Habitat selection as a hierarchical spatial process: the green woodpecker at the northern edge of its distribution range

Habitat selection can be envisaged as a hierarchical spatial process, from choice of home range to choice of dietary item. The green woodpecker (Picus viridis) is described as being closely bound to cultivated land and deciduous forests, mainly due to its summer diet composed of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) found on meadows and pastures. To explore possible responses of this woodpecker to recent changes in land use practice, we studied home ranges, feeding habitats and food selection of a marginal population (four radio-marked males and five females) in a 30,000-ha conifer-dominated landscape at the northern edge of its distribution range in south-central Scandinavia. We asked: (1) Is the green woodpecker confined to areas with cultivated land and deciduous forest? (2) If so, are important food items (ants) particularly abundant or exclusively found there? (3) Can clearcuts and young plantations substitute for cultivated land as feeding habitat? Home ranges (mean=100 ha) were invariably confined to the parts of the landscape that contained cultivated land (<1% of the total area). In summer, birds preferred to feed in cultivated land, presumably due to a higher overall biomass of ants compared to forest habitats. They avoided clearcuts, but preyed extensively upon soil-dwelling ants in young conifer stands (16–30 years old). We failed to find preferences for particular ant groups (Lasius niger and L. flavus) associated with cultivated land. The principal summer food was Serviformica, an ant group that was equally abundant in cultivated land and forest habitat. A positive correlation between ant body mass and a preference index suggests that the birds selected the larger ant species independent of habitat type. In winter, birds fed exclusively on mound-building Formica rufa-ants in closed-canopy, older forest stands. Our results indicate that the green woodpecker successfully utilizes young conifer plantations as feeding habitat. At a larger scale, we hypothesize that green woodpecker populations fail to establish in managed forest tracts, not because of food shortage, but because the landscapes lack cultivated land serving as a key stimulus encouraging individuals to settle.     

绿色微囊藻的混合营养生长

研究绿色微囊藻(Microcystis viridis)在混合条件下的生长特性,以及葡萄糖,光照强度和pH对绿色微囊藻生长的影响。结果表明:绿色微囊藻混合营养生长与光能自养生长相比,生长速率明显提高,对数期延长,生物量显著提高;随着初始葡萄糖浓度在0~18.0g/l范围内增加,同一光照条件下明显提高了藻细胞的生长速率,但在初始葡萄糖浓度18.0~36.0g/l范围内,同一光照条件下葡萄糖浓度的高低对藻细胞的生长速率不再有更大的影响;在光照强度24~112μE·m^-2·s^-1范围内,初始葡萄糖浓度相同条件下藻细胞的生长速率及对葡萄糖的藻体得率都随光照强度的增强而增大,但当光照强度在112~200μE·m^-2·s^-1时,绿色微囊藻的生长速率增加幅度较小,出现了光饱和现象;当pH处于8.0~10.0间,明显促进了绿色微囊藻的生长,偏离该范围越大,越抑制绿色微囊藻的生长,甚至导致死亡。     

四株糖单孢菌分离株的分类学研究

从广西地区的土样中,分离到4株细胞壁Ⅳ型,糖型A, 无枝菌酸的假诺卡氏菌科的放线菌菌株,编号分别为191、221、202、和212。根据4株 菌的形态学特征和细胞化学特征,将其归入糖单孢菌属。与该属5个已知种的7个代表株进行 的rDNA的BamHI酶切片段长度类型分析(Ribotyping)的结果表明：191为青绿色糖单孢菌(S.viridis),202为青灰色糖单孢菌(S.caesia),221和212为相同的与青绿色糖单孢菌(S .viridis)的亲缘关系最近的种,但不同于已知的任何一个种。     

三种抗生素去除大青叶蝉内共生菌的效果

内共生菌能够为寄主提供营养物质,同时在宿主昆虫的生长及生殖等方面具有特殊作用,大青叶蝉Cicadella viridis与其他昆虫一样具有内共生菌。本文设计了大青叶蝉内共生菌Sulcia muelleri和Sodalis sp.的特异性引物,检测其在大青叶蝉中的感染率;同时分别用利福平、盐酸土霉素和青霉素G钾盐3种抗生素处理大青叶蝉,用TaqMan探针法绝对定量PCR检测不同处理时间下大青叶蝉内共生菌的拷贝数。结果表明:大青叶蝉内共生菌Sulcia muelleri和Sodalis sp.的带菌率均为100%;利福平、盐酸土霉素和青霉素G钾盐均可使内共生菌的量减少,但不能完全消除。3种抗生素均能显著减少大青叶蝉雌虫和雄虫中内共生菌Sulcia muelleri 16S rRNA基因拷贝数。盐酸土霉素和利福平均能显著降低大青叶蝉若虫和雄虫中内共生菌Sodalis sp. 16S rRNA基因拷贝数,但对雌虫影响不显著。     

