TY - JOUR A1 - Nomdedeu, Mar Monsonis A1 - Willen, Christine A1 - Schieffer, Andre A1 - Arndt, Hartmut T1 - Temperature-dependent ranges of coexistence in a model of a two-prey-one-predator microbial food web JF - Marine Biology N2 - The objective of our study was to analyze the effects of temperature on the population dynamics of a three-species food web consisting of two prey bacteria (Pedobacter sp. and Acinetobacter johnsonii) and a protozoan predator (Tetrahymena pyriformis) as model organisms. We assessed the effects of temperature on the growth rates of all three species with the objective of developing a model with four differential equations based on the experimental data. The following hypotheses were tested at a theoretical level: Firstly, temperature changes can affect the dynamic behavior of a system by temperature-dependent parameters and interactions and secondly, food web response to temperature cannot be derived from the single species temperature response. The main outcome of the study is that temperature changes affect the parameter range where coexistence is possible within all three species. This has significant consequences on our ideas regarding the evaluation of effects of global warming. Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-012-1966-x SN - 1432-1793 VL - 159 IS - 11 SP - 2423 EP - 2430 PB - Springer CY - Berlin ER - TY - THES A1 - Schieffer, Andre T1 - Studies on diversity and coexistence in an experimental microbial community N2 - Biodiversity and the coexistence of species have puzzled and fascinated biologists since decades and is a hotspot in todays’ natural sciences. Preserving this biodiversity is a great challenge as habitats and environments underlying tremendous changes like climate change and the loss of natural habitats, which are mainly due to anthropogenic influences. The coexistence of numerous species even in homogeneous environments is a stunning feature of natural communities and has been summarized under the term ‘paradox of plankton’. Up to now, there are several mechanisms discussed, which may contribute to local and global diversity of organisms. Several interspecific trade offs have been identified maintaining the coexistence of species like their abilities regarding competition and predator avoidance, their capability to disperse in space and time, and their ability to exploit variable resources. Further, micro-evolutionary dynamics supporting the coexistence of species have been added to our knowledge, and deriving from theoretical deterministic models, non-linear dynamics which describe the temporal fluctuation of abundances of organisms. Whereas competition and predation seem to be clue structural elements within interacting organisms, the intrinsic dynamic behavior – by means of temporal changes in abundance - plays an important role regarding coexistence within a community. The present work sheds light on different factors affecting the coexistence of species using experimental microbial model systems consisting of a bacterivorous ciliate as the predator and two bacteria strains as prey organism. Additionally, another experimental setup consisting of two up to five bacteria species competing for one limiting resource was investigated. Highly controllable chemostat systems were established to exclude extrinsic disturbances. According to theoretical analyses I was able to show - experimentally and theoretically - that phenotypic plasticity of one species within a microbial one-predator-two-prey food web enlarges the range of possible coexistence of all species under different dynamic conditions, compared to a food web without phenotypic plasticity. This was accompanied by non-linear (chaotic) population dynamics within all experimental systems showing phenotypic plasticity. The experiments on the interplay of competition, predation and invasion showed that all aspects have an influence on species coexistence. Under undisturbed controlled conditions all aspects were analyzed in detail and in combination. Populations showed oscillations which were shown by quasi-chaotic attractors in phase space diagrams. Competition experiments with two up to five bacteria species competing for one limiting resource showed that all organisms were able to coexist which was mediated by species oscillations entering a regime of chaos. Besides that fact it was found, that the productivity (biomass) as well as the total cell numbers – under