Have the Harmful Effects of Introduced Rats on Islands been Exaggerated?

Introduced rats are now being eradicated from many islands. Increasingly, these eradications are contested by activists claiming moral, legal, cultural, historic or scientific reasons and poorly documented evidence of effects. We reviewed the global literature on the effects of rats on island flora and fauna. We then used New Zealand as a case study because of its four-decade history of rat eradications and many detailed and innovative studies of how rats affect native species. These include use of exclosures, local manipulations of rat populations, video surveillance, and measurements of responses following eradications. The most intensive studies have been on the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans), a small South-East Asian species spread by Polynesians throughout the Pacific. These and the more recently introduced Norway rat (R. norvegicus) and ship (roof) rat (R. rattus) suppress some forest plants, and are associated with extinctions or declines of flightless invertebrates, ground-dwelling reptiles, land birds, and burrowing seabirds. On islands off France, Norway rats are also implicated in declines of shrews. Globally, ship rats were associated with declines or extinctions of the largest number of indigenous vertebrate species (60), including small mammals such as deer mice and bats. Effects of rats on forest trees and seabird populations are sufficiently pervasive to affect ecosystem structure and function. However, the data are patchy. Deficiencies in our knowledge would be reduced by documenting distribution and abundance of indigenous species before and after eradications. Comprehensive measurements of the responses of indigenous species to rat eradications would enable the development of testable models of rat invasion effects.     

Variability in sequence of Strawberry vein banding virus

The variability of the Strawberry vein banding virus (SVBV) isolates was investigated. In total 267 strawberry plants from 6 European countries and North America were tested for the presence of SVBV. Only 4 plants were positive. Partial genomic sequences of the capsid protein gene of three North American SVBV isolates were determined. Only minor sequence variability (0.7 %) was observed during a comparison with existing nucleotide data of the European and the North American isolates (9 isolates). No variability at all could be found in the annealing regions of primers and probes used for molecular detection of SVBV for these isolates. However, a comparison to a sequence of a Chinese isolate published recently revealed a much higher DNA sequence difference (9.5 %) of this isolate.     

甘肃、新疆、内蒙苹果蠹蛾成虫消长规律

苹果蠹蛾Cydia pomonella(L.)是我国重要的果树害虫和检疫对象。2005年至2010年,本研究在甘肃、新疆及内蒙古的不同区县选取了16个果园,使用性信息素诱捕器对其中的苹果蠹蛾成虫发生规律进行长期监测。结果表明,苹果蠹蛾在西北地区每年发生2.5个世代;在正常气候条件下,3个成虫发生高峰分别出现在5月上旬、7月中下旬和8月中下旬,但不同地区及同一地区不同果园之间存在较大差异;化学防治、迷向防治等防治措施对苹果蠹蛾成虫捕获量的影响较大,因此生活史研究为主的监测并不适合在上述果园中开展。综合上述研究结果,未对苹果蠹蛾的季节动态进行准确的预测,需要对苹果蠹蛾除成虫外的其他虫态的季节性变化进行详细研究,并建议选择3个以上的果园进行监测,综合各个果园的监测结果并得出结论。     

Grape phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae) – a review of potential detection and alternative management options

The management options for grape phylloxera, Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, a monophagous insect pest of Vitis species are reviewed. Although in a worldwide context, grape phylloxera is managed predominantly by the use of resistant rootstocks developed through conventional breeding of hybrid crosses of American Vitis species, this management aspect is largely excluded from the review so that emerging technologies in the field of detection, quarantine and alternative management are discussed. In some viticulture regions of the world, where grape phylloxera's geographic distribution is limited (e.g. Australia), the pest is managed through a combination of surveillance, detection and quarantine. Although some alternative management options for grape phylloxera exist they have received relatively limited research attention because of the relative success of resistant rootstocks. The resilience of resistant rootstocks as the primary management option could also be challenged in the future by host‐plant interactions with diverse grape phylloxera clonal lineages and by potential impacts of climate change on both grapevine and grape phylloxera distribution. A range of control options exist which could be integrated into an improved management system for grape phylloxera. Priority areas for future evaluation and further development include early detection techniques, investigation into the use of biological control agents and development of an integrated approach to grapevine phylloxera management.     

