Diversity of anura amphibians in an anthropic lake in the state of Paraíba, Brazil: distribution and temporal variation

The Caatinga is highly heterogeneous, many species being found in their regions. Much of anurofauna this area is commonly found in many open environments. In the present study both the diversity and the temporal occurrence of frogs were determined to Bela Vista Lagoon, located in the municipality of Cuité, Paraíba. 4 areas for sampling were marked, these being covered slowly by hiking. The naturalistic observations were conducted from May 2012 until April 2013 Methods of visual and auditory search were used to simultaneously capture and frequency of species. 6 frog species belonging to 4 genera were found distributed in three families: Bufonidae (2 species), Hylidae (2 species) and Leptodactylidae (2 species). Site 1 showed a wealth of three species, the other areas had a wealth equivalent of 5 species each. The anurofauna recorded high occupancy presented to water bodies and low associations zones altered by man. Nonparametric estimators, calculated for the 36 surveys for the pond Bela Vista, not reached its asymptote, but the Bootstrap model showed a tendency toward stabilization. Among the four sampled areas, Area 2 was the one with the highest diversity, areas 3 and 4 presented the lowest diversity, this fact being related to high dominance of species Rinnella jimi. Regarding the temporal distribution, amphibians showed up influenced by temperature and rainfall record for the region.

Biodiverse neighborhoods: an ex-situ conservation tool

Urban forests are responsible for a lot of benefits, and can be used as a tool to ex-situ conservation of native species. Our study investigated a public urban forest aiming to provide subside to management projects in order to allow the accurate fulfillment of social, aesthetic and ecological functions displayed by trees. Our survey was conducted in 6 public squares and 5 gardens in the Jardins neighborhood. We classified the trees according to their phytogeographic origins and seed dispersal habit. The Shannon-Weaver (H’) index, Simpson’s dominance (D’) and Pielou’s equability (J) were determined. A total of 507 individuals were sampled, located in 12 botanical families and 29 species, and 13 of them were classified as native and 16 as exotic. The family with higher species richness and number of species was Fabaceae (36%). Regarding the seed dispersal syndrome, the most representative was zoochory (52%). The ecological index showed medium species diversity (H’=2.2284), high dominance (D’=0.7899) and medium number of individuals (J) 0.6552. Although the Jardins neighborhood was planned, the urban forest in this area still needs improvement; such as incentive measures that can promote biodiversity and the application of ex-situ conservation.

Subjective probability is modulated by emotions

Information about risks and probabilities is ubiquitous in our environment, forming the basis for decisions in an uncertain world. Emotions are known to modulate subjective probability assessments when probabilistic information is emotionally valenced. Yet little is known about the role of emotions in subjective probability assessment of affectively neutral events. We investigated this in one correlational study (Study 1, N = 162) and one experimental study (Study 2, N = 119). As predicted, we found that emotional dominance modulated the degree of conservatism in respondents’ neutral probability estimates. Remarkably, this pattern also transferred to realistic risk assessments. Furthermore, respondents’ tendency to use the representativeness heuristic as a proxy for probability was increased in high dominance individuals. Our findings highlight the importance of considering emotions, particularly the little-understood emotion dimension dominance, in research on probabilistic cognition.

Updating Ecological and Behavioral Aspects of the Sandfly Fauna in the Vale do Ribeira Region, São Paulo State, Brazil

Some ecological parameters and the distribution of vectors in the municipality of Eldorado, Vale do Ribeira Region, São Paulo, were studied. Entomological surveys were carried out from September 2019 to March 2021. It was observed that a few ecological parameters, including richness, abundance, diversity, and equitability, were typical of a modified environment, where artificial ecotopes maintain the presence of sandflies throughout the year. A total of 11,668 sandflies were captured. The presence of five taxa were observed in Eldorado, with low diversity and high dominance of Nyssomyia intermedia next to Ny. neivai, which are sympatric species. The results presented reinforce the importance of these species in anthropized areas in the transmission of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) agents and the need for entomological monitoring. Psathyromyia pascalei was encountered for the first time in the municipality, expanding the known area of distribution of this species in a modified environment.

Alien, Naturalized and Invasive Plants in China

Invasive species are a subset of naturalized species, and naturalized species are a subset of alien species. Determining the relationship among these three assemblages would be helpful in predicting and preventing biological invasion. Here, we reviewed the families, lifeforms, origins, introduction pathways and phylogenetic diversity of alien, naturalized and invasive vascular plants in China. The results show that species in the Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Poaceae families had a high dominance among alien, naturalized and invasive species. Moreover, almost all alien species in the Amaranthaceae, Solanaceae, Convolvulaceae and Euphorbiaceae families became naturalized species, and about 26.7% of the naturalized species became invasive species. Perennial herbs comprised a higher proportion of alien species than did annual herbs, though annual herbs were more suited to becoming invasive than perennial herbs. A considerable proportion (57.8%) of invasive species were introduced from America. More than half (56.5%) of alien species were introduced for their ornamental value, and half of these have become naturalized in China. Moreover, about half (55.2%) of all invasive species were introduced for their economic value (including ornamental, foraging and medicinal purposes). Invasive species were phylogenetically clustered and phylogenetically distant from alien and naturalized species, which indicates that phylogenetic differences could be helpful in becoming invasive. There is no doubt that human activity plays a significant role in biological invasion. This study suggests that when introducing alien species to a region, decision-makers should certainly consider the species’ phylogeny, beyond just its fundamental characteristics.

