#Conquering the world at a snails pace: Expansion of invasive Mediterranean Tramp Slugscientists at the Senckenberg Research Institute in GÃ rlitz have studied the expansion of the invasive Mediterranean Tramp Slug.
This mollusk already inhabits large parts of Europe and Australia as well as North and South america. Among others it was recorded for the first time in Mexico Costa rica and Ecuador.
Regionally this species can be a serious agricultural pest; however it appears to reach its distributional limits in extremely cold or hot areas.
In their study which was published recently in the scientific journal Neobiota the researchers from Senckenberg also identify potential additional invasion countries for this slug.
and it was reported first from the new Federal States one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall--the Mediterranean Tramp Slug Deroceras invadens.
and means to invade--this slug has a habit of settling in new areas. By now this species of slug can be encountered almost worldwide explains Dr. Heike Reise curator at the malacology section of the Senckenberg Museum of Natural history in GÃ rlitz
and she adds It is primarily found in gardens or under scattered debris but also in greenhouses and out in the open nature.
Together with her colleague from GÃ rlitz Dr. John M. C. Hutchinson and a colleague from the United states Department of agriculture (USDA-APHIS) the scientist has studied the distribution of these mollusks
We tried to determine in which countries the slug has already been established when it first occurred there
Originally this slug is native to the Mediterranean region. The first evidence of immigration came from The british Isles in 1930
and South america and the slug has made also itself at home on several islands such as the Azores Madeira
and the hot dry climate in central Spain and parts of Australia Africa and Asia hamper the spread of the slugs.
in Breslau a population of these slugs survived several winters at temperatures as low as minus 22 degrees Celsius.
In North america and Egypt the slugs take advantage of the extensive agricultural irrigation systems. These new habitats created by humans open new paths for the expansion of the slugs into areas that are normally inhospitable for animals
and they may serve as potential corridors for the settling of suitable isolated habitats explains Reise.
The scientists from GÃ rlitz assume that the small slugs will continue to expand to other countries and regions.
In some areas early recognition and rapidly applied counter measures may possibly prevent the establishment of this slug.
Starting in 1958 just five years after the discovery of DNA's double-helix structure researchers suspected that a specific gene controls the orderly pairing of wheat chromosomes during reproduction.
A major concern is the response of calcifying organisms such as corals algae mollusks and some plankton because their ability to build shell
Some of otters'favorites are abalone clams crabs mussels shrimp and sea urchins. Few predators can crack the globe-shaped spiny urchins
and Molluscs were absent from the invaded area. The current restricted distribution of A. gracilipes in this ecosystem combined with lower abundance of endemic fauna in the invaded area highlight the need for further research.
The parasite spends part of its life cycle in snails that live in warm fresh water before leaving the snail to burrow through the skin of people wading
Timeframes are identified through radiocarbon dating of freshwater snail shells and other organic soil matter. Thin microscopic sections of dirt samples show organization of soil grains revealing
#Spanish slug: Busting an invasion mythspanish slugs (Arion lusitanicus) are one of the most common slug species in Central europe.
The animals sometimes nicknamed killer slugs are known to do their fair share of damage in fields and gardens.
The slug was thought to have originated in Southern Europe. However researchers of the German Biodiversity and Climate Centre and the Goethe University now found out that the prime example of an invasive species is originally from Central europe and thus no immigrant after all.
Control measures such as the EU regulation on prevention early warning rapid response and management of invasive species which is being discussed currently would
therefore not apply to this species. For some time conservationists have made aware of the fact that the rapidly growing number of brown Spanish slugs is replacing the native black slug in Central europe as well as inflicting significant damage on natural vegetation and agricultural products.
today Arion lusitanicus is the most common species of snail in Germany. It is ranked also among the 100 of the worst invasive animal
Allegedly the Spanish Slug made its way to Central europe with imports of fruit and vegetables in the 1950s.
