The small hospital's role in poliomyelitis

Medical skills should be developed by the staffs of smaller hospitals for the differential study of patients with symptoms resembling those of poliomyelitis in order to provide the rudiments of care for the occasional patient with mild poliomyelitis, to recognize the indications which point to the necessity of superior technical assistance, and to decide when it is appropriate to move patients to better equipped centers. The impetuous acquisition of mechanical aids for the treatment of special problems will be effective in small communities only to the extent that this equipment is kept serviceable and is operated by persons of sufficient skill. Epidemic situations in a small community can be met only by mobilization of facilities under adequate direction and by integration of care with that provided by larger treatment centers.     

Environmental factors affecting seed germination of gray birch (Betula populifolia) collected from abandoned anthracite coal mine spoils in northeast Pennsylvania

Germination of gray birch (Betula populifolia) seed collected from anthracite mine spoils in northeastern Pennsylvania was studied. Environmental conditions of the spoil banks are such that high mortality may occur at seed and germination stages because of low moisture availability and thermal stress. The mine spoil banks are harsh environments with respect to key seed germination factors: percent soil moisture as low as 1.8% and soil surface temperatures reaching 59°C. In the field, gray birch typically germinated in mid-April prior to severe environmental stress. Trends in germination success were inversely related to rising soil temperature and decreasing soil moisture availability. Although seeds were capable of survival and germination under laboratory conditions of constant temperatures in excess of 55°C, dramatic decline in germination was observed under fluctuating temperature regimes likely to be experienced in the field. No germinations occurred under fluctuating temperatures in excess of 30°C. Germinations in the field were seen to end after mid-June when substrate temperatures exceeded 30°C.     

Ontogeny of the Behavior of Strombus maculatus (Gastropoda: Strombidae)

The ontogeny of strombid behavior was studied by observing thebehavior of Strombus maculatus veligers collected from the planktonand reared past metamorphosis to adults, and by observing juvenilestrombids collected in the field. Complete adult modal actionpatterns (MAP's) associated with locomotion, feeding, and rightingof overturned shells are performed by S. maculatus juvenilesimmediately after metamorphosis. There are changes in the frequencyof the use of certain MAP's which are associated with variationsin shell shape and size. The unique strombid escape response to molluscivorous gastropods(Conns spp.) is not released until juvenile S. maculatus arethree weeks past metamorphosis and two millimeters in shelllength. At that stage, the complete response is released uponthe first encounter with a predator. Experience with a predatordoes not seem to lower the age or size criteria. During ontogeny there is a trend toward an increasing complexityof behavior which is paralleled by an increasing complexityof neural structure and general morphology. There are majorsteps in the ontogeny of strombid behavior which probably coincidewith neural and morphological stages.     

Identification of predominant environmental factors structuring stream macroinvertebrate communities within a large agricultural catchment

• 1 Patterns of macroinvertebrate community composition were examined in streams within a 40000-km² catchment in central Michigan, U.S.A., to identify the major environmental gradients influencing community variation. Agriculture and associated clay and sandy soils predominated in much of the region.
• 2 Eighty macroinvertebrate taxa were collected from stream surveys conducted during May and August 1990. Community composition varied primarily by the proportions of Plecoptera and Ephemeroptera. Benthic communities from the heaviest agricultural zones were most different from those at other sites.
• 3 Chemical composition among the sites varied most in relation to nutrients (NH₃, NO3, PO₄). Other parameters were relatively similar. Physical characteristics of the sites were scored in six habitat categories: (i) substrate characteristics, (ii) instream cover, (iii) channel morphology, (iv) riparian zone and stream-bank conditions, (v) riffle/run quality, (vi) pool quality. Most physical habitat scores were lowest in the intense agriculture zones.
• 4 The relative importance of physical and chemical variables in explaining variation in macroinvertebrate communities was quantified using canonical correspondence analysis. Substrate characteristics were most important in both surveys. Significant correlations (P<0.05 and P<0.10) were observed between substrate quality and total numbers of Ephemeropteran, Plecopteran, and Trichopteran taxa. These relationships reflected correlations from sites in the clay soil-type region (P<0.01 and P<0.10) which contrasted with non-significant results from the less impacted, sandy soil-type region.
• 5 Effective stream restoration efforts in this region will require the alteration of local land-use activities that influence the physical habitat. Further development of empirical relationships between catchment activities and substrate and channel characteristics within natural geomorphic regions is essential for the evaluation of restoration projects.

