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Impacts of the installation of basking banks on four UK reptile species in a before-after control-intervention experiment
Get PDFReptiles are often overlooked in conservation efforts. Hence, long-term population data is often unavailable, and evidence for effective conservation actions that improve reptile habitat remains scarce for most species. Here we used a before-after control-intervention (BACI) experiment to investigate the impact of basking bank creation on four co-occurring reptile species: European adder, barred grass snake, slow worm, and viviparous lizard. Long-term refuge monitoring at a UK wildlife reserve allowed population assessment before and after habitat modification. Only viviparous lizards were observed at basking banks within 12 months of construction. In subsequent years, barred grass snake observations increased near basking banks and slow worms were observed for the first time, while European adder observations increased away from banks and barred grass snake observations decreased away from banks. Our small-scale BACI study suggests basking banks attracted barred grass snakes from the surrounding area, which saw a corresponding increase in European adder sightings
One-third of the global soybean production failure in 2012 is attributable to climate change
Get PDFIn 2012, soybean crops failed in the three largest producing regions due to spatially compounded hot and dry weather across North and South America. Here, we present different impact storylines of the 2012 event by imposing the same seasonally evolving atmospheric circulation in pre-industrial, present-day (+1°C above pre-industrial), and future (+2°C above pre-industrial) climates simulated using a spectrally-nudged version of the ECHAM6 atmospheric model. Our results demonstrate that anthropogenic warming strongly amplifies the impacts of such a large-scale circulation pattern on global soybean production. Although the drought intensity is similar under different warming levels, larger crop losses are driven not only by warmer temperatures but also by stronger heat-moisture interactions. We estimate that one-third of the global soybean production deficit in 2012 is attributable to anthropogenic climate change. Future warming (+2°C above pre-industrial) would further exacerbate production deficits by one-half compared to present-day 2012 conditions. This highlights the increasing intensity of global soybean production shocks with warming, requiring urgent adaptation strategies
Motivating tones to enhance education: the effects of vocal awareness on teachers' voices
Get PDFBackground: Effective classroom communication is key to shaping the learning environment and inspiring student engagement. And, it's not just what is said, but how it's said, that influences students. Yet, few (current or future) teachers receive education on vocal pedagogy. Aims: This study examined the impact of raising vocal awareness in teachers on their voice production through delivering a voice training program. Method: Specifically, we explored how primary school teacher trainees produced motivational (either soft, warm, and encouraging, or harsh, pressuring, and controlling) and neutral communications before and after the delivery of a voice education program that concentrated on raising voice awareness, vocal anatomy, exercise techniques (e.g. breath control, voice modulation), and voice care. Hypotheses: We hypothesised that trainees' voice production would change over the course of the program and lead to more ‘prototypical’ displays of motivational prosody (e.g. softly spoken encouraging intentions vs. harshly spoken controlling intentions). Results: Results indicated a noticeable difference when communicating motivational intentions between pre‐ and post‐training voice samples: post training, trainees spoke more slowly and with reduced vocal effort irrespective of motivational intention, suggesting that raising vocal awareness can alter classroom communications. Conclusion: The results underscore the importance of vocal awareness training to create a supportive and autonomy‐enhancing learning environment
Morphological change in an isolated population of red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in Britain
Get PDFThe mechanical properties of dietary items are known to influence skull morphology, either through evolution or by phenotypic plasticity. Here, we investigated the impact of supplementary feeding of peanuts on the morphology of red squirrels ( Sciurus vulgaris ) from five populations in Britain (North Scotland, Borders, Jersey and two temporally distinct populations from Formby (Merseyside)). Stable isotope analysis confirmed dietary ecology in 58 specimens. Geometric morphometrics were used to analyse three-dimensional and two-dimensional shape variation across 113 crania and 388 mandibles, respectively. Nitrogen isotope ratios (δ 15 N) were lower in the 1990s and 2010s Formby squirrels (suggesting a diet with an increased proportion of peanuts), and higher in other populations. Significant differences in cranio-mandibular shape were found between all populations, with 1990s Formby red squirrels exhibiting a morphology associated with reduced masticatory efficiency. This effect was partially reversed following a reduction in supplementary feeding of peanuts. We propose that these morphological changes are related to the reduced mechanical effort needed to process peanuts relative to naturally occurring food items. This could be an example of diet-induced plastic changes to the skeleton in non-muroid wild mammals, although further research is needed to exclude other driving factors such as genetics
Why 1976? Explaining the rise and fall of protest music
No full textThe popular media myth is that the protest song and the protest singer are in decline. It is unclear how
anyone would know; there is no standard measure for the presence or absence of protest songs.