No Spanish slugs to be found in Spainwhen taking stock German researchers however could not find a single individual of the slug in its presumed home country.
In the spring of 2010 researchers of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and the Goethe University collected 300 specimens of the snail in 60 locations in France Spain the UK and the Benelux countries
and identified the species they came from. Instead of the Spanish slug we found numerous so-called cryptic species which are indistinguishable using traditional methods of taxonomy
which is based on morphology. Therefore the animals were identified using DNA sequence data lead author Prof.
But looking into the genes of the slugs yielded even more insights. Shared mutations in the genetic information of different individuals indicate relationships between them.
Perhaps the rapid increase in Spanish slugs we have seen in the last decades is caused by changes of land use practice.
#Mosquito control pesticide use in coastal areas poses low risk to juvenile oysters, hard clamsfour of the most common mosquito pesticides used along the east and Gulf coasts show little risk to juvenile hard clams and oysters according to a NOAA study.
However the study published in the on-line journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology also determined that lower oxygen levels in the water known as hypoxia
What we found is that larval oysters and hard clams can withstand low levels of pesticide use
but they are more sensitive to pesticides if their ecosystem is suffering from local climate stressors like hypoxia
Hopefully these data will benefit both shellfish mariculture operations and environmental resource agencies as they manage the use of mosquito control pesticides near their coastal ecosystems.
NOAA Fisheries estimated that U s. oyster and hard clam landings for 2010 were worth nearly $118 million and $41 million respectively.
Shellfish growers however are concerned that pesticide spraying near the coastlines may contaminate both their hatcheries and source waters.
This is compounded by a lack of data on the toxicity of mosquito insecticides for these shellfish.
These ecologically and economically important species inhabit tidal marsh habitats along the U s. Atlantic and Gulf of mexico coastlines.
Clams and oysters are also important for the coastal ecosystem because they filter water improving water quality
The study sought to address a lack of toxicity data for mosquito control pesticide effects on shellfish early life stages.
The research team examined the toxicity of four mosquito control pesticides (naled resmethrin permethrin and methoprene) to larval and juvenile life stages of hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) and Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica.
Overall clams were more susceptible to mosquito control pesticides than oysters. Naled an organophosphate chemical was the most toxic compound in oyster larvae
while resmethrin was the most toxic compound in clam larvae. Decreased swimming activity was observed after four days in larval oysters
and decreased growth was found in juvenile clams and oysters after 21 days. Using a hazard assessment
which compared the toxicity thresholds to concentrations expected in the environment the researchers calculated a low-level of risk to clams and oysters from application of these pesticides for mosquito control.
The researchers also tested the pesticides'toxicity under climate stress conditions. The more extreme climate conditions caused increased pesticide toxicity.
The study did not address the impacts of the pesticides on other shellfish such as shrimp or lobsters.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by NOAA. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
coffee grounds are a great compost for cultivating mushrooms particularly gourmet mushrooms such as oyster shiitake and reishi.
Crawling slowly into the final spot on the alphabetical list is Zospeum tholussum a tiny translucent Croatian snail from one of earth's deepest cave systems.
Domed Land Snail: Looks Ghostly Moves Slowly Zospeum tholussum Location: Croatia Living in complete darkness some 900-plus meters (nearly 3000 feet) below the surface in the Lukina Jama-Trojama caves of western Croatia is zospeum tholossum.
This land snail lacks eyes as they're not necessary in the total darkness of the caves
Even by snail standards Zospeum tholossum moves slowly creeping only a few millimeters or centimeters a week.
Researchers suspect these small snails measuring only 2 millimeters in length (0. 08 inch) travel in water currents
#Best way to rid a garden of pesky snails? Use your strong throwing armthe new study published May 16 in the journal Physica Scripta has used statistical models to show that simply killing the snails you find in your garden offers little advantage
if you want to remove them completely. According to the researchers gardeners should revert to damage limitation as their results proved that snails are part of larger colonies that live in the garden
and come and go as they please using a homing instinct. As opposed to simply killing a snail throwing it over the wall is pretty effective
and the results showed that if snails are moved out of the garden by a distance of 20 meters
or more the likelihood of those particular snails finding their way back home into the garden was almost zero.
