scholarly journals Spatio-temporal ecological niche modelling of multigenerational insect migrations

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1910) ◽  
pp. 20191583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Menchetti ◽  
Maya Guéguen ◽  
Gerard Talavera

Modelling ecological niches of migratory animals requires incorporating a temporal dimension, in addition to space. Here, we introduce an approach to model multigenerational migratory insects using time-partitioned environmental variables (by months and years) and time- and behaviour-partitioned records (breeding records to model reproductive habitat). We apply this methodology to modelling the Palearctic-African migratory cycle of the Painted Lady butterfly ( Vanessa cardui ), based on data encompassing 36 years (646 breeding sites from 30 countries). Each breeding record is linked to a particular time (month and year), and the associated values of the bioclimatic variables are used for an ensemble modelling strategy, to finally obtain monthly projections. The results show obligated movements, mostly latitudinal, for the species' successive generations across the overall range, and only scattered locations show high probabilities of reproduction year-round. The southernmost reproductive areas estimated for the Palearctic-African migratory pool reach equatorial latitudes from December to February. We thus propose a potential distribution for the winter ‘missing generations' that would expand the V. cardui migration cycle to encompass about 15 000 km in latitude, from northernmost Europe to equatorial Africa. In summer, Europe represents the major temporary resource for V. cardui , while January and February show the lowest overall suitability values, and they are potentially the most vulnerable period for the species to suffer yearly bottlenecks. In summary, we demonstrate the potential of the proposed niche modelling strategy to investigate migratory movements of insects.

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 3099
Author(s):  
V. Javier Traver ◽  
Judith Zorío ◽  
Luis A. Leiva

Temporal salience considers how visual attention varies over time. Although visual salience has been widely studied from a spatial perspective, its temporal dimension has been mostly ignored, despite arguably being of utmost importance to understand the temporal evolution of attention on dynamic contents. To address this gap, we proposed Glimpse, a novel measure to compute temporal salience based on the observer-spatio-temporal consistency of raw gaze data. The measure is conceptually simple, training free, and provides a semantically meaningful quantification of visual attention over time. As an extension, we explored scoring algorithms to estimate temporal salience from spatial salience maps predicted with existing computational models. However, these approaches generally fall short when compared with our proposed gaze-based measure. Glimpse could serve as the basis for several downstream tasks such as segmentation or summarization of videos. Glimpse’s software and data are publicly available.


Author(s):  
P. V. Kuper ◽  
M. Breunig ◽  
M. Al-Doori ◽  
A. Thomsen

Many of today´s world wide challenges such as climate change, water supply and transport systems in cities or movements of crowds need spatio-temporal data to be examined in detail. Thus the number of examinations in 3D space dealing with geospatial objects moving in space and time or even changing their shapes in time will rapidly increase in the future. Prominent spatio-temporal applications are subsurface reservoir modeling, water supply after seawater desalination and the development of transport systems in mega cities. All of these applications generate large spatio-temporal data sets. However, the modeling, management and analysis of 3D geo-objects with changing shape and attributes in time still is a challenge for geospatial database architectures. In this article we describe the application of concepts for the modeling, management and analysis of 2.5D and 3D spatial plus 1D temporal objects implemented in DB4GeO, our service-oriented geospatial database architecture. An example application with spatio-temporal data of a landfill, near the city of Osnabrück in Germany demonstrates the usage of the concepts. Finally, an outlook on our future research focusing on new applications with big data analysis in three spatial plus one temporal dimension in the United Arab Emirates, especially the Dubai area, is given.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. e0008212
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Echeverry-Cárdenas ◽  
Carolina López-Castañeda ◽  
Juan D. Carvajal-Castro ◽  
Oscar Alexander Aguirre-Obando

In Colombia, little is known on the distribution of the Asian mosquito Aedes albopictus, main vector of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika in Asia and Oceania. Therefore, this work sought to estimate its current and future potential geographic distribution under the Representative Concentration Paths (RCP) 2.6 and 8.5 emission scenarios by 2050 and 2070, using ecological niche models. For this, predictions were made in MaxEnt, employing occurrences of A. albopictus from their native area and South America and bioclimatic variables of these places. We found that, from their invasion of Colombia to the most recent years, A. albopictus is present in 47% of the country, in peri-urban (20%), rural (23%), and urban (57%) areas between 0 and 1800 m, with Antioquia and Valle del Cauca being the departments with most of the records. Our ecological niche modelling for the currently suggests that A. albopictus is distributed in 96% of the Colombian continental surface up to 3000 m (p < 0.001) putting at risk at least 48 million of people that could be infected by the arboviruses that this species transmits. Additionally, by 2050 and 2070, under RCP 2.6 scenario, its distribution could cover to nearly 90% of continental extension up to 3100 m (≈55 million of people at risk), while under RCP 8.5 scenario, it could decrease below 60% of continental extension, but expand upward to 3200 m (< 38 million of people at risk). These results suggest that, currently in Colombia, A. albopictus is found throughout the country and climate change could diminish eventually its area of distribution, but increase its altitudinal range. In Colombia, surveillance and vector control programs must focus their attention on this vector to avoid complications in the national public health setting.


Author(s):  
Taehong Cho ◽  
Doris Mücke

Prosodic research in speech production usually focuses on the way the prosodic structure influences the phonetic implementation of segmental and suprasegmental features. The realization of a tone, for instance, involves not only dynamic changes so as to regulate the vocal fold vibration to produce f0 contours, but also the movement of articulators to simultaneously produce consonants and vowels. Articulatory measuring techniques help us to directly observe how these two systems are coordinated in the spatio-temporal dimension. A number of such techniques are discussed, along with examples indicating how each technique may be or has been used to study various aspects of prosody. They include laryngoscopy and electroglottography to examine laryngeal events associated with vocal fold vibration; systems such as electromagnetic articulography, an optoelectronic device, electropalatography, and ultrasound systems to explore supralaryngeal articulatory events; and aerodynamic measurement systems to record oral/subglottal pressure and oral/nasal flow.


2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-111
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Eckstein

Michel Foucault argued famously that early modern European governors responded to plague by quarantining entire urban populations and placing citizens under minute surveillance. For Foucault, such sixteenth- and seventeenth-century policies were the first steps towards an authoritarian paradigm that would only emerge in full in the eighteenth century. The present article argues that Foucault’s model is too abstracted to function as a tool for the historical examination of specific emergencies, and it proposes an alternative analytical framework. Addressing itself to actual events in early modern Italy, the article reveals that when plague threatened, Florentine and Bolognese health officials projected themselves into a spatio-temporal dimension in which official actions and perceptions were determined solely by the spread of contagion. This dimension, “plague time,” was not a stage on the irresistible journey towards Foucault’s “utopia of the perfectly governed city.” A contingent response to a recurrent existential menace, plague time rose and fell in response to events, and may be understood as a season.


2006 ◽  
Vol 274 (1608) ◽  
pp. 407-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason D Baker ◽  
Paul M Thompson

Estimates of variability in pinniped survival rates are generally based on observations at single sites, so it is not certain whether observed rates represent the whole population. Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis of spatio-temporal variation in age-specific survival rates for endangered Hawaiian monk seals ( Monachus schauinslandi ) based on capture–recapture analyses of more than 85% of the pups weaned in this population over the last two decades. Uniquely, these data have been collected from six subpopulations, encompassing all major breeding sites across its 1800 km long core range. Analyses of individual subpopulations revealed similar patterns in age-specific survival, characterized by the relatively low survival rates from weaning to 2 years of age, intermediate rates to 4 years of age, and then by relatively high ‘mature’ survival rates until 17 years of age, after which a senescent decline was observed. Juvenile, subadult and adult survival rates all varied significantly over time. Trends in survival among subpopulations were coherent with their relative geographical positions, suggesting regional structuring and connectedness within the archipelago. Survival rates for different age classes tended to be positively correlated, suggesting that similar factors may influence the survival for seals of all ages.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li He ◽  
Natascha Dorothea Wagner ◽  
Elvira Hörandl

AbstractThe Hengduan Mountains (HDM) in South West China are an important hotspot of plant diversity and endemism and considered to be a secondary diversification center for the woody plant genus Salix (Salicaceae). This study aimed to reconstruct the spatio-temporal evolution of the Salix Chamaetia-Vetrix clade in the HDM and to test for the occurrence of a radiation. We inferred phylogenetic relationships based on more than 34,000 RAD loci of 27 species. Phylogenetic analyses recovered a well-resolved tree topology with two major clades, the Eurasian and the HDM clade and a divergence time of c. 23.9 Ma. The HDM clade comprises two subclades. The species of the HDM clade originated in north HDM and adjacent areas and then dispersed into the south HDM, westwards to the Himalayas and eastwards to the Qinling Mountains. Niche modelling analyses revealed that during the last glacial maximum, range contractions were observed in the northern areas, while southward expansions resulted in range overlaps. The reconstruction of putative adaptive character evolution of plant height, inflorescence and flower morphology indicate that adaptations to altitudinal distribution contributed to the diversification of the HDM willows. Our data indicate that a radiation occurred in HDM within the Salix Chamaetia-Vetrix clade. Dispersal within the mountain system and to adjacent regions as well as survival in glacial refugia have shaped the biogeographical history of the clade. Differentiation along altitudinal zonation concomitant to morphological adaptations to colder climates may be important ecological factors for the high species diversity of Salix in this area.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Utku Norman ◽  
A. Ercument Cicek

AbstractWhole exome sequencing (WES) studies for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) could identify only around six dozen risk genes to date because the genetic architecture of the disorder is highly complex. To speed the gene discovery process up, a few network-based ASD gene discovery algorithms were proposed. Although these methods use static gene interaction networks, functional clustering of genes is bound to evolve during neurodevelopment and disruptions are likely to have a cascading effect on the future associations. Thus, approaches that disregard the dynamic nature of neurodevelopment are limited in power. Here, we present a spatio-temporal gene discovery algorithm for ASD, which leverages information from evolving gene coexpression networks of neurodevelopment. The algorithm solves a variant of prize-collecting Steiner forest-based problem on coexpression networks to model neurodevelopment and transfer information from precursor neurodevelopmental windows. The decisions made by the algorithm can be traced back, adding interpretability to the results. We apply the algorithm on WES data of 3,871 samples and identify risk clusters using BrainSpan coexpression networks of earlyand mid-fetal periods. On an independent dataset, we show that incorporation of the temporal dimension increases the prediction power: Predicted clusters are hit more and show higher enrichment in ASD-related functions compared to the state-of-the-art. Code is available at http://ciceklab.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/ST-Steiner/.


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