The distribution pattern of mire specialist butterflies in raised bogs of the northern lowlands of Central Europe

Raised bogs are extreme and azonal ecosystems with a characteristic hydrological balance, microclimatic conditions and a specific flora and fauna. Recently, these ecosystems have increasingly become the focus of scientific and general attention because of their important ecosystem roles in the face of global warming and providing biodiversity refuges. From a biogeographical and evolutionary context, the peat bogs of the European Lowlands serve as palaeorefugia, acting as cold, edaphic island habitats for arcto-alpine or boreo-montane insect species in temperate biomes. Analysing 105 peat bog sites in the northern lowlands of Central Europe, we compare the diversity and geographic distribution pattern of a subset of six butterfly species, which appear to be tyrphobiontic or tyrphophile mire specialists. We demonstrate a decrease in mean species number in the European Lowlands on a gradient from the east (Northern Belarus, about 4 species) to the west (Northern Germany, about 1 species), and suggest that the decreasing species number may be mainly caused by human impact in the past. The individual distribution pattern shows a nearly complete gap in occurrence of the sensitive bog specialist species Colias palaeno and Boloria eunomia in Northern Germany and an increasing presence of those species in peat bogs of eastern Europe. Boloria aquilonaris shows a different pattern, which, in contrast to C. palaeno, is continuously distributed in all sampled regions and seems to be the more tolerant of tyrphobiontic butterflies in the face of human impact on peat bogs. In the light of other recent findings our results also suggest that Boloria aquilonaris and Plebejus optilete may serve as target species reflecting success in ecological restoration of peat bog ecosystems.

Environmental Stability and Long-term Variability of Harpacticoid Copepod Assemblages

Harpacticoid copepods of the Chernaya Bay (White Sea) intertidal zone were collected in 45 surveys carried out from spring to autumn over a 25-year period (1996-2020) at three sites that differed in sediment properties. There were no significant long-term trends or seasonal cycles in total abundance. Regarding the species composition, the differences between sites were the most important source of variability over the whole period while the fine-scale (within-habitat) variability was low. Epibenthic species prevailed in fine silty sand, both burrowing and epibenthic species prevailed in medium sand, and interstitial and burrowing species prevailed in coarse sand. A comparison of the data on harpacticoid assemblages from a number of geographically remote loci corroborated the generality of this pattern. In the temporal dimension, the structure of each community was stable until the early 2000s, when the proportion of epibenthic, burrowing and interstitial species changed following changes in sediment properties (increasing siltation at sandy sites and decreasing siltation at the silty site). At each site, there was an increasing long-term trend in diversity (both in total richness and in expected species number). This increase was particularly apparent at sandy sites because of the appearance of epibenthic species. We suggest that sediment composition is the key factor determining the composition of harpacticoid assemblages in space and time. The “ecomorphological profile”, i.e., the proportion of species with different lifestyle and morphological traits, is a useful and informative indicator for describing and typifying these assemblages.

GFAP: ultra-fast and accurate gene functional annotation software for plants

Sequence alignment is the basis of gene functional annotation for unknow sequences. Selecting closely related species as the reference species should be an effective way to improve the accuracy of gene annotation for plants, compared with only based on one or some model plants. Therefore, limited species number in previous software or website is disadvantageous for plant gene annotation. Here, we collected the protein sequences of 236 plant species with known genomic information from 63 families. After that, these sequences were annotated by pfam, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases to construct our databases. Furthermore, we developed the software, Gene Annotation Software for Plants (GFAP), to perform gene annotation using our databases. GFAP, an open-source software running on Windows and MacOS systems, is an efficient and network independent tool. GFAP can search the protein domain, GO and KEGG information for 43000 genes within 4 minutes. In addition, GFAP can also perform the sequence alignment, statistical analysis and drawing. The website of https://gitee.com/simon198912167815/gfap-database provides the software, databases, testing data and video tutorials for users. GFAP contained large amount of plant-species information. We believe that it will become a powerful tool in gene annotation using closely related species for phytologists.