     

Ecological influences on larval chironomid communities in shallow lakes: implications for palaeolimnological interpretations

1. To correctly interpret chironomid faunas for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, it is essential that we improve our understanding of the relative influence of ecosystem variables, biotic as well as physicochemical, on chironomid larvae. To address this, we analysed the surface sediments from 39 shallow lakes (29 Norfolk, U.K., 10 Denmark) for chironomid head capsules, and 70 chironomid taxa (including Chaoborus) were identified. 2. The shallow lakes were selected over large environmental gradients of aquatic macrophytes, total phosphorus (TP) and fish communities. Redundancy analysis (RDA) identified two significant variables that explained chironomid distribution: macrophyte species richness (P < 0.001) and TP (P < 0.005). Generalised linear models (GLM) identified specific taxa that had significant relationships with both these variables. Macrophyte percentage volume infested (PVI) and species richness were significant in classifying the lake types based on chironomid communities under twinspan analysis, although other factors, notably nutrient concentrations and fish communities, were also important, illustrating the complexities of classifying shallow lake ecosystems. Lakes with plant species richness >10 all had relatively diverse (Hill’s N2) chironomid assemblages, and lakes with Hill’s N2 >10 all had TP <250 μg L⁻¹ and total fish densities <2 fish per m². 3. Plant density (PVI), and perhaps more importantly species richness, were primary controls on the distribution of chironomid communities within these lakes. This clearly has implications for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions using zoobenthos remains (i.e. chironomids) and suggests that they could be used to track changes in benthic/pelagic production and could be used as indicators of changing macrophyte habitat. 4. Measuring key biological gradients, in addition to physicochemical gradients, allowed the major controls on chironomid distribution to be assessed more directly, in terms of plant substrate, food availability, competition and predation pressure, rather than implying indirect mechanisms through relationships with nutrients. Many of these variables, notably macrophyte abundance and species richness, are not routinely measured in such studies, despite their importance in determining zoobenthos in temperate shallow lakes. 5. When physical, chemical and ecological gradients are considered, as is often the case with palaeo‐reconstructions rather than training sets chosen to maximise one gradient, complex relationships exist, and attempting to reconstruct a single trophic variable quantitatively may not be appropriate or reliable.     

Paranucleospora theridion n. gen., n. sp. (Microsporidia,Enterocytozoonidae) with a Life Cycle in the Salmon Louse (Lepeophtheirus salmonis,Copepoda) and Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar)

ABSTRACT. Paranucleospora theridion n. gen, n. sp., infecting both Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and its copepod parasite Lepeophtheirus salmonis is described. The microsporidian exhibits nuclei in diplokaryotic arrangement during all known life‐cycle stages in salmon, but only in the merogonal stages and early sporogonal stage in salmon lice. All developmental stages of P. theridion are in direct contact with the host cell cytoplasm or nucleoplasm. In salmon, two developmental cycles were observed, producing spores in the cytoplasm of phagocytes or epidermal cells (Cycle‐I) and in the nuclei of epidermal cells (Cycle‐II), respectively. Cycle‐I spores are small and thin walled with a short polar tube, and are believed to be autoinfective. The larger oval intranuclear Cycle‐II spores have a thick endospore and a longer polar tube, and are probably responsible for transmission from salmon to L. salmonis. Parasite development in the salmon louse occurs in several different cell types that may be extremely hypertrophied due to P. theridion proliferation. Diplokaryotic merogony precedes monokaryotic sporogony. The rounded spores produced are comparable to the intranuclear spores in the salmon in most aspects, and likely transmit the infection to salmon. Phylogenetic analysis of P. theridion partial rDNA sequences place the parasite in a position between Nucleospora salmonis and Enterocytozoon bieneusi. Based on characteristics of the morphology, unique development involving a vertebrate fish as well as a crustacean ectoparasite host, and the results of the phylogenetic analyses it is suggested that P. theridion should be given status as a new species in a new genus.     

