# life: apropos of transitional blennies

<< Research on blennies, a family of fish that have repeatedly left the sea for land, suggests that being a 'jack of all trades' allows species to make the dramatic transition onto land but adapting into a 'master of one' allows them to stay there. >>

<< a flexible diet and behavior were likely to be instrumental in the transition to land. However, once out of the water, restrictions on the type of food available triggered major evolutionary changes, particularly to their teeth, as land dwelling blennies have become specialists in scraping algae and detritus from rocks. >>

<< having a broad diet or being behaviorally flexible can help you move into a new habitat. But once there, this flexibility becomes eroded by natural selection. This presumably means those highly specialized species are less likely to be able to make further transitions, or cope with abrupt environment changes in their existing habitat. >> Terry Ord.

How fish got onto land, and stayed there. British Ecological Society. Jun 17, 2020.  

https://phys.org/news/2020-06-fish.html

Terry J. Ord, Peter J. Hundt. Crossing extreme habitat boundaries: Jack‐of‐all‐trades facilitates invasion but is eroded by adaptation to a master‐of‐one. Funct Ecol. doi: 10.1111/ 1365-2435.13600. Jun 16, 2020.

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13600

Also

The multifactorial relationship system evolved in Blenny. FonT. Jun 2, 2017.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2017/06/s-behav-multifactorial-relationship.html

# behav: nomadic impulse, they return to Death Valley

<< More than a century after railroads, ranchers and hunters vanquished their ancestors, pronghorn antelope are returning to this unforgiving expanse of desert along the California-Nevada border. >>

<< the American pronghorn, North America's land speed champion, may be extending its migratory range into the Mojave Desert once again from cooler seas of sage nearly 100 miles to the north and east. >>

Louis Sahagun. Desert mystery: Why have pronghorn antelope returned to Death Valley? May 13, 2020.

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-mystery-pronghorn-antelope-death-valley.html

# ecol: when a predator could help his prey to adapt to an uncertain future (among the fly Iteomyia salicisverruca) ...

<< The loss of biodiversity is rewiring the web of life; however, it is uncertain how this will affect the ability of remaining populations to evolve and adapt to future environments. >>

AA << conducted a field experiment that either maintained a natural community of predators or removed all but one of the predators that was able to impose selection on a common prey. (They) found that the loss of predators acted to constrain prey evolution toward a particular combination of traits. Moreover, (they) found that the loss of predators could make it more difficult for prey to adapt to uncertain future environments. Taken together, (these) results suggest that the simplification of the web of life may constrain the adaptive potential of remaining populations. >>

Matthew A. Barbour, Christopher J. Greyson‐Gaito, et al. Loss of consumers constrains phenotypic evolution in the resulting food web. Evolution Letters. doi: 10.1002/ evl3.170. Apr 20, 2020. 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/evl3.170

<< Thinking about the big picture, our study hints at a potential insidious side effect of extinctions, (..) The extinction of natural enemies may compromise the ability of remaining species to adapt and persist in an uncertain and changing world. If this is true, this would put many ecosystems at even greater risk than we currently realize. >> Matthew A. Barbour.

Predators help prey adapt to an uncertain future. University of Zurich. 

 May 4, 2020

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-predators-prey-uncertain-future.html

# gst: apropos of 'reprogrammed by a virus' (2), the case of 'virocells'

<< If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, so the adage goes, it must be a duck. But if the duck gets infected by a virus so that it no longer looks or quacks like one, is it still a duck? >>

Viruses reprogram cells into different virocells. DOE/Joint Genome Institute. 

 Feb 11, 2020.

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-02-viruses-reprogram-cells-virocells.html

<< Ocean viruses are abundant and infect 20–40% of surface microbes. Infected cells, termed virocells, are thus a predominant microbial state. Yet, virocells and their ecosystem impacts are understudied, thus precluding their incorporation into ecosystem models. >>

AA << investigated how unrelated bacterial viruses (phages) reprogram one host into contrasting virocells with different potential ecosystem footprints. >>

<< Ecologically, this work suggests that one cell, infected versus uninfected, can have immensely different metabolisms that affect the ecosystem differently. >>

Howard-Varona C, Lindback MM, et al. Phage-specific metabolic reprogramming of virocells. ISME J. doi: 10.1038/s41396-019-0580-z. Jan 2, 2020.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41396-019-0580-z

Also

keyword 'virus' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=virus

keyword 'virus' in Notes (quasi- stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=virus

# life: the fate of humans and insects intertwine

<< The fate of humans and insects intertwine, especially through the medium of plants. >>

Michael J.Samways, Philip S.Barton, et al. Solutions for humanity on how to conserve insects. Biological Conservation. Volume 242, 108427,  Review. Feb 9, 2020.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719317793

Damian Carrington. Fates of humans and insects intertwined, warn scientists. Experts call for solutions to be enforced immediately to halt global population collapses. Feb 20, 2020.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/20/fates-humans-insects-intertwined-scientists-population-collapse

Also

the beetle Carabaeus lamarcki, dancer and sky analyzer.  May 14, 2016.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2016/05/s-behav-beetle-carabaeus-lamarcki.html

# ecol: a umbrella coordination; the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx)

<<  Researchers plan to spray sunlight-reflecting particles into the stratosphere, an approach that could ultimately be used to quickly lower the planet’s temperature. >>

<< The idea is simple: spray a bunch of particles into the stratosphere, and they will cool the planet by reflecting some of the Sun’s rays back into space. >>

<< The first phase - a US$3-million test involving two flights of a steerable balloon 20 kilometres above the southwest United States — could launch as early as the first half of 2019. Once in place, the experiment would release small plumes of calcium carbonate, each of around 100 grams, roughly equivalent to the amount found in an average bottle of off-the-shelf antacid. The balloon would then turn around to observe how the particles disperse. >>

<< The SCoPEx team’s initial stratospheric experiments will focus on calcium carbonate, which is expected to absorb less heat than sulfates and to have less impact on ozone. But textbook answers - and even Dai’s (Zhen Dai) tabletop device - can’t capture the full picture. “We actually don’t know what it would do, because it doesn’t exist in the stratosphere,” Keutsch (Frank Keutsch) says. “That sets up a red flag.” >>

Jeff Tollefson. First sun-dimming experiment will test a way to cool Earth. Nature. Nov 27, 2018; Correction Nov 30, 2018.   https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07533-4  

<< SCoPEx is a scientific experiment to advance understanding of stratospheric aerosols that could be relevant to solar geoengineering. >>

SCoPEx. Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment. Keutsch Research Group. Harvard University. 12 Oxford Street. Cambridge, MA 02138   https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/keutschgroup/scopex