Johnston, who discovered the mosquito auditory organ at the base of the antennae 150 years ago, speculated that audition was involved in mating behaviour. Indeed, the Johnston's organ (JO) is now known to detect the whine of flying mosquitoes. Analysis of sound recordings of fli…
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Alcohol intake causes gene expression changes resulting in cellular and molecular adaptations that could be associated with a predisposition to alcohol dependence. Expression profiling using high-throughput microarrays has recently been used to identify changes in gene expressio…
The hemiparasite Rhinanthus minor is a common component of many northern temperate grasslands. It can have major impacts on ecosystem processes, and is often present at very high densities, therefore constituting an important potential food source for invertebrate herbivores. Th…
The molecular mechanisms that control growth appear to be conserved across the animal kingdom, with nitric oxide regulation of cell proliferation and growth being found to be very significant. Indeed, in Drosophila larval development and mammalian systems NO has been shown to be…
Dioxins are extremely widespread, toxic and persistent pollutants, as well as a major concern for human health. The Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr) is the key component in the metabolic response to dioxins. Ahr is a cytoplasmic bHLH-PAS transcription factor that, upon binding wi…
This thesis investigates the incorporation of target phase into sonar signal processing, for enhanced information in the context of acoustical oceanography. A sonar system phase calibration method, which includes both the amplitude and phase response is proposed. The technique i…
The European eel is a mysterious animal and has a life cycle which has fascinated biologists for centuries. However many basic aspects of its life cycle and migrations remain unknown. European eels play a pivotal role in a balanced ecosystem both as a predator and prey species t…
As the global population urbanises, the benefits derived from contact with nature increasingly depend upon the presence of diverse urban ecological communities. These may be threatened by changes in land-cover and the intensification of land-use. A key question is how to design …
Sperm competition, when sperm from more than one male compete to fertilise the same ova, has driven a diversity of adaptations. Increasingly, molecular techniques have been used to study the effect of post-copulatory sexual selection, including sperm competition, on proteins tha…
This thesis describes the original and significant development of a hierarchical statistical framework in order to realign fine-scale spatial covariate data. An example of the utilisation of this framework is given within the context of biodiversity modelling. Biodiversity is of…
Diseases caused by parasites are responsible for immense human and animal suffering, declines in biodiversity, and substantial economic losses across the globe. It is therefore important to understand how parasites spread through and persist within natural populations, so that c…
Volunteers have been collecting ecological data for centuries. However, volunteercollected data are frequently challenged because they lack the precision and rigour of scientific studies. This thesis evaluates the advantages of volunteer‐collected data and the importance of such…
This thesis is concerned with mathematical modelling of the glucose-insulin homeostatic system, with the specific aim of mathematically modelling diabetes and diabetes-like conditions in animals. Existing models were examined and critiqued in this thesis. Additionally, structura…
Aphids remain an enormous threat to the sustainability of crops in glasshouse and field environments around the world. It is known that the aphid sex pheromone is used as a kairomone by its natural enemies, such as parasitoids. The focus of this research was how the aphid sex ph…
Unlike the rest of Britain, Scotland has no native crayfish species. There are, however, two introduced species: the white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) has inhabited Loch Croispol in Sutherland and Whitemoss Reservoir in Renfrewshire for several decades. A. pallip…
Infectious disease in aquaculture is omnipresent, but traditional treatments used against the causative agents often have broad anti-parasitic properties, are not 100 % efficacious, are toxic to humans, fish and the environment, and successful application is challenging. Hence, …
In Guinea-Bissau (GB) the Guinea baboon (Papio hamadryas papio) is threatened by hunting pressure. Along with local extinctions, these practices may be inducing long-term genetic changes and disrupting underlying social structure. In this study, the bushmeat trade in GB was eval…
This thesis tested hypotheses related to the dispersal, behaviour patterns and response to forest fragmentation of two endangered colobus monkey species living in sympatry in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea Bissau. Western black-and-white colobus (BWC: Colobus polykomos) and Tem…
Scent is thought to be the most important mode of communication for many mammalian species, including otters. Spraint surveys, used widely to monitor otter populations, describe distribution only. Discrimination between identity parameters through chemical analysis of scent mark…