in sensor technology, computer power and data storage capabilities have resulted in remarkable advances in what can be observed, at what resolution and with what accuracy. Here, we summarise the fundamental physical concepts and the types of sensor that have been used for observing the biosphere, hydrosphere, oceans and ice at the surface of the Earth.

Key Concepts:

Satellites can provide global, synoptic coverage of key parameters such as albedo, surface temperature, soil moisture, rainfall, primary productivity in the surface oceans, and vegetation cover.

There is a continuous time series of visible and infrared observations covering the last four decades. Much of these data are freely available.

Improvements in technology mean image resolution of less than a metre is achievable, greatly improving classification accuracy.

Radar remote sensing is proving particularly useful for observing the hydrological cycle due to its all‐weather day/night capability.
Human Disease: Effects of Economic Development
Authors: Butler Colin D , Powles John , McMichael Anthony J 
Published: April 2013

AbstractSince palaeolithic times economic development has had mixed effects on the burden of human disease and injury. Pre‐modern agrarian populations with universal early marriage probably experienced the least favourable levels of health and survival, in many cases worse than their hunter‐gatherer ancestors. Over recent centuries, favourable effects of economic development on health have been ascendant. Child and adult survival have improved markedly in recent decades in most developing countries. However, many important health problems arising from economic development remain unsolved, including tobacco addiction, physical inactivity and obesity, to environmental contamination and disruption (including, now, systemic environmental changes such as climate change). The improvement in global food security has also stalled. Unless corrected, these interacting issues may undermine global public health.Key Concepts:Economic development has mixed but generally positive health effects, especially in recent centuries.Economic development involves several transitions – agricultural, technological, industrial, demographic, nutritional, epidemiological and sustainability.Knowledge is central to the epidemiological and demographic transitions.These transitions are causally intertwined in complex ways.Development can lead to transitional ‘overshoot’, for example from high to low fertility, from under to over caloric intake and from under to overconsumption of environmental resources.Global population health is threatened by declining environmental health determinants, which risks a consequential decline in social health determinants.Dominant measures of economic development omit negative externalities (adverse effects which impinge on public goods, other people, or future generations), thus providing excessively optimistic progress indicators.There is an urgent need for a ‘sustainability transition’, entailing a shift to renewable energy, ecological conservation and enhanced equity.This could be assisted by new metrics of economic growth and human well‐being.There is a possibility that paths of economic development will continue to diverge, leading to an ‘enclave’ world with sections of the human population being ‘left behind’ whilst progress continues elsewhere.
Deforestation, Forest Management and Governance
Authors: Lisa Klenk Nicole , Mabee Warren , Gong Yazhen , Bull Gary Q 
Published: April 2013

Abstract

The world's forests are a major source of material and fuel, a vast reservoir of biodiversity and they also provide valuable ecological services such as hydrological cycling and carbon sequestration. They play an important role in carbon accounting schemes under the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). As such, the impacts of global deforestation are of critical social, ecological and political significance. The primary causes of deforestation are well understood and will likely be exacerbated as new demands for forest products develop. Innovative governance arrangements, such as third party certification schemes and co‐management, have increasingly sought a role in alleviating deforestation alongside governmental forest policy‐making. Continued decreases in deforestation rates will depend on changes in how forests are valued and managed through multi‐level governance arrangements.

Key Concepts:

Energy production account for more than 50% of all wood uses.

There is concern that woodfuel use is one of the drivers of deforestation, but it is often difficult with available statistics to understand just how important this driver is.

Deforestation is mainly caused by economic forces, governance failures and politico‐ethical failures.

Given the rapid global loss of biodiversity, mainly due to deforestation in tropical areas, primary and selectively logged forests are of critical importance in tropical forest conservation.

Forest carbon sequestration is explicitly allowed in the Kyoto Protocol as a tool to meet emission reduction targets.

Without stricter governance oversight, carbon emissions mitigation initiatives such as the UN Programme on REDD can enable the usurpation of land and resource rights from indigenous communities in developing countries.

