scholarly journals The type of forest edge governs the spatial distribution of different-sized ground beetles

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (Suppl.) ◽  
pp. 69-96
Author(s):  
Tibor Magura ◽  
Gábor L. Lövei
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Human Disturbance ◽  
Forest Edge ◽  
Ground Beetles ◽  
The Body ◽  
Large Species ◽  
Forest Edges ◽  
Small Species ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Species Tolerance

Worldwide human-induced habitat fragmentation intensifies the emergence of forest edges. In addition to these edges, there are edges evolved by natural processes. Edge-maintaining processes (natural vs. anthropogenic) fundamentally determine edge responses, and thus edge functions. Species with various traits show fundamentally different edge response, therefore the trait-based approach is essential in edge studies. We evaluated the edge effect on the body size of ground beetles in forest edges with various maintaining processes. Our results, based on 30 published papers and 221 species, showed that natural forest edges were impenetrable for small species, preventing their dispersal into the forest interiors, while both the medium and the large species penetrated across these edges and dispersed into the forest interiors. Anthropogenic edges maintained by continued human disturbance (agriculture, forestry, urbanisation) were permeable for ground beetles of all size, allowing them to invade the forest interiors. Overwintering type (overwintering as adults or as larvae) was associated with body size, since almost two-thirds of the small species, while slightly more than a third of both the medium and the large species were adult overwintering. Based on this, size-dependent permeability of natural edges may be related to overwintering type, which basically determines species tolerance to human disturbance.

Primary productivity, deoxygenation, and the Gulliver-absence effect determine bivalve body size following the end-Permian mass extinction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Tietje ◽  
William J. Foster ◽  
Jana Gliwa ◽  
Clara Lembke ◽  
Autumn Pugh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
The Body ◽  
Large Species ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Shell Size ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction ◽  
The Impact

<p> The impact of mass extinctions on the body sizes of animals has received considerable attention and debate, as to whether the reduced size of post-extinction organisms is due to the selective extinction of large species, absence of large species as a stochastic effect of low-diversity faunas, or a size decrease within surviving genera and species. Here, we investigated the body sizes of bivalves following the end-Permian mass extinction event and show that the shell size increase of bivalve genera was driven by both evolutionary and ecophenotypic responses. First, some genera show significant increases in body size with the evolution of new species. Further, the same genera record significant within-species increases in average and maximum body size into the late Induan, indicating that ecophenotypic changes were also involved on long-term body size trends. These increases are associated with invigorated ocean circulation, improved oxygenation of the seafloor, and probably increased food supply.</p>

The flight of petrels and albatrosses (procellariiformes), observed in South Georgia and its vicinity

1982 ◽  
Vol 300 (1098) ◽  
pp. 75-106 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass ◽  
The Body ◽  
Large Species ◽  
Small Species ◽  
Classical Dynamic ◽  
South Georgia ◽  
Mass Comparison ◽  
Gliding Flight ◽  
Field Season ◽  
Simple Power Function

Nine procellariiform species, covering a range of body mass exceeding 200: 1, were studied during a visit to Bird Island, South Georgia, with the British Antarctic Survey, in the 1979-1980 field season. Speed measurements were made by ornithodolite of birds slope-soaring over land, birds flying over the sea but observed from land, and birds observed from a ship. In the second group, which showed the least anomalies, lift coefficients corresponding to mean airspeeds were about 1 for albatrosses, decreasing to about 0.3 for the smallest petrels. All species increased speed when flying against the wind. The small species proceeded by flap-gliding, while the large ones flapped infrequently, and only in light winds. The small species flew lower than the larger ones, but this may be related to the fact that most of the observations were of birds flying into wind. The albatrosses ( Diomedea, Phoebetria ) and giant petrels ( Macronectes ) were found to have a ‘shoulder lock’, consisting of a tendon sheet associated with the pectoralis muscle, which restrained the wing from elevation above the horizontal. This arrangement was not seen in the smaller species, and was interpreted as an adaptation reducing the energy cost of gliding flight. The main soaring method in the large species appeared to be slope-soaring along waves. Windward ‘pullups’ suggestive of the classical ‘dynamic soaring’ technique were seen in large and medium-sized species. However, the calculated strength of the wind gradient would have been insufficient to maintain airspeed to the heights observed, and it was concluded that most of the energy for the pullups must come from kinetic energy, acquired by gliding along a wave in slope lift. Gliding downwind through the wind gradient should significantly increase the glide ratio, but this was not observed. Slope-soaring along moving waves in zero wind was recorded. The data were used to derive estimates of the average speeds that the different species should be able to maintain on foraging expeditions. Estimates of the rate of energy consumption were also made, taking into account the greater dependence on flapping in the smaller species, and on soaring in the larger ones. The distance travelled in consuming fuel equivalent to a given fraction of the body mass would seem to be very strongly dependent on mass. Comparison of the largest species ( Diomedea exulans ) with the smallest ( Oceanites oceanicus ) suggests that ‘range’, defined in this way, varies as the 0.60 power of the mass, although the relation is more complex than a simple power function.