Followness of Altcoins in the Dominance of Bitcoin: A Phase Analysis

Due to the transparency, simplicity, and blockchain system, cryptocurrencies gained popularity in the modern world. This led to more use of cryptocurrencies for speculation and investment rather than a medium of exchange. It is crucial to analyse the nature of the crypto market before investing in such currencies. With this intention, the paper tried to know the extent of following (Followness) of altcoins to the bitcoin in the different dominance phases like High Dominance, Low Dominance, and Moderate Dominance. For this purpose, daily closing prices of the Bitcoin and five major altcoins (Ethereum, Litecoin, Namecoin, Doge, and Ripple) are collected for the last five years and analyse the relationship between bitcoin and altcoins. Pearson's correlation coefficient test is used to know the direction of the relationship, and Vector Error Correction Model is used to see the extent of the relation. In general, the empirical result of the study showed cointegration between bitcoin and Altcoin. It also depicted that Altcoin showed a high level of followness in the moderate dominance phase and low followness in the low dominance phase. The study developed a price estimation equation to predict the price of altcoins depending upon the price of bitcoin and its dominance in the crypto market. This paper concludes that the dominance of Bitcoin also has a significant role in the price movement of altcoins.

Coupling Rivers and Estuaries with an Ocean Model: An Improved Methodology

Freshwater sources are essential inputs for regional ocean models covering coastal areas such as the western Iberian Peninsula. The problem is how to include the mixture between fresh and salt water, typically performed by estuaries and in the adjacent areas of river mouths, without unsustainable increases of computational time and human setup errors. This work provides a proof-of-concept solution to both these problems through the use of an offline two-way methodology, where local schematic rivers and estuaries are responsible for mixing river freshwater with salt water of a regional model application. Two different offline upscaling methodologies—which focus on the implementation of tidal fluxes from local domains to regional domains in the context of operational modelling—are implemented in the Portuguese Coast Operational Modelling System (PCOMS) regional model application as well as in a version without rivers. A comparison between results produced by these methodologies, field data, and satellite imagery was performed, which confirmed that the proposed methodology of using schematic rivers and estuaries, combined with the new offline upscaling methodology proposed herein, represents a good solution for operational modelling of coastal areas subject to a high dominance of freshwater inputs.

Species enumeration and diversity of fire experimental plot at Olokemeji Forest Reserve, Ogun State, Nigeria

The fire experimental plot of a total landed area of 0.174 ha was divided into three equal parts designated Plot A, Plot B and Plot C, corresponding to the early burnt, the late burnt and the control plot, respectively. Out of the 15 species of trees identified, six species belong to Fabaceae- Mimosoideae family and other families represented are Combretaceae, Meliaceae, Lamiaceae, Rubiaceae, Anacardiaceae, Urtiaceae and Sapotaceae. Gmelina arborea was the most abundant species and it was found in plot A, B and C. The diversity indices enumerated were Dominance index, Simpson index, Shannon index or diversity index and evenness index. Plot C had the highest abundance (species count), followed by Plot A and Plot B. While Plot B depicted a high dominance, dominance was low in Plot A and lowest in Plot C. This means that a particular species was dominating Plot B, which was Gmelina arborea. This Gmelina arborea also dominated Plot A but to a lesser extent compared to Plot B. Plot C was richer in species than Plot A and Plot B. The Shannon index was low across the three plots, but considerably highest in Plot C. Evenness index was moderate at Plot C, implying that there was an even distribution of tree species in Plot C, while evenness was low at Plot A and Plot B. Comparing the present data with the older data, it is clear that the fire experimental plot has undergone deforestation over the years, which requires urgent attention and reforestation. Key words: cluster, dendogram, deforestation, burning, richness

Picky City Bats: Variation in Urban Conditions Generates a Suitability Gradient that Structures the Bat Community.

The transformation of natural systems into urban cities represents a radical habitat modification and one that generates species-specific effects on bat communities. Cities present heterogeneous mosaics of urban conditions, which the bats can inhabit differentially by utilizing their intrinsic characteristics. We expected bat species richness, number of abundant species and feeding guilds to be positively impacted by an increased degree of suitability for bats in certain areas interspersed in the city. We also expected that the number of dominant species would follow an inverse pattern, with some species being fostered in less suitable areas for bats. We determined the levels of suitability for the presence of bats in urban-based basic geostatistical units (BGUs) in the Neotropical city of Morelia, in Michoacán state, Mexico. We identified three levels of suitability for bats, low, medium and high, using the percentage of arboreal vegetation and constructed and open areas in the BGUs. We monitored the bat assemblage monthly over an annual cycle using autonomous ultrasonic recorders to assess the abundance of each species at each suitability level. Across all three suitability levels throughout the year, we found a high dominance of three insectivorous bat species that forage in open areas. Diversity measures supported our predictions, agreeing with bat flight and foraging functional traits. These results highlight the importance of city features in driving bat diversity and how urban planning that fails to consider key city features, such as arboreal areas in the city, may reduce suitability for bats, leading changes in diversity.

Genomic prediction with allele dosage information in highly polyploid species

Several studies have shown how to leverage allele dosage information to improve the accuracy of genomic selection models in autotetraploids. In this study we expanded the methodology used for genomic selection in autotetraploids to higher (and mixed) ploidy levels. We adapted the models to build covariance matrices of both additive and digenic dominance effects that are subsequently used in genomic selection models. We applied these models using estimates of ploidy and allele dosage to sugarcane and sweet potato datasets and validated our results by also applying the models in simulated data. For the simulated datasets, including allele dosage information led up to 140% higher mean predictive abilities in comparison to using diploidized markers. Including dominance effects was highly advantageous when using diploidized markers, leading to mean predictive abilities which were up to 115% higher in comparison to only including additive effects. When the frequency of heterozygous genotypes in the population was low, such as in the sugarcane and sweet potato datasets, there was little advantage in including allele dosage information in the models. Overall, we show that including allele dosage can improve genomic selection in highly polyploid species under higher frequency of different heterozygous genotypic classes and high dominance degree levels.