the same nutrition supply – increased by an increasing number of species in the experimental systems. Up to now, the occurrence of non-linear dynamics in well controlled experimental studies has been recognized several times and this phenomenon seemed to be more common in natural systems than generally assumed. N2 - Biodiversität und die Koexistenz von Arten fasziniert und verblüfft Biologen seit Jahr-zehnten und stellen einen Schwerpunkt in der heutigen Umweltforschung dar. Der Schutz und die Konservierung dieser Mannigfaltigkeit stellen eine große Herausfor-derung dar, da die natürlichen Lebensräume sowie die Umwelt enormen Verände-rungen unterworfen sind, welche meist in einem anthropogenen Ursprung wurzeln. Die Koexistenz vieler Arten, auch in relativ homogenen Habitaten ist ein faszinieren-des Charakteristikum natürlicher Lebensgemeinschaften und wird als ‚Paradox des Planktons‘ bezeichnet. Gegenwärtig werden diverse Ursachen diskutiert, welche vermutlich zur lokalen und globalen Diversität von Organismen beitragen. Einige die-ser möglichen Ursachen, die zur Aufrechterhaltung der Koexistenz der Arten beitra-gen, wurden identifiziert: Das Vermögen der Konkurrenz- und Prädationsvermeidung, die Fähigkeit räumlicher sowie zeitlicher Verteilung, sowie das Vermögen variable Ressourcen zu nutzen. Des Weiteren wurden mikro-evolutionäre Phänomene und Dynamiken identifiziert, sowie, von theoretischen deterministischen Modellen ausge-hend, nichtlineare Dynamiken, welche die zeitlichen Schwankungen der Abundanzen von Organismen beschreiben. Diese Aspekte stellen die Schlüsselkomponenten zwi-schen interagierenden Organismen dar, wobei das intrinsiche, nicht lineare dynami-sche Verhalten in Form von zeitlichen Veränderungen in Abundanzen eine zusätzli-che entscheidende Rolle bezüglich der Koexistenz von Arten spielen kann. Einige dieser Aspekte wurden in der vorliegenden Arbeit untersucht. In Anlehnung an theoretische Analysen konnte experimentell sowie theoretisch gezeigt werden, dass phänotypische Plastizität in einer Bakterienart in einem mikrobiellen Ein-Räuber-zwei-Beute-Nahrungsgewebe den Bereich der möglichen Koexistenz unter sich än-dernden experimentellen Bedingungen (Änderungen der Durchflussraten der Chemostate) – im direkten Vergleich zu einem experimentellen Nahrungsgewebe ohne phänotypische Plastizität – erweitern kann. Dies wurde begleitet durch nicht lineare Abundanzschwankungen in den Populationen aller untersuchten Versuchs-ansätze. In weiteren Untersuchungen wurde das Zusammenspiel von Konkurrenz, Prädation und Invasion in einer experimentellen mikrobiellen Gemeinschaft untersucht. Unter kontrollierten Bedingungen konnten diese Aspekte detailliert untersucht werden und es konnten Aufschlüsse darüber gewonnen werden, welche Reaktionen (Interaktionen) innerhalb der untersuchten Gemeinschaften stattfinden. Im Versuchsverlauf wurden Veränderungen in den Abundanzen sowie chaotische Schwankungen der Zellzahlen festgestellt. In Konkurrenzexperimenten von zwei bis zu fünf um eine limitierende Ressource konkurrierende Bakterienarten konnte gezeigt werden, dass alle Arten – vermittelt durch chaotische Abundanzschwankungen – nebeneinander koexistieren konnten. Begleitend dazu wurde herausgefunden, dass die Produktivität (Biomasse) sowie die Gesamtzellzahl bei gleicher Nahrungsverfügbarkeit der experimentellen Systeme mit steigender Artenzahl zunehmen. Gegenwärtig ist das Auftreten von Chaos in gut kontrollierten experimentellen Studien vereinzelt beobachtet worden, wobei dieses Phänomen jedoch häufiger in der Natur aufzutreten scheint als generell vermutet. Y1 - 2012 N1 - Köln, Univ., Diss., 2012 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heinzel, Alexander A1 - Schäfer, Ralf A1 - Müller, Hans-Wilhelm A1 - Schieffer, Andre A1 - Ingenhag, Ariane A1 - Eickhoff, Simon B. A1 - Northoff, Georg A1 - Franz, Matthias A1 - Hautzel, Hubertus T1 - Increased Activation of the Supragenual Anterior Cingulate Cortex during Visual Emotional Processing in Male Subjects with High Degrees of Alexithymia: An Event-Related fMRI Study JF - Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics N2 - Background: One of the most prominent neurobiological models of alexithymia assumes an altered function of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as the crucial neural correlate of alexithymia. So far functional imaging studies have yielded inconclusive results. Therefore, we tested this