Interactions between rate processes with different timescales explain counterintuitive foraging patterns of arctic wintering eiders

To maximize fitness, animals must respond to a variety of processes that operate at different rates or timescales. Appropriate decisions could therefore involve complex interactions among these processes. For example, eiders wintering in the arctic sea ice must consider locomotion and physiology of diving for benthic invertebrates, digestive processing rate and a nonlinear decrease in profitability of diving as currents increase over the tidal cycle. Using a multi-scale dynamic modelling approach and continuous field observations of individuals, we demonstrate that the strategy that maximizes long-term energy gain involves resting during the most profitable foraging period (slack currents). These counterintuitive foraging patterns are an adaptive trade-off between multiple overlapping rate processes and cannot be explained by classical rate-maximizing optimization theory, which only considers a single timescale and predicts a constant rate of foraging. By reducing foraging and instead digesting during slack currents, eiders structure their activity in order to maximize long-term energetic gain over an entire tide cycle. This study reveals how counterintuitive patterns and a complex functional response can result from a simple trade-off among several overlapping rate processes, emphasizing the necessity of a multi-scale approach for understanding adaptive routines in the wild and evaluating mechanisms in ecological time series.     

Heritability of pre-adult viability differences can explain apparent heritability of sperm displacement ability in Drosophila melanogaster.

Sperm displacement has been the subject of a large number of evolutionary studies because of its effects on relative male reproductive success. To understand better the evolutionary role of variation in sperm displacement ability (SDA), an obvious aim is to measure its heritability. In this paper, we show that a standard method used to measure the heritability of SDA can be misleading. First, we show that using conventional methods (based on counts of adult offspring of multiply mated females), SDA appears to be heritable. However, an examination of potentially confounding variables strongly suggests that this result is misleading, and that the heritable component is more likely to be pre-adult viability. Consequently, it is likely that there is little measurable heritable genetic variation for SDA in D. melanogaster. We conclude that, although conventional methods of measuring sperm displacement will usually be adequate for phenotypic measurements, greater care must be taken when measuring genetic variances.     

The ionic composition of the plasma and erythrocytes of deep sea fish

Summary This paper reports measurements of the plasma osmolarities, the main inorganic ions and the concentrations of plasma proteins in nine species of deep sea fish from depths of 900–4,000 m. Chloride and magnesium values are high compared to those of shallow water fish. These ions may be contaminants from sea water either contributing to, or resulting from, the animals' moribund condition. They may also contribute to the failure of isolated erythrocytes to show ionic regulation even after being restored to their normal high pressure.