Nonetheless, the myth raises an interesting question about how we might explain the rise and fall of
protest music. Is it a matter of context, of exogenous changes in the state of the world? Or is it
determined by internal processes, endogenous shifts in genres, or the music business more broadly?
Taking our lead (and our title) from Richard Peterson’s article, “Why 1955?,” this chapter examines
the case of punk in the UK from 1976 to 1978. It reveals that internal political and musical factors are
just as important as the broader social and political trends (rising unemployment, industrial decline,
new right policies) to understanding punk’s moment of protest
Entrepreneurship and the economic theory of markets
Get PDFEntrepreneurship studies has an uneasy relationship with mainstream economics. This paper attempts to bridge the gap by presenting a formal mathematical theory of entrepreneurship, focusing in competing entrepreneurs operating in a segmented market. The entrepreneur is modelled as an innovative market-maker, discovering opportunities for trade, Each market segment is characterised by a maximum price that customers are willing to pay, and a quantity that they are willing to buy at that maximum price. The model can solve for the outcome of complicated market structures using a simple technique, namely linear programming.
A remarkable feature of the model is that it re-ignites historic debates in mainstream economic theory that have never been fully resolved, and are largely ignored in contemporary economic literature. It shows that markets normally have two prices-not one– namely a wholesale price and a retail price-and that, owing to segmentation, prices are not normally uniform but dispersed. The mathematical model is sufficiently simple that it does not require calculus, and the method of solution is so straightforward that the requisite techniques can be freely accessed on a laptop
Evaluation of easterly wave disturbances over the tropical South Atlantic in CMIP6 models
Get PDFThis study aims to evaluate the ability of the new phase Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) models to estimate the characteristics of Easterly Waves Disturbances (EWD) over the Tropical South Atlantic (TSA) that reach Northeast Brazil (NEB). Initially, the precipitation variable output of CMIP, AMIP, hist-1950 and highresSST-present models skill was evaluated using the Global Precipitation Climatology Center (GPCC) dataset to define the best models that reproduce the spatial and temporal precipitation patterns over the study regions. In total, 17 historical CMIP, 16 AMIP, 7 do hist-1950 and 10 do highresSST-present models were assessed. The ensemble's spatial analysis showed the ability of the models in reproducing annual and seasonal climatological precipitation patterns but with CMIP exhibiting the highest variability. Models underestimated the precipitation intensity on NEB's coast and overestimated on TSA and NEB's north. Larger (smaller) uncertainties among models were observed at higher (lower) latitudes. Regarding the annual precipitation cycle analysis, 8 subareas were selected and investigated within the total study area. Models were capable of representing the annual cycle in all subareas, particularly between July and October. However, greater spread was observed in the first half of the year, especially in the north of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and in CMIP models. Based on those analyses, 3 best models from each ensemble were selected to evaluate the model's ability to represent EWD over the study area: CMIP (AS-RCEC.TaiESM1, CAS.FGOALS-f3-L, and NCC.NorESM2-MM), AMIP (CAS.FGOALS-f3-L, AS-RCEC.TaiESM1, and CMCC.CMCC-CM2-SR5), hist-1950 (HadGEM3-GC31-HH, CMCC-CM2-VHR4 e ECMWF.ECMWF-IFS-HR) and highresSST (MRI.MRI-AGCM3-2-H, CMCC-CM2-VHR4 e ECMWF.ECMWF-IFS-HR). An objective automatic tracking algorithm was utilized in each model. It was observed that the models were able to represent mean values of lifetime (~6 days) and phase speed (~7 m.s-1) close to climatological values and those of ERA5. However, most models failed to capture the EWD's interannual variability or climatological mean frequency. All models successfully identified the two preferential genesis regions of this system, one over the TSA and another near the West African coast. Thus, despite many improvements still being necessary in CMIP6 models, precipitation climatological patterns and EWD's characteristics over NEB and adjacent TSA were represented by the models, especially in atmospheric and high-resolution models (HighResMIP)
A shorter duration of Indian summer monsoon in constrained projection
