Precautionary measures and governmental regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave have drastically altered daily activities and hence water consumption patterns. Many people had to change their working routines, the organization of childcare and hygiene practices. While first evidence appears on the impacts of COVID-19 on, e.g., carbon emissions, energy demand and water treatment, even indicating an unexpected increase in water consumption during that period, no study has investigated the pandemic’s sole and in-depth implications for water supply so far. This paper investigates hourly and daily water consumption volumes of a utility in northern Germany for the first wave of the pandemic. We performed a linear mixed model to compare the 2020 daily water consumption volumes with previous years. We eliminated the effects of climate using Bayesian statistic in order to carve out and estimate the original COVID-19 effect. We also compared hourly water consumption of similar time periods and calculated the percentage difference between 2020 and the two previous years. Our results reveal about 14.3% (3 968 m3) higher residential water consumption per day with higher morning and evening demand peaks during the day. We hypothesis that the reasons for the increasing water demand may be found in changed behavioral routines with an important question for water utilities, if and which of these new dynamics may persist after COVID-19 and hence pose a challenge for long-term infrastructure planning.

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In many species, particularly in ectothermic vertebrates, not only males but also females show bright body colorations. In Alpine newts, Ichthyosaura alpestris, both sexes have colorful orange bellies. This coloration varies in redness (yellowish to dark orange) among individuals, and previous work has shown that courting males preferred females with more orange bellies. Because males in this species are likely to be limited in their mating capacity, selection would favor this preference if this coloration honestly signals female quality. In this study, we investigated whether female belly coloration can predict individual fecundity in which case males might have the chance to fertilize more eggs when they choose to mate with a more ornamented female. We found that more orange females were more fertile than less orange ones. Additionally, we saw that more ornamented females could lay their eggs faster, which means that they ceased egg laying at a similar time as less ornamented females despite the greater number of eggs. This suggests that female color can convey quality advantages in a species with no sex-role reversal much in the same way as male colors can, making female ornaments subject to sexual selection acting directly on them.

Many amphibians in temperate zones need to time their reproduction in spring carefully, as they need to find a partner, mate, and oviposit in good time to ensure that their offspring metamorphose before the terrestrial phase starts. Therefore, embracing as many mating opportunities as possible, especially early in the mating period, would be advantageous. Here we examine the temporal pattern of mating activity in Alpine Newts, Ichthyosaura alpestris. Males exhibit a highly complex courtship ritual, during which both olfactory and visual signals play a prominent role. The aim of this ritual is a close coordination between the movements of the male and the courted female, a prerequisite for successful spermatophore transfer. We observed mating activity in a large, group aquarium with a natural photoperiod. We recorded the number of mating pairs at every full hour over the course of 4 d, during light and dark conditions. We observed most courtship behavior during light conditions when males were able to guide females properly with visual cues to the spermatophore. Although greatly reduced, we also found some mating activity in dark conditions on the first experimental day; however, mating activity decreased drastically during the following dark phases. Our findings demonstrate that Alpine Newt males that have access to females over several days use mating opportunities predominantly during light conditions, when visual cues can be utilized optimally. Although olfactory cues might be important during mating, our data suggest that visual cues may confer an adaptive advantage during mate choice. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG.-Viele Amphibien in gemäßigten Klimazonen mü ssen ihre Paarungsaktivitäten im Frü hling zeitlich sorgfältig einteilen, da sie rechtzeitig einen Partner finden, sich verpaaren und Eier legen mü ssen, um sicherzustellen, dass ihre Nachkommen vor Beginn der Landphase die Metamorphose abgeschlossen haben. Aufgrund dessen wäre es vorteilhaft vor allem am Anfang der Paarungszeit so viele Paarungsmö glichkeiten wie mö glich wahrzunehmen. Hier untersuchen wir das zeitliche Muster der Paarungsaktivität von Bergmolchen, Ichthyosaura alpestris. Die Männchen zeigen ein hö chst komplexes Balzritual, bei dem sowohl olfaktorische als auch visuelle Signale eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Der Zweck dieses Rituals ist eine enge Koordination zwischen den Bewegungen des Männchens und des umworbenen Weibchens, was die Voraussetzung fü r einen erfolgreichen Spermatophorentransfer ist. Wir beobachteten die Paarungsaktivität in einem großen Gruppenaquarium, welches naturnahe Bedingungen und eine natü rliche Photoperiode aufwies. Wir dokumentierten die Anzahl der Paare zu jeder vollen Stunde ü ber vier Tage, bei hellen und dunklen Lichtbedingungen. Das meiste Balzverhalten beobachteten wir unter hellen Lichtbedingungen, währenddessen es den Männchen mö glich war, die Weibchen mit visuellen Signalen zur Spermatophore zu fü hren. Obwohl stark reduziert, beobachteten wir auch eine Paarungsaktivitä t unter dunklen Lichtbedingungen am ersten Ve...

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