scholarly journals Distribution of native European spiders follows the prey attraction pattern of introduced carnivorous pitcher plants

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Zander ◽  
Marie-Amélie Girardet ◽  
Louis-Félix Bersier

AbstractCarnivorous plants and spiders are known to compete for resources. In North America, spiders of the genus Agelenopsis are known to build funnel-webs, using Sarracenia purpurea pitchers as a base, retreat and storage room. They also very likely profit from the insect attraction of S. purpurea. In a fen in Europe, S. purpurea was introduced ~65 years ago and co-occurs with native insect predators. Despite the absence of common evolutionary history, we observed native funnels-spiders (genus Agelena) building funnel webs on top of S. purpurea in similar ways as Agelelopsis. Furthermore, we observed specimen of the raft-spider (Dolmedes fimbriatus) and the pygmy-shrew (Sorex minutus) stealing prey-items out of the pitchers. We conducted an observational study, comparing plots with and without S. purpurea, to test if Agelena were attracted by S. purpurea, and found that their presence indeed increases Agelena abundance. Additionally, we tested if this facilitation was due to the structure provided for building webs or enhanced prey availability. Since the number of webs matched the temporal pattern of insect attraction by the plant, we conclude that the gain in food is likely the key factor for web installation. Our results provide an interesting case of facilitation by an introduced plant for a local predator, which has developed in a very short time scale.

2000 ◽  
Vol 179 ◽  
pp. 197-200
Author(s):  
Milan Minarovjech ◽  
Milan Rybanský ◽  
Vojtech Rušin

AbstractWe present an analysis of short time-scale intensity variations in the coronal green line as obtained with high time resolution observations. The observed data can be divided into two groups. The first one shows periodic intensity variations with a period of 5 min. the second one does not show any significant intensity variations. We studied the relation between regions of coronal intensity oscillations and the shape of white-light coronal structures. We found that the coronal green-line oscillations occur mainly in regions where open white-light coronal structures are located.


1989 ◽  
Vol 177 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Pine ◽  
D. A. Weitz ◽  
D. J. Durian ◽  
P. N. Pusey ◽  
R. J. A. Tough

ABSTRACTOn a short time scale, Brownian particles undergo a transition from initially ballistic trajectories to diffusive motion. Hydrodynamic interactions with the surrounding fluid lead to a complex time dependence of this transition. We directly probe this transition for colloidal particles by measuring the autocorrelation function of multiply scattered light and observe the effects of the slow power-law decay of the velocity autocorrelation function.


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 396-396
Author(s):  
I. Pustylnik

We study the short-time evolutionary history of the well-known contact binary VW Cep. Our analysis is based partly on the numerous UBV lightcurves obtained at Tartu Observatory, IUE spectra, and samples from the published data. Special attention is given to the effects of asymmetry of the light curves. A higher degree of asymmetry outside the eclipses along with the significant displacements of the brightness maxima in respect to the elongation phase is interpreted as evidence that a considerable portion of the flaring source is concentrated close to the neck connecting the components. We discuss the nature of asymmetry in terms of possible mass exchange and the flare activity and compare the results of our model computations with the record of orbital period variations over the last 60 years.


1993 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-201
Author(s):  
Søren Achim Nielsen ◽  
Thomas Hougaard

An alternative test is presented, in which algal cultures are used for testing toxic substances. This test system is based on variations in the size distribution of cells in test cultures as a measurement of growth. Thus, inhibition of mitotic activity is used as a measurement for toxic effects. The test can be performed on a short time-scale and is very sensitive to even weak toxic doses.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 3872
Author(s):  
Klytaimnistra Katsara ◽  
George Kenanakis ◽  
Zacharias Viskadourakis ◽  
Vassilis M. Papadakis

For multiple years, food packaging migration has been a major concern in food and health sciences. Plastics, such as polyethylene, are continuously utilized in food packaging for preservation and easy handling purposes during transportation and storage. In this work, three types of cheese, Edam, Kefalotyri and Parmesan, of different hardness were studied under two complementary vibrational spectroscopy methods, ATR-FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, to determine the migration of low-density polyethylene from plastic packaging to the surface of cheese samples. The experimental duration of this study was set to 28 days due to the degradation time of the selected cheese samples, which is clearly visible after 1 month in refrigerated conditions at 4 °C. Raman and ATR-FTIR measurements were performed at a 4–3–4–3 day pattern to obtain comparative results. Initially, consistency/repeatability measurement tests were performed on Day0 for each sample of all cheese specimens to understand if there is any overlap between the characteristic Raman and ATR-FTIR peaks of the cheese with the ones from the low-density polyethylene package. We provide evidence that on Day14, peaks of low-density polyethylene appeared due to polymeric migration in all three cheese types we tested. In all cheese samples, microbial outgrowth started to develop after Day21, as observed visually and under the bright-field microscope, causing peak reverse. Food packaging migration was validated using two different approaches of vibrational spectroscopy (Raman and FT-IR), revealing that cheese needs to be consumed within a short time frame in refrigerated conditions at 4 °C.


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