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This is your first step into the world of company management! In light of the fact that we are currently standing on the brink of a dynamic and ever-changing corporate landscape, it has never been more important to have a complete understanding of management principles. The purpose of this book, which is titled "Principles of Business Management," is to act as a waypoint for you to navigate the complexities that are inherent in the business world. Whether you are an experienced executive, an aspiring entrepreneur, or a student delving into the realms of management studies, the purpose of this book is to present a comprehensive and up-to-date view on the fundamental principles that govern effective business operations. This book is in the quest of perfection. The journey through the pages of this book is intended to be one that is not just educational but also useful with application. The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive framework that combines theory and application by delving into fundamental ideas such as strategic planning, organisational behaviour, leadership, marketing, and finance, among other topics. The purpose of the case studies, examples, and real-world scenarios that are interspersed throughout these chapters is to demonstrate the relevance and applicability of these principles in a variety of business settings. Our objective is not just to disseminate information but also to cultivate analytical thinking and the ability to find solutions to problems. As a result of the quickly shifting nature of the business environment, agility and adaptability are extremely important. The purpose of this book is to provide you with the tools you need to successfully traverse the obstacles and capture the possibilities that are still to come. As part of the process of putting together this extensive resource, we have incorporated the most recent findings from research, insights from the industry, and the aggregate knowledge of seasoned professionals

Varroa destructor, an ectoparasitic mite of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), and the viruses it vectors are the most important factors driving high rates of honey bee losses in the United States. Unfortunately, mites developed resistance to some of the pesticides, which creates a burden on beekeepers to keep their colonies healthy. Despite this threat to honey bees, we still know little regarding some of V. destructor’s basic biology. In Chapter 1, I describe the method of a novel system to measure the width and length of the ventral side of V. destructor, which allowed me to assess the size variability of V. destructor in the United States. This chapter is an observational epidemiology study on mite size and its association with year, the time of year, mite density in host apiaries, the virus load of the host apiary, and pesticide exposure in host apiaries. I also conducted a series of experiments to determine whether the mite size findings were biological or due to an experimental artifact. I’ve found a seasonal variation in mite size that is possibly driven by external pressures, arguably acaricide exposure or the diet received by feeding on different developmental hosts. Chapter 2 of my dissertation is the continuum of Chapter 1. I tested the size of mites as a confounding factor in their tolerance to amitraz of mites collected from a field trial and a toxicological bioassay. The field trial and the toxicological assay result suggest that amitraz sufficiently kills smaller mites. Lastly, Chapter 3 investigates how tolerance to acaracide exposure, through feeding on different developmental hosts, affects mites' survival to pesticide exposure or stress. To achieve this, I placed mites to feed on adult or pupal honey bee hosts before exposing the mites to various pesticides. I found that the mites placed on pupa had the highest survival rate 20 hours after a 4-hour exposure to pesticides in toxicological bioassays. Then measured the activities, and two key d

Climate change is shifting the distribution of species, and may have a profound impact on the ecology and evolution of species interactions. However, we know little about the impact of increasing temperature and changing rainfall patterns on the interactions between plants and their beneficial and antagonistic root symbionts. Here, we used a reciprocal multifactorial growth chamber experiment with seeds and soil microbial communities from three origins to investigate the impact of temperature and soil moisture on the growth, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization and root‐associated fungal community of a perennial herb. Moreover, we tested whether plants and AM fungi performed better or worse when plants were grown with their local soil biota, for example, due to plant adaptation or changes in the genetic or species composition of the soil microbial community. Temperature and soil moisture generally increased plant growth, whereas temperature but not soil moisture increased AM fungal colonization. The strength and direction of the plants' response to temperature were dependent on soil moisture and differed among plant populations, and AM fungal colonization was further affected by the origin of the soil microbial community. The root‐associated fungal community structure was impacted by temperature, soil moisture and the soil microbial origin, with interactive effects between the microbial origin and the abiotic environment. Plant biomass was lower when plants were grown with their local soil microbes, potentially due to intraspecific negative plant–soil feedbacks. Synthesis. Our findings indicate that, beyond a relatively uniform increase of plant growth and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization with increasing temperature, plants and root‐associated fungi of different origins will vary in their response to climate change (i.e. elevated temperature and shifts in rainfall). This may create pronounced, but difficult to predict, spatial and temporal