Host-parasite coevolution induces selection for condition-dependent sex

Sex and recombination remain one of the biggest riddles of evolutionary biology. One of the most prominent hypotheses, the Red Queen Hypothesis, claims that sex has evolved as a means to efficiently create genotypes that are resistant against coevolving parasites. However, previous models of the Red Queen have assumed that all individuals are equally likely to engage in sexual reproduction, regardless of their infection status, an assumption that may not be true in reality. Here, we consider a population genetic model of a host population coevolving with a parasite population, where the parasites are haploid and the hosts either haploid or diploid. We assume that the probability to engage in sex may be different in infected and uninfected hosts and ascertain the success of different reproductive strategies with a modifier-gene approach. Our model shows that in the large majority of the parameter space, infection-dependent sex is more successful than infection-independent sex. We identify at least two reasons for this: (i) an immediate short-term advantage of breaking-down gene combinations of unfit individuals and (ii) a selfish spread of the condition-dependent modifiers, in analogy to the 'abandon-ship' effect in single species. In diploids, these effects are often powerful enough to overcome the detrimental effects of segregation. These results raise the intriguing question of why infection-induced sex is not more commonly observed in nature.     

Evolving Management Strategies for a Recently Discovered Exotic Forest Pest: The Pine Shoot Beetle, Tomicus Piniperda (Coleoptera)

Established populations of the Eurasian pine shoot beetle (Tomicus piniperda (L.); Coleoptera: Scolytidae) were first discovered in North America in Ohio in 1992. As of 31 December 2000, T. piniperda was found in 303 counties in 12 US states (Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin) and in 43 counties in 2 Canadian provinces (Ontario and Quebec). A federal quarantine imposed in November 1992 regulates movement of pine (Pinus) trees, logs, and certain pine products from infested to uninfested areas within US. The forest products, Christmas tree, and nursery industries are affected by the quarantine. This paper summarizes information on the discovery and spread of T. piniperda in North America, survey efforts, recent interception history, development and changes in the federal quarantine, development of a national compliance management program, and extension and research efforts.     

警惕外来危险害虫褐纹甘蔗象入侵

褐纹甘蔗象Rhabdosceluslineaticollis (Heller)在菲律宾、日本和台湾 ,严重危害椰子等棕榈科植物和甘蔗。本文对褐纹甘蔗象的分类地位、形态特征、分布、寄主、扩散与危害、生物学特性等进行简要介绍     

Quantification of bird migration by radar – a detection probability problem

Besides the scientific interest in the quantification of bird migration, there is an increasing need to quantify bird movements for the assessment of bird collision risk with artificial structures. In many environmental impact studies, the radar method is used in an inappropriate manner. The processing of echoes consists often of counting blips within defined screen fields, and the surveyed volume is estimated without reference to the detection probabilities of different 'target sizes' (radar cross-sections). The aim of this paper is to present a procedure to quantify bird migration reliably using radar by stating the theoretical requirements of every single step of this procedure and presenting methodological solutions using our own radar data from extensive field studies. Our methodological solutions can be applied to various radar systems, including widely used ship radar. The procedure presented involves discriminating the echoes of birds and insects and estimating the different detection probabilities of differently 'sized' birds (radar cross-sections). By ignoring the different detection probabilities, density estimations may be wrong by as much as 400%. We fear that quantification of bird migration and predicted bird numbers affected by collisions with artificial structures are in many cases based on unreliable estimates.     

The impact of introduced ship rats (Rattus rattus) on seedling recruitment and distribution of a subantarctic megaherb (Pleurophyllum hookeri)

Abstract The impact of introduced ship rats (Rattus rattus) on recruitment of the megaherb Pleurophyllum hookeri Buchan. (Asteraceae) was examined on subantarctic Macquarie Island, an island with no extant native terrestrial vertebrates. Pleurophyllum hookeri (Asteraceae) forms a dominant component of the Macquarie Island vegetation and is restricted to the subantarctic. The Macquarie Island population of P. hookeri is the most extensive and intact. Introduced ship rats (Rattus rattus) are well established in tall tussock grassland of Macquarie Island. We detected rat activity for the first time within P. hookeri herbfields, in autumn 2000. We found rats were destroying up to 90% of racemes. By excluding rats from caches of inflorescences that they had formed, we found they were having a significant negative effect on initial recruitment and seedling survival within the caches. However, because of high seedling mortality after 1 year, there was no sustained impact of the exclosures on P. hookeri seedling density.