TY - JOUR A1 - Folkertsma, Remco A1 - Westbury, Michael V. A1 - Eccard, Jana A1 - Hofreiter, Michael T1 - The complete mitochondrial genome of the common vole, Microtus arvalis (Rodentia: Arvicolinae) JF - Mitochondrial DNA Part B N2 - The common vole, Microtus arvalis belongs to the genus Microtus in the subfamily Arvicolinae. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of M. arvalis was recovered using shotgun sequencing and an iterative mapping approach using three related species. Phylogenetic analyses using the sequence of 21 arvicoline species place the common vole as a sister species to the East European vole (Microtus levis), but as opposed to previous results we find no support for the recognition of the genus Neodon within the subfamily Arvicolinae, as this is, as well as the genus Lasiopodomys, found within the Microtus genus. KW - Microtus arvalis KW - Arvicolinae KW - mitochondrial genome KW - common vole KW - phylogeny Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/23802359.2018.1457994 SN - 2380-2359 VL - 3 IS - 1 SP - 446 EP - 447 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reeg, Jette A1 - Heine, Simon A1 - Mihan, Christine A1 - McGee, Sean A1 - Preuss, Thomas G. A1 - Jeltsch, Florian T1 - Simulation of herbicide impacts on a plant community BT - comparing model predictions of the plant community model IBC-grass to empirical data JF - Environmental Sciences Europe N2 - Background Semi-natural plant communities such as field boundaries play an important ecological role in agricultural landscapes, e.g., provision of refuge for plant and other species, food web support or habitat connectivity. To prevent undesired effects of herbicide applications on these communities and their structure, the registration and application are regulated by risk assessment schemes in many industrialized countries. Standardized individual-level greenhouse experiments are conducted on a selection of crop and wild plant species to characterize the effects of herbicide loads potentially reaching off-field areas on non-target plants. Uncertainties regarding the protectiveness of such approaches to risk assessment might be addressed by assessment factors that are often under discussion. As an alternative approach, plant community models can be used to predict potential effects on plant communities of interest based on extrapolation of the individual-level effects measured in the standardized greenhouse experiments. In this study, we analyzed the reliability and adequacy of the plant community model IBC-grass (individual-based plant community model for grasslands) by comparing model predictions with empirically measured effects at the plant community level. Results We showed that the effects predicted by the model IBC-grass were in accordance with the empirical data. Based on the species-specific dose responses (calculated from empirical effects in monocultures measured 4 weeks after application), the model was able to realistically predict short-term herbicide impacts on communities when compared to empirical data. Conclusion The results presented in this study demonstrate an approach how the current standard greenhouse experiments—measuring herbicide impacts on individual-level—can be coupled with the model IBC-grass to estimate effects on plant community level. In this way, it can be used as a tool in ecological risk assessment. KW - Plant community model KW - Non-target terrestrial plants KW - Community-level effects KW - Herbicide risk assessment KW - Individual-based modeling Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-018-0174-9 SN - 2190-4715 SN - 2190-4707 VL - 30 IS - 44 PB - Springer CY - Berlin und Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Molina-Garcia, Daniel A1 - Sandev, Trifce A1 - Safdari, Hadiseh A1 - Pagnini, Gianni A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Crossover from anomalous to normal diffusion BT - truncated power-law noise correlations and applications to dynamics in lipid bilayers JF - New Journal of Physics N2 - Abstract The emerging diffusive dynamics in many complex systems show a characteristic crossover behaviour from anomalous to normal diffusion which is otherwise fitted by two independent power-laws. A prominent example for a subdiffusive–diffusive crossover are viscoelastic systems such as lipid bilayer membranes, while superdiffusive–diffusive crossovers occur in systems of actively moving biological cells. We here consider the general dynamics of a stochastic particle driven by so-called tempered fractional Gaussian noise, that is noise with Gaussian amplitude and power-law correlations, which are cut off at some mesoscopic time scale. Concretely we consider such noise with built-in exponential or power-law tempering, driving an overdamped Langevin equation (fractional Brownian motion) and fractional Langevin equation motion. We derive explicit expressions for the mean squared displacement and correlation functions, including different shapes of the crossover behaviour depending on the concrete tempering, and discuss the physical meaning of the tempering. In the case of power-law tempering we also find a crossover behaviour from faster to slower superdiffusion and slower to faster subdiffusion. As a direct application of our model we demonstrate that the obtained dynamics quantitatively describes the subdiffusion–diffusion and subdiffusion–subdiffusion crossover in lipid bilayer systems. We also show that a model of tempered fractional Brownian motion recently proposed by Sabzikar and Meerschaert leads to physically very different behaviour with a seemingly paradoxical ballistic long time scaling. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - truncated power-law correlated noise KW - lipid bilayer membrane dynamics Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aae4b2 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 20 PB - IOP Publishing Ltd CY - London und Bad Honnef ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Paijmans, Johanna L. A. A1 - Barlow, Axel A1 - Förster, Daniel W. A1 - Henneberger, Kirstin A1 - Meyer, Matthias A1 - Nickel, Birgit A1 - Nagel, Doris A1 - Worsøe Havmøller, Rasmus A1 - Baryshnikov, Gennady F. A1 - Joger, Ulrich A1 - Rosendahl, Wilfried A1 - Hofreiter, Michael T1 - Historical biogeography of the leopard (Panthera pardus) and its extinct Eurasian populations JF - BMC Evolutionary Biology N2 - Background Resolving the historical biogeography of the leopard (Panthera pardus) is a complex issue, because patterns inferred from fossils and from molecular data lack congruence. Fossil evidence supports an African origin, and suggests that leopards were already present in Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene. Analysis of DNA sequences however, suggests a more recent, Middle Pleistocene shared ancestry of Asian and African leopards. These contrasting patterns led researchers to propose a two-stage hypothesis of leopard dispersal out of Africa: an initial Early Pleistocene colonisation of Asia and a subsequent replacement by a second colonisation wave during the Middle Pleistocene. The status of Late Pleistocene European leopards within this scenario is unclear: were these populations remnants of the first dispersal, or do the last surviving European leopards share more recent ancestry with their African counterparts? Results In this study, we generate and analyse mitogenome sequences from historical samples that span the entire modern leopard distribution, as well as from Late Pleistocene remains. We find a deep bifurcation between African and Eurasian mitochondrial lineages (~ 710 Ka), with the European ancient samples as sister to all Asian lineages (~ 483 Ka). The modern and historical mainland Asian lineages share a relatively recent common ancestor (~ 122 Ka), and we find one Javan sample nested within these. Conclusions The phylogenetic placement of the ancient European leopard as sister group to Asian leopards suggests that these populations originate from the same out-of-Africa dispersal which founded the Asian lineages. The coalescence time found for the mitochondrial lineages aligns well with the earliest undisputed fossils in Eurasia, and thus encourages a re-evaluation of the identification of the much older putative leopard fossils from the region. The relatively recent ancestry of all mainland Asian leopard lineages suggests that these populations underwent a severe population bottleneck during the Pleistocene. Finally, although only based on a single sample, the unexpected phylogenetic placement of the Javan leopard could be interpreted as evidence for exchange of mitochondrial lineages between Java and mainland Asia, calling for further investigation into the evolutionary history of this subspecies. KW - Ancient DNA KW - Hybridisation capture KW - Leopards KW - Mitochondrial genomes KW - Mitogenomes KW - mtDNA KW - Palaeogenetics KW - Panthera pardus Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-018-1268-0 SN - 1471-2148 VL - 18 IS - 156 PB - BioMed Central und Springer CY - London, Berlin und Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Delgado, José Miguel Martins A1 - Voss, Sebastian A1 - Bürger, Gerd A1 - Vormoor, Klaus Josef A1 - Murawski, Aline A1 - Rodrigues Pereira, José Marcelo A1 - Martins, Eduardo A1 - Vasconcelos Júnior, Francisco A1 - Francke, Till T1 - Seasonal drought prediction for semiarid northeastern Brazil BT - verification of six hydro-meteorological forecast products JF - Hydrology and Earth System Sciences N2 - A set of seasonal drought forecast models was assessed and verified for the Jaguaribe River in semiarid northeastern Brazil. Meteorological seasonal forecasts were provided by the operational forecasting system used at FUNCEME (Ceará’s research foundation for meteorology)and by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Three downscaling approaches (empirical quantile mapping, extended downscaling and weather pattern classification) were tested and combined with the models in hindcast mode for the period 1981 to 2014. The forecast issue time was January and the forecast period was January to June. Hydrological drought indices were obtained by fitting a multivariate linear regression to observations. In short, it was possible to obtain forecasts for (a) monthly precipitation,(b) meteorological drought indices, and (c) hydrological drought indices. The skill of the forecasting systems was evaluated with regard to root mean square error (RMSE), the Brier skill score (BSS) and the relative operating characteristic skill score (ROCSS). The