Climate change is shifting the distribution of species, and may have a profound impact on the ecology and evolution of species interactions. However, we know little about the impact of increasing temperature and changing rainfall patterns on the interactions between plants and their beneficial and antagonistic root symbionts. Here, we used a reciprocal multifactorial growth chamber experiment with seeds and soil microbial communities from three origins to investigate the impact of temperature and soil moisture on the growth, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization and root‐associated fungal community of a perennial herb. Moreover, we tested whether plants and AM fungi performed better or worse when plants were grown with their local soil biota, for example, due to plant adaptation or changes in the genetic or species composition of the soil microbial community. Temperature and soil moisture generally increased plant growth, whereas temperature but not soil moisture increased AM fungal colonization. The strength and direction of the plants' response to temperature were dependent on soil moisture and differed among plant populations, and AM fungal colonization was further affected by the origin of the soil microbial community. The root‐associated fungal community structure was impacted by temperature, soil moisture and the soil microbial origin, with interactive effects between the microbial origin and the abiotic environment. Plant biomass was lower when plants were grown with their local soil microbes, potentially due to intraspecific negative plant–soil feedbacks. Synthesis. Our findings indicate that, beyond a relatively uniform increase of plant growth and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization with increasing temperature, plants and root‐associated fungi of different origins will vary in their response to climate change (i.e. elevated temperature and shifts in rainfall). This may create pronounced, but difficult to predict, spatial and temporal

Climate change is shifting the distribution of species, and may have a profound impact on the ecology and evolution of species interactions. However, we know little about the impact of increasing temperature and changing rainfall patterns on the interactions between plants and their beneficial and antagonistic root symbionts. Here, we used a reciprocal multifactorial growth chamber experiment with seeds and soil microbial communities from three origins to investigate the impact of temperature and soil moisture on the growth, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization and root‐associated fungal community of a perennial herb. Moreover, we tested whether plants and AM fungi performed better or worse when plants were grown with their local soil biota, for example, due to plant adaptation or changes in the genetic or species composition of the soil microbial community. Temperature and soil moisture generally increased plant growth, whereas temperature but not soil moisture increased AM fungal colonization. The strength and direction of the plants' response to temperature were dependent on soil moisture and differed among plant populations, and AM fungal colonization was further affected by the origin of the soil microbial community. The root‐associated fungal community structure was impacted by temperature, soil moisture and the soil microbial origin, with interactive effects between the microbial origin and the abiotic environment. Plant biomass was lower when plants were grown with their local soil microbes, potentially due to intraspecific negative plant–soil feedbacks. Synthesis. Our findings indicate that, beyond a relatively uniform increase of plant growth and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization with increasing temperature, plants and root‐associated fungi of different origins will vary in their response to climate change (i.e. elevated temperature and shifts in rainfall). This may create pronounced, but difficult to predict, spatial and temporal

Movement increases the probability for an individual to find food resources, but also increase the metabolic costs and exposure to predators. Hence, swimming behavior of fish is strongly coupled to fitness. Even though swimming activity has been studied in numerous laboratory settings, less is known about in situ activity and its dependence on abiotic factors (temperature, light conditions and barometric pressure). In this study I hypothesized that the activity increases with 1) increasing temperature and decrease with 2) barometric pressure variability and 3) average light conditions (h/day). In order to test the universality of the three hypotheses I also searched for size dependent effects. Fish activity (km/day) was measured in three lakes on individual fish (N=14-21 per lake) using acoustic telemetry providing tracking of fish at a time resolution from seconds to hours. A positive correlation between temperature and swimming activity in line with my first hypothesis was only observed in one of the lakes. The activity decreased with increased variability in barometric pressure in two of the lakes, a finding supporting my second hypothesis. Meanwhile increased light conditions (h/day) decreased activity in one of the lakes, as predicted by my third hypothesis. Nevertheless, none of my hypotheses were valid in all three of the lakes and perch reacted differently to the abiotic factors. One of the possible explanations for this is the importance of size differences as I noticed that the swimming activity differed between bigger and smaller individuals. My findings suggest that not only the temperature, barometric pressure and light conditions alone predict the activity in perch, but also the fish individual size, predation and the metabolic costs linked to thermoregulation.