hypothesis in healthy alexithymics and nonalexithymics in an event-related fMRI study. Methods: Thirty high- and 30 low-alexithymic right-handed male subjects (selected by the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, TAS-20) were investigated with event-related fMRI using a picture viewing paradigm. The stimuli consisted of happy, fearful and neutral facial expressions (Ekman-Friesen) as well as positive, negative and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System. Results: Contrasting the high-alexithymic with the low-alexithymic group we observed increased activation of the supragenual ACC for different emotional valences as well as for different emotional stimuli. Moreover, there was a positive correlation of the ACC with the individual TAS-20 scores but no correlations with the individual Beck Depression Inventory scores. Additionally, there was no difference in activity of the amygdala. Conclusions: We demonstrated that the supragenual ACC is constantly activated more strongly in alexithymic subjects and that this activation is related to the symptoms of alexithymia and not to associated symptoms such as depression. Therefore, our findings support the hypothesis of an altered function of the ACC in alexithymia. Y1 - 2010 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000320121 SN - 0033-3190 VL - 79 IS - 6 SP - 363 EP - 370 PB - Karger CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Turaliyeva, M. A1 - Yeshibaev, A. A1 - Saparbekova, A. A1 - Akynova, L. A1 - Abildayeva, R. A1 - Sadenova, M. A1 - Sartayeva, K. A1 - Schieffer, Andre A1 - Digel, Ilya T1 - Species composition and injuriousness of stranger xylophilous fauna affecting indigenous urban dendroflora of Central Asia JF - Asian journal of microbiology, biotechnology & environmental sciences : AJMBES N2 - At the present time, one of the most serious environmental problems of Central Asia and South Kazakhstan is the ongoing large-scale deterioration of principal urban tree populations. Several major centers of massive spread of invasive plant pests have been found in urban dendroflora of this region. The degree of damage of seven most wide-spread aboriginal tree species was found to range from 21.4±1.1 to 85.4±1.8%. In particular, the integrity of the native communities of sycamore (Platanus spp.), willow (Salix spp.), poplar (Populus spp.) and elm (Ulmus spp.) is highly endangered. Our taxonomic analysis of the most dangerous tree pests of the region has revealed them as neobiontic xylophilous insects such as Cossus cossus L. (Order: Lepidoptera L.) Monochamus urussovi Fisch., Monochamus sutor L., Acanthocinus aedelis L. and Ñetonia aureate L. (Order: Coleoptera L.). We relate the origin of this threatening trend with the import of industrial wood in the mid 90’s of the last century that was associated with high degree of the constructional work in the region. Because of the absence of efficient natural predators of the pest species, the application of microbiological methods of the pest control and limitation is suggested. Y1 - 2016 SN - 0972-3005 VL - 18 IS - 2 SP - 359 EP - 366 PB - EM International ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heinzel, Alexander A1 - Schäfer, Ralf A1 - Müller, Hans-Wilhelm A1 - Schieffer, Andre A1 - Ingenhag, Ariane A1 - Northoff, Georg A1 - Franz, Matthias A1 - Hautzel, Hubertus T1 - Differential modulation of valence and arousal in high-alexithymic and low-alexithymic individuals JF - Neuroreport N2 - High-alexithymic individuals are characterized by an impaired ability to identify and communicate emotions whereas low-alexithymic individuals have a wide-ranging ability to deal with emotions. This study examined the hypothesis that valence and arousal modifications of emotional stimuli differentially modulate cortical regions in high-alexithymic and low-alexithymic individuals. To this end, 28 high-alexithymic and 25 low-alexithymic individuals were investigated with event-related fMRI using visual emotional stimuli. We found differential neural activations in the dorsal anterior cingulate, the insula and the amygdala. We suggest that these differences may account for the impaired ability of high-alexithymic individuals to appropriately handle emotional stimuli. Y1 - 2010 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/WNR.0b013e32833f38e0 SN - 1473-558X VL - 21 IS - 15 SP - 998 EP - 1002 PB - Lippincott Williams & Wilkins CY - London ER -