Diversity and distribution of the Isopoda (Crustacea, Peracarida) of Kuwait, with an updated checklist

Thirty-eight species of Isopoda, belonging to 13 families and 29 genera, are listed from Kuwait based on previous literature records (of 17 species) and collections carried out along Kuwait’s coastal and subtidal zones during the present study. The majority of species belongs to the suborder Cymothoida (23), followed by Sphaeromatidea (9), Oniscidea (3), Valvifera (2), and Asellota (1). In total, 25 species were collected and identified from 12 families and 22 genera from Kuwaiti coastal and subtidal areas. These include eight families, 15 genera, and 21 species recorded for the first time from Kuwait. Isopod diversity was highest in the sandy rock areas, including southern Kuwait, particularly in Al-Khiran and Al-Nuwaiseeb, and in mixed habitat (muddy, rocky, and sandy) intertidal transects such as in Failaka Island. The species number increased from the subtidal and lowest zones into the high tidal zone. Isopods were found in sandy substrata, among shells, cobbles, rocks, dead corals, and algae.

Crotalidae Polyvalent Immune Fab and Cost-Effective Management of Hospital Admissions for Snakebites

Background Venomous snakebites are a common clinical scenario in the Southeastern United States. CroFab® (Crotalidae Polyvalent Immune Fab (Ovine), BTG, Wales, UK) antivenom is indicated in cases involving pit vipers and is known to be expensive. The treatment protocol for snakebites is based on clinically subjective measures triggering the application, or escalation of, antivenom administration. The purpose of this study is to characterize the use of CroFab at our institution and to evaluate the impact of its use regarding cost and overall outcomes. We suspect that it is often used but potentially less often needed. We hypothesized that CroFab use was associated with increased length of stay (LOS) without an observed difference in patient outcomes. Materials and Methods A retrospective chart review of snakebite patients at our level-1 trauma center from 2000 to 2016 was performed. Snakebite location, snake species, number of vials of CroFab administered, hospital LOS, intensive care unit (ICU) LOS, and complications were identified for each patient. Patients were divided into CroFab (C) and no CroFab (NC) groups. Results One hundred ninety patients with venomous snakebites were included. 53.7% of patients received CroFab. There was no difference in the complication rate of C versus NC groups, ( P = .1118). CroFab use was associated with longer hospital LOS ( P < .0001) and ICU LOS ( P < .0001). Discussion CroFab use was associated with increased LOS in our patient population. There was no difference in observed outcomes between the C and NC groups. These findings imply that CroFab is potentially over-used in our patient population.

Effect of pendimethalin and sulfentrazone on characteristics of weeds in soybean cultivation

Tank-mixing herbicides can increase the efficiency of weed control on soybean cultivation. The purpose of this study was to acquire the proper dose of pendimethalin and sulfentrazone both alone and in mixture to control weeds on soybean farming. It was conducted from July to September 2019 at Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Syiah Kuala, employing non-Factorial Randomized Completely Block Design (RCBD) comprising different doses of herbicides: control, pendimethalin 1500 g a.i/ha, sulfentrazone 1500 g a.i/ha, pendimethalin 750 g a.i/ha + sulfentrazone 750 g a.i/ha, pendimethalin 1000 g a.i/ha + sulfentrazone 1000 g a.i/ha, pendimethalin 500 g a.i/ha + sulfentrazone 1000 g a.i/ha, pendimethalin 1000 g a.i/ha + sulfentrazone 500 g a.i/ha and pendimethalin 500 g a.i/ha + sulfentrazone 500 g a.i/ha. The variables observed were weed control percentage, weed species, number of weeds, and weed dry weight. The results showed that the application of pendimethalin 500 g a.i/ha together with sulfentrazone 500 g a.i/ha has increased weed control percentage and decrease weed species, number of weeds and weed dry weight.

