Biology and host preference of Selitrichodes neseri: A potential biological control agent of the Eucalyptus gall wasp,Leptocybe invasa

Selitrichodes neseri (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) is a parasitoid of the invasive gall-forming wasp Leptocybe invasa (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), which has caused serious damage to Eucalyptus plantations in many parts of the world. S. neseri is a recently discovered parasitoid considered to be a potentially important biological control agent of L. invasa. The aim of this study was to provide the first basic data on the biology of S. neseri, which is essential for its application in biological control. S. neseri was shown to be a biparental ectoparasitoid. Observation from dissected galls indicated that the parasitoid developed on late larvae, pupae and callow adults, although development did occur in a range of gall ages. Observed nominal parasitism in captivity ranged from 9.7% to 71.8%. Adult S. neseri specimens, fed with honey-water and galled Eucalyptus leaves, survived an average of 26 days at 26 °C. The average developmental time from oviposition to emergence was 19.3 days ± 0.2 days. There was no pre-oviposition period. A single female produced a maximum of thirty-nine offspring, with a maximum of ten per day. Dissection of the ovaries showed that twelve ovarioles were present. The sex ratio of S. neseri observed in this study was 1:3.43 males:females. Galls of native insects most closely related to L. invasa and to galls of similar morphology to L. invasa-induced galls, were not suitable for S. neseri oviposition. S. neseri showed considerable potential as a biological control agent of L. invasa due to its relatively short developmental time, long adult life span when supplemented with carbohydrates, ability to utilize a range of gall ages and the fact that it has a high level of host specificity.     

A search for quantitative trait loci for ovulation rate in cattle

Seventy-seven polymorphic microsatellites were analysed in offspring of three elite sires that were part of the foundation of an experimental population selected for twinning rate at the US Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, Nebraska. All females were assessed for ovulation rate by rectal palpation of corpora lutea over 8–10 consecutive oestrous cycles from approximately 12 to 18 months of age, and associations between ovulation rate and sire allele were examined in each of the three sire groups. A preliminary analysis was performed using selectively genotyped daughters of each sire. Markers found significant or approaching significance were also genotyped in all daughters, sons and granddaughters of these sires. A test of marker associations limited to the granddaughter data provided an independent confirmation of marker effect and significance relative to the initial test with daughter data. Putative ovulation rate quantitative trait loci were detected on chromosomes 7 and 23. Marker UWCA20 on chromosome 7 was associated with an effect in excess of one phenotypic standard deviation and accounted for approximately 10% of phenotypic variation ovulation rate. Marker CYP21 (steroid 21-hydroxylase) on chromosome 23 was associated with an effect of slightly less than half a phenotypic standard deviation and accounted for approximately 4% of phenotypic variation.     

Conservation of wildlife populations: factoring in incremental disturbance

Progressive anthropogenic disturbance can alter ecosystem organization potentially causing shifts from one stable state to another. This potential for ecosystem shifts must be considered when establishing targets and objectives for conservation. We ask whether a predator–prey system response to incremental anthropogenic disturbance might shift along a disturbance gradient and, if it does, whether any disturbance thresholds are evident for this system. Development of linear corridors in forested areas increases wolf predation effectiveness, while high density of development provides a safe‐haven for their prey. If wolves limit moose population growth, then wolves and moose should respond inversely to land cover disturbance. Using general linear model analysis, we test how the rate of change in moose (Alces alces) density and wolf (Canis lupus) harvest density are influenced by the rate of change in land cover and proportion of land cover disturbed within a 300,000 km² area in the boreal forest of Alberta, Canada. Using logistic regression, we test how the direction of change in moose density is influenced by measures of land cover change. In response to incremental land cover disturbance, moose declines occurred where <43% of land cover was disturbed; in such landscapes, there were high rates of increase in linear disturbance and wolf density increased. By contrast, moose increases occurred where >43% of land cover was disturbed and wolf density declined. Wolves and moose appeared to respond inversely to incremental disturbance with the balance between moose decline and wolf increase shifting at about 43% of land cover disturbed. Conservation decisions require quantification of disturbance rates and their relationships to predator–prey systems because ecosystem responses to anthropogenic disturbance shift across disturbance gradients.     

