scholarly journals Riqueza y estabilidad de los polinizadores de los cirios (Fouquieria columnaris) del desierto sonorense: Un análisis comparativo

2017 ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Gary Paul Nabhan ◽  
Jim Donovan ◽  
Stephen Buchmann ◽  
Alberto Búrquez
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Baja California ◽  
Climatic Variation ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Marginal Population ◽  
The Past ◽  
Floral Visitors ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Floral Syndrome

The floral visitors of the boojum tree [Fouquieria columnaris (Kellogg) Kellogg ex Curran] in the Sierra Bacha, Sonora were studied and compared with Humphrey's data collected 30 years ago. The boojum, a species protected by CITES, has a distribution restricted to Baja California and the Sierra Bacha, Sonora. In the later locality, the richness of the pollinator guild -including 18 species of bees, several arthropods and one hummingbird species- is higher than any of the sites studied by Humphrey in Baja California. This disjunct population apparently does not exhibit ecological interactions characteristic of a marginal population supporting the hypothesis of a broader continental distribution of boojum in the past. Its pollinator guild is clearly dominated by polylectic bees, generalists that depend on asynchronous flowering of other plant species offering nectar and pollen resources in this hyperarid landscape. It appears that the stability of this pollinator guild is limited by the large climatic variation between years in the Sierra Bacha, and its effect on the production of floral resources year by year. Although the flowers do not conform to the ornithophyllous floral syndrome of other memebers of the genus, "trap-lining" by hummingbirds -repeated visits of widely-spaced flowering trees- was observed in this population.

scholarly journals Reduced visitation to the buzz-pollinated Cyanella hyacinthoides in the presence of other pollen sources in the hyperdiverse Cape Floristic Region

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurene E Kemp ◽  
Francismeire J Telles ◽  
Mario Vallejo-Marin
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Flower Colour ◽  
Cape Floristic Region ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Visitation Rates ◽  
Competitive Disadvantage ◽  
Pollen Sources ◽  
Floral Visitors ◽  
Time And Energy ◽  
Poricidal Anthers

Many plant species have floral morphologies that restrict access to floral resources, such as pollen or nectar, and only a subset of floral visitors can perform the complex handling behaviours required to extract restricted resources. Due to the time and energy required to extract resources from morphologically complex flowers, these plant species potentially compete for pollinators with co-flowering plants that have more easily accessible resources. A widespread floral mechanism restricting access to pollen is the presence of tubular anthers that open through small pores or slits (poricidal anthers). Some bees have evolved the capacity to remove pollen from poricidal anthers using vibrations, giving rise to the phenomenon of buzz-pollination. These bee vibrations that are produced for pollen extraction are presumably energetically costly, and to date, few studies have investigated whether buzz-pollinated flowers may be at a disadvantage when competing for pollinators' attention with plant species that present unrestricted pollen resources. Here, we studied Cyanella hyacinthoides (Tecophilaeaceae), a geophyte with poricidal anthers in the hyperdiverse Cape Floristic Region of South Africa, to assess how the composition and relative abundance of flowers with easily accessible pollen affect bee visitation to a buzz-pollinated plant. We found that the number of pollinator species was not influenced by community composition. However, visitation rates to C. hyacinthoides were negatively related to the abundance of flowers with more accessible resources. Visitation rates were strongly associated with petal colour, showing that flower colour is important in mediating these interactions. We conclude that buzz-pollinated plants might be at a competitive disadvantage when many easily accessible pollen sources are available, particularly when competitor species share its floral signals.