Back to the future: using palaeolimnology to infer long‐term changes in shallow lake food webs

1. Shallow lakes are often cited as classic examples of systems that exhibit trophic cascades but, whilst they provide good model systems with which to test general ecological theory and to assess long‐term community change, their food web linkages have rarely been resolved, so changes associated with the structure and dynamics of the ecological network as a whole are still poorly understood. 2. We sought to redress this, and to demonstrate the potential benefits of integrating palaeolimnological and contemporary data, by constructing highly resolved food webs and stable isotope derived measures of trophic interactions and niche space, for the extant communities of two shallow U.K. lakes from different positions along a gradient of eutrophication. The contemporary surface sediment cladoceran and submerged macrophyte assemblages in the less enriched site, Selbrigg Pond, matched the palaeolimnological assemblages of the more enriched site, Felbrigg Hall Lake, in its more pristine state during the 1920s. Thus, Selbrigg was a temporal analogue for Felbrigg, from which the consequences of long‐term eutrophication on food web structure could be inferred. These data represent the first steps towards reconstructing not only past assemblages (i.e. nodes within a food web), but also past interactions (i.e. links within a food web): a significant departure from much of the previous research in palaeolimnology. 3. The more eutrophic food web had far fewer nodes and links, and thus a less reticulate network, than was the case for the more pristine system. In isotopic terms, there was vertical compression in δ¹⁵N range (NR) and subsequent increased overlap in isotopic niche space, indicating increased trophic redundancy within Felbrigg. This structural change, which was associated with a greater channelling of energy through a smaller number of nodes as alternative feeding pathways disappear, could lead to reduced dynamic stability, pushing the network towards further simplification. These changes reflected a general shift from a benthic‐dominated towards a more pelagic system, as the plant‐associated subweb eroded. 4. Although these data are among the first of their kind, the palaeo‐analogue approach used here demonstrates the huge potential for applying food web theory to understand how and why these ecological networks change during eutrophication. Furthermore, because of the rich biological record preserved in their sediments, shallow lakes represent potentially important models for examining long‐term intergenerational dynamics, thereby providing a means by which models and data can be integrated on meaningful timescales – a goal that has long proved elusive in food web ecology.     

A comparison of canopy evapotranspiration for maize and two perennial grasses identified as potential bioenergy crops

In the Midwestern US, perennial rhizomatous grasses (PRGs) are considered one of the most promising vegetation types to be used as a cellulosic feedstock for renewable energy production. The potential widespread use of biomass crops for renewable energy production has sparked numerous environmental concerns, including the impacts of land‐use change on the hydrologic cycle. We predicted that total seasonal evapotranspiration (ET) would be higher for PRGs relative to maize resulting from higher leaf area and a prolonged growing season. We further predicted that, compared with maize, higher aboveground biomass associated with PRGs would offset the higher ET and increase water‐use efficiency (WUE) in the context of biomass harvests for liquid biofuel production. To test these predictions, ET was estimated during the 2007 growing season for replicated plots of Miscanthus×giganteus (miscanthus), Panicum virgatum (switchgrass), and Zea mays (maize) using a residual energy balance approach. The combination of a 25% higher mean latent heat flux (λET) and a longer growing season resulted in miscanthus having ca. 55% higher cumulative ET over the growing season compared with maize. Cumulative ET for switchgrass was also higher than maize despite similar seasonal‐mean λET. Based on total harvested aboveground biomass, WUE was ca. 50% higher for maize relative to miscanthus; however, when WUE calculated from only maize grain biomass was compared with WUE calculated from miscanthus harvested aboveground biomass, this difference disappeared. Although WUE between maize and miscanthus differed postsenescence, there were no differences in incremental WUE throughout the growing season. Despite initial predictions, aboveground biomass for switchgrass was less than maize; thus WUE was substantially lower for switchgrass than for either maize scenario. These results indicate that changes in ET due to large‐scale implementation of PRGs in the Midwestern US would likely influence local and regional hydrologic cycles differently than traditional row crops.