Co-author of the study Professor David Dunstan from Queen Mary's School of Physics and Astronomy said:
We showed that the number of snails regularly or irregularly visiting a garden is many times greater than the number actually present at any one time in the garden.
As such gardeners shouldn't be setting out to eliminate their gardens of snails. To achieve such a feat would require the gardener to rid the whole neighbourhood of snails
which would be a slow process. Gardeners should be setting out to minimise the damage done by snails
which our results showed could be achieved quickly by simply removing the snails over 20 meters away.
A recent poll by the Royal Horticultural Society showed that one-in-five gardeners in the UK have thrown snails into their neighbours'gardens.
Whilst our study shows that this may be more beneficial than actually killing them we believe the gardening community would benefit as a whole by removing the snails to a convenient wasteland rather than passing the burden onto their neighbours.
In 2010 co-author of the study Dr Dave Hodgson from the University of Exeter discovered along with amateur scientist Ruth Brooks that snails have a homing instinct.
Professor Dunstan's own study began in 2001 when a small suburban garden was being refurbished.
and after a few days severe damage from snails had been observed. Rather than kill the snails the owners systematically removed them from the garden for six months.
Each snail that was found had marked its shell and was thrown then five meters over the garden wall into wasteland.
All snails that returned to the garden were given an extra mark on their shell whenever they were found.
A total of 416 snails were marked and thrown over the wall 1385 times during the study.
After collecting the results Professor Dunstan teamed up with Dr Hodgson to statistically analyse the data from his 2001 experiment using computer simulations to see
In the computer model each of the snails were created as objects set up with a number of different properties
if the snails were given a homing instinct. A gut feeling or even a gut certainty that the data say something is not science.
and the only way we were able to do this was to give the snails a homing instinct continued Professor Dunstan.
Snails reveal themselves as an abundant amenable and enigmatic model organism for the study of animal behaviour and statistical modelling.
Our plan is to develop snail behaviour studies as a fun teaching exercise for budding scientists of all ages.
UF researchers discovered species from more than 25 countries on four continents including 35 fossil crustaceans 24 Lepidoptera 17 plants (11 fossils) eight mollusks two
New insights into their effects on shrimps and snailsgroundbreaking research by an international team of scientists has resulted in greater understanding of the effects of pesticides on aquatic invertebrates such as shrimps and snails.
and snails to better understand which organs are at risk. It turns out that for some pesticides the distribution in the body matters a lot
The research team looked at the effects of three pesticides--diazinon imidacloprid and propiconazole--on the aquatic invertebratesgammarus pulex (freshwater shrimp) Gammarus fossarum (freshwater shrimp) and Lymnaea stagnalis (pond snail.
Toxicity of these neurotoxicants does vary a lot among species--in our study the shrimps turned out to be much more sensitive than the pond snail.
and rats to see what is going on inside a shrimp or a snail. I am convinced that imaging the chemical distribution inside aquatic species in general holds great promise to better understand their sensitivity to pesticides and other chemicals.
www. cream-itn. eu). Ground breaking research by an international team of scientists has resulted in greater understanding of the effects of pesticides on aquatic invertebrates such as shrimps and snails.
and snails to better understand which organs are at risk. It turns out that for some pesticides the distribution in the body matters a lot
The research team looked at the effects of three pesticides--diazinon imidacloprid and propiconazole--on the aquatic invertebratesgammarus pulex (freshwater shrimp) Gammarus fossarum (freshwater shrimp) and Lymnaea stagnalis (pond snail.