A new adaptive time step method for unsteady flow simulations in a human lung

The innovation presented is a method for adaptive time-stepping that allows clustering of time steps in portions of the cycle for which flow variables are rapidly changing, based on the concept of using a uniform step in a relevant dependent variable rather than a uniform step in the independent variable time. A user-defined function was developed to adapt the magnitude of the time step (adaptive time step) to a defined rate of change in inlet velocity. Quantitative comparison indicates that the new adaptive time stepping method significantly improves accuracy for simulations using an equivalent number of time steps per cycle.     

On the Information Matrix of Exponential Mixture Models with Long-term Survivors

The aim of this paper is to study the properties of the asymptotic variances of the maximum likelihood estimators of the parameters of the exponential mixture model with long-term survivors for randomly censored data. In addition, we study the asymptotic relative efficiency of these estimators versus those which would be obtained with complete follow-up. It is shown that fixed censoring at time T produces higher precision as well as higher asymptotic relative efficiency than those obtainable under uniform and uniform-exponential censoring distributions over (0, T). The results are useful in planning the size and duration of survival experiments with long-term survivors under random censoring schemes.     

人工覆盖地表对北京典型绿化树光合特性的影响

地表硬化影响城市绿化树生长及生态服务功能的发挥,研究人工覆盖地表下城市绿化树关键生理过程具有重要意义.采用田间模拟试验方法,布设对照(自然地表)、透水硬化和不透水硬化3种覆盖地表,栽植北京2种典型绿化树白蜡和元宝枫,栽植后第4年野外测定其叶片光合及相关生理生态参数,分析人工覆盖地表对北京典型绿化树光合特性的影响.结果表明:白蜡和元宝枫光合作用对不同人工覆盖地表的响应存在差异,对于白蜡而言,透水硬化和不透水硬化地表均使其净光合速率显著降低,对于元宝枫而言,仅不透水硬化地表导致其净光合速率显著降低,透水硬化地表并未对其造成显著影响.透水硬化和不透水硬化地表的空气相对湿度和土壤体积含水率低于对照,植物可利用水分减少,叶片气孔导度下降是白蜡和元宝枫净光合速率降低的主要原因.透水硬化和不透水硬化地表使白蜡PSⅡ有效光化学量子产量(F_v′/F_m′)下降,不透水硬化地表使元宝枫PSⅡ实际光化学量子效率(Φ_PSⅡ)和表观电子传递速率(ETR)升高.     

降雨和汇流对黑土区坡面土壤侵蚀的影响试验研究

东北黑土区上坡汇流对坡面土壤侵蚀有重要影响,因此辨析降雨和汇流对黑土区坡面土壤侵蚀的影响对农田土壤侵蚀防治有重要意义。通过设计不同降雨强度和汇流速率以及二者组合的模拟降雨及上方汇流试验,分析了降雨和汇流对黑土坡面侵蚀的影响及其贡献。试验处理包括两个降雨强度(50 mm/h和100 mm/h)、两个汇流速率(50 mm/h和100 mm/h,即:10 L/min和20 L/min)、以及4种不同降雨强度和汇流速率的组合((50+50)mm/h、(50+100)mm/h、(100+50)mm/h和(100+100)mm/h)。结果表明,在50 mm/h和100 mm/h上方汇流引起的坡面侵蚀量仅分别是50 mm/h和100 mm/h降雨引起坡面侵蚀量的1.9%和0.6%;当降雨强度和坡上方汇流速率分别由50 mm/h增加至100 mm/h时,降雨试验处理下的坡面侵蚀量增加6.1倍,汇流试验处理下的坡面侵蚀量增加3.2倍,说明降雨对坡面土壤侵蚀的影响显著大于汇流的作用。在降雨和汇流组合试验中,总供水强度(降雨强度+汇流速率)为150 mm/h时,降雨强度为100 mm/h和汇流速率为50 mm/h组合试验的坡面侵蚀量是降雨强度为50 mm/h和汇流速率为100 mm/h组合试验坡面侵蚀量的7.9倍。在相同汇流条件下,降雨强度由50 mm/h增加到100 mm/h时,降雨强度的增加对坡面侵蚀量的贡献率为89.6%-99.5%;而在相同降雨条件下,坡面汇流速率由50 mm/h增加100 mm/h时,汇流速率的增加对坡面侵蚀量的贡献率为17.2%-78.7%,说明在东北黑土区防治坡面汇流对坡面土壤侵蚀影响也尤为重要。