This lesson aims to teach students the difference between food webs and food chains, as well as how toxins in our environment affect large predators through biomagnification.
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"Ruminants’ ability to break down human-inedible plant fibers stems from the microbes in their rumen. This process is primarily driven by microbes that can ferment plant fibers into volatile fatty acids (VFAs), followed by the rumen epithelial layer absorbing and partially metabolizing these VFAs. Recently, researchers examined how microbes and epithelial cells interact and contribute to VFA metabolism in lactating dairy cows. Metagenomic binning allowed researchers to categorize and examine the metabolic capacity of even uncultivated microbes and identify bacterial genomes with both cellulose/xylan/pectin degradation capabilities and associations with VFA biosynthesis. They then used gene expression data to construct a single-cell map of the rumen epithelial cell subtypes. Searching gene expression profiles for VFA transporters highlighted key epithelial cell subtypes. Leveraging this data highlighted interactions where microbes potentially influenced the gene expression of host epithelial cells..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"The soil microbiome is composed of a complex and diverse fungal community, from plant pathogens that reduce plant performance to mutualistic fungal taxa that provide nutrients to plants. One class of mutualists is arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), key providers of phosphorus. Although plant hosts and abiotic parameters are known to affect AMF, it remains unknown how fungivorous predators affect AMF communities. A recent study explored the connections between AMF, fungivorous protists and nematodes, and plant performance. In a 17-year field experiment comparing four manure treatments in a low-fertility red soil, researchers found that manure addition increased AMF biomass along with the density of fungivorous nematodes. More AMF was digested by nematodes in high-manure treatments, and network analysis indicated that predation stimulated AMF biomasses and modified community composition..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.