scholarly journals Influence of different weather aspects on breeding performance, food supply and nest-space use in hoopoe offspring

2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Soňa Nuhlíčková ◽  
Ján Svetlík ◽  
Manfred Eckenfellner ◽  
Felix Knauer ◽  
Herbert Hoi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Space Use ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Large Prey ◽  
Breeding Performance ◽  
Temporal Scales ◽  
Weather Situation ◽  
Adverse Weather

Abstract In this study, we investigated the influence of different weather aspects on breeding performance, food supply and nest-space use in hoopoe offspring (Upupa epops). Camera recordings of 88 nests were used to examine how ambient environmental conditions influence food supply, offspring nest-space use and the trade-off nestlings face regarding the two mainly used locations in the nest. Therefore, we provide a comprehensive analysis involving different factors including weather parameters together with food provisioned to nestlings on different temporal scales to identify the factors having the most influence on nest-space use. We found that different breeding conditions significantly influenced how nestlings used the nest. During excessively humid weather, nestlings spent more time under the entrance hole when small food was delivered. However, nestlings supplied with large prey more often remained hidden in the distant area, despite the adverse weather situation. In all three aspects and temporal scales, our analysis confirmed that prey was the most important factor influencing offspring nest-space use, suggesting a crucial role of large insects for hoopoes. Finally, we found that long-term effects of weather affect overall food provisioned to nestlings and thus offspring behaviour. We provide evidence that parental feeding location and prey size, which are in turn influenced by weather conditions, are the most influential factors for nest-space use. This study expands our knowledge of parent–offspring communication and how environmental factors may lead to differential nest-space use, which may be regarded as the earliest form of habitat preference in birds. Significance statement Nests are usually constrained in space but designed to protect offspring from the environment while giving them limited possibilities to express behavioural diversity. This is particularly true for bird nests, where nestlings are usually packed in close contact with one another and without much space for movement, except begging. Here we demonstrate that nest features, such as available nest space together with environmental conditions surrounding a nest, influence nestling strategies and behaviours, including social interactions between nest mates, which further leads to fitness consequences. Our results seem to be of great importance for habitat selection theory in birds, in particular regarding the early development of habitat preferences (imprinting) and use. On the other hand, the result may also have important implications for conservation issues given that nestling behaviour may be used as a determinant of environmental quality.

Performance of Wireless Magnetometers for Stop Bar Detection at Signalized Intersections

2018 ◽  
Vol 2672 (45) ◽  
pp. 55-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jidong J. Yang ◽  
Bashan Zuo
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Access Point ◽  
Signalized Intersections ◽  
Conditional Inference ◽  
Professional Judgment ◽  
Heavy Vehicles ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Adverse Weather ◽  
Reliable Detection ◽  
Conditional Inference Trees

Wireless magnetometers have been considered as a practical alternative to inductive loops and suitable for large intersections, where span wire is generally used for traffic signal support. In this paper, wireless magnetometers are evaluated for stop bar vehicle detection at signalized intersections. High-resolution detector data were collected in the field subjected to various weather and environmental conditions. Conditional inference trees were used to correlate detection errors with weather and environmental factors that potentially affect the performance of wireless magnetometers. The study results indicated that the wireless magnetometers are fairly robust to various environmental conditions, such as wind, lighting, and visibility. Frequent passing of heavy vehicles, common at large intersections, can cause communication interruption between in-pavement sensors and the access point. This likely increases false and stuck-on call errors, which could be aggravated by adverse weather (e.g., rain, fog, or snow). This communication interruption issue can be mitigated by proper installation of additional repeaters. Provided the interruption issues are site-specific, professional judgment and field test are required for proper system setup, which is critical to delivering accurate and reliable detection for the wireless magnetometer system.

The Inactivity of Animals: Influence of Stochasticity and Prey Size

Behaviour ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 92 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorian Moss ◽  
William J. Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Food Supply ◽  
Prey Capture ◽  
Prey Size ◽  
Large Prey ◽  
Small Prey ◽  
Sufficient Food

As a consequence of prey capture being partly dependent upon chance, each individual may usually spend much of the day inactive even if the population is limited by its food supply. This applies particularly to species that eat large prey and thus experience considerable day-to-day variation in intake which restricts them to relatively rich habitats. Food will be found easily on most days and little time need be spent hunting although, occasionally, they will be unlucky and, despite searching all day, risk starvation. Predators of small prey can survive in environments that provide barely sufficient food as they experience little variation in intake: but they need to search all day to sustain themselves.

