scholarly journals One Year Monitoring of Ecological Interaction of Silurus glanis in a Novel Invaded Oligotrophic Deep Lake (Lake Maggiore)

Water ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Caterina M. Antognazza ◽  
Tommaso Costantini ◽  
Monica Campagnolo ◽  
Serena Zaccara
Keyword(s):  
Stomach Contents ◽  
High Growth ◽  
High Growth Rate ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Prey Fish ◽  
Silurus Glanis ◽  
Orconectes Limosus ◽  
Lake Maggiore ◽  
European Catfish ◽  
Aquatic Food

The European catfish (Silurus glanis) was introduced in Italy during the last century for aquaculture purposes, and now it is well-established. S. glanis is an invasive species and a top predator that can deplete prey supply in the surrounding habitat, leading to changes in the aquatic food web. Consequently, its presence is considered a threat to native fish populations. Its presence in the Lake Maggiore (Northern Italy) is recent and there is a lack of knowledge about its ability to completely exploit this new ecosystem throughout the year. This study corroborated the ability of European catfish to exploit both pelagic and littoral habitats, promoting trophic interactions in both habitats. Over 2019, multiple sampling approaches have been applied by collecting S. glanis and analysing its stomach contents with the aim of inferring interactions with the freshwater community. Its diet was mainly based on crayfish (Orconectes limosus), followed by six prey fish and the genus Corbicula; two fish species (Padogobius bonelli and Salaria fluviatilis) were added to the list of known prey fish. Notably and alarmingly for the early potential top-down pressure towards all trophic levels, young individuals were proved to also feed on fish and crayfish. S. glanis showed the ability to hunt at deep depths (>60 m) and a high growth rate, despite Lake Maggiore being oligotrophic.

scholarly journals Spoiled for Choice during Cold Season? Habitat Use and Potential Impacts of the Invasive Silurus glanis L. in a Deep, Large, and Oligotrophic Lake (Lake Maggiore, North Italy)

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 2549
Author(s):  
Vanessa De Santis ◽  
Pietro Volta
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Cold Season ◽  
Effective Management ◽  
Prey Fish ◽  
Silurus Glanis ◽  
Lake Maggiore ◽  
Ecological Features ◽  
European Catfish ◽  
First Time

The ecological features of invasive alien species are crucial for their effective management. However, they are often lacking in newly invaded ecosystems. This is the case of the European catfish Silurus glanis L. in Lake Maggiore, where the species is present since 1990, but no scientific information is available on its ecology. To start filling this knowledge gap, 236 catfish (67 cm to 150 cm of total length) were collected, measured, and dissected for stomach content analyses from three localities and in two habitats (littoral vs. pelagic) in late autumn/early winter. The NPUE and BPUE (individuals (N) and biomass (B, in grams) per unit effort (m2), respectively) of catfish were generally higher in littoral (NPUE > 0.01; BPUE > 96) than in pelagic habitats (NPUE < 0.009; BPUE < 114), but the catfish had, on average, larger sizes in pelagic habitats. Overall, 581 individual prey items were recorded, belonging to 12 taxa. Pelagic catfish specialized their diet exclusively on three prey fish (coregonids, shad, and roach), whilst the diet of littoral catfish was more variable and dominated by crayfish, perch, and roach. These results highlighted for the first time the interaction of larger catfish with the lake’s pelagic food web, and thus possible consequences are discussed, including the potential contrasting role S. glanis may have for the lake’s fishery.

scholarly journals Spoiled for Choice during Cold Season? Habitat Use and Potential Impacts of the Invasive Silurus glanis L. in a Deep, Large and Oligotrophic Lake (Lake Maggiore, North Italy)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa De Santis ◽  
Pietro Volta
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
Cold Season ◽  
Effective Management ◽  
Prey Fish ◽  
Silurus Glanis ◽  
Ecological Information ◽  
Lake Maggiore ◽  
European Catfish ◽  
First Time ◽  
Infor Mation

Ecological information of invasive alien species are crucial for their effective management. How-ever, they are often lacking in newly invaded ecosystems. This is the case of the European catfish Silurus glanis L. in Lake Maggiore where the species is present since 1990 but no scientific infor-mation are available on its ecology. To start filling this knowledge gap, 236 catfish (67 cm to 150 cm of total length) were collected, measured, and dissected for stomach content analyses from three localities and in two habitats (littoral vs. pelagic) in late autumn/early winter. NPUE and BPUE (individuals and biomass (g) per unit effort (m2)) of catfish was generally higher in littoral (NPUE &gt; 0.01; BPUE &gt; 96) than pelagic habitats (NPUE &lt; 0.009; BPUE &lt; 114) but catfish had, on average, larger sizes in pelagic habitats. Overall, 581 individual prey items were recorded belonging to12 taxa. Pelagic catfish specialized their diet exclusively on three prey fish (coregonids, shad and roach) whilst the diet of littoral catfish was more variable, and was dominated by crayfish, perch, and roach. These results highlighted for the first time the interaction of larger catfish with the lake&rsquo;s pelagic food web, and thus possible consequences are discussed, including the potential contrasting role S. glanis may have for the lake&rsquo;s fishery.

scholarly journals Diet of European Catfish in a Newly Invaded Region

Fishes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Marco Ferreira ◽  
João Gago ◽  
Filipe Ribeiro
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Habits ◽  
Stomach Contents ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
Top Predator ◽  
Silurus Glanis ◽  
Lotic Environment ◽  
European Catfish ◽  
Prey Items ◽  
Lentic Systems

