Carl Linnaeus and the Visual Representation of Nature

Reproduced with kind permission of the publisher. © by the Regents of the University of California. Available on Caliber (http://caliber.ucpress.net) and AnthroSource (http://www.anthrosource.net).The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) is reputed to have transformed botanical practice by shunning the process of illustrating plants and relying on the primacy of literary descriptions of plant specimens. Botanists and historians have long debated Linnaeus's capacities as a draftsman. While some of his detailed sketches of plants and insects reveal a sure hand, his more general drawings of landscapes and people seem ill-executed. The overwhelming consensus, based mostly on his Lapland diary (1732), is that Linnaeus could not draw. Little has been said, however, on the role of drawing and other visual representations in Linnaeus's daily work as seen in his other numerous manuscripts. These manuscripts, held mostly at the Linnean Society of London, are peppered with sketches, maps, tables, and diagrams. Reassessing these manuscripts, along with the printed works that also contain illustrations of plant species, shows that Linnaeus's thinking was profoundly visual and that he routinely used visual representational devices in his various publications. This paper aims to explore the full range of visual representations Linnaeus used through his working life, and to reevaluate the epistemological value of visualization in the making of natural knowledge. By analyzing Linnaeus's use of drawings, maps, tables, and diagrams, I will show that he did not, as has been asserted, reduce the discipline of botany to text, and that his visual thinking played a fundamental role in his construction of new systems of classification

Lists as Research Technologies

The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) is famous for having turned botany into a systematic discipline, through his classification systems--most notably the sexual system--and his nomenclature. Throughout his life, Linnaeus experimented with various paper technologies designed to display information synoptically. The list took pride of place among these and is also the common element of more complex representations he produced, such as genera descriptions and his "natural system." Taking clues from the anthropology of writing, this essay seeks to demonstrate that lists can be considered as genuine research technologies. They possess a potential to generate research problems of their own but also pose limitations to inquiries that can be overcome only by the use of new media.Wellcome Trus

The outsider advantage: Interviewing planners and other elites in the Polish-German borderland

As conducting interviews with elites is increasingly common, an important debate has emerged around the researcher’s positionality as an insider/outsider also in a geographic sense. Three standpoints can be distinguished. Initially, some emphasised the advantages of the insider in eliciting interesting and sometimes even sensitive information from informants. More recently, several scholars suggested that this position is never stable. Our experiences are however more in line with those who demonstrat ed the advantages of being an outsider. Coming from outside the study area may be particularly helpful when interviewing elites on sensitive issues such as contacts in a borderland with a troubled history, like between Poland and Germany. Our 38 interviews reveal three patterns. First, blaming the other side is not unusual on both sides of the border. Second, de-emphasising the importance of cooper ation is more common on the Polish side, but also occurred on the German side. Finally, a discourse of re-establishing the historically coherent region is clearly present on the German side, but lacks almost entirely on the Polish side. It is doubtful whether we would have been able to elicit such attitudes from both studied groups had we belonged to either one of them

New insights into ion regulation of cephalopod molluscs: a role of epidermal ionocytes in acid-base regulation during embryogenesis

The constraints of an active life in a pelagic habitat led to numerous convergent morphological and physiological adaptations that enable cephalopod molluscs and teleost fishes to compete for similar resources. Here we show for the first time that such convergent developments are also found in the ontogenetic progression of ion regulatory tissues: as in teleost fish epidermal ionocytes scattered on skin and yolk sac of cephalopod embryos appear to be responsible for ionic and acid-base regulation before gill epithelia become functional. Ion and acid-base regulation is crucial in cephalopod embryos, as they are surrounded by a hypercapnic egg fluid with a pCO2 of 0.2-0.4 kPa. Epidermal ionocytes were characterized via immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization and vital dye staining techniques. We found one group of cells that is recognized by Concavalin A and MitoTracker, which also expresses Na+/H+ exchangers (NHE) and Na+/K+-ATPase. Similar to findings obtained in teleosts these NHE3-rich cells take up sodium in exchange for protons, illustrating the energetic superiority of NHE based proton excretion in marine systems. In vivo electrophysiological techniques demonstrated that acid equivalents are secreted by the yolk and skin integument. Intriguingly, epidermal ionocytes of cephalopod embryos are ciliated as demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy suggesting a dual function of epithelial cells in water convection and ion regulation. These findings add significant knowledge to our mechanistic understanding of hypercapnia tolerance in marine organisms, as it demonstrates that marine taxa which were identified as powerful acid-base regulators during hypercapnic challenges already exhibit strong acid-base regulatory abilities during embryogenesis