Seasonal Variation in Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi) Movement Patterns and Space Use in Peninsular Florida at Multiple Temporal Scales

Herpetologica ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javan M. Bauder ◽  
David R. Breininger ◽  
M. Rebecca Bolt ◽  
Michael L. Legare ◽  
Christopher L. Jenkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Variation ◽  
Movement Patterns ◽  
Space Use ◽  
Temporal Scales ◽  
Eastern Indigo Snake

scholarly journals The salt flats fighter: agonistic survival of Liolaemus fabiani in the Salar de Atacama

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yery Marambio-Alfaro ◽  
Gabriel Álvarez ◽  
Marcos Cortés Araya ◽  
Antonio E. Serrano
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Atacama Desert ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Territorial Behavior ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Salt Flats ◽  
Natural Sense ◽  
Winner Take All ◽  
Take All

Liolaemus fabiani is a lizard that lives in the Salar de Atacama, located in the center of the Atacama Desert, northern Chile, one of the driest places on the planet. Likely due to the extreme environmental conditions of their habitat, L. fabiani has colonized all watercourse shores of the Puilar pond where the primary source of food, flies, are confined. By ‘owning’ these shores, they can retain resources, explaining their natural sense of territory and their world-renowned aggressive territorial behavior. From the perspective of the lizard, the battlefield is a narrow stretch between mountains of halite salt and the water, which leads to a winner-take-all type territory. The winning lizard is rewarded with control of the food supply, access to females and a privileged space to survive. This modern gladiator faces his opponent with an unmatched ferocity, although there are rarely, if ever, deaths between the contenders. Like other vertebrates, the defense of the territory is a cooperative job with the alpha female. She releases pheromone compounds, conferring an advantage to her partner to proceed ruthlessly to attack the intruder, on land or in water, in order to obtain victory. The victorious lizard gains ownership of the land, leaving no doubts of his claim to other would-be challengers.

scholarly journals Assessing biomass and primary production of microphytobenthos in depositional coastal systems using spectral information

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascalle Jacobs ◽  
Jaime Pitarch ◽  
Jacco C. Kromkamp ◽  
Catharina J.M. Philippart
Keyword(s):  
Primary Production ◽  
Extreme Events ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Benthic Microalgae ◽  
List Type ◽  
Benthic Primary Production ◽  
Coastal Systems ◽  
Benthic Biomass ◽  
Summer Temperatures

ABSTRACTIn depositional intertidal coastal systems, primary production is dominated by benthic microalgae (microphytobenthos) inhabiting the mudflats. This benthic productivity is supporting secondary production and supplying important services to humans including food provisioning. Increased frequencies of extreme events in weather (such as heatwaves, storm surges and cloudbursts) are expected to strongly impact the spatiotemporal dynamics of the microphytobenthos and subsequently their contribution to coastal food webs. Within north-western Europe, the years 2018 and 2019 were characterized by record-breaking summer temperatures and accompanying droughts. Field-calibrated satellite data (Sentinel 2) were used to quantify the seasonal dynamics of microphytobenthos biomass and production at an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution during these years. We demonstrate that the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) should be used with caution in depositional coastal intertidal systems, because it may reflect import of remains of allochthonous pelagic productivity rather than local benthic biomass. We show that the reduction in summer biomass of the benthic microalgae cannot be explained by grazing but was most probably due to the high temperatures. The fivefold increase in salinity from January to September 2018, resulting from reduced river run-off during this exceptionally dry year, cannot have been without consequences for the vitality of the microphytobenthos community and its resistance to wind stress and cloud bursts. Comparison to historical information revealed that primary productivity of microphytobenthos may vary at least fivefold due to variations in environmental conditions. Therefore, ongoing changes in environmental conditions and especially extreme events because of climate change will not only lead to changes in spatiotemporal patterns of benthic primary production but also to changes in biodiversity of life under water and ecosystem services including food supply. Satellite MPB data allows for adequate choices in selecting coastal biodiversity conservation and coastal food supply.HIGHLIGHTSExpected seasonality changes require large-scale and high-resolution coastal dataNDVI of tidal flats reflects local benthic biomass and allochthonous phytoplanktonHigh summer temperatures reduced biomass and productivity of benthic microalgaeLong-term data revealed a five-fold variation in MPB biomass and productionSatellite MPB data allow for adequate conservation of coastal biodiversity

scholarly journals Walking against or with traffic? Evaluating pedestrian fatalities and head injuries in Taiwan