Decreasing the rate of deforestation requires the participation not just of governments but of local communities, indigenous peoples and citizens for decision‐making and monitoring in forest policy and management.
Dinosaur Feeding
Authors: Norman David B 
Published: April 2013

Abstract

Many dinosaurs can be relatively easily partitioned, on the basis of their tooth morphology and skeletal form, into those that were classically sharp‐toothed, agile and fast‐moving carnivorous theropods such as
Coelophysis
,
Velociraptor
and
Tyrannosaurus
. Alternatively others had comparatively blunt teeth, were rather heavy‐legged and barrel‐bodied herbivorous sauropodomorphs, for example,
Diplodocus
, cerapods, for example,
Triceratops
and armoured thyreophorans, for example,
Sauropelta
. However, some dinosaurs, as we shall see (e.g. heterodontosaurs, therizinosaurs, alvarezsaurs and spinosaurs) exhibit anatomies that cannot be so readily categorised; these challenge our understanding of likely feeding behaviours. For these latter creatures a more comparative–deductive approach must be adopted. Detailed investigation of such ‘atypical’ types, as well as the more classic morphologies, suggests that some dinosaurs exploited morpho‐functional solutions to the problems posed by feeding that are not seen among present‐day animals.

Key Concepts:

Tooth morphology provides direct information about the potential diets of long‐extinct animals.

Skeletal morphology provides information about the mechanics and potential lifestyle of long‐extinct animals.

Morphology and lifestyle interpretations based on dinosaur skeletons contain information that is relevant to deductions concerning their probable diets.

Jaw mechanics and tooth wear patterns provide objective information about bite forces and the movement of food caught between the teeth.

Carnivores typically eat meat and have predatory habits, but such animals are not exclusively predatory because today many are also known to take carrion opportunistically.

Herbivores typically eat plant material, but some classically herbivorous reptiles (such as land iguanas) are also known to eat eggs, young mammals or chicks, as well as carrion; these considerations also apply to animals such as rodents. So such apparently clear cut human definitions are evidently not as clear in real life.

Finite Element Modelling and Beam Theory have been used to augment information about the range of feeding styles in dinosaurs.

Pleurokinesis is a cranial mechanism that allows classically reptilian herbivores (i.e. ornithopod dinosaurs) to develop a power stroke, during jaw closure, by mobilising the lateral walls of the skull. This enables oral processing (repetitive chewing) of plant material.

Co‐evolutionary relationships (between dinosaurs and plants) in the fossil record, notably with respect to the coincident timing of the evolution of angiosperms (flowering plants) and diversification of herbivorous dinosaurs, cannot be proved.
Dinosaurs and The Origin of Birds
Authors: Clark James M 
Published: April 2013

AbstractThe evolutionary relationships of birds have been debated ever since the discovery of a fossil bird,Archaeopteryx, in 1861, that has bird‐like feathers but reptilian teeth and a long bony tail. Recent discoveries of feathered dinosaurs have confirmed analyses of bird relationships beginning in the 1970s that placedArchaeopteryxand birds within one group of dinosaurs, the Theropoda. Recognition of this relationship and discovery of a variety of new species have allowed evolutionary biologists to study for the first time many aspects of the transition from ground‐living theropods to flying birds. Many new details about the evolution of feathers, reproductive features of birds and flight have emerged from these fossils and continue to emerge as new fossils are found. The precise relationships of birds to theropods is still debated, but the scansoriopterygids, dromaeosaurs and troodontids are amongst the closest relatives of birds.Key Concepts:The closest living relatives of birds are the crocodilians and together they form the group Archosauria.The origins of birds lie with fossil archosaurs, which include dinosaurs, the flying reptiles called pterosaurs and the many fossil relatives of crocodilians.Evolutionary relationships are studied using cladistic analysis of similarities shared amongst different species.Cladistic analyses strongly support birds being closely related to a subgroup within the theropod dinosaurs called Coelurosauria and especially with the scansoriopterygid, dromaeosaur and troodontid coelurosaurs.Fossil coelurosaurs with feathers from China provide convincing evidence that birds are coelurosaurs, and that during the course of evolution feathers arose before flight.