2,721 research outputs found
Biodiversity Conservation In Metacommunity Networks: Linking Pattern And Persistence
No full textA central goal of conservation science is to identify the most important habitat patches for maintaining biodiversity on a landscape. Spatial biodiversity patterns are often used for such assessments, and patches that harbor unique diversity are generally prioritized over those with high community similarity to other areas. This places an emphasis on biodiversity representation, but removing a patch can have cascading effects on biodiversity persistence in the remaining ecological communities. Metacommunity theory provides a mechanistic route to the linking of biodiversity patterns on a landscape with the subsequent dynamics of diversity loss after habitat is degraded. Using spatially explicit neutral theory, I focus on the situation where spatial patterns of diversity and similarity are generated by the structure of dispersal networks and not environmental gradients. I find that gains in biodiversity representation are nullified by losses in persistence, and as a result the effects of removing a patch on metacommunity diversity are essentially independent of complementarity or other biodiversity patterns. In this scenario, maximizing protected area and not biodiversity representation is the key to maintaining diversity in the long term. These results highlight the need for a broader understanding of how conservation paradigms perform under different models of metacommunity dynamics.Integrative Biolog
Automated segmentation of insect anatomy from micro‐CT images using deep learning
No full textToulkeridou, Evropi, Economo, Evan P., Gutierrez, Carlos Enrique, Baum, Daniel, Doya, Kenji (2023): Automated segmentation of insect anatomy from micro-CT images using deep learning. Natural Sciences (e20230010) 3 (4): 1-12, DOI: 10.1002/ntls.2023001
Consensual
No full textAn explosive and thought-provoking play from the author of Girls Like That, exploring what happens when buried secrets catch up with you.As Head of Year 11, Diane is meant to be implementing the new 'Healthy Relationships' curriculum. But then Freddie arrives. She hasn't seen him since that night six years earlier when he was fifteen.She thinks he took advantage of her. He thinks she groomed him for months. Neither is sure. But when it comes to sex and consent, how far can you blur the lines?Evan Placey's Consensual was first performed by the National Youth Theatre in their 2015 West End season
Geographical variation in ant foraging activity and resource use is driven by climate and net primary productivity
No full textAim: Foraging activity is critical for animal survival. Comprehending how ecological drivers influence foraging behaviour would benefit our understanding of the link between animals and ecological processes. Here, we evaluated the influence of ecological drivers on ant foraging activity and relative resource use. Location: Six Brazilian biomes: Amazon, Atlantic rainforest, Caatinga, Cerrado, Pampa and Pantanal. Taxon: Formicidae. Methods: We assessed ant foraging activity and resource use by sampling across 60 sites. We placed baited tubes that contained one of five liquid resources (sugar, lipids, amino acid, sodium and distilled water). We used model selection to assess the influence of ecological drivers (temperature, precipitation, temperature seasonality and net primary productivity) on ant foraging activity and relative resource use. Results: Foraging activity was higher in wetter, more productive and less thermally seasonal environments. The relative use of amino acids increased at higher temperatures while the relative use of lipids decreased. The relative use of sugar increased in drier and less productive environments with high-temperature seasonality while the relative use of amino acid and sodium decreased in those environments. The relative use of lipids was complex: increasing with increasing temperature seasonality and decreasing with increasing precipitation. Furthermore, the relative use of sodium was greater where the foraging activity was high. Main conclusions: We demonstrate how ecological drivers are correlated with ant foraging activity and resource use in the field across large spatial scales. The search for resources encompasses different interactions involving ants with abiotic and biotic components in the ecosystem. Thus, we suggest that changes in climate and NPP, which influence the intensity and the way that ants search for resources, will result in changes in ant-mediated ecological processes
FIGURE 8 3D in Automated segmentation of insect anatomy from micro-CT images using deep learning
No full textFIGURE 8 3D volume of ant brain reconstructed from 2D images (original 520 × 520 px) predicted by the algorithm. 3D reconstructed brain prediction of an Atta texana worker.Published as part of <i>Toulkeridou, Evropi, Economo, Evan P., Gutierrez, Carlos Enrique, Baum, Daniel & Doya, Kenji, 2023, Automated segmentation of insect anatomy from micro-CT images using deep learning, pp. 1-12 in Natural Sciences (e20230010) 3 (4)</i> on page 9, DOI: 10.1002/ntls.20230010, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/10076519">http://zenodo.org/record/10076519</a>
