An efficient method for collecting large samples of live copepods free from detritus

2010 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl J. Svensson ◽  
Glenn A. Hyndes ◽  
Paul S. Lavery
Keyword(s):  
Fatty Acids ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Aquatic Systems ◽  
New Method ◽  
Aquatic Environments ◽  
Web Studies ◽  
Large Samples ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Harpacticoid Copepods

Meiofauna are often important in the transfer of organic material to higher trophic levels in aquatic environments. However, in food web analysis the group is frequently pooled or ignored owing to the difficulty in isolating individual components of the assemblage. In this study, we developed and tested a new method for extracting photopositive and detritus-free copepod samples from sediments, and compared this method to a previous technique (Couch 1989). In our initial trials, ∼400 copepods (all orders included) were collected in 15 min compared with 60 copepods using Couch’s method. In subsequent trials that focussed on specific orders of copepods, our method was at least 10 times more efficient than Couch’s method at collecting cyclopoid and harpacticoid copepods from sediments. The new method requires very little supervision and there is no requirement for a particular intensity of light. This method can increase the collection of large numbers of photopositive copepods in aquatic systems, and thereby facilitate the inclusion of this important component into future food web studies, particularly those using biomarkers such as stable isotopes or fatty acids.

scholarly journals Stable isotopes reveal that chironomids occupy several trophic levels within West Greenland lakes: Implications for food web studies

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 1023-1034 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina S. Reuss ◽  
Ladislav Hamerlík ◽  
Gaute Velle ◽  
Anders Michelsen ◽  
Ole Pedersen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
West Greenland ◽  
Web Studies

Selective Sampling and Orientation of Non-Homogeneous Tissues

1968 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 98-99
Author(s):  
C. C. Clawson ◽  
L. W. Anderson ◽  
R. A. Good
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Light Microscopy ◽  
Random Sampling ◽  
New Method ◽  
Microscope Examination ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
Selective Sampling ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Specific Orientation

Investigations which require electron microscope examination of a few specific areas of non-homogeneous tissues make random sampling of small blocks an inefficient and unrewarding procedure. Therefore, several investigators have devised methods which allow obtaining sample blocks for electron microscopy from region of tissue previously identified by light microscopy of present here techniques which make possible: 1) sampling tissue for electron microscopy from selected areas previously identified by light microscopy of relatively large pieces of tissue; 2) dehydration and embedding large numbers of individually identified blocks while keeping each one separate; 3) a new method of maintaining specific orientation of blocks during embedding; 4) special light microscopic staining or fluorescent procedures and electron microscopy on immediately adjacent small areas of tissue.

scholarly journals Elevated temperature and browning increase dietary methylmercury, but decrease essential fatty acids at the base of lake food webs

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pianpian Wu ◽  
Martin J. Kainz ◽  
Fernando Valdés ◽  
Siwen Zheng ◽  
Katharina Winter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fatty Acids ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Essential Fatty Acids ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Essential Nutrients ◽  
Aquatic Food Webs ◽  
Aquatic Food

AbstractClimate change scenarios predict increases in temperature and organic matter supply from land to water, which affect trophic transfer of nutrients and contaminants in aquatic food webs. How essential nutrients, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and potentially toxic contaminants, such as methylmercury (MeHg), at the base of aquatic food webs will be affected under climate change scenarios, remains unclear. The objective of this outdoor mesocosm study was to examine how increased water temperature and terrestrially-derived dissolved organic matter supply (tDOM; i.e., lake browning), and the interaction of both, will influence MeHg and PUFA in organisms at the base of food webs (i.e. seston; the most edible plankton size for zooplankton) in subalpine lake ecosystems. The interaction of higher temperature and tDOM increased the burden of MeHg in seston (< 40 μm) and larger sized plankton (microplankton; 40–200 μm), while the MeHg content per unit biomass remained stable. However, PUFA decreased in seston, but increased in microplankton, consisting mainly of filamentous algae, which are less readily bioavailable to zooplankton. We revealed elevated dietary exposure to MeHg, yet decreased supply of dietary PUFA to aquatic consumers with increasing temperature and tDOM supply. This experimental study provides evidence that the overall food quality at the base of aquatic food webs deteriorates during ongoing climate change scenarios by increasing the supply of toxic MeHg and lowering the dietary access to essential nutrients of consumers at higher trophic levels.

scholarly journals Characterizing Highly Benefited Patients in Randomized Clinical Trials

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivek Charu ◽  
Paul B. Rosenberg ◽  
Lon S. Schneider ◽  
Lea T. Drye ◽  
Lisa Rein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Clinical Trials ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
New Method ◽  
Usual Model ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Working Model ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
High Benefit ◽  
Two Stages

AbstractPhysicians and patients may choose a certain treatment only if it is predicted to have a large effect for the profile of that patient. We consider randomized controlled trials in which the clinical goal is to identify as many patients as possible that can highly benefit from the treatment. This is challenging with large numbers of covariate profiles, first, because the theoretical, exact method is not feasible, and, second, because usual model-based methods typically give incorrect results. Better, more recent methods use a two-stage approach, where a first stage estimates a working model to produce a scalar predictor of the treatment effect for each covariate profile; and a second stage estimates empirically a high-benefit group based on the first-stage predictor. The problem with these methods is that each of the two stages is usually agnostic about the role of the other one in addressing the clinical goal. We propose a method that characterizes highly benefited patients by linking model estimation directly to the particular clinical goal. It is shown that the new method has the following two key properties in comparison with existing approaches: first, the meaning of the solution with regard to the clinical goal is the same, and second, the value of the solution is the best that can be achieved when using the working model as a predictor, even if that model is incorrect. In the Citalopram for Agitation in Alzheimer’s Disease (CitAD) randomized controlled trial, the new method identifies substantially larger groups of highly benefited patients, many of whom are missed by the standard method.

Functional diversity alters the effects of a pulse perturbation on the dynamics of tritrophic food webs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruben Ceulemans ◽  
Laurie Anne Myriam Wojcik ◽  
Ursula Gaedke
Keyword(s):  
Food Web ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Feedback Loop ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Nutrient Pulse ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Food Web Model

Biodiversity decline causes a loss of functional diversity, which threatens ecosystems through a dangerous feedback loop: this loss may hamper ecosystems' ability to buffer environmental changes, leading to further biodiversity losses. In this context, the increasing frequency of climate and human-induced excessive loading of nutrients causes major problems in aquatic systems. Previous studies investigating how functional diversity influences the response of food webs to disturbances have mainly considered systems with at most two functionally diverse trophic levels. Here, we investigate the effects of a nutrient pulse on the resistance, resilience and elasticity of a tritrophic---and thus more realistic---plankton food web model depending on its functional diversity. We compare a non-adaptive food chain with no diversity to a highly diverse food web with three adaptive trophic levels. The species fitness differences are balanced through trade-offs between defense/growth rate for prey and selectivity/half-saturation constant for predators. We showed that the resistance, resilience and elasticity of tritrophic food webs decreased with larger perturbation sizes and depended on the state of the system when the perturbation occured. Importantly, we found that a more diverse food web was generally more resistant, resilient, and elastic. Particularly, functional diversity dampened the probability of a regime shift towards a non-desirable alternative state. In addition, despite the complex influence of the shape and type of the dynamical attractors, the basal-intermediate interaction determined the robustness against a nutrient pulse. This relationship was strongly influenced by the diversity present and the third trophic level. Overall, using a food web model of realistic complexity, this study confirms the destructive potential of the positive feedback loop between biodiversity loss and robustness, by uncovering mechanisms leading to a decrease in resistance, resilience and elasticity as functional diversity declines.

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