Biological invasions are considered to be one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss worldwide. Freshwater ecosystems are amongst the most biodiverse, containing about 50% of the world’s known fish species but, ironically, are the most invaded ecosystems. In Portuguese freshwaters, there are currently 20 identified non-native fishes, arriving at an unprecedented rate of a new species every two years. A recent non-native is the European catfish Silurus glanis, a top predator native to Central and Eastern Europe, that arrived at the Lower Tagus (Portugal) circa 2006. This study compares the dietary habits of this top predator in two different habitats of the Lower Tagus in order to evaluate its potential impact. The stomach contents of 96 individuals were analyzed, 61 from the lotic environment and 35 from the lentic systems. A total of 66 stomachs contained prey items, 38 from the lotic and 28 from the lentic. Diet varied considerably between habitats, with shrimp and crayfish being the most abundant prey items in the lentic systems and shrimp and fish the most abundant prey items in the lotic section. Tendency to piscivory was observed in large-sized individuals. Overall, the findings in this study provide the first evidence of the potential impacts of European catfish through predation on the fish communities.

The Job Of Microfinance For The Advancement Of Self Help Groups In India

2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (8) ◽  
pp. 236-240
Author(s):  
Dr.R. Murugesan ◽  
M. Leelavathi ◽  
Dr. K. Ravindran
Keyword(s):  
High Growth ◽  
High Growth Rate ◽  
Entrepreneurial Skills ◽  
Self Help ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Total Food ◽  
Self Help Groups ◽  
Positive Step ◽  
Food Consumed

towards jumping from the category of developing economy to developed economy there is one big factor that stops and poses a hindrance in its path of advancement and that obstacle is termed as Poverty. The Indian economic policy focuses on a high growth rate along with a equal participation of the poor so that they avail the opportunities available in the market economy. And in order to ensure the participation of the poor it has become important for the country to create a platform where the poor can easily access the various financial products. Microfinance is one such strategy for inclusive growth. Microfinance can change the life of the poor though not completely but a reasonable change can be ensured. In different phases of life women play a crucial role despite the discrimination that is faced by them. But equality can be endowed to women by enhancing the entrepreneurial skills in them. This is possible through Self Help Groups (SHGs). In India women produce around 30% of the total food consumed but she gets only 10% of the property or wealth of the country. Development of women is inevitable for the development and growth of any economy. SHGs happen to be a positive step in this direction. Along with these mediums there should be a cheap and easy source of credit for them and Microfinance fulfills the requirement. This study aims to find the role of this strong medium of Microfinance in the advancement of SHGs in India

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.

Exploring SiC Growth Limitation of Vapor-Liquid-Solid Mechanism when Using Two Different Carbon Precursors

2013 ◽  
Vol 740-742 ◽  
pp. 323-326
Author(s):  
Kassem Alassaad ◽  
François Cauwet ◽  
Davy Carole ◽  
Véronique Soulière ◽  
Gabriel Ferro
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
High Growth ◽  
High Growth Rate ◽  
Carbon Precursor ◽  
Growth Limitation ◽  
Vapor Liquid Solid ◽  
Partial Pressures ◽  
Vapor Liquid Solid Mechanism ◽  
Vls Growth ◽  
Vapor Liquid

Abstract. In this paper, conditions for obtaining high growth rate during epitaxial growth of SiC by vapor-liquid-solid mechanism are investigated. The alloys studied were Ge-Si, Al-Si and Al-Ge-Si with various compositions. Temperature was varied between 1100 and 1300°C and the carbon precursor was either propane or methane. The variation of layers thickness was studied at low and high precursor partial pressure. It was found that growth rates obtained with both methane and propane are rather similar at low precursor partial pressures. However, when using Ge based melts, the use of high propane flux leads to the formation of a SiC crust on top of the liquid, which limits the growth by VLS. But when methane is used, even at extremely high flux (up to 100 sccm), no crust could be detected on top of the liquid while the deposit thickness was still rather small (between 1.12 μm and 1.30 μm). When using Al-Si alloys, no crust was also observed under 100 sccm methane but the thickness was as high as 11.5 µm after 30 min growth. It is proposed that the upper limitation of VLS growth rate depends mainly on C solubility of the liquid phase.

scholarly journals Influence of Adding Encapsulated Phase Change Materials in Aerial Lime Based Mortars

2013 ◽  
Vol 687 ◽  
pp. 255-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Cunha ◽  
José Barroso Aguiar ◽  
Victor Ferreira ◽  
António Tadeu
Keyword(s):  
Phase Change ◽  
Phase Change Materials ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
High Growth ◽  
High Energy ◽  
High Growth Rate ◽  
Aesthetic Appearance ◽  
Hardened State ◽  
High Energy Consumption

Increasingly in a society with a high growth rate and standards of comfort, the need to minimize the currently high energy consumption by taking advantage of renewable energy sources arises. The mortars with incorporation of phase change materials (PCM) have the ability to regulate the temperature inside buildings, contributing for an increase in the level of thermal comfort and reduction of the use of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, using only the energy supplied by the sun. However, the incorporation of PCM in mortars modifies some of its characteristics. Therefore, the main objective of this study was the characterization of mortars doped with two different phase change materials. Specific properties of different PCM, such as particle size, shape and enthalpy were studied, as well as the properties of the fresh and hardened state of these mortars. Nine different compositions were developed which were initially doped with microcapsules of PCM A and subsequently doped with microcapsules of PCM B. It was possible to observe that the incorporation of phase change materials in mortars causes differences in properties such as compressive strength, flexural strength and shrinkage. After the study of the behaviour of these mortars with the incorporation of two different phase change materials, it was possible to select the composition with a better compromise between its aesthetic appearance, physical and mechanical characteristics.

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