Get PDFA reliable projection of the future duration of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) provides an important input for climate adaptation in the Indian subcontinent. Nevertheless, there is low confidence for projections of ISM duration, due to large inter-model uncertainty of onset and withdrawal changes. Here, we find that models with excessive sea surface temperature (SST) over the tropical western Pacific (WP) during spring and greater surface warming trends over the northern mid-high latitudes (NMHL) during autumn in the present day tend to overestimate future delays to ISM onset and withdrawal, respectively. This can be attributed to the influence of surface thermal conditions on upper-tropospheric warming patterns. Constrained by the
observational WP SST and NMHL surface warming trends, projected ISM duration under a high-emission scenario is shortened by 6 days compared to the current climate, with a reduction of inter-model uncertainty by 46% relative to the unconstrained results
Alternative rainfall storylines for the Western European July 2021 floods from ensemble boosting
Get PDFIn July 2021 a cut-off low-pressure system brought extreme rainfall to Western Europe, leading to flooding that caused loss of life and infrastructure damage. Here, we use ensemble boosting to investigate alternative storylines of the event, given the observed dynamical situation. Using a fully-coupled free-running climate model we identify atmospheric flow analogues of the 2021 event in an initial-condition large ensemble. These analogues are re-initialized with slightly perturbed atmospheric initial conditions to generate physically plausible alternative storylines. These storylines are used to investigate how a potentially worse event could have unfolded given the same large-scale dynamics. We identify rainfall events with longer persistence and larger extent, yet the observed event appears to be towards the upper end of what is plausible in the current climate. Such storylines can be used to prepare for possible future events, helping society to imagine dangerous, but plausible, scenarios
Prolonged heat stress in Brassica napus during flowering negatively impacts yield and alters glucosinolate and sugars metabolism
Get PDFOilseed rape ( Brassica napus ), one of the most important sources of vegetable oil worldwide, is adversely impacted by heatwave-induced temperature stress especially during its yield-determining reproductive stages. However, the underlying molecular and biochemical mechanisms are still poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the transcriptomic and metabolomic responses to heat stress in B. napus plants exposed to a gradual increase in temperature reaching 30°C in the day and 24°C at night for a period of 6 days. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to quantify the content of carbohydrates and glucosinolates, respectively. Results showed that heat stress reduced yield and altered oil composition. Heat stress also increased the content of carbohydrate (glucose, fructose, and sucrose) and aliphatic glucosinolates (gluconapin and progoitrin) in the leaves but decreased the content of the indolic glucosinolate (glucobrassicin). RNA-Seq analysis of flower buds showed a total of 1,892, 3,253, and 4,553 differentially expressed genes at 0, 1, and 2 days after treatment (DAT) and 4,165 and 1,713 at 1 and 7 days of recovery (DOR), respectively. Heat treatment resulted in downregulation of genes involved in respiratory metabolism, namely, glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway, citrate cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation especially after 48 h of heat stress. Other downregulated genes mapped to sugar transporters, nitrogen transport and storage, cell wall modification, and methylation. In contrast, upregulated genes mapped to small heat shock proteins (sHSP20) and other heat shock factors that play important roles in thermotolerance. Furthermore, two genes were chosen from the pathways involved in the heat stress response to further examine their expression using real-time RT-qPCR. The global transcriptome profiling, integrated with the metabolic analysis in the study, shed the light on key genes and metabolic pathways impacted and responded to abiotic stresses exhibited as a result of exposure to heat waves during flowering. DEGs and metabolites identified through this study could serve as important biomarkers for breeding programs to select cultivars with stronger resistance to heat. In particular, these biomarkers can form targets for various crop breeding and improvement techniques such as marker-assisted selection