Documenting floral visitors to rare Hawaiian plants using automated video recordings

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. Gardener ◽  
Curtis C. Daehler
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Rare Plants ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Endemic Plant ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Floral Visitors ◽  
Endemic Plant Species ◽  
First Time

Many plant species require the services of an animal pollinator. In Hawai'i most endemic plant species are declining, yet their pollinators are often unknown because floral visitors are uncommon, or because visits occur at night, making them difficult to observe. Information about the pollination ecology of rare plants is needed to help develop a conservation strategy. We used an automated, infrared-equipped video system to record animal visits to the flowers of rare plant species on the island of O'ahu, Hawaii. Over 500 hours of recordings were made on four plant species. For the first time, a nocturnal moth was observed visiting Cyrtandra hawaiensis. Also for the first time, native masked bees, presumed to be Hylaeus connectans, were recorded visiting the flowers of two endangered lobeliads, Cyanea pinnatifida and Cyanea superba. An introduced bird, the Japanese White-eye Zosterops japonicus also visited the Cyanea species, but it appeared to act as a nectar robber. A third lobeliad, Clermontia kakeana, was observed continuously for several days and nights but only visits by ants were recorded and no fruits were produced. While it was not always possible to determine the actual species of invertebrate floral visitors, the continuous nature of our video recording allowed us to document floral visitors that were not previously known. Furthermore, the recordings can be made without potential artefacts introduced by the presence of human observers near the flowers. This methodology can be used to document many difficult-to-observe ecological interactions between animals and rare plants.

scholarly journals Crab spiders (Araneae: Thomisidae) in flowering plants in a Brazilian "Cerrado" ecosystem

2011 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
LC Rocha-Filho ◽  
IMP Rinaldi
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Flowering Plant ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Pollination Syndrome ◽  
Bee Pollination ◽  
Floral Visitors ◽  
Flowering Plant Species ◽  
Crab Spiders ◽  
Poricidal Anthers

Although crab spiders are common in flowering plants, their relations with plant species and its floral traits have been poorly known in the Neotropics. Observations regarding plant habits, floral visitors and also floral characteristics such as anthesis, odour, shape, colour and floral resources were recorded in flowering plant species of an area of "Cerrado" on a 2 km long trail. Misumenops argenteus and Misumenops pallens accounted for 62.86% of the spiders captured on 22 flowering plant species. The plants Senna rugosa (Fabaceae), Styrax ferrugineus (Styracaceae) and Banisteriopsis campestris (Malpighiaceae), hosted, each one, about 10 to 17% of the total spiders collected and these plants had diurnal anthesis, bee-attractive flower colours such as yellow (S. rugosa), white (S. ferrugineus), and pink (B. campestris), poricidal anthers as well as being visited by bees which evidenced bee-pollination syndrome. This study is the first survey regarding crab spiders and their associations with plant species of the "Cerrado".

Stability and Folding of the Unusually Stable Hemoglobin from Synechocystis is Subtly Optimized and Dependent on the Key Heme Pocket Residues.

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheetal Uppal ◽  
Mohd. Asim Khan ◽  
Suman Kundu
Keyword(s):  
Molten Globule ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Model System ◽  
Heme Pocket ◽  
The Past ◽  
Specific Manner ◽  
Delivery Vehicles ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Key Residues ◽  
Synechocystis Sp

Aims: The aim of our study is to understand the biophysical traits that govern the stability and folding of Synechocystis hemoglobin, a unique cyanobacterial globin that displays unusual traits not observed in any of the other globins discovered so far. Background: For the past few decades, classical hemoglobins such as vertebrate hemoglobin and myoglobin have been extensively studied to unravel the stability and folding mechanisms of hemoglobins. However, the expanding wealth of hemoglobins identified in all life forms with novel properties, like heme coordination chemistry and globin fold, have added complexity and challenges to the understanding of hemoglobin stability, which has not been adequately addressed. Here, we explored the unique truncated and hexacoordinate hemoglobin from the freshwater cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 known as “Synechocystis hemoglobin (SynHb)”. The “three histidines” linkages to heme are novel to this cyanobacterial hemoglobin. Objective: Mutational studies were employed to decipher the residues within the heme pocket that dictate the stability and folding of SynHb. Methods: Site-directed mutants of SynHb were generated and analyzed using a repertoire of spectroscopic and calorimetric tools. Result: The results revealed that the heme was stably associated to the protein under all denaturing conditions with His117 playing the anchoring role. The studies also highlighted the possibility of existence of a “molten globule” like intermediate at acidic pH in this exceptionally thermostable globin. His117 and other key residues in the heme pocket play an indispensable role in imparting significant polypeptide stability. Conclusion: Synechocystis hemoglobin presents an important model system for investigations of protein folding and stability in general. The heme pocket residues influenced the folding and stability of SynHb in a very subtle and specific manner and may have been optimized to make this Hb the most stable known as of date. Other: The knowledge gained hereby about the influence of heme pocket amino acid side chains on stability and expression is currently being utilized to improve the stability of recombinant human Hbs for efficient use as oxygen delivery vehicles.