Phytoplankton community structure changes in Thi Nai lagoon (South - Central Vietnam) from 2004 to 2020

Phytoplankton species composition, abundance, biodiversity indices and their influence by environmental conditions were examined in Thi Nai lagoon using data from four surveys in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2020. A total of 367 taxa of phytoplankton belonging to ten groups was recorded, of which diatoms were dominant with over 60% of the total species. In Thi Nai lagoon, the number of phytoplankton species decreased from the upper lagoon (283 taxa) to the lagoon mouth area (224) and was lowest in river stations (139). The species number was much lower in the rainy season (<95 species) and increased from 2004 to 2020. Among the biodiversity indices, Shannon, ∆, s∆+, Λ+ and sФ+ were lower in the rainy season, whereas ∆*, ∆+ and Ф+ had lower values in the dry season. For long-term analysis, the differences were especially significant at upper and lower lagoon for ∆, ∆*, ∆+, s∆+ and sФ+. In the dry season, the mean density of phytoplankton was lower at the river stations and upper lagoon, but higher at the lower lagoon and the lagoon mouth area. There was a clear difference of species assemblages between the two seasons with average dissimilarities in each area ranging from 94.16% to 95.57%. During 2004–2020, the difference in ratios between the main phytoplankton groups were small over years but there was a complete change in dominance of particular species, assemblage dissimilarities were from 73.4 to 77.9, greatest between 2009 and 2020. The lagoon was low in biodiversity for the whole investigated time indicated by taxonomic index ∆+. Among biodiversity indices, species richness (S), taxonomic indices (∆*, s∆+), and phylogenetic indices (Ф+, sФ+) were more sensitive to the changes of the aquatic environment than other traditional indices.

Komunitas Gastropoda Mangrove di Sungai Perpat dan Bunting, Kecamatan Belinyu, Kabupaten Bangka

<strong>Mangrove gastropod community in Perpat and Bunting Rivers, Belinyu District, Bangka Regency</strong>. Perpat and Bunting in Bangka Regency have an adequate and natural mangrove ecosystems. However, studies on the structure of the gastropod community in this ecosystem is lacking. This study aimed to discover the structure of the gastropod community in the mangrove ecosystem. This study was carried out from October to November 2019 in riverine mangrove area located in Perpat and Bunting Rivers, District Belinyu, Bangka Regency. Samples were taken from 10 x 10 m plot from six observed stations. A total of 578 individuals of gastropoda were collected, comprised of seven families and 14 species. Number of species ranged from 4 to 9, while number of individuals ranged from 35 to 214. <em>Cerithidea quoyii</em> was a dominant species with 270 individuals (47%) and found in all stations. Gastropods community was in labile condition and prone to environmental change. Species composition of gastropods were similar in both rivers with nine identical species. However, epifaunal species were found separately from arboreal species

Observations on Earthworm Communities and Soils in Various Natural and Man-Affected Ecosystems

Earthworms are important members of the soil fauna since they regulate fundamental soil functions such as organic matter breakdown, fertility, structure and water balance. However, so far, their community assemblages have been poorly investigated in Greece. In this context, the earthworm communities of forty five sites in Greece, belonging to three types of ecosystems—terrestrial water bodies, undisturbed (natural) sites and cultivated (agricultural and urban) fields—were investigated using the combined method of digging and hand sorting followed by the application of a 0.4% formaldehyde solution. Specific soil parameters and various environmental characteristics were examined as potential factors affecting the abundance and species richness. The results showed no statistically significant difference between ecosystem densities. The species number was significantly different between ecosystems, with the cultivated fields exhibiting richer communities, with a mean of 5.3 ± 0.6 species per site compared to the natural areas with 2.4 ± 0.5 species per site, while the water bodies showed intermediate numbers (3.6 ± 0.5 species per site). Finally, earthworm densities were positively correlated with species number and percentage vegetation cover and negatively with clay. These results may contribute to understanding how different land uses affect earthworm communities.