Climate change is shifting the distribution of species, and may have a profound impact on the ecology and evolution of species interactions. However, we know little about the impact of increasing temperature and changing rainfall patterns on the interactions between plants and their beneficial and antagonistic root symbionts. Here, we used a reciprocal multifactorial growth chamber experiment with seeds and soil microbial communities from three origins to investigate the impact of temperature and soil moisture on the growth, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization and root‐associated fungal community of a perennial herb. Moreover, we tested whether plants and AM fungi performed better or worse when plants were grown with their local soil biota, for example, due to plant adaptation or changes in the genetic or species composition of the soil microbial community. Temperature and soil moisture generally increased plant growth, whereas temperature but not soil moisture increased AM fungal colonization. The strength and direction of the plants' response to temperature were dependent on soil moisture and differed among plant populations, and AM fungal colonization was further affected by the origin of the soil microbial community. The root‐associated fungal community structure was impacted by temperature, soil moisture and the soil microbial origin, with interactive effects between the microbial origin and the abiotic environment. Plant biomass was lower when plants were grown with their local soil microbes, potentially due to intraspecific negative plant–soil feedbacks. Synthesis. Our findings indicate that, beyond a relatively uniform increase of plant growth and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization with increasing temperature, plants and root‐associated fungi of different origins will vary in their response to climate change (i.e. elevated temperature and shifts in rainfall). This may create pronounced, but difficult to predict, spatial and temporal

Climate change is shifting the distribution of species, and may have a profound impact on the ecology and evolution of species interactions. However, we know little about the impact of increasing temperature and changing rainfall patterns on the interactions between plants and their beneficial and antagonistic root symbionts. Here, we used a reciprocal multifactorial growth chamber experiment with seeds and soil microbial communities from three origins to investigate the impact of temperature and soil moisture on the growth, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization and root‐associated fungal community of a perennial herb. Moreover, we tested whether plants and AM fungi performed better or worse when plants were grown with their local soil biota, for example, due to plant adaptation or changes in the genetic or species composition of the soil microbial community. Temperature and soil moisture generally increased plant growth, whereas temperature but not soil moisture increased AM fungal colonization. The strength and direction of the plants' response to temperature were dependent on soil moisture and differed among plant populations, and AM fungal colonization was further affected by the origin of the soil microbial community. The root‐associated fungal community structure was impacted by temperature, soil moisture and the soil microbial origin, with interactive effects between the microbial origin and the abiotic environment. Plant biomass was lower when plants were grown with their local soil microbes, potentially due to intraspecific negative plant–soil feedbacks. Synthesis. Our findings indicate that, beyond a relatively uniform increase of plant growth and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization with increasing temperature, plants and root‐associated fungi of different origins will vary in their response to climate change (i.e. elevated temperature and shifts in rainfall). This may create pronounced, but difficult to predict, spatial and temporal

Climate change is shifting the distribution of species, and may have a profound impact on the ecology and evolution of species interactions. However, we know little about the impact of increasing temperature and changing rainfall patterns on the interactions between plants and their beneficial and antagonistic root symbionts. Here, we used a reciprocal multifactorial growth chamber experiment with seeds and soil microbial communities from three origins to investigate the impact of temperature and soil moisture on the growth, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization and root‐associated fungal community of a perennial herb. Moreover, we tested whether plants and AM fungi performed better or worse when plants were grown with their local soil biota, for example, due to plant adaptation or changes in the genetic or species composition of the soil microbial community. Temperature and soil moisture generally increased plant growth, whereas temperature but not soil moisture increased AM fungal colonization. The strength and direction of the plants' response to temperature were dependent on soil moisture and differed among plant populations, and AM fungal colonization was further affected by the origin of the soil microbial community. The root‐associated fungal community structure was impacted by temperature, soil moisture and the soil microbial origin, with interactive effects between the microbial origin and the abiotic environment. Plant biomass was lower when plants were grown with their local soil microbes, potentially due to intraspecific negative plant–soil feedbacks. Synthesis. Our findings indicate that, beyond a relatively uniform increase of plant growth and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization with increasing temperature, plants and root‐associated fungi of different origins will vary in their response to climate change (i.e. elevated temperature and shifts in rainfall). This may create pronounced, but difficult to predict, spatial and temporal

It is widely understood that agricultural production is based on the exploitation of natural, primarily biological, chemical and physical resources. Thus, the soil (lithosphere) represents the physical source, i.e. the foundation for cultivation of cereals, field crops, fruit-and vine growing. Furthermore, it represents the chemical source supplying the crops with an adequate amount of both major and trace elements and other nutrients. Indirectly, it is also a source of the nutrients required in livestock production. The definition of an ecosystem and agriculture as its constituent part offers a better understanding of the importance of energy investments, consumption and production of energy in agriculture. The abiotic or non-living component part is made up of chemical and physical factors of the environment of the biotic component part (namely, climate, water, air and soil). Water presents the abiotic component part of a pond, whereas air, soil and sunlight present the abiotic factors in either a garden, a wheat-growing field or on a pasture. Producers, consumers and decomposers present the three biotic component parts of each ecosystem. In the case of energy flow through the ecosystem, the implementation of the First and the Second Law of Thermodynamics showed that more than 90% of the total energy captured by the producers, disappeared from the food chain each time it was converted and moved from one to another trophic level. The greatest amounts of energy in an ecosystem or food chain were found to be stored in the primary producers and had a declining trend with each trophic level that followed.