scholarly journals Copper Phyllosilicates-Derived Catalysts in the Production of Alcohols from Hydrogenation of Carboxylates, Carboxylic Acids, Carbonates, Formyls, and CO2: A Review

Catalysts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 255
Author(s):  
Dien-Thien To ◽  
Yu-Chuan Lin
Keyword(s):  
Carboxylic Acids ◽  
Catalytic Performance ◽  
Spatial Effect ◽  
Synthesis Methods ◽  
The Past ◽  
Surface Areas ◽  
Preparation Conditions ◽  
Remedial Actions ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Size Interaction

Copper phyllosilicates-derived catalysts (CuPS-cats) have been intensively explored in the past two decades due to their promising activity in carbonyls hydrogenation. However, CuPS-cats have not been completely reviewed. This paper focuses on the aspects concerning CuPS-cats from synthesis methods, effects of preparation conditions, and dopant to catalytic applications of CuPS-cats. The applications of CuPS-cats include the hydrogenation of carboxylates, carboxylic acids, carbonates, formyls, and CO2 to their respective alcohols. Besides, important factors such as the Cu dispersion, Cu+ and Cu0 surface areas, particles size, interaction between Cu and supports and dopants, morphologies, and spatial effect on catalytic performance of CuPS-cats are discussed. The deactivation and remedial actions to improve the stability of CuPS-cats are summarized. It ends up with the challenges and prospective by using this type of catalyst.

Plant leaf recognition with shallow and deep learning: A comprehensive study

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1311-1328
Author(s):  
Jozsef Suto
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Plant Leaf ◽  
Leaf Characteristics ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Test Sets ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Nowadays there are hundreds of thousands known plant species on the Earth and many are still unknown yet. The process of plant classification can be performed using different ways but the most popular approach is based on plant leaf characteristics. Most types of plants have unique leaf characteristics such as shape, color, and texture. Since machine learning and vision considerably developed in the past decade, automatic plant species (or leaf) recognition has become possible. Recently, the automated leaf classification is a standalone research area inside machine learning and several shallow and deep methods were proposed to recognize leaf types. From 2007 to present days several research papers have been published in this topic. In older studies the classifier was a shallow method while in current works many researchers applied deep networks for classification. During the overview of plant leaf classification literature, we found an interesting deficiency (lack of hyper-parameter search) and a key difference between studies (different test sets). This work gives an overall review about the efficiency of shallow and deep methods under different test conditions. It can be a basis to further research.

scholarly journals A Digital Framework to Predict the Sunshine Requirements of Landscape Plants

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 2098
Author(s):  
Heyi Wei ◽  
Wenhua Jiang ◽  
Xuejun Liu ◽  
Bo Huang
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Normal Growth ◽  
Adaptive Selection ◽  
Landscape Plant ◽  
Landscape Plants ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Stability And Accuracy ◽  
The City

