Seasonal and Daily Shifts in Substrate Use by Settling Butterflies: Conserving Resources for Invertebrates has a Behavioral Dimension

Arthropod habitats comprise utilities, such as places to rest, roost, locate mates, avoid enemies and thermoregulate, as well as consumables such as food supplies. We investigate the value of incorporating behavioral observations on substrate use within the standard mapping programme of the UK Millennium Atlas for expanding knowledge on resource use in butterflies. We find large differences among species and butterfly families in substrate use, including non-vegetation surfaces and human artefacts, when settled. Substantial differences in substrate use when settled and in settling height also occur seasonally and diurnally; settling height is at a minimum during the mid part of the day, whereas throughout the season there is an increase from spring to summer followed by a levelling off in autumn. Significant seasonal and or diurnal patterns occur for eight of the 13 species for which N≥30. Distinctions in settling height are affected by thermal environment and are related to two aspects of thermoregulation behavior, basking and wing appression, the latter both having seasonal components. These findings demonstrate the wide variety of surfaces required by butterfly species as habitat components over time. They also establish the importance of determining the behavior of individuals in relation to substrate use, biotope and vegetation units during standard recording surveys in order to determine the status of individuals located in recording units such as grid squares.     

Relationships between tree component structure,topography and soils of a riverside forest,Rio Botucaraí, Southern Brazil

The relationships among floristic, structural and physiognomic variables of the tree component, flooding regime variations and soil fertility were investigated in a riparian forest fragment (ca. 43 ha) in the Rio Botucaraí watershed near the confluence with the Rio Jacuí, southern Brazil. All the trees with a dbh ≥ 15 cm were surveyed in 100 contiguous 10 × 10 m plots and soil chemical and textural variables were obtained from the analyses of 15 topsoil samples (0–20 cm depth) collected at different locations. The sample sites encompass all the topographic variation of the area. We used canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) to seek correlations between environmental variables and tree component distribution. The 1,547 surveyed individuals belonged to 30 species and 16 botanical families. The Shannon diversity index (H′) and the Pielou equability (J′) were 1.995 and 0.586 nats ind.⁻¹, respectively. Sebastiania commersoniana, Casearia sylvestris, Eugenia uniflora and Eugenia hyemalis presented the highest importance values. Species’ densities chiefly correlated with site elevation, flooding regime and soil chemical fertility. The analyses of ecological categories (EC) revealed that most species are heliophylous and typical of early successional stages. Richness and diversity (P < 0.001) variations from different topographic positions reflect that at the local scale, flooding was a limiting factor for the establishment of certain species suggesting that local processes control species richness and diversity.     

Predation Hot Spots: Large Scale Impact of Local Aggregations

Abstract   Broad scale survey distributions of fish are dominated by some extremely high catches. With a novel survey design we resolved the small-scale fish distribution in the spatio-temporal vicinity of these extreme hauls and showed that in the North Sea they generally do not occur in isolation. An additional case study where stomach contents of fish predators were analyzed revealed that they actually indicate aggregations of piscivorous fish predators on prey aggregations. We show that the predation impact can reach immense dimensions, an aggregation of more than 50 million juvenile cod (Gadus morhua) was entirely wiped out in 5 days by predatory whiting (Merlangius merlangus), aggregating on these juveniles in an area of approximately 18 km². The consumption of only 32 hot spots of similar magnitude as observed in our study adds up to the average size of an incoming North Sea cod year class. These findings support the hypothesis of predation as the major source of mortality in young-of-the-year demersal fish species and questions the generality of fish aggregation as an effective anti-predator strategy. This study highlights the system-wide structuring force of small-scale predation hot spots and further points to the importance of a more realistic implementation of local high-intensity predation events in food web models. Electronic supplementary material:   The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

内蒙古大兴安岭南麓东北马鹿种群现状调查北大核心CSCD

我国东北地区的马鹿(Cervus elaphus)在内蒙古大兴安岭南麓的生态系统中占有重要位置,栖息地环境恶化以及人类活动干扰等因素严重影响了马鹿种群的生存状态。本文于2019至2020年采用样线法和粪堆计数法对内蒙古大兴安岭南麓野生马鹿种群恢复现状开展调查,估算其种群密度及数量。结果显示,与10年前相比,黄岗梁、白音敖包、大冷山、赛罕乌拉、乌兰坝和高格斯台的马鹿种群密度均有显著增长(P<0.05),研究区域现有马鹿总数量约为(9644.2±1378.6)头,种群密度(2.5±0.9)头/km^(2)。本次调查从种群密度、数量及增长率等方面探讨了进一步促进马鹿种群恢复的措施,为改进大兴安岭南麓马鹿保护工作提供科学指导。     

应用定量微生物风险评估海水浴场人体健康风险

【背景】定量微生物风险评估作为定量评估游泳人群暴露于病原微生物后健康风险的方法,在国外已得到广泛应用,但目前国内的应用处于起步阶段且缺乏所需的游泳人群暴露数据。【目的】收集游泳人群暴露数据,并在海水浴场中进行应用,评估粪大肠菌群作为风险评估指标的可行性。【方法】通过对6个典型海水浴场的水质状况、粪大肠菌群浓度与环境因子的相关性进行分析,并发放调查问卷收集国内游泳人群的暴露数据,进而应用定量微生物风险评估方法,得出各个海水浴场的胃肠道疾病患病风险。【结果】6个海水浴场中粪大肠菌群浓度均与水温、气温及总云量具有显著相关性(P<0.01)。位于南方的海水浴场粪便污染情况较北方严重,粪大肠菌群浓度第95百分位数远高于国内“差”类水质标准的阈值。儿童、成年男性、成年女性单次沐浴事件吞下海水的体积分别为35.1 mL (95%置信区间为32.4-37.8,α=0.578,β=0.016),45.0 mL (95%置信区间为31.1-59.3,α=0.532,β=0.012),35.7 mL (95%置信区间为29.7-41.8,α=0.753,β=0.032)。6个海水浴场患胃肠道疾病的风险...     

中华虎凤蝶湖南种群栖息地特性及其生态保护策略

自2009年首次在湖南乌云界国家级自然保护区发现中华虎凤蝶种群以来,在该保护区持续开展了10余年的野外调查监测。通过对中华虎凤蝶湖南种群6个分布点的野外观测数据分析,结果表明中华虎凤蝶湖南种群栖息环境中的植被以禾本科、菊科、蔷薇科、百合科及豆科植物为主,共计有46科96属128种;不同栖息生境中种群数量差异较大,高山灌草丛为中华虎凤蝶湖南种群的主要生境,而梯田生境、乔木林生境中,其种群数量均很低,展现出与低矮芒草丛的保温遮阴特性以及寄主植物的分布密切相关。寄主植物的复壮和围栏的建设对中华虎凤蝶湖南种群的栖息环境起到了明显的保护作用、对其种群数量的增效作用显著。为深入研究中华虎凤蝶湖南种群的生物学和生态学特性提供了基础数据,为中华虎凤蝶湖南种群的保育工作开展奠定了理论基础,也为当地保护区的保护措施优化提供了科学依据。     

澳门翼手目物种多样性补充调查及其保护现状

<正>翼手目为哺乳动物中的第二大目,中国的翼手目多样性也在不断更新,Smith和解焱(2009)统计中国翼手目118种,蒋志刚等(2015)则认为中国翼手目有7科34属134种。广东省翼手目有6科24属55种(邹发生和叶冠锋,2016),此后也仍陆续有新纪录,如长指鼠耳蝠(Myotis longipes)(张琴等,2017)、卡氏伏翼(Hypsugo cadornae)(Xie et al., 2021);我们前期对澳门翼手目的调查,发现5科8属10种(黄继展等,2013)。     

Inferring trackline detection probabilities,g(0), for cetaceans from apparent densities in different survey conditions

Visual line‐transect surveys are commonly used to estimate cetacean abundance. A key parameter in such studies is g(0), the probability of detecting an animal that is directly on the transect line. This is typically considered to be constant for a species across survey conditions. A method is developed to estimate the relative values of g(0) in different survey conditions (Beaufort state) by comparing Beaufort‐specific density estimates. The approach is based on fitting generalized additive models, with the presence of a sighting on a survey segment as the dependent variable, Beaufort state as the key explanatory variable, and year, latitude, and longitude as nuisance variables to control for real differences in density over time and space. Values of relative g(0) are estimated for 20 cetacean taxa using 175,000 km of line‐transect survey data from the eastern and central Pacific Ocean from 1986 to 2010. Results show that g(0) decreases as Beaufort state increases, even for visually conspicuous species. This effect is greatest for the least conspicuous species (rough‐toothed dolphins, beaked whales, minke whales, and dwarf and pygmy sperm whales). Ignoring these large effects results in a nontrivial bias in cetacean abundance estimates.     

Yangtze finless porpoises along the main channel of Poyang Lake,China: Implications for conservation

Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China and flows into the Yangtze River. It is a traditional habitat for the endangered Yangtze finless porpoise, which has not been well investigated. To reveal the distribution of the porpoise in Poyang Lake, 12 passive acoustic surveys were conducted along 123 km of the main channel of the lake during different seasons (spring transition season, wet season, autumn transition season, and dry season) from 2008 to 2012. We counted the number of phonating porpoises encountered and calculated the detection rate (encountered individuals detected per kilometer). The median porpoise detection rates ranged from 0 to 0.65 individuals per kilometer during the different surveys. The highest median detection rate of 0.50 was detected in the autumn transition season. The seasonal shrinking of the lake during the dry season may cause a concentration of porpoises in the narrow channels and a high incidence of collisions with cargo ships and fishing boats. Conservation actions should be focused on the main channel of the lake during the dry and transition seasons. In addition, the expansion of the existing reserve to include areas with high porpoise detection rates is necessary.     

Transmission vs. Diffuse Transmission in Circular Dichroism: What to Choose for Probing Solid‐State Samples?

Recent advances in equipment enabled the collection of solid‐state electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra using the commercially available integrating sphere attachment for a regular ECD spectrometer. This accessory was designed to reduce negative factors occurring in solid‐state ECD measurements, and is, thereby, very useful for recording diffuse transmittance CD (DTCD) spectra using the pellet technique. In the present article, the operating principle of the integrating sphere and utility of the DTCD method in recording solid‐state ECD spectra is demonstrated. Based on illustrative examples, i.e., 10‐camphorsulfonic acid ammonium, cholest‐4‐en‐3‐one, (3R,4R,5S)‐oseltamivir, and (S)‐linezolid, ECD solid‐state measurements were performed by means of both transmission and diffusion methods and later compared. Selection of these compounds as models for comparative studies was made in view of their different chromophoric systems and the profound importance in the pharmaceutical industry. During the course of this work the benefits and limitations of the use of integrating sphere are presented. The final conclusion is that more relevant solid‐state spectra can be obtained by means of the DTCD method. Chirality 27:441–448, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.