Understanding the assembly of plant-pollinator communities has become critical to their conservation given the rise of species invasions, extirpations, and species' range shifts. Over the course of assembly, colonizer establishment produces core interaction patterns, called motifs, which shape the trajectory of assembling network structure. Dynamic assembly models can advance our understanding of this process by linking the transient dynamics of colonizer establishment to long-term network development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBioenergetic approaches have been greatly influential for understanding community functioning and stability and predicting effects of environmental changes on biodiversity. These approaches use allometric relationships to establish species' trophic interactions and consumption rates and have been successfully applied to aquatic ecosystems. Terrestrial ecosystems, where body mass is less predictive of plant-consumer interactions, present inherent challenges that these models have yet to meet.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPork hot carcass weights (HCW) have been increasing 0.6 kg per year, and if they continue to increase at this rate, they are projected to reach an average weight of 118 kg by the year 2050. This projection in weight is a concern for pork packers and processors given the challenges in product quality from heavier carcasses of broiler chickens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransmission of biological hazards capable of causing disease in livestock can occur through a wide variety of direct and indirect routes. In swine production, there are a large number of possible routes of exposure of a pathogen into a susceptible population. African swine fever virus (ASFV) has been a significant challenge for Southeast Asia since first detected in China in 2018 and has spread through many countries within the region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis experiment was conducted to evaluate potential replacements for pharmacological levels of Zn (provided by Zn oxide), such as diet acidification (sodium diformate) and low dietary crude protein (CP: 21 vs 18%) on nursery pig performance and fecal dry matter (DM). A total of 360 weaned pigs (Line 200 × 400, DNA, Columbus, NE; initially 5.90 ± 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF