Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Andrea F. Vallejo-Vargas, Douglas Sheil, Asuncion Semper-Pascual, Lydia Beaudrot, Jorge A. Ahumada, Emmanuel Akampurira, Robert Bitariho, Santiago Espinosa, Vittoria Estienne, Patrick A. Jansen, Charles Kayijamahe, Emanuel H. Martin, Marcela Guimaraes Moreira Lima, Badru Mugerwa, Francesco Rovero, Julia Salvador, Fernanda Santos, Wilson Roberto Spironello, Eustrate Uzabaho, Richard Bischof
Summary: This study examines the diel activity patterns of tropical mammals in protected forests across different biogeographic regions. The findings suggest that the activity of herbivores and insectivores is constrained by thermoregulation, while the activity of carnivores is influenced by bottom-up processes and the activity of small omnivores and insectivores is regulated by top-down processes. Overall, diel activity in tropical mammal communities is shaped by similar processes and constraints, reflecting body mass and trophic guilds.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Daniel W. E. Sankey
Summary: This paper examines the assumption of the selfish herd model in predation and finds that individuals adopting neighbor alignment behavior are more likely to survive.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sarah K. Hu, Erica L. Herrera, Amy R. Smith, Maria G. Pachiadaki, Virginia P. Edgcomb, Sean P. Sylva, Eric W. Chan, Jeffrey S. Seewald, Christopher R. German, Julie A. Huber
Summary: In deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems, protists exert higher predation pressure compared to the surrounding deep seawater environment, consuming a significant portion of prokaryotic biomass within vent fluids. The diverse protistan communities play an important role in deep-sea carbon cycling, as ciliates, dinoflagellates, Syndiniales, rhizaria, and stramenopiles dominate the vent protistan community. The distribution and co-occurrence patterns of vent microbes provide valuable insights into potential predator-prey interactions.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Biology
Rebecca N. MacKay, Tyler C. Wood, Paul A. Moore
Summary: The study reveals that crayfish utilize both safety cues and fear cues to relocate themselves when responding to alarm signals in order to navigate their environment.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications
Saswati Biswas, Arindam Mandal
Summary: Through studying the impact of cooperative behavior in predator-prey interactions on ecological dynamics, we found that infection rate and fear factor have different stabilizing effects on the system dynamics. Cooperative behavior makes the eco-epidemiological system sensitive to initial population size and vulnerable to small perturbations. Furthermore, the strength of cooperation, infection rate, and birth rate of healthy prey can lead to different types of bistability phenomena in the eco-epidemiological model. We also observed the "bubbling" phenomenon in the intermediate range of predator's intrinsic growth rate, as well as a high risk of catastrophic extinction of infected individuals when the strength of cooperative hunting among predators increases. This research provides new insights into understanding the fate of ecosystems involving parasites.
CHAOS SOLITONS & FRACTALS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Lachlan R. Phillips, Gemma Carroll, Ian Jonsen, Robert Harcourt, Andrew S. Brierley, Adam Wilkins, Martin Cox
Summary: Understanding how marine predators encounter prey across patchy landscapes remains challenging. This study used GPS and dive loggers to measure the at-sea behavior of little penguins and assessed the prey field through boat-based acoustic surveys. The results showed that penguin tracks had higher prey encounter rates compared to random movements, but reductions in prey encounters and abnormal body mass were observed when prey was sparse or deep.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Daniela C. Roessler, Massimo De Agro, Kris Kim, Paul S. Shamble
Summary: Research suggests that salticids display a robust, fast, and repeatable 'freeze and retreat' behavior when presented with stationary predators, but not towards similarly sized non-predator objects. Anti-predator responses are triggered by co-occurring and non-co-occurring salticid predators, as well as by 3D-printed salticid models, indicating a generalized predator detection/classification. The presence of eyes in the modified 3D-printed models plays an important role in triggering responses, but suggests that underlying processes rely on multiple cues rather than just single features.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler, Casey P. terHorst, Olivia U. Mason, Thomas Miller
Summary: The dispersal ability of predators can affect their spatial distribution, which in turn influences the diversity and composition of their prey. In this study, the microbial communities within pitcher plant leaves were used as a model system to investigate the relationship between predator dispersal ability and prey diversity. The results showed that the large ciliate Tetrahymena exhibited a clustered distribution, while the small flagellate Poterioochromonas was widely dispersed. The bacterial communities were influenced by the dispersal of Poterioochromonas and other bacterivores in the field.
