In the fusion-evaporation reaction Ca-40+Mg-24 at 104 MeV beam energy, excited states have been observed for the first time in the isotope Ga-31(61)30. The experimental setup comprised the Ge array CLARION, a recoil mass spectrometer and, in its focal plane, an ionization chamber. Five transitions in Ga-61 are identified, out of which a cascade of three transitions has been established by means of recoil-gammagamma coincidences. The strong transitions at 271 keV in Ga-61 and 124 keV in Zn-61 are viewed as the "mirror" 5/2(-)-->3/2(-) ground-state transitions. The rather large energy difference of 150 keV is suggested to arise from Coulomb monopole contributions. Shell-model calculations support this interpretation

The fresh-water cyanobacterium Microcystis is known to form blooms world-wide, and is often responsible for the production of microcystins found in lake water. Microcystins are non-ribosomal peptides with toxic effects, e.g. on vertebrates, but their function remains largely unresolved. Moreover, not all strains produce microcystins, and many different microcystin variants have been described. Here we explored the diversity of microcystin variants within Microcystis botrys, a common bloom-former in Sweden. We isolated a total of 130 strains through the duration of a bloom in eutrophic Lake Vomb, and analyzed their microcystin profiles with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). We found that microcystin producing (28.5%) and non-producing (71.5%) M. botrys strains, co-existed throughout the bloom. However, microcystin producing strains were more prevalent towards the end of the sampling period. Overall, 26 unique M. botrys chemotypes were identified, and while some chemotypes re-occurred, others were found only once. The M. botrys chemotypes showed considerable variation both in terms of number of microcystin variants, as well as in what combinations the variants occurred. To our knowledge, this is the first report on microcystin chemotype variation and dynamics in M. botrys. In addition, our study verifies the co-existence of microcystin and non-microcystin producing strains, and we propose that environmental conditions may be implicated in determining their composition.

Predation risk is often invoked to explain variation in stress responses. Yet, the answers to several key questions remain elusive, including the following: (1) how predation risk influences the evolution of stress phenotypes, (2) the relative importance of environmental versus genetic factors in stress reactivity and (3) sexual dimorphism in stress physiology. To address these questions, we explored variation in stress reactivity (ventilation frequency) in a post‐Pleistocene radiation of live‐bearing fish, where Bahamas mosquitofish (Gambusia hubbsi) inhabit isolated blue holes that differ in predation risk. Individuals of populations coexisting with predators exhibited similar, relatively low stress reactivity as compared to low‐predation populations. We suggest that this dampened stress reactivity has evolved to reduce energy expenditure in environments with frequent and intense stressors, such as piscivorous fish. Importantly, the magnitude of stress responses exhibited by fish from high‐predation sites in the wild changed very little after two generations of laboratory rearing in the absence of predators. By comparison, low‐predation populations exhibited greater among‐population variation and larger changes subsequent to laboratory rearing. These low‐predation populations appear to have evolved more dampened stress responses in blue holes with lower food availability. Moreover, females showed a lower ventilation frequency, and this sexual dimorphism was stronger in high‐predation populations. This may reflect a greater premium placed on energy efficiency in live‐bearing females, especially under high‐predation risk where females show higher fecundities. Altogether, by demonstrating parallel adaptive divergence in stress reactivity, we highlight how energetic trade‐offs may mould the evolution of the vertebrate stress response under varying predation risk and resource availability.

The ruling paradigm is that future climate change scenarios will lead to an increase in the frequency, intensity, and duration of cyanobacterial blooms across the globe. It was therefore unexpected when, during an unusually warm and dry summer in southern Sweden in 2018, cyanobacteria did not dominate the phytoplankton community of the temperate Lake Vombsjön known for toxic cyanobacterial blooms. Instead, a potentially toxic dinoflagellate, Naiadinium polonicum, formed a large bloom and was dominant for the entire season. Dinoflagellates share important functional traits with cyanobacteria, but few studies have considered competition between dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria under future climate change scenarios. In order to understand the underlying factors leading to the N. polonicum bloom in 2018, we designed a study of Lake Vombsjön for an additional two years. When compared with subsequent years, 2018 was defined by an extended period of thermal stratification and hypoxia near the sediment surface. A significant positive relationship was also identified between N. polonicum biomass and both surface water temperature and soluble reactive phosphorus. We therefore suggest that the combination of higher temperatures and higher water column stability benefitted N. polonicum more so than cyanobacteria. Given that these factors are generally associated with cyanobacterial success, we conclude that freshwater phytoplankton community composition in temperate lakes can take different pathways in a warmer world.

The experimental knowledge of the Cu-61(29)32 and Zn-61(30)31 nuclei has been largely extended via the joint results from three experiments. The fusion-evaporation reaction used a Ar-36 beam and a Si-28 target foil to produce the two nuclei via the evaporation of either three protons (Cu-61) or two protons and a neutron (Zn-61). The experimental set-ups comprised the Ge-array GAMMASPHERE as well as neutron and charged-particle detectors placed around the target position. The resulting level schemes include around ten rotational superdeformed structures in each isotope. Most of them are linked to normally deformed states and in many cases spins and parities of the low-lying states in each structure have been determined. The collective structures are compared with results from configuration dependent Cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky calculations. The different structures are in general well understood from the calculation but the results do also suggest modifications of the standard Nilsson parameters in the mass A similar to 60 region