Development of the plerocercoid I of Ophiotaenia europaea in reptiles

The existence of a two-host life-cycle in ophiotaeniid proteocephalideans was tested experimentally using Ophiotaenia europaea as a model. Three species of reptiles, Natrix natrix, Natrix tessellata and Lacerta viridis, were fed with experimentally infected copepods containing a large number of infective plerocercoids I. A few plerocercoids, most of which were dead, corresponding morphologically to the plerocercoid II developmental stage of O. europaea, were found encysted in the intestinal wall of N. natrix (8 days p.i.), N. tessellata (5 and 150 days p.i.) and L. viridis (40 days p.i.), while no plerocercoids or adult worms were recovered from their intestines. The results indicate that the infective plerocercoid I of O. europaea cannot undergo further development when ingested directly by the final host (a reptile), and that environmental temperature stimuli cannot initiate a reverse plerocercoid migration to the gut followed by strobilization.     

Optimized nitrate reductase assay predicts the rate of nitrate utilization in the halotolerant microalga Dunaliella viridis

An in situ method for measuring nitrate reductase (NR) activity in Dunaliella viridis was optimized in terms of incubation time, concentration of KNO₃, permeabilisers (1-propanol and toluene), pH, salinity, and reducing power (glucose and NADH). NR activity was measured by following nitrite production and was best assayed with 50 mM KNO₃, 1.2 mM NADH, 5% 1-propanol (v/v), at pH 8.5. The estimated half-saturation constant (K_s) for KNO₃ was 5 mM. Glucose had no effect as external reducing power source, and NADH concentrations >1.2 mM inhibited NR activity. Nitrite production was linear up to 20 min; longer incubation did not lead to higher nitrate reduction. The use of the optimized assay predicted the rate of NO ₃ ⁻ removal from the external medium by D. viridis with high degree of precision. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Suppressing spread of alfalfa mosaic virus in grazed legume pasture swards using insecticides and admixture with grass, and effects of insecticides on numbers of aphids and three other pasture pests

Field experiments were sown with alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV)‐infected or healthy seed of burr medic (Medicago polymorpha) and grazed by sheep. Seed‐infected plants acted as primary sources for virus spread by naturally occurring aphids. Admixture with annual ryegrass (Lolium rigidum), a non‐host of AMV, and different insecticides were used in attempts to suppress virus spread. Sowing swards to provide the ratios 1 : 4 and 1 : 13 of medic:ryegrass plants diminished AMV spread in medic plants by 23% and 45% respectively. Applications of organophosphorus (demeton‐s‐methyl), carbamate (pirimicarb) and newer generation synthetic pyrethroid (alpha‐cypermethrin) insecticides, all significantly decreased final AMV incidence. Alpha‐cypermethrin was the most effective, suppressing AMV incidence by 87% (two sprays), 79% (one late spray) and 65% (one early spray). Two sprays of demeton‐s‐methyl decreased incidence by only 36%, while two and 2 weekly applications of pirimicarb diminished it by 29–65% and 35–70% respectively. AMV infection of medic seed harvested decreased by up to 76% in sprayed plots. Insecticide treatment did not prevent winged aphids from landing but numbers of wingless Acyrthosiphon kondoi colonising swards were suppressed by up to 92% by spraying with pirimicarb and up to 96% by alpha‐cypermethrin. A. kondoi were much slower to recover with alpha‐cypermethrin than with pirimicarb, the former still significantly diminishing its numbers 35 days after spraying. Alpha‐cypermethrin was also very effective at suppressing Halotydeus destructor and Penthaleus major but not Sminthurus viridis. Greater effectiveness of insecticides in controlling spread of AMV in pasture than has been found previously with non‐persistently aphid‐transmitted viruses in annual crops seems due to the key role played by wingless aphids as virus vectors.     

Potassium Channels in Eremosphaera viridis: Modulation of Channel Opening,Conductance and Inhibition*

I/V relationships were performed by the voltage clamp technique in the sphaerical green alga Eremosphaera viridis de Bary. We focused on the course of the transient potential (TP) found in light-off experiments when specific potassium channels open. I/V measurements done during this period show a N-shaped curve. The shape depended on external potassium. TPs could be released by light-off and by addition of barium, strontium, or α-naphthyl phosphate. We calculated the number of specific potassium channels to be between 1750 and 34 825 channels per cell. Barium (1 mol × m^?3) and tetraethylammonium (10 mol × m^?3) inhibited TPs. I/V relationships demonstrated, when N-shaped, that potassium channels start to close at voltages more negative than ?195 mV (0.1 mol × m^?3 K⁺), ?160 mV (1 mol × m^?3 K⁺) and ?148 mV (10 mol × m^?3 K⁺). In the region of ?300 mV conditions similar to those at rest are reached. External sodium suppressed the development of N-shaped I/V relationships and reduced the membrane conductance during a TP between 8 % and 29 %. This indicates an influence of external sodium on potassium channels.