Toxicity of these neurotoxicants does vary a lot among species--in our study the shrimps turned out to be much more sensitive than the pond snail.
and rats to see what is going on inside a shrimp or a snail. I am convinced that imaging the chemical distribution inside aquatic species in general holds great promise to better understand their sensitivity to pesticides and other chemicals.
#Ancient clam gardens nurture food securitya three-year study of ancient clam gardens in the Pacific Northwest has led researchers including three from Simon Fraser University to make a discovery that could benefit
The researchers discovered that ancient clam gardens made by Aboriginal people produced quadruple the number of butter clams and twice the number of littleneck clams as unmodified clam beaches.
This is the first study to provide empirical evidence of ancient clam gardens'superior productivity. In the past as indigenous coastal communities from Alaska to Washington state grew in numbers people needed to devise sustainable ways of feeding themselves.
One of the ways they did this was by cultivating clams in human-made rock-walled beach terraces known as clam gardens.
When the researchers transplanted more than 800 baby clams into six ancient clam gardens and five non-walled natural beaches to compare their growth rates they made a groundbreaking discovery.
The clams in the ancient gardens grew almost twice as fast and were more likely to survive than baby clams transplanted into unmodified beaches in the same area.
We discovered that flattening the slope of ancient beach clam gardens expanded the real-estate for clams at the intertidal height at
which they grow and survive best explains Salomon. The School of Resource and Environmental Management assistant professor adds:
Traditional knowledge by coastal First Nations members further revealed that their ancestors boosted these gardens'productivity by adding ground clam shell and pebbles to them.
The researchers began their clam garden investigations in 2008. From 2009 to 2011 they focused their efforts on Quadra Island due to the sheer number of clam gardens available to survey
and use as experimental replicates. They surveyed 11 ancient clam gardens and 10 un-walled clam beaches
and compared their number size and weight of clams. They collaborated with indigenous knowledge holders from the Tla'amin First Nation and Laich-kwil-tach Treaty Society.
This study was the basis of Groesbeck's master's research which was conducted under the supervision of the study's other authors.
Groesbeck a 2013 Faculty of Environment graduate and this study's lead author is now a University of Washington research assistant.
This study notes that some of today's benthic shellfish aquaculture practices have been shown to undermine near shore ecosystem resilience.
Lepofsky says On the Northwest Coast we are fortunate to have both the tangible record of clam gardens
After the fireit is the first time that a study compares different responses of a set of animal organisms to fire (snails spiders beetles ants grasshoppers bugs birds and reptiles.
--and low-mobility species--like snails that cannot hide and die by burning--are the ones that show more changes in composition.
This would be the case of snail Xerocrassa montserratensis and Red-legged partridge Alectoris rufa two interesting species
Woodland salamanders facilitate the capture of this carbon before it is released by feeding on invertebrates (beetles earthworms snails ants etc.
and livestock production involved all six major species. The authors'estimates also include fish and shellfish.
For seafood the region produces 45%of the amount of shellfish it consumes and 23%of fish.
and provide a huge nursery for a variety of algae fish shellfish and birds. But a variety of human influences from bridge building to runoff pollution to smothering loads of sediment have threatened these grass beds globally.
and wild boar and ate large quantities of sea food including seals and shellfish. With the introduction of domestic animals some 6000 years ago they quickly gave up wild foods
#Dark chocolate, red wine will keep your honey heart-healthy this Valentines day, expert saysforget the oysters and the champagne this Valentine's day.
A drain from a central property revealed a richer variety of foods as well as imports from outside Italy such as shellfish sea urchin
Bloomfield was planning to attempt a smoked oyster ice cream inspired by The Virginia Housewife, the first cookbook published in America.
Stupak promised to help Bloomfield whip up an oyster foam if the ice cream failed. He had found inspiration right away in the Carolina Gold rice,
Snails! she exclaimed--before finishing, are a problem. Getting rid of pests can be the biggest challenge in organic farming,
In some cases, certain foods, such as cow's milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, yeast products, nuts,
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