scholarly journals The scaling of expansive energy under the Red Queen predicts Cope’s Rule

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indrė Žliobaitė ◽  
Mikael Fortelius
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Large Species ◽  
Small Species ◽  
Evolutionary Advantage ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
The Red Queen ◽  
Cope’S Rule

AbstractThe Red Queen’s hypothesis portrays evolution as a never-ending competition for expansive energy, where one species’ gain is another species’ loss. The Red Queen is neutral with respect to body size, implying that neither small nor large species have a universal competitive advantage. The maximum population growth in ecology; however, clearly depends on body size – the smaller the species, the shorter the generation length, and the faster it can expand. Here we ask whether, and if so how, the Red Queen’s hypothesis can accommodate a spectrum of body sizes. We theoretically analyse scaling of expansive energy with body mass and demonstrate that in the Red Queen’s zero-sum game for resources, neither small nor large species have a universal evolutionary advantage. We argue that smaller species have an evolutionary advantage only when resources in the environment are not fully occupied, such as after mass extinctions or following key innovations allowing expansion into freed up or previously unoccupied resource space. Under such circumstances, we claim, generation length is the main limiting factor for population growth. When competition for resources is weak, smaller species can indeed expand faster, but to sustain this growth they also need more resources. In the Red Queen’s realm, where resources are fully occupied and the only way for expansion is to outcompete other species, acquisition of expansive energy becomes the limiting factor and small species lose their physiological advantage. A gradual transition from unlimited resources to a zero-sum game offers a direct mechanistic explanation for observed body mass trends in the fossil record, known as Cope’s Rule. When the system is far from the limit of resources and competition is not maximally intense, small species take up ecological space faster. When the system approaches the limits of its carrying capacity and competition tightens, small species lose their evolutionary advantage and we observe a wider range of successful body masses, and, as a result, an increase in the average body mass within lineages.

Body size and host plant specialization: a relationship from a community of herbivorous insects on Ficus from Papua New Guinea

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vojtech Novotny ◽  
Yves Basset
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Host Specificity ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
The Body ◽  
Large Species ◽  
Insect Communities ◽  
Feeding Mode ◽  
Lowland Rain Forest ◽  
Host Plant Specialization

The relationships between body size and host specificity were studied in leaf-chewing and sap-sucking insect communities, including 792 species, feeding locally on 15 species of Ficus in a lowland rain forest in Papua New Guinea. A negative correlation between body size and host specificity, i.e., the tendency for large species to feed on numerous Ficus hosts and those smaller to have a more restricted host range, was found within both the sap-sucking and the leaf-chewing community. A more detailed analysis, which divided herbivorous species into three sap-sucking and four leaf-chewing guilds, revealed that the correlation between body size and host specificity was caused by differences in these traits between the guilds, while no such correlation was detected within any of the guilds. As the changes in feeding mode, defining various guilds, were unique evolutionary events, it is uncertain whether there is a functional relationship between feeding mode, body size and host specificity, or whether their correlation is only coincidental. It is suggested that, in the sap-sucking community at least, the positive body size versus host specificity correlation is a coincidental by-product of the causal relationship between the feeding mode and both the body size and host specificity. The causes of analogous patterns in a leaf-chewing community require further investigation. Methodological problems in the analysis of tropical insect communities, dominated by rare species, are discussed.

scholarly journals Javorella suvodolensis, a new endogean species of ground beetles (Trechini, Carabidae, Coleoptera) from southwest Serbia

2003 ◽  
Vol 55 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 113-116
Author(s):  
Srecko Curcic ◽  
Miloje Brajkovic ◽  
Bozidar Curcic
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Body Size ◽  
Relative Position ◽  
Related Species ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
Ground Beetles ◽  
The Body ◽  
Carabid Beetles ◽  
Species Groups ◽  
A New Species

A new species of endogean carabid beetles (Javorella suvodolensis n. sp) has been described from under stones, village Debelja, near Nova Varos, Mt. Javor, southwestern Serbia. This new species is easily distinguished from all other phenetically close congeners in many important respects such as the body size, body shape, shape of head, form and size of eyes, number of ommatidia, length of antennae, shape of pronotum, shape of elytra, relative position of humeral setae, structure and form of female genitalia and the shape of the gonosternite. Javorella suvodolensis n. sp. is the first known endogean species of the genus Javorella S. B. Curcic, M. M. Brajkovic & B. P. M. Curcic [apart from the cavernicolous species Javorella suvoborensis (Pavicevic & Popovic) and Javorella javorensis Curcic, Brajkovic & Curcic]. This new species and its congeners belong to an old separate phyletic lineage, distinct from all other related species groups. Additionally, J. suvodolensis n. sp. is relic and endemic to the mountains of southwest Serbia.