Knowledge of the sunshine requirements of landscape plants is important information for the adaptive selection and configuration of plants for urban greening, and is also a basic attribute of plant databases. In the existing studies, the light compensation point (LCP) and light saturation point (LSP) have been commonly used to indicate the shade tolerance for a specific plant; however, these values are difficult to adopt in practice because the landscape architect does not always know what range of solar radiation is the best for maintaining plant health, i.e., normal growth and reproduction. In this paper, to bridge the gap, we present a novel digital framework to predict the sunshine requirements of landscape plants. First, the research introduces the proposed framework, which is composed of a black-box model, solar radiation simulation, and a health standard system for plants. Then, the data fitting between solar radiation and plant growth response is used to obtain the value of solar radiation at different health levels. Finally, we adopt the LI-6400XT Portable Photosynthetic System (Li-Cor Inc., Lincoln, NE, USA) to verify the stability and accuracy of the digital framework through 15 landscape plant species of a residential area in the city of Wuhan, China, and also compared and analyzed the results of other researchers on the same plant species. The results show that the digital framework can robustly obtain the values of the healthy, sub-healthy, and unhealthy levels for the 15 landscape plant species. The purpose of this study is to provide an efficient forecasting tool for large-scale surveys of plant sunshine requirements. The proposed framework will be beneficial for the adaptive selection and configuration of urban plants and will facilitate the construction of landscape plant databases in future studies.

scholarly journals Thermodynamic and Energy Efficiency Analysis of a Domestic Refrigerator Using Al2O3 Nano-Refrigerant

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5659
Author(s):  
Farhood Sarrafzadeh Javadi ◽  
Rahman Saidur
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Gradient ◽  
Technological Changes ◽  
Nanoparticle Concentration ◽  
Evaporator Temperature ◽  
Domestic Refrigerator ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nano Lubricant ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Energy Efficiency Analysis ◽  
Al2o3 Nanofluid

Refrigeration systems have experienced massive technological changes in the past 50 years. Nanotechnology can lead to a promising technological leap in the refrigeration industry. Nano-refrigerant still remains unknown because of the complexity of the phase change process of the mixture including refrigerant, lubricant, and nanoparticle. In this study, the stability of Al2O3 nanofluid and the performance of a nano-refrigerant-based domestic refrigerator have been experimentally investigated, with the focus on the thermodynamic and energy approaches. It was found that by increasing the nanoparticle concentration, the stability of nano-lubricant was decreased and evaporator temperature gradient was increased. The average of the temperature gradient increment in the evaporator was 20.2% in case of using 0.1%-Al2O3. The results showed that the energy consumption of the refrigerator reduced around 2.69% when 0.1%-Al2O3 nanoparticle was added to the system.

scholarly journals Water confined in solutions of biological relevance

2020 ◽  
Vol 92 (10) ◽  
pp. 1563-1574
Author(s):  
Marie-Claire Bellissent-Funel
Keyword(s):  
Aqueous Solutions ◽  
Bulk Water ◽  
Biological Macromolecules ◽  
Organic Solutes ◽  
Confined Water ◽  
The Past ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Biological Relevance ◽  
The Stability

AbstractIn many relevant situations, water is not in its bulk form but instead attached to some substrates or filling some cavities. We shall call water in the latter environment confined water as opposed to bulk water. It is known that the confined water is essential for the stability and the function of biological macromolecules. In this paper, we provide a review of the experimental and computational advances over the past decades concerning the understanding of the structure and dynamics of water confined in aqueous solutions of biological relevance. Examples involving water in solution of organic solutes (cryoprotectants such as dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), sugars such as trehalose) are provided.

Future Directions in Surface Electromyography

Biofeedback ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
John G. Arena
Keyword(s):  
Surface Electromyography ◽  
Ambulatory Monitoring ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Psychophysiological Assessment ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Stability

Abstract The use of surface electromyography (SEMG) has increased exponentially in the past four decades. SEMG is one of the most widespread measures employed today in psychophysiological assessment and one of three primary biofeedback modalities. This article briefly outlines three areas that the author believes are important for SEMG to address if it is to continue to flourish in the future: applications in telehealth, the use of telemetry and ambulatory monitoring, and studies on the stability or reliability of surface electromyography.

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