FIGURE 3 in Automated segmentation of insect anatomy from micro-CT images using deep learning
No full textFIGURE 3 Example of semiautomated brain image segmentation. The brain area (in orange) of an Atta texana ant specimen was segmented using the watershed method in Amira; the 1000 × 1000 × 1000 px 3D image was manually postprocessed by smoothing and cropping oversegmented areas.Published as part of <i>Toulkeridou, Evropi, Economo, Evan P., Gutierrez, Carlos Enrique, Baum, Daniel & Doya, Kenji, 2023, Automated segmentation of insect anatomy from micro-CT images using deep learning, pp. 1-12 in Natural Sciences (e20230010) 3 (4)</i> on page 6, DOI: 10.1002/ntls.20230010, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/10076519">http://zenodo.org/record/10076519</a>
Fig. 3 in Revision of the Highly Specialized Ant Genus Discothyrea (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Afrotropics with X-Ray Microtomography and 3D Cybertaxonomy
No full textFig. 3. Schematic line drawings of the head in full-face view showing terminology revealed and used in this study: as = antennal sockets; cl = clypeus (in blue); fl = frontal lamella; fc = frontal carinae; tp = anterior tentorial pits (in orange). (A) D. mixta, (B) D. gaia.Published as part of Hita-Garcia, Francisco, Lieberman, Ziv, Audisio, Tracy L., Liu, Cong & Economo, Evan P., 2019, Revision of the Highly Specialized Ant Genus Discothyrea (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Afrotropics with X-Ray Microtomography and 3D Cybertaxonomy, pp. 1-84 in Insect Systematics and Diversity 5 on page 5, DOI: 10.1093/isd/ixz015, http://zenodo.org/record/354213
FIGURE 6 in Automated segmentation of insect anatomy from micro-CT images using deep learning
No full textFIGURE 6 Network performance evaluation. High true positive rate (TPR) and low false positive rate (FPR) values for training (blue) and testing data (red) indicate the network's high generalizability.Published as part of <i>Toulkeridou, Evropi, Economo, Evan P., Gutierrez, Carlos Enrique, Baum, Daniel & Doya, Kenji, 2023, Automated segmentation of insect anatomy from micro-CT images using deep learning, pp. 1-12 in Natural Sciences (e20230010) 3 (4)</i> on page 8, DOI: 10.1002/ntls.20230010, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/10076519">http://zenodo.org/record/10076519</a>
FIGURE 4. M in Updating the taxonomy of the ant genus Myrmecina (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in China with descriptions of three new species
No full textFIGURE 4. M. gaoligongensis sp. nov. (MCZ-ENT00759990). (A) Body in profile view. (B) Body in dorsal view. (C) Head in full-face view. (D) Distribution map in SE Asia.Published as part of Liu, Cong, Fischer, Georg, Liu, Qing, Peng, Yan-Qiong, Economo, Evan P. & Guénard, Benoit, 2022, Updating the taxonomy of the ant genus Myrmecina (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in China with descriptions of three new species, pp. 152-164 in Zootaxa 5182 (2) on page 159, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5182.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/704948
Ep. #154 - Evan Berry
No full textThis recording and transcript form part of a collection of podcasts conducted by the Cultures of Energy at Rice University. Cultures of Energy brings writers, artists and scholars together to talk, think and feel their way into the Anthropocene. We cover serious issues like climate change, species extinction and energy transition. But we also try to confront seemingly huge and insurmountable problems with insight, creativity and laughter.Cymene and Dominic rediscover the Violent Femmes on this week's podcast and that prompts a discussion of the best albums of all time. We then (18:54) welcome American U’s Evan Berry to the podcast, author of Devoted to Nature: The Religious Roots of American Environmentalism (U California Press, 2015) and the PI of a Luce Foundation funded project on “Religion and Climate Change in Cross-Regional Comparison.” We start with the Pope and his views on climate change and then quickly move on to Evan’s argument that much apparently secular environmentalist thinking has deep affinities with Christian theology. We revisit Lynn White’s famous argument that Christianity devalues nature, discuss the need to move past “great man” narratives of the evolution of environmentalism, and ruminate on what 19th century Christian environmentalists considered to be the “moral salubriousness of nature.” Evan shares his thoughts on how Protestant nominalism may have informed American climate denialism over time and also about how walking as a form of “recreational salvation” became linked to the valorization of wilderness. We discuss whether American Christianity is exceptional in terms of climate morality and why American political culture has become an incubator for religious radicalism. We then turn to how climate change is now impacting religious systems across the world and how better intergenerational ethics might teach us to think collectively rather than individually. Finally, we discuss another recent book project Evan has undertaken with Rob Albro, Church, Cosmovision, and the Environment: Religion and Social Conflict in Contemporary Latin America (Routledge 2018)
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