Orchidaceae is one of the largest families of vascular plants, distributed in almost all terrestrial ecosystems. Their roots are associated with fungi, which are necessary for completing their life cycle. Orchids-fungi associations are thus considered unique model systems for studying biotic interactions and co-evolutionary dynamics. The root-associated fungi (RAF) most often reported with orchids belong to Basidiomycota and Ascomycota phylum. They are believed to influence orchid spatial distribution and population dynamics. Interaction studies between orchids and fungi have mainly been focused on taxonomic identification of the endophytic RAF, while the environmental (abiotic and biotic) factors affecting these interactions were less considered. There is thus a need for studies focusing on the impact of ecosystem changes on RAF communities and species dynamics. With the recent development of high-throughput sequencing technologies (e.g. the next generation sequencing (NGS)), more in-deep ecological insights are possible. In the present thesis, we used molecular approaches (i.e. Illumina MiSeq technology) and field experiments to acquire new knowledge on the dynamics of orchids and fungi in tropical ecosystems. We aimed to evaluate the (1) diversity of endophytic RAF (mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal fungi) of epiphytic orchids and (2) abiotic and biotic factors affecting the orchid-fungi interaction. The study was conducted in two areas of montane rainforest in Southern Ecuador (Podocarpus National Park and Cajas National Park). Our results demonstrated that epiphytic orchids in the Podocarpus National Park had different endophytic RAF community compositions that depend on abiotic and biotic factors such as host phylogeny, site, altitudinal levels and temporal variation. Contrastingly, endophytic RAF of orchids at Cajas National Park seemed to harbor more homogenous communities. The endophytic RAF identified included mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal fungi that were, (AGRO - Sciences agronomiques et ingénierie biologique) -- UCL, 2018

It is widely understood that agricultural production is based on the exploitation of natural, primarily biological, chemical and physical resources. Thus, the soil (lithosphere) represents the physical source, i.e. the foundation for cultivation of cereals, field crops, fruit-and vine growing. Furthermore, it represents the chemical source supplying the crops with an adequate amount of both major and trace elements and other nutrients. Indirectly, it is also a source of the nutrients required in livestock production. The definition of an ecosystem and agriculture as its constituent part offers a better understanding of the importance of energy investments, consumption and production of energy in agriculture. The abiotic or non-living component part is made up of chemical and physical factors of the environment of the biotic component part (namely, climate, water, air and soil). Water presents the abiotic component part of a pond, whereas air, soil and sunlight present the abiotic factors in either a garden, a wheat-growing field or on a pasture. Producers, consumers and decomposers present the three biotic component parts of each ecosystem. In the case of energy flow through the ecosystem, the implementation of the First and the Second Law of Thermodynamics showed that more than 90% of the total energy captured by the producers, disappeared from the food chain each time it was converted and moved from one to another trophic level. The greatest amounts of energy in an ecosystem or food chain were found to be stored in the primary producers and had a declining trend with each trophic level that followed.

Modeling species' habitat requirements are crucial to assess impacts of global change, for conservation efforts and to test mechanisms driving species presence. While the influence of abiotic factors has been widely examined, the importance of biotic factors and biotic interactions, and the potential implications of local processes are not well understood. Testing their importance requires additional knowledge and analyses at local habitat scale. Here, we recorded the locations of species presence at the microhabitat scale and measured abiotic and biotic parameters in three different common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) populations using a standardized sampling protocol. Thereafter, space use models and cross-evaluations among populations were run to infer local processes and estimate the importance of biotic parameters, biotic interactions, sex, and age. Biotic parameters explained more variation than abiotic parameters, and intraspecific interactions significantly predicted the spatial distribution. Significant differences among populations in the relationship between abiotic parameters and lizard distribution, and the greater model transferability within populations than between populations are in line with effects predicted by local adaptation and/or phenotypic plasticity. These results underline the importance of including biotic parameters and biotic interactions in space use models at the population level. There were significant differences in space use between sexes, and between adults and yearlings, the latter showing no association with the measured parameters. Consequently, predictive habitat models at the population level taking into account different sexes and age classes are required to understand a specie's ecological requirements and to allow for precise conservation strategies. Our study therefore stresses that future predictive habitat models at the population level and their transferability should take these parameters into account.