Systèmes de production aquatique : fiche de synthèse 14

L'exploitation des ressources vivantes aquatiques et la consommation des produits ont connu un développement spectaculaire pendant ces cinquante dernières années. Les niveaux d'exploitation des ressources marines sont globalement et mondialement situés à leur maximum depuis une vingtaine d'années. À ce jour, une partie importante de ces stocks sont surexploités et la possible multiplication de cas de gestion inefficiente des pêches risquerait d'amplifier ce constat. Depuis une dizaine d'années, les politiques d'exploitation des ressources se sont durcies et on observe des résultats positifs, en particulier pour la régulation de l'effort de pêche. Lorsque l'on évalue l'impact des systèmes de captures et de production intensifs sur les écosystèmes, les constats de déséquilibres et de perturbations sont multiples. L'objectif d'exploitation ou de production durable est hypothéqué par la caractéristique naturelle de ces écosystèmes exploités ou cultivés qui conduit à un bas niveau de contrôle par les décisions de gestion, ainsi que par le caractère irréversible de certains phénomènes. Les voies vers le développement soutenable des systèmes de production aquatique passent par la meilleure connaissance du fonctionnement de ces systèmes à diverses échelles d'observation (du micro au macro) et aux différents niveaux d'intégration (du gène à l'écosystème), par la prise en compte des effets des changement globaux d'origine naturelle (par ex. augmentation de la température et de la salinité, du rayonnement UV) et anthropique, par la mise en oeuvre de mesures et d'outils de gestion, la maîtrise du développement sectoriel dans ses dimensions technologique, économique et social. La région Languedoc-Roussillon bénéficie, au large de ses 200 km de côtes, du vaste plateau continental du Golfe du Lion (15 000 km², propice aux activités de pêche mais au potentiel halieutique limité. (Résumé d'auteur

Quantitative Genetics of the Aging of Reproductive Traits in the Houbara Bustard

International audienceDo all traits within an organism age for the same reason? Evolutionary theories of aging share a common assumption: the strength of natural selection declines with age. A corollary is that additive genetic variance should increase with age. However, not all senescent traits display such increases suggesting that other mechanisms may be at play. Using longitudinal data collected from more than 5400 houbara bustards (Chlamydotis undulata) with an exhaustive recorded pedigree, we investigated the genetics of aging in one female reproductive trait (egg production) and three male reproductive traits (courtship display rate, ejaculate size and sperm viability), that display senescence at the phenotypic level. Animal models revealed an increase in additive genetic variance with age for courtship display rate and egg production but an unexpected absence of increased additive genetic variance for ejaculate size and no additive genetic variance for sperm viability. Our results suggest that the mechanisms behind the senescence of some traits are linked with a change in genetic expression, whereas for some other traits, aging may result from the constraints associated with physiological wear and tear on the organism throughout the life of the individual

Monasticism in seventh-century Northumbria and Neustria: a comparative study of the monasteries of Chelles, Jouarre, Monk Wearmouth/Jarrow and Whitby

This thesis studies a part of the monastic history of the kingdoms of Anglo- Saxon Northumbria and Merovingian Neustria. It is a comparative analysis of monasteries in the seventh century in these two kingdoms, focusing on four particularly famous houses, for which textual and archaeological sources are abundant. These four monasteries are those of Chelles and Jouarre in Neustria, and Whitby and Wearmouth/Jarrow in Northumbria. The aim is to detennine the different influences which affected them, by analysing every possible aspect of monasticism. The influence of Rome and Ireland is evident on these monasteries. The main difference lies in the fact that Irish influence came to Neustria through the missionary Columbanus in 590, 40 years before it reached Northumbria with Aidan in 635. A close study of the various aspects of monasticism for these four houses leads to the following conclusions. In several aspects, Neustrian and Northumbrian monasteries have the same characteristics, some of which come from a similar and simultaneous influence. Thus, the emergence of the Rule of St Benedict in the four monasteries occurred at approximately the same time. Similariy, and for what is related to the cultural life, monasteries on both sides depended largely on Rome. However, on other points, it is clear that the Northumbrian monasteries were directly influenced by the Neustrian Columbanian houses. We find that the institution of double houses, such as Chelles, Jouarre and Whitby, came from Prankish Gaul. As for the layout the organisation, including both communal buildings and cells is the same. Finally, new privileges were issued by the Columbanian monasteries in the seventh century, which were imitated later on in Northumbrian monasteries, such as Wearmouth/Jarrow. It is possible to say that these similarities and influences from Neustria to Northumbria, which have often been underestimated, were due to the intense personal relationships between churchmen and monastic founders in both kingdoms

Assessing Multivariate Constraints to Evolution across Ten Long-Term Avian Studies

Background In a rapidly changing world, it is of fundamental importance to understand processes constraining or facilitating adaptation through microevolution. As different traits of an organism covary, genetic correlations are expected to affect evolutionary trajectories. However, only limited empirical data are available. Methodology/Principal Findings We investigate the extent to which multivariate constraints affect the rate of adaptation, focusing on four morphological traits often shown to harbour large amounts of genetic variance and considered to be subject to limited evolutionary constraints. Our data set includes unique long-term data for seven bird species and a total of 10 populations. We estimate population-specific matrices of genetic correlations and multivariate selection coefficients to predict evolutionary responses to selection. Using Bayesian methods that facilitate the propagation of errors in estimates, we compare (1) the rate of adaptation based on predicted response to selection when including genetic correlations with predictions from models where these genetic correlations were set to zero and (2) the multivariate evolvability in the direction of current selection to the average evolvability in random directions of the phenotypic space. We show that genetic correlations on average decrease the predicted rate of adaptation by 28%. Multivariate evolvability in the direction of current selection was systematically lower than average evolvability in random directions of space. These significant reductions in the rate of adaptation and reduced evolvability were due to a general nonalignment of selection and genetic variance, notably orthogonality of directional selection with the size axis along which most (60%) of the genetic variance is found. Conclusions These results suggest that genetic correlations can impose significant constraints on the evolution of avian morphology in wild populations. This could have important impacts on evolutionary dynamics and hence population persistence in the face of rapid environmental change

Life span and reproductive cost explain interspecific variation in the optimal onset of reproduction.

Fitness can be profoundly influenced by the age at first reproduction (AFR), but to date the AFR-fitness relationship only has been investigated intraspecifically. Here, we investigated the relationship between AFR and average lifetime reproductive success (LRS) across 34 bird species. We assessed differences in the deviation of the Optimal AFR (i.e., the species-specific AFR associated with the highest LRS) from the age at sexual maturity, considering potential effects of life history as well as social and ecological factors. Most individuals adopted the species-specific Optimal AFR and both the mean and Optimal AFR of species correlated positively with life span. Interspecific deviations of the Optimal AFR were associated with indices reflecting a change in LRS or survival as a function of AFR: a delayed AFR was beneficial in species where early AFR was associated with a decrease in subsequent survival or reproductive output. Overall, our results suggest that a delayed onset of reproduction beyond maturity is an optimal strategy explained by a long life span and costs of early reproduction. By providing the first empirical confirmations of key predictions of life-history theory across species, this study contributes to a better understanding of life-history evolution

Divergence in evolutionary potential of life-history traits among wild populations is predicted by differences in climatic conditions

Short-term adaptive evolution represents one of the primary mechanisms allowing species to persist in the face of global change. Predicting the adaptive response at the species level requires reliable estimates of the evolutionary potential of traits involved in adaptive responses, as well as understanding how evolutionary potential varies across a species’ range. Theory suggests that spatial variation in the fitness landscape due to environmental variation will directly impact the evolutionary potential of traits. However, empirical evidence on the link between environmental variation and evolutionary potential across a species range in the wild is lacking. In this study, we estimate multivariate evolutionary potential (via the genetic variance–covariance matrix, or G-matrix) for six morphological and life history traits in 10 wild populations of great tits (Parus major) distributed across Europe. The G-matrix significantly varies in size, shape, and orientation across populations for both types of traits. For life history traits, the differences in G-matrix are larger when populations are more distant in their climatic niche. This suggests that local climates contribute to shaping the evolutionary potential of phenotypic traits that are strongly related to fitness. However, we found no difference in the overall evolutionary potential (i.e., G-matrix size) between populations closer to the core or the edge of the distribution area. This large-scale comparison of G-matrices across wild populations emphasizes that integrating variation in multivariate evolutionary potential is important to understand and predict species’ adaptive responses to new selective pressures