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chih-Wei Pai ◽  
Ping-Ling Chen ◽  
Shiao-Tzu Ma ◽  
Shan-Hong Wu ◽  
Václav Linkov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Head Injuries ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Traffic Crashes ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Crash Data ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Sight Distance ◽  
Adverse Weather ◽  
Negative Effect

Abstract Background Allowing contraflow cycling on one-way streets has been reported to reduce crash risks in Belgium and the United Kingdom. Similarly, walking against traffic on roadways without sidewalks substantially improves pedestrian safety. This study examined fatalities and head injuries sustained by pedestrians in against-traffic and with-traffic crashes. Methods Using police-reported crash data in Taiwan between 2011 and 2016, fatalities and head injuries were compared for pedestrians involved in against-traffic and with-traffic crashes. Results Of the 14,382 pedestrians involved in crashes, 10,749 and 3633 pedestrians in with-traffic and against-traffic crashes, respectively, were reported. Compared with pedestrians involved in against-traffic crashes, those in with-traffic crashes were more likely to sustain fatalities and head injuries. Results of logistic regression models revealed several influential factors on pedestrian fatalities and head injuries, including elderly pedestrians, male drivers, intoxicated drivers, rural roadways, unlit streets in darkness, limited sight distance, adverse weather conditions, midnight hours, and a heavy vehicle as the crash partner. Conclusions Pedestrians in with-traffic crashes were more likely to sustain fatalities and head injuries compared with those in against-traffic crashes. Furthermore, the negative effect of walking with traffic on injuries was more pronounced in reduced-visibility conditions.

scholarly journals Weather Risk–Reward Contract for Sustainable Agri-Food Supply Chain with Loss-Averse Farmer

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongyong Fu ◽  
Kok Loy Teo ◽  
Yujie Li ◽  
Lei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Optimal Level ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Agricultural Practice ◽  
Food Supply Chain ◽  
Investment Level ◽  
Adverse Weather ◽  
Procurement Price ◽  
Sustainable Investment

Compared with the traditional agri-food supply chain (AFSC) whose only goal is to maximize economic benefits, the sustainable agri-food supply chain (SAFSC) starts to attract more attention. Typical challenges faced by SAFSC development are unfair pricing of produce, yield uncertainty caused by adverse weather, as well as conflict and cooperation between stakeholders and sustainable activities of SAFSC. In this paper, we establish a two-echelon decision-making model consisting of a loss-averse farmer and a loss-neutral company. A guaranteed price mechanism is contrived to mitigate the effects of uncertain procurement price on the farmers’ profit. It is found that this mechanism can improve the sustainable investment level but fails to reach the optimal level of the SAFSC system. Thus, a risk–reward contract taking into account the weather index (temperature) and the degree of loss aversion is designed. Results show that this contract can settle the distortion of the sustainable investment level and effectively motivate farmers to participate in the sustainable agricultural practice. Furthermore, we derive the conditions on the contract parameters under which both the company and the farmer are motivated to exert efforts to stand by sustainable agricultural practice.

Effects of Parent and Offspring Food Rations On Parental Care in the Convict Cichlid Fish (Pisces, Cichlidae)

Behaviour ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 129 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 63-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
James D. Kieffer ◽  
Robert J. Lavery
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Food Abundance ◽  
Convict Cichlid ◽  
Cichlasoma Nigrofasciatum ◽  
Convict Cichlids ◽  
More Care

AbstractAnimals may provide more care for their young under certain environmental conditions. For instance, if food is plentiful parents may invest more in the current brood than if food is scarce, assuming that food abundance is correlated with parent and offspring condition. In this experiment, we manipulated food levels (low vs high) for both parents and offspring to determine if parental care is influenced by parental and/or offspring condition in the convict cichlid, Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum. Parents which were fed a higher ration gained weight, whereas parents fed a lower ration lost weight. Similarly, young which were fed a higher ration were significantly larger than young fed a lower ration. Parents which were fed a higher ration defended their brood more vigorously than parents fed a lower ration. Offspring condition had little effect on parental care. Furthermore, females consistently invested more than males. The results show that parental convict cichlids adjust care in response to their own food supply rather than that of their offspring.

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