scholarly journals Ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) of Kunashir Island’s fumarole fields, Kuril Archipelago

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirill Makarov ◽  
Yurii Sundukov ◽  
Andrey Matalin
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Ground Beetles ◽  
Sulfur Compounds ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Extreme Factors ◽  
Kunashir Island

Fumarole fields on the Kunashir Island are confined to the main mountain ranges formed by the Ruruy, Mendeleev and Golovnin volcanoes. Due to residual volcanism, their soil, water and air are enriched with sulfur compounds, the vegetation is strongly depressed and degraded, while the temperature of soil and subsoil air is markedly increased (Zharkov 2014). Only a few publications are specifically devoted to the fauna of fumarolic sites (Konakov 1956). Based on repeated collections in 2008 to 2018, a complex of ground beetles living in these particular conditions was revealed and studied. Among the approximately 170 species of ground beetles recorded from the Kunashir Island (Sundukov and Makarov 2016), only five appear to be permanent inhabitants of fumarole fields: Cicindela (Cicindela) sachalinensis sachalinensis A. Mor., 1862, Cylindera (Eugrapha) elisae (Motsch., 1859), Bembidion (Ocydromus) dolorosum (Motsch., 1850), Bembidion (Peryphanes) cf. sanatum Bates, 1883 and Poecilus (Poecilus) samurai (Lutsh., 1916). Two species (C. sachalinensis and B. dolorosum) are found on all volcanoes studied, while the other species are narrowly localized. For example, C. elisae occurs on the Mendeleev and Ruruy volcanoes alone, B. cf. sanatum inhabits only the Mendeleev volcano, whereas the widespread P. samurai lives solely on the fumaroles of the Ruruy volcano. The species that populate both fumarole fields and other habitats react differently to particular conditions. In C. sachalinensis and P. samurai, the proportions of melanistic specimens at the fumaroles are increased, in the latter species the body size being significantly increased as well. The most interesting is the variability of B. dolorosum. With an increase in temperature and acidity of the habitat, this species becomes increasingly small, elongated, flattened and partially unpigmented. Such individuals are phenotypically indistinguishable from Bembidion (Ocydromus) negrei Habu, 1958 (= B. kuznetsovi Lafer, 2002), with transitions from the typical B. dolorosum to a form imitating B. negrei which can be observed even in tens of meters apart. Thus, only a few species have been capable of getting adapted to fumarolic field environments, but even they change significantly under the influence of extreme factors. At the same time, we believe that thermal (including fumarole) fields could have ensured the survival of a number of species under the conditions of temperature pessima during the Pleistocene and Holocene. Such a scenario was considered by us earlier for Bembidion (? Nipponobembidion) ruruy Makarov et Sundukov, 2014 (Makarov and Sundukov 2014) and some other beetles (Shavrin and Makarov 2019). The features of morphology and distribution of B. cf. sanatum also seem to favour this hypothesis. Interestingly, C. elisae is represented on the Kunashir Island both by the relict C. elisae kunashirensis (Putz et Wiesner, 1994) that inhabits only the Mendeleev volcano (Fig. 1) and by a form that populates only the Ruruy volcano, the latter form being morphologically more similar to the nominative subspecies than to C. elisae novitia (Bates, 1883) from northern Hokkaido.

The Body Size of Headstarted and Wild Juvenile European Pond Turtles (Emys orbicularis)

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Sławomir Mitrus ◽  
Bartłomiej Najbar ◽  
Adam Kotowicz ◽  
Anna Najbar
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
The Body ◽  
Emys Orbicularis

scholarly journals First record of Pachycrocuta brevirostris (Gervais, 1850) from Ukraine on the background of the European occurrence of the species

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Marciszak ◽  
Yuriy Semenov ◽  
Piotr Portnicki ◽  
Tamara Derkach
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
First Record ◽  
The Body ◽  
Crocuta Crocuta ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Eastern Asia ◽  
South Eastern

AbstractCranial material ofPachycrocuta brevirostrisfrom the late Early Pleistocene site of Nogaisk is the first record of this species in Ukraine. This large hyena was a representative of the Tamanian faunal complex and a single specialised scavenger in these faunas. The revisited European records list ofP.brevirostrisdocumented the presence of this species in 101 sites, dated in the range of 3.5–0.4 Ma. This species first disappeared in Africa, survived in Europe until ca. 0.8–0.7 Ma, and its last, relict occurrence was known from south-eastern Asia. The main reason of extinction ofP.brevirostrisprobably was the competition withCrocuta crocuta. The cave hyena was smaller, but its teeth were proportionally larger to the body size, better adapted to crushing bones and slicing meat, and could also hunt united in larger groups.

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