tested forecasting products showed similar performance in the analyzed metrics. Forecasts of monthly precipitation had little or no skill considering RMSE and mostly no skill with BSS. A similar picture was seen when forecasting meteorological drought indices: low skill regarding RMSE and BSS and significant skill when discriminating hit rate and false alarm rate given by the ROCSS (forecasting drought events of, e.g., SPEI1 showed a ROCSS of around 0.5). Regarding the temporal variation of the forecast skill of the meteorological indices, it was greatest for April, when compared to the remaining months of the rainy season, while the skill of reservoir volume forecasts decreased with lead time. This work showed that a multi-model ensemble can forecast drought events of timescales relevant to water managers in northeastern Brazil with skill. But no or little skill could be found in the forecasts of monthly precipitation or drought indices of lower scales, like SPI1. Both this work and those here revisited showed that major steps forward are needed in forecasting the rainy season in northeastern Brazil. KW - Hydrological drought KW - River-Basin KW - Model KW - Patterns KW - Precipitation KW - Variability KW - Nordeste Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5041-2018 SN - 1027-5606 SN - 1607-7938 VL - 22 IS - 9 SP - 5041 EP - 5056 PB - Copernicus Publ. CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cestnik, Rok A1 - Rosenblum, Michael T1 - Inferring the phase response curve from observation of a continuously perturbed oscillator JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Phase response curves are important for analysis and modeling of oscillatory dynamics in various applications, particularly in neuroscience. Standard experimental technique for determining them requires isolation of the system and application of a specifically designed input. However, isolation is not always feasible and we are compelled to observe the system in its natural environment under free-running conditions. To that end we propose an approach relying only on passive observations of the system and its input. We illustrate it with simulation results of an oscillator driven by a stochastic force. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32069-y SN - 2045-2322 VL - 8 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Abouserie, Ahed A1 - Schilde, Uwe A1 - Taubert, Andreas T1 - The crystal structure of N-butylpyridinium bis(μ2-dichlorido)-tetrachloridodicopper(II), C₁₈H₂₈N₂Cu₂Cl₆ JF - Zeitschrift für Kristallographie - New Crystal Structures N2 - C₉H₁₄Cl₃CuN, monoclinic, P2₁/n (no. 14), a = 9.6625(6) Å, b = 9.3486(3) Å, c = 14.1168(8) Å, β = 102.288(5)°, V = 1245.97(11) ų, Z = 4, Rgₜ(F) = 0.0182, wRᵣₑf(F²) = 0.0499, T = 210(2) K. KW - Ionic Liquid Precursor KW - Thermochromism KW - Salts KW - Nanostructures KW - Catalysis KW - Solvents KW - Complex KW - Gas Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/NCRS-2018-0099 SN - 2194-4946 SN - 2196-7105 VL - 233 IS - 4 SP - 743 EP - 746 PB - de Gruyter CY - Berlin und München ER - TY - JOUR A1 - van Velzen, Ellen A1 - Gaedke, Ursula T1 - Reversed predator BT - prey cycles are driven by the amplitude of prey oscillations JF - Ecology and Evolution N2 - Ecoevolutionary feedbacks in predator–prey systems have been shown to qualitatively alter predator–prey dynamics. As a striking example, defense–offense coevolution can reverse predator–prey cycles, so predator peaks precede prey peaks rather than vice versa. However, this has only rarely been shown in either model studies or empirical systems. Here, we investigate whether this rarity is a fundamental feature of reversed cycles by exploring under which conditions they should be found. For this, we first identify potential conditions and parameter ranges most likely to result in reversed cycles by developing a new measure, the effective prey biomass, which combines prey biomass with prey and predator traits, and represents the prey biomass as perceived by the predator. We show that predator dynamics always follow the dynamics of the effective prey biomass with a classic ¼‐phase lag. From this key insight, it follows that in reversed cycles (i.e., ¾‐lag), the dynamics of the actual and the effective prey biomass must be in antiphase with each other, that is, the effective prey biomass must be highest when actual prey biomass is lowest, and vice versa. Based on this, we predict that reversed cycles should be found mainly when oscillations in actual prey biomass are small and thus have limited impact on the dynamics of the effective prey biomass, which are mainly driven by trait changes. We then confirm this prediction using numerical simulations of a coevolutionary predator–prey system, varying the amplitude of the oscillations in prey biomass: Reversed cycles are consistently associated with regions of parameter space leading to small‐amplitude prey oscillations, offering a specific and highly testable prediction for conditions under which reversed cycles should occur in natural systems. KW - coevolution KW - ecoevolutionary dynamics KW - predator-prey dynamics KW - top-down control Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4184 SN - 2045-7758 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER -