Biomarkers of aging are essential to predict mortality and aging related diseases. Paradoxically, age itself imposes a limitation on the use of known biomarkers of aging, because their associations with mortality generally diminish with age. How this pattern arises is however not understood. With me
1.Carabids and other epigeal arthropods make important contributions to biodiversity, food webs and biocontrol of invertebrate pests and weeds. Pitfall trapping is widely used for sampling carabid populations, but this technique yields biased estimates of abundance (‘activity-density’) because indiv
Chemical information mediates species interactions in a wide range of organisms. Yet, the effect of chemical information on population dynamics is rarely addressed. We designed a spatio-temporal parasitoid—host model to investigate the population dynamics when both the insect host and the parasitic
On-going human population growth and changing patterns of resource consumption are increasing global demand for ecosystem services, many of which are provided by soils. Some of these ecosystem services are linearly related to the surface area of pervious soil, whereas others show non-linear relation
Quantifying fruit growth can be desirable for several purposes (e.g., prediction of fruit yield and size, or for the use in crop simulation models). The goal of this article was to determine the best sigmoid function to describe fruit growth of pepper (Capsicum annuum) from nondestructive fruit grow
After establishment of Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in Europe, population densities of native ladybird species have decreased. The post-hibernation onset of female reproduction, a key characteristic influencing population dynamics and competition with related species, was s
In the field, plants are attacked by several herbivore species both simultaneously and in isolation. Spatial variation in damage to plants by different herbivores may affect the search behaviour of parasitoid wasps, but the consequences of this variation for host–parasitoid interactions are still li
Since the establishment of Harmonia axyridis in Europe, populations of native ladybirds have decreased. Overwintering survival is one of the aspects of the biology of H. axyridis that may contribute to its firm establishment in and invasion of a new area. In this study winter survival of five wild H
Time-to-event analysis, or survival analysis, is a method to analyse the timing of events and to quantify the effects of contributing factors. We apply this method to data on the timing of abortion of reproductive organs. This abortion often depends on source and sink strength. We hypothesise that t
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