Article
Mathematics
Maria Francesca Carfora, Isabella Torcicollo
Summary: A classical Lotka-Volterra model was extended in this study by introducing advection terms that included animal velocities. The effect of velocity on the problem's kinetics was analyzed. Traveling wave solutions were introduced to examine the behavior of species over time, and conditions for the coexistence or extinction of populations were found. Numerical simulations were conducted to illustrate the obtained results.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Benjamin A. Belgrad, William Knudson, Sarah H. Roney, William C. Walton, Jessica Lunt, Delbert L. Smee
Summary: Prey species can adjust morphology to reduce predation risk by responding to predator cues. A study on oysters showed that they grew stronger shells and had increased survivorship when raised with cues from common predator species. The findings highlight the potential of using predator cues to enhance the survival of target species and control pest-based mortality.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Benjamin K. Sullender, Calum X. Cunningham, Jessica D. Lundquist, Laura R. Prugh
Summary: Snowpack dynamics have a significant impact on wildlife movement ecology and predator-prey interactions. Specific properties of the snow, such as density and depth, influence how animals move through the snow and their vulnerability to predation. Researchers quantified the relationship between snow variables and sink depths of predators and prey in Alaska and Washington, USA. They found that near-surface snow density was the strongest predictor of sink depth across species. These findings can help predict the effects of future changes in snow density on predator-prey relationships.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Alex M. Draper, Marc J. Weissburg
Summary: This study found that global warming and ocean acidification have effects on the transmission and detection of predator cues, as well as the response of prey, with warming potentially having a greater impact on community dynamics.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Mathematics, Applied
Salih Djilali, Behzad Ghanbari
Summary: This research explores the influence of an infectious disease on the evolution of ecological species using a computational predator-prey model of fractional order. It is found that predators exhibit cooperative hunting behavior, and the transmission rate of the infection affects the evolution of predator-prey interactions. Graphical representations of the mathematical results are provided through a precise numerical scheme.
ADVANCES IN DIFFERENCE EQUATIONS
(2021)
Article
Mathematics, Applied
Haokun Qi, Xinzhu Meng, Tasawar Hayat, Aatef Hobiny
Summary: This paper proposes a stochastic predator-prey model with hunting cooperation and nonlinear perturbation of white noise. Sufficient criteria for the existence of a unique ergodic stationary distribution are established by constructing suitable Lyapunov functions. It is revealed that the white noise significantly impacts the dynamical behavior of the model.
APPLIED MATHEMATICS LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Fisheries
Kathryn I. Flowers, Michael R. Heithaus, Yannis P. Papastamatiou
Summary: Stingrays, as a diverse group of elasmobranchs, still have gaps in ecological research, such as the impact of ray predator-prey interactions on prey population dynamics and how ray foraging influences ecosystem dynamics that have not been extensively explored. Therefore, to better integrate rays in our understanding of marine community dynamics, there is a need to combine behavioral data with dietary information, study the effects of ray bioturbation on biogeochemical cycles and infaunal communities, elucidate conditions under which rays may trigger or transmit trophic cascades, and consider the anthropogenic influences on the ecological roles and importance of rays.
FISH AND FISHERIES
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Silvia Galafassi, Andrea Di Cesare, Lorenzo Di Nardo, Raffaella Sabatino, Andrea Valsesia, Francesco Sirio Fumagalli, Gianluca Corno, Pietro Volta
Summary: The research found that the disinfection step in wastewater treatment process can help reduce the emission of microplastic particles and improve the retention efficiency of WWTPs for MPs. Different disinfection methods can significantly impact the reduction of MPs concentration.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Andrea di Cesare, Francesco Riva, Noemi Colinas, Giulia Borgomaneiro, Sara Borin, Pedro J. Cabello-Yeves, Claudia Canale, Nicholas Cedraro, Barbara Citterio, Elena Crotti, Gianmarco Mangiaterra, Francesca Mapelli, Vincenzo Mondino, Carla Vignaroli, Walter Quaranta, Gianluca Corno, Diego Fontaneto, Ester M. Eckert
Summary: The contamination of freshwater with feces-derived bacteria is a major concern. This study analyzes the survival of E. coli in the presence of zooplankton, finding that E. coli can be temporarily enriched in zooplankton under natural conditions. The study also shows that E. coli can belong to different phylogroups and sequence types, including environmental, clinical, and animal isolates.
APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Andrea Di Cesare, Raffaella Sabatino, Ying Yang, Diego Brambilla, Pu Li, Diego Fontaneto, Ester M. Eckert, Gianluca Corno
Summary: Wastewater treatment plants are major hotspots for antibiotic resistance genes in the environment. Metal resistance genes, plasmids, and integrons have different contributions to the persistence of antibiotic resistance genes.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Maria Belen Sathicq, Raffaella Sabatino, Andrea Di Cesare, Ester M. Eckert, Diego Fontaneto, Michela Rogora, Gianluca Corno
Summary: This study investigated the impact of tyre wear microplastic particles (TWP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) particles on the microbial communities in water. The results showed that TWP acted as an additional carbon source, promoting the growth of potentially harmful bacteria, while PET provided a refuge for pathogens from wastewater effluent.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Raffaella Sabatino, Tomasa Sbaffi, Gianluca Corno, Daniel Santana de Carvalho, Ana Paula Trovatti Uetanabaro, Aristoteles Goes-Neto, Olga Podolich, Natalia Kozyrovska, Jean-Pierre de Vera, Vasco Azevedo, Debmalya Barh, Andrea Di Cesare
Summary: A study found that the antibiotic resistome, including antibiotic resistance genes and metal resistance genes, increased its diversity under Mars-like conditions. These genes were not found in non-exposed samples. Furthermore, there was a correlation between antibiotic resistome and metal resistance genes, suggesting a mechanism for maintaining antibiotic resistance in Mars-like environments.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Marco De Carluccio, Raffaella Sabatino, Ester M. Eckert, Andrea Di Cesare, Gianluca Corno, Luigi Rizzo
Summary: The impact of Fenton oxidation (FO) and Air stripping (AS) pre-treatments on the bacterial community of a biological activated sludge (B-AS) process for the co-treatment of mature landfill leachate (MLL) and urban wastewater (UWW) was assessed. The combination of FO and AS allowed for successful operation of the B-AS and effective treatment of MLL, by improving biodegradability and reducing ammonia concentration. For bacterial community shifting, BOD5/COD was found to be the key factor. The results suggest that a suitable combination of pre-treatments can reduce the negative effect of MLL on the B-AS process and shorten the acclimatization time for autochthonous bacteria.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ester M. Eckert, Silvia Galafassi, Marcela Bastidas Navarro, Andrea Di Cesare, Gianluca Corno
Summary: Stochastic or deterministic processes control the assembly of bacterial communities in aquatic environments exposed to antibiotics. Microdiversity influences the stability of freshwater communities, causing rare taxa to become abundant when disturbance occurs. Disturbance by antibiotics increases the similarity between bacterial communities from different freshwater systems, but the similarity decreases when the antibiotic pressure is released. Antibiotics impact bacterial communities at both the cell and community level, altering phenotypes, genotypes, and bacterial interactions.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Gianluca Corno, Timothy Ghaly, Raffaella Sabatino, Ester M. Eckert, Silvia Galafassi, Michael R. Gillings, Andrea Di Cesare
Summary: This study investigated the abundance of class 1 integrons and their associated antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in a freshwater system consisting of a lake-river-lake continuum. The results showed that class 1 integrons and their associated ARGs were more abundant in riverine sampling sites receiving treated wastewater. Moreover, high-risk ARGs, including genes encoding resistance to aminoglycosides, were correlated with class 1 integrons.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Silvia Bonetta, Andrea Di Cesare, Cristina Pignata, Raffaella Sabatino, Manuela Macri, Gianluca Corno, Marco Panizzolo, Sara Bonetta, Elisabetta Carraro
Summary: This study examines the fate of antibiotic resistance in the urban water cycle in Italy, focusing on the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs). Plate counting and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) were used to quantify ARB (resistant to tetracycline, ampicillin, and sulfonamides) and measure the abundance of selected ARGs. The results show higher concentrations of ARB and ARGs in WWTPs compared to DWTPs, indicating that WWTPs are hotspots for antibiotic resistance spread. Although significant reductions were observed after treatment, none of the detected ARB or ARGs were completely removed from drinking water. Therefore, it is important to integrate culture-dependent and culture-independent methods to investigate antibiotic resistance dynamics in aquatic ecosystems involved in the urban water cycle, and to monitor the presence of ARB and ARGs, especially in drinking water, as it represents a potential route of transmission to humans.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Alizee Le Moigne, Florian Randegger, Anubhav Gupta, Owen L. L. Petchey, Jakob Pernthaler
Summary: Stochasticity plays a major role in compositional beta-diversity in communities formed under similar environmental conditions. The variability of individual physiological traits in the source community can lead to variable functional traits in the newly formed communities. We examined the degree of stochasticity during the initial assembly of bacterial communities and found high compositional variability and functional differences among them.
Article
Microbiology
Jakob Pernthaler, Natalia Krempaska, Alizee le Moigne
Summary: The bacterial community composition in 'lake snow' particles can vary greatly. The researchers hypothesized that particle-attached (PA) bacteria play a significant role in the small-scale spatial diversity of pelagic communities. The study found clear seasonal differences in the community composition and assembly of free-living (FL) bacteria, with high spatial beta diversity in PA bacteria. The genotypic heterogeneity of PA bacteria might affect the spatial distribution of rare metabolic traits.
ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Periyasamy Sivalingam, Raffaella Sabatino, Tomasa Sbaffi, Diego Fontaneto, Gianluca Corno, Andrea Di Cesare
Summary: Wastewater treatment plants are major sources of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment. The study utilized shotgun metagenomics to investigate the distribution of ARGs in treated wastewaters before and after disinfection. The intracellular resistome was found to be richer than the extracellular one, but the latter contained different high-risk ARGs. Disinfection had a significant impact on the antibiotic resistome composition, causing shifts from intracellular to extracellular DNA and potentially posing a threat to human health.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Xiaole Yin, Xi Chen, Xiao-Tao Jiang, Ying Yang, Bing Li, Marcus Ho-Hin Shum, Tommy T. Y. Lam, Gabriel M. Leung, Joan Rose, Concepcion Sanchez-Cid, Timothy M. Vogel, Fiona Walsh, Thomas U. Berendonk, Janet Midega, Chibuzor Uchea, Dominic Frigon, Gerard D. Wright, Carlos Bezuidenhout, Renata C. Picao, Shaikh Z. Ahammad, Per Halkjaer Nielsen, Philip Hugenholtz, Nicholas J. Ashbolt, Gianluca Corno, Despo Fatta-Kassinos, Helmut Buergmann, Heike Schmitt, Chang-Jun Cha, Amy Pruden, Kornelia Smalla, Eddie Cytryn, Yu Zhang, Min Yang, Yong-Guan Zhu, Arnaud Dechesne, Barth F. Smets, David W. Graham, Michael R. Gillings, William H. Gaze, Celia M. Manaia, Mark C. M. van Loosdrecht, Pedro J. J. Alvarez, Martin J. Blaser, James M. Tiedje, Edward Topp, Tong Zhang
Summary: Surveillance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in environmental sectors is increasingly conducted to complement studies in human and animal sectors. However, comparing and synthesizing results from different studies using different test methods and bioinformatic analysis approaches pose substantial challenges. This article suggests a universal unit (ARG copy per cell) for reporting biological measurements of ARGs in order to improve comparability. By comparing commonly used quantification units, this study proposes a step towards standardization.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Soil Science
Rong Sheng, Huifang Xu, Xiaoyi Xing, Wenzhao Zhang, Haijun Hou, Hongling Qin, Yi Liu, Limei Zhang, Yunting Fang, Jupei Shen, Jakob Pernthaler, Wenxue Wei, Baoli Zhu
Summary: The influence of parent materials on soil bacterial communities in agricultural soils was investigated. Different soil types were found to support distinct bacterial communities. The characteristics inherited from parent materials explained more of the variation in bacterial community structure than soil management variables and climate conditions.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Andrea Di Cesare, Raffaella Sabatino, Tomasa Sbaffi, Diego Fontaneto, Diego Brambilla, Andrea Beghi, Franca Pandolfi, Cristina Borlandelli, Davide Fortino, Giovanni Biccai, Pietro Genoni, Gianluca Corno
Summary: This study analyzed the fate of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in a lake-river-lake system in Northern Italy. The results showed that anthropogenic pressure promotes the spread of specific ARGs